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T- 
 
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 Wendell Pliillips 
 
 ON THE 
 
 i 6 
 
 OLD SOUTH." 
 
 BOSTOJV, JUJVE 14, 1876. 
 
ORATION 
 
 KKI.IVKHKII IX Till", 
 
 OLD SOUTH CHLTKCH 
 
 r.v 
 
 WENDELL PHILLIPS, 
 
 M 
 
 JUNE 11. 1S7G. 
 
 Ladies and Gentle:men : — 
 
 Why are we here to-day ? Why should this relic, a hun- 
 dred years old, stir your pulses to-da}' so keenly ? We 
 sometimes find a community or an hidividual with their 
 hearts set on some old roof or great scene ; and as we look 
 on, it seems to us an exaggerated feeling, a fond conceit, an 
 unfounded attachment, too emphatic value set on some 
 ancient thing or spot whicli memory endears to them. But 
 we have a right to-day — tliis year we have a riglit beyond 
 all question, and witli no possibility of exaggerating the 
 importance of the hour — to ask the world itself to pause 
 when this nation completes the first hundred 3-ears of its 
 life. Because these forty uiillions of people have at last 
 achieved what no race, no nation, no age hitherto has 
 succeeded in doing. We have founded a Republic on 
 the unlimited suffrage of the millions. We have actually 
 worked out the problem that man, as God created him, may 
 be trusted with self-uovernment. We have shown the 
 world tliat a Church without a Bishop, and a State with- 
 out a King is an actual, real, everyday possibility. Look 
 back over the history of the race, where will you find 
 a chapter that precedes us in that achievement ? Greece 
 had her repul)lics, but they were the republics of one free- 
 
• 'v 
 
 man and ten sla\ rs : and llie l)attle of Marathon was fonnlit 
 l)y slaves unchained iVoiu tlie door-posts of tlicir masters' 
 liouses. Italy had her republics: they were the republics 
 of wealth and skill and family, limited and aristocratic. 
 She had not risen to a sublime faith in man. Holland had 
 lier republic, the repnblic of t^uilds and landholders, 
 trusting the helm of state to property and education. And 
 all these which, at their best, held but a million or two within 
 their narrow limits, have gone down in the ocean of time. 
 
 A hundred years ago, our fathers announced this sublime, 
 and as it seemed then, foolhardy declaration, that God in- 
 tended all men to be free and equal: all men, without 
 restriction, without qualification, without limit. A huiulred 
 years have rolled away since that veidurous declaration ; and 
 to-day, with a territory that joins ocean to ocean, with forty 
 millions of i)eople, with two wars behind her, with the 
 sublime achievement of having grapjded with the fearful 
 disease that threatened her central life, and broken four 
 millions of fetters, the great Republic, stronger than 
 ever, launches into the second century of her existence. 
 The history of the world has no such chapter, in its 
 breadth, its depth, its significance, or its bearing on future 
 history. Well may we claim that this centennial year is the 
 baptism of the human race into a new hope for humanity. 
 Are we not entitled then, coming with the sheaves of such 
 a harvest in our hands, to say to the world, '•' Behold the 
 blessing of (lod on our right faith in the human race!" 
 Well, gentlemen, if that is sober prose, without one tittle 
 of exaggeration, without one fond conceit borrowed from 
 our kindred with the actors or from our birth in these 
 streets, — if that is the sober record, — with how much pride, 
 Avitli what a. thrill, with what tender and loyal reverence, 
 may we not luuit up and cherish, and guard from change or 
 desecration, the spot where this marvellous enterprise began 
 — the roof under which its first councils were held — where 
 the air still trembles and burns with Otis and Sam Adams? 
 
 Except the H0I3' City, is there any more memorable or 
 
sacred place on the face of the caitli tlmn tlie cradle of such 
 a change? Athens lias her Acroijolis, l)ut llie (rreek can 
 l)oint to no such ininicdiate and distinct results. Her influ- 
 ence passes into the weh and woof of history, mixed with 
 a score of other elements ; and it needs a keen eye to follow 
 it. London has lier Palace and Tower, and her St. Steph- 
 en's Chapel ; l)ut tlie human race owes her no such memo- 
 ries. France has spots marked hy the sublimest devotion ; 
 liut the pih^rima^e and the Mecca of the man wlio believes 
 and hopes for the human race is not to Paris. It is to 
 the seaboard cities of the great Republic. And when 
 the flag was assailed, when the merchant waked u}) from 
 his gain, the scholar from liis studies, and the regiments 
 marched one by one through the streets, which were tlie 
 pavements that tlnilled under their footsteps? What 
 walls did tliey salute as the regimental flags floated by 
 to Gettysburg and Antietam ? These ! Our boj-s carried 
 down to the ])attle-fiel(ls the memory of State street and 
 Faneuil Hall and tlie Old South Church. 
 
 We had a signal prominence in those earl\- days. It was 
 not our merit ; it was an accident, perhaps. But it was a 
 great accident in our favor that the British Parliament chose 
 Boston as the first and prominent object of its wrath. It 
 was on the men of Boston that Lord North visited his re- 
 venge. It was our port that was to be shut and its com- 
 merce annihilated. It was Sam Adams and John Hancock who 
 enjoy the everlasting reward of behig the only names excepted 
 from the royal proclamation of forgiveness. 
 
 It was only an accident ; l)ut it was an accident which, in 
 the stirring historv of the most momentous chano-e tlie 
 world has seen, placed Boston in the van. Naturally, there- 
 fore, in our streets and neighborhood came the earliest 
 collision between Enghmd and the Colonies. Here Sam 
 Adams, the ablest and ripest statesman God gave to the 
 epoch, forecast those measures which welded thirteen Col- 
 onies into one thunderbolt, and launched it at Georue the 
 Third. Here Otis magnetized every boy into a desperate 
 
rebel. Here (lie fit successors of Knox and IIii^li Peters 
 consecrated tlieir pulpits to the defence of lliat doctrine of 
 tlie freedom and sacredness of man, wliicli llie State bor- 
 rowed so directly from the Cln'-istian ("liureh. The towers 
 of tlie North Churcli rallied the farnu-rs to the Lexini^-ton 
 and Concord flights ; and those old walls echoed the people's 
 shout, when Adams brought them word that Gov. Hutchin- 
 son surrendered and withdrew the red coats. Linu'eriuL!,' 
 here still, are the echoes of those clasliing sabres and jing- 
 ling- spurs that dreamt Warren could be awed to silence. 
 Otis's blood immortalizes State street, just below where At- 
 tucks fell (our first martyr), and just above where zealous 
 patriots made a teapot of the harbor. 
 
 It was a petty town, of some twenty thousand inhabi- 
 tants ; but " the rays of royal indignation collected upon it 
 served only to illuminate, and could not consume." Almost 
 every one of its houses had a legend. Every public building 
 hid what was treasonable debate, or bore bullet-marks or 
 bloodshed, — evidence of royal displeasure. It takes a stout 
 lieart to step out of a crowd and risk the chances of support, 
 Avhen failure is death. The strongest, proudest, most obsti- 
 nate race and kingdom on one side : a petty town the assail- 
 ant, — its weapons, ideas; its trust, (xod and the right ; its 
 old-fashioned men patiently arguing with cannon and regi- 
 ments, blood the seal of the debate, and every stone and 
 wall and roof and doorway witness forever of the angry 
 tyrant and sturdy victim. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, man is not a mere animal, to eat and 
 sleep and gain and lay up and enjoy, and pass away to his 
 fathers. If we liad been only that; if tlie North had been a 
 peddler race, as the South supposed, not willing to risk six- 
 pence for an idea,, — no Democratic lawyers in yonder Court 
 street would liave shut up their doors, put their keys in their 
 pockets, and asked of Gov. Andrew a commission, when that 
 piece of bunting was fired upon near Fort Sumpter ! 
 It was only six feet scpuire of- cotton ; it was only a few 
 stars and stripes ; it was only an insult offered to the 
 
sentiment of twenty niillioiis of pmtple. liiu il iiiiidt' 
 Demoerats and Repul)licans forget their (lilTcrcnccs, and 
 a niillii)n of men eiowd down to tlic (Julf. It was only 
 a sentiment. V>\\i what (h»t's it \'(;vd on? Ascend one of 
 those h)ftv l)nihlin!4s ahove Chicago, and l;io\v weary in 
 conntini;' lier eiow'd ol' masts and her miles of warehouses; 
 and when you have done it, you remember that the sagacity 
 and the thrift of three hundred thousand men luive created 
 that o-reat centre of indnstrv, and there comes to yinw mind 
 perhajjs sooner than anything (dse the old Inllahy, — 
 
 •■ How (Intli tlic little busy bee 
 Improve each sliiniiij^ hour, 
 And >i:itlier houey all the <lay 
 From every opeiiim^ Hower ! " 
 
 It is industry; it is thrift; it is comfort; it is wealtli. 
 But on Bunker Hill let somebody point out to yon the church- 
 tower whose lantern tohl l^iul Revere that Middlesex was 
 to be invaded. Search till your eye rests on this tiny spire, 
 wliich trembled once when the mock Indian whooj) bade 
 England defiance. There is the elm where Washington 
 first drew his sword. Here Winter Hill, whose cannon- 
 ball struck Brattle-street Church. At your feet the sod is 
 greener for the blood of Warren, which settled it forever 
 that no more laws were to l)e made for us in Ivondon. The 
 thrill you feel is tliat sentiment which, in 1<S()2, made twenty 
 million men, who had wrangled for forty years, close up their 
 angry ranks, and carry tliat insulted bunting ''to the Gulf," 
 treading down dissensions and prejudices harder to conc[uer 
 than Ccmfederate cannon. We cannot afford to close any 
 school wl licit teaches such lessons. 
 
 Go ask the Londoner, crowded into small space, wliat 
 lunnber of pounds laid dowMi on a scpiare foot, what neces- 
 sities of business, w ould induce him to pull down the Tower, 
 and build a counting-house on its site I Go ask Paris wdiat 
 they will take from some business corporation for the spot 
 where Mirabeaii and Danton, or, later do w-n, Lamartine saved 
 
6 
 
 tlie oreat flan" of the tri-color from boiiiq" drenched in the 
 blood of their fellow-citizens I What makes Boston a his- 
 tory? Not so many men, not so much commerce. It is 
 ideas. You mioht as well plough it with salt, and remove 
 bodily into the more healthy elevation of Brookline or 
 Dorchester, but for State street, Faneuil ITall, and (lie Old 
 South ! 
 
 What does Boston mean ? Since 1630, the living fibre, 
 running through history, which owns that name, means 
 jealous}^ of power, unfettered speech, keen sense of justice, 
 readiness to champion any good cause. That is the Boston 
 Laud suspected. North hated, and the negro loved. If you 
 destroy the scenes which perpetuate tliat Boston, then re- 
 baptize her Cottonville or Shoetown. Don't belittle these 
 memories I they lie long hid, but only to grow stronger. 
 You mobbed John Brown meetings in 1860, and seemed to 
 forget him in 1861 ; but the boys in blue, led by that very 
 mob, wearing epaulets, marched from State street to the 
 Gulf, because "John Brown's soul was marching on." 
 That and the flag — only two memories, two sefitiments — 
 led the ranks. 
 
 My friend has told you that the church has removed its 
 altar : we submit. God is not worshipped in temples build- 
 ed with men's hands ; and when their tower lifted 
 itself in proud beauty to the heavens, and varied stone 
 and rich woods furnished a new shelter for the descendants 
 of Eckley and Prince and Sewall, and the others that wor- 
 shipped here, the consecration tliat the Puritans gave these 
 walls, — to Christ and the Church, — was annulled. 
 
 Ijut these walls received as real a consecration when 
 Adams and Otis dedicated them to liberty. We do 
 not come here because there went hence to heaven the 
 prayers of Sewall and Prince and the early saints of 
 the colony. We come to save walls that heard and stirred 
 the eloquence of Quincy — that keen blade which so 
 soon wore out the scabbard — determined ''' under God, that 
 wheresoever, whensoever, or howsoever we shall be called to 
 
make our exit, WK will dik fiieemen ! " Tlicsc :inlios 
 will speak to us. as lout;' as tliey staud. (»t" tlie suldiiue 
 aud sturdy relit^ious enthusiasiu of Adauis ; of Otis's passiou- 
 ate eloqueuce aud siu;_;le-Iiearted devtjtion; of Warreu iu liis 
 youun" i;euius aud euthusiasui ; of a plaiu, unaffected, l)ut 
 lui;]i-soule(l people, who ventured all for a principle, and to 
 transmit to us, unimpaired, the free lips and self-government 
 which they iidu-rited. Above and around us, unseen hands 
 have written, "' This is the cradle of Civil Lil)erty, child of 
 earnest religious faith." I will not say it is a nohler con- 
 secration : I w ill not say that it is a better use. I oid}- say 
 we come here to save what our fathers consecrated to the 
 memories of the most successful struoole the race hits ever 
 
 on 
 
 made for the liberties of man. You spend half a million i'or 
 a sehoolhouse. What school so eloquent as these walls to 
 educate citizens? Napoleon turned his Simi)lon road aside to 
 save a tree Cfcsar had once mentioned. Won't you turn a 
 street or spare a quarter of an acre to remind boys what 
 sort of men their fathers were? Think twice before you 
 touch these walls. We are only the world's trustees. The 
 Old South no mort; l)elongs to us than T^uther's or Hamp- 
 den's, or Jirutus's name does to Germany, England, or Rome. 
 Each and all are held in trust as torchlight guides and in- 
 s[)iration for any man struggling for justice, and ready to die 
 for the truth. 
 
 I went to Chicago more than twenty years ago ; and they 
 showed me the log house, thirty feet square and twenty feet 
 high, in which tlu; first officer of the United States, the first 
 white mail, lived, where now are half a million of liiunan 
 I)cings. There it nestled amid spacious inns, costly ware- 
 houses, and luxurious homes. I said to them, " Why not 
 cover it with plate glass, let it stand there forever, the cradle 
 of the great city of the lakes ? " But I could not wake any 
 sentiment in that quarter-million of traders ; and the ances- 
 tral cabin which, to an anointed eye, measured the vast space 
 between that 1S1(3 and 1856, with its wealth and splendor, 
 passed away. Then I came back liere. That same week I 
 
found at my door a slaveliolder from Arkansas. Singnlavly 
 enongh, in tliose l)itter years, he trnsted himself to 
 me as a guide throngli tlie liistoric scenes oF Boston. 
 I)Ut it shows yon liow tiuc it is that a propliet has 
 no honor in liis own househohl. How his reputation 
 grows tlie farther off yon get ! Well, the fii'st place 
 I took him to was tlie house of John Hancock. We 
 ascended those steps. T had learned from his talk, thai, 
 on that frontier Avhere he was born, he had never seen a 
 building older than twenty-five years. As we stood under 
 that balcony, which some of yon may remember, he turned 
 to me, and said, "Is it actually true that the man who signed 
 the Declaration of Independence stood on this llagstone, and 
 lifted that latch?" I said, "Yes, sir; and above yon, his 
 body lay in state for some six or eiglit days." The man sat 
 down on the flagstone wholly nnnerved, his face pale with 
 emotion. Said he, " Yon must excuse me ; l)nt I never felt 
 as I feel to-day." That was Boston revealing to an every- 
 day life the patriotism and nobleness smothered by petty 
 cares. He came to onr streets to wake that tlii'ol) in liis 
 nature : he grew a better man and a more chivalrous citizen 
 when that thrill answered to the memory of the first signer 
 of the Declaration. 
 
 Gentlemen, these walls are the college foi- such training. 
 The saving of this landmark is the best monument you 
 can erect to the men of the Revolution. Yon s])end 
 -140,000 here, and !f?20,000 there, to put up a statue of 
 some old hero : you want 3'our son to gaze on the nearest 
 approach to tlie features of those "dead l)ut sceptred sove- 
 reigns who still rule our spirits from their nrns." lUit what 
 is a statue of Cicero compared to standing where your voice 
 echoes from pillar and wall tliat actually heard his philippics I 
 How much better than a picture of -lohn Brown is the sight 
 of tliat Blue Ridge which filled his eye, when, riding to the 
 scaffold, he said cahnly to his jailer, " This is a beantiful 
 country : I never noticed it before." Destroy every portrait 
 of Luthei', if vou must, l)ut save that terrible chamber where 
 
9 
 
 lie foii'jlit with tlio devil and t raiislatc(l tlic I'ihlo. Selidlars 
 luive grow 11 I lid and 1)1 ii id, st ii\ iii;^ to |)iit t licir hands on the 
 very spot w here hold men spoke, or ])rave men died. Shall 
 we tear in pieces (he roof that actually trend)lt'd to the woids 
 which made us a nation? It is imi)f)ssil)lc not to helieve, if 
 the spirits uhove us are pt-rnnllcd to know w hat ])asses in 
 this terrestrial sphere, that Adams and Warren and Otis are 
 to-day bending over us, asking that the scene of their im- 
 mortal labors shall not be desecrated, or blotted from tin; 
 sight of men. 
 
 Consecrate it again, in tlu' worsliipand memory of a ])eoplc ! 
 Consecrate it, in order that, if another rebellion breaks out 
 against the flag; if our vonng men need once more to liave 
 their hearts quickened to the sublime significance of the Re- 
 public which })rotects them ; if once more we must rally flags 
 and marshal ranks for the protectioir of liberty, the young 
 men shall be able to look uj) to Faneuil Hall and the Old 
 State House and these walls as a quickening inspiration, 
 before they leave these streets to go down and show them- 
 selves worthy of tlieir fathers. Let these walls stand, if 
 oidy to remind us that, in those days, Adams and Otis, advo- 
 cates of the newest and extremest liberty, found (heir 
 sturdiest allies in the pulpit; that our Revolution was so 
 much a crusade that the Church led the van. 
 
 SuMunon it again, ye venerable walls, to its true place in 
 the world's toil for good. Give us Mayhews and Coopers 
 again, — and let the ehildien of the PilLirims show that reli- 
 gious conviction, veneration for " the great of old," and a 
 stern purpose that our flag shall ever3'where and alwa3's 
 mean justice, are a threefold cord holding this nation to- 
 gethei', never to be broken. We have a great future before 
 us, — how grand, human forecast cannot measure, — yes, a 
 great future, endangered by many and grave perils. Our 
 way out of these faith believes in, but mortal eye cannot 
 see. It is wisdom to summon every ally, to save every pos- 
 sible help. Educate the people to noble purpose. Lift 
 them to the level of the highest motive. Enforce by every 
 
10 
 
 possible appeal the influence of the finest elements of our 
 nature. Let the great ideas, — self-respect, freedom, justice, 
 self-sacrifice, — help eacli man to tread the body under his feet. 
 This worship of great memories, noble deeds, sacred places 
 — the poetry of history — is one of the keenest ripeners of 
 snch elements. Seize greedily on every chance to save and 
 emphasize these. 
 
 Give me a people freslily and tenderly alive to sucli in- 
 fluences, and I will laugh at money-rings or demagogues 
 armed witli sensual temptations. Men marvelled at tlie 
 uprising Avhich liurled slavery to the dust. It was young- 
 men who dreamed dreams over patriot graves — enthusiasts 
 wrapped in memories ! Marble, gold, and granite are not 
 real : the on!}' actual reality is an idea. 
 
 Gentlemen, I remember — Mr. Chairman, you will remem- 
 ber also — that some six months ago the Mayor and Aldermen 
 debated how they should use some $18,000 or f 20,000 left 
 them by Jonathan Phillips to ornament the streets of Boston ; 
 and then the City Government decided — and decided very 
 properly — that the}^ could do no better with that money than 
 place before the people a statue of the great mayor, Josiah 
 Quincy, to whom this city owes so much. It was a very 
 worthy vote under those circumstances ; but if the great 
 mayor were living to-day, he would be here with tlie 
 Massachusetts . Yes, he would be here, Mr. Chair- 
 man, with the Massachusetts Historical Society in his right 
 hand and the Mechanic Association in the other, and he 
 would j^rotest against the use of a dollar of that 
 money for his personal honor until it had been first 
 used to save this immortal legac3\ I wish that I had a 
 voice in that aldermanic corps, I would propose, with no 
 discredit to the great mayor — let no one tear a leaf from 
 his well-earned laurels I — but it was the mechanics of 
 Boston that threw tea into the dock ; it was the mechanics 
 of Boston that held up the hands of Sam Adams ; it was the 
 mechanics of Boston, Paul Revere one of them, that made 
 the Green Dragon immortal, — and I would take that -$18,000 
 
11 
 
 Mild add ."i5.'iO, ()()() more, and let tlio city i)resc'rv(' tliis 
 liiiildiii'4' !i^ 11 Mccliaiiics* i^xcliaii^c for all time. 'JMio 
 mercliaiits lia\c' tlicir i^iideil room, lit natiieriiiy-place for 
 consultations; l)iit the men that earricd us tliron^li tlie 
 Kevolution — eaulkers I why, some men think we horroweil 
 ra//r'^^s from their name ! — the men that earricd us throu^li 
 tiie Reyolution, were the mechanics of I5ostoii. Where do 
 they f;"ather to-day? On the sidewalks and pavements of 
 Court street, in the ojjen air I We owe thciii a delil. in 
 memory of what this t;rand movement, in its cradle, owed 
 to them. I would ally the Green Drajron Tavi in and 
 the Sons of Liberty "with the Old South, the Ljrandsons 
 and great-grandsons and representatives of the men who 
 nnule the bulk of that meeting before which lluttdiinson 
 (juailed, and Gol. I)alrym})le \n\t on his hat and left the 
 Council Chamber. 
 
 It was the message of the mechanics of Boston that Sam 
 Adams carried to the Governor and to Congress. 'I'hey sent 
 him to Salem and Philadelphia: they lifted and held him 
 up till even purblind George III. could distinguish his ablest 
 op})oser, and learned to hate with diserimination. 
 
 Shelter «them under this roof: consecrate it in its original 
 form to a grand pul)lic use for the common run of the 
 people, — the bone and muscle. It will be the normal school 
 of i)olities. It will be the best civil-service reform agency 
 that the Republican party can adopt and use to-day. 
 
 The influence of these old walls will prevent men, if any- 
 thing can, from becoming the tools of corruption or 
 tyranny. " Recall every day one good thought — read one 
 hue line," says the German Shakespeare. Yes, let every 
 man's daily walk catch one ray of golden light, and his 
 ])ulse throb once each day nobly, as he passes these walls I 
 No gold, no greed, can caidcer the heart of such a people. 
 Once in their hands, neither need, greed, nor the clamor for 
 wider streets, Avill ever desecrate what Adams and Warren 
 and ()tis made sacred to the liberties of man I 
 
Reuben Hildreth, Printer, 
 49 Conihill, lioston. 
 
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