Phillips, Wendell, 1811–84, American reformer and orator, b. Boston, grad. Harvard (B.A., 1831; LL.B., 1834). He was admitted to the bar in 1834 but, having sufficient income of his own, he abandoned his law practice to devote his life to fighting for sound causes, chiefly the abolition of slavery. Revolted by the mobbing (1835) in Boston of abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison Garrison, William Lloyd, 1805–79, American abolitionist, b. Newburyport, Mass. He supplemented his limited schooling with newspaper work and in 1829 went to Baltimore to aid Benjamin Lundy in publishing the Genius of Universal Emancipation.
..... Click the link for more information. and prodded by his brilliant young wife, the former Ann Terry Greene, he entered wholeheartedly into the abolitionist crusade. His eloquent protest (1837) in Faneuil Hall on the assassination of the abolitionist editor Elijah P. Lovejoy Lovejoy, Elijah Parish, 1802–37, American abolitionist, b. Albion, Maine, grad. Waterville (now Colby) College, 1826, and later studied theology at Princeton. In 1833 he became editor of the Observer, a Presbyterian weekly in St. Louis.
..... Click the link for more information. marked the beginning of his long and distinguished career as a lecturer. Phillips frequently contributed to the Liberator and, like its publisher, Garrison, refused to identify his abolitionism with any political party. He also followed Garrison in other causes, notably women's rights. He was a delegate to the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London (1840), opposed the Mexican War and the annexation of Texas, came to advocate the dissolution of the Union, and aroused considerable hostility by his vehement denunciations of slaveholding. In the Civil War he attacked Lincoln for his moderate stand on emancipation of the slaves and opposed Lincoln's renomination. Phillips held that the government owed blacks not merely their freedom, but land, education, and full civil rights as well. This led to a break between him and Garrison in 1865 when Garrison proposed to dissolve the American Anti-Slavery Society on the grounds that its purpose had been fulfilled. Phillips became the society's president and kept it active until the adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment enfranchised the blacks. While most of the victorious crusaders for abolition were content to rest on their laurels, Phillips continued his agitation for social reform, speaking for many unpopular causes—prohibition, woman's suffrage, the abolition of capital punishment, currency reform (see greenback greenback, in U.S. history, legal tender notes unsecured by specie (coin). In 1862, under the exigencies of the Civil War, the U.S. government first issued legal tender notes (popularly called greenbacks) that were placed on a par with notes backed by specie.
..... Click the link for more information. ), and the rights of labor. He was the unsuccessful candidate of the Labor and Prohibition parties for the governorship of Massachusetts in 1870. Phillips's advanced doctrines became indistinguishable from those of Marxian socialism, and he defended the Commune of Paris of 1871 and Russian nihilism. As an orator he was rated with Edward Everett and Daniel Webster; his style, however, was easy and colloquial.
(born Nov. 29, 1811, Boston, Mass., U.S.—died Feb. 2, 1884, Boston) U.S. reformer and abolitionist. A wealthy graduate of Harvard Law School, he sacrificed social status and a prospective political career in order to join the antislavery movement. His reputation as an inspirational orator was established with his address at an abolitionist meeting in 1837 to protest the murder of Elijah Lovejoy. He became an associate of William Lloyd Garrison and lectured widely at meetings of the American Anti-Slavery Society, serving as its president from 1865 to 1870. He also advocated prohibition, woman suffrage, prison reform, regulation of corporations, and labour reform.
Phillips, Wendell (1811–84) orator, reformer; born in Boston, Mass. A graduate of Harvard College (1831) and Law School (1834), he soon abandoned his legal practice, and, influenced by his abolitionist wife (Ann Terry Greene) and his Calvinist upbringing, dedicated himself to lecture on behalf of abolition, even at the expense of dissolving the Union; in many respects he was the most radical of the abolitionists. He also espoused such causes as women's rights and humane treatment of the mentally ill, earning a national reputation on the lecture circuit. After the Civil War, Phillips, unlike many abolitionists, turned to seeking social justice for blacks, succeeding William Lloyd Garrison as president of the American Anti-Slavery Society (1865). He grew concerned with the welfare of all workers, and, becoming increasingly radical, he upheld violence as a labor tactic and denounced corporate wealth and the wage and profit system.
..... Click the link for more information. and prodded by his brilliant young wife, the former Ann Terry Greene, he entered wholeheartedly into the abolitionist crusade. His eloquent protest (1837) in Faneuil Hall on the assassination of the abolitionist editor Elijah P. Lovejoy Lovejoy, Elijah Parish, 1802–37, American abolitionist, b. Albion, Maine, grad. Waterville (now Colby) College, 1826, and later studied theology at Princeton. In 1833 he became editor of the Observer, a Presbyterian weekly in St. Louis.
..... Click the link for more information. marked the beginning of his long and distinguished career as a lecturer. Phillips frequently contributed to the Liberator and, like its publisher, Garrison, refused to identify his abolitionism with any political party. He also followed Garrison in other causes, notably women's rights. He was a delegate to the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London (1840), opposed the Mexican War and the annexation of Texas, came to advocate the dissolution of the Union, and aroused considerable hostility by his vehement denunciations of slaveholding. In the Civil War he attacked Lincoln for his moderate stand on emancipation of the slaves and opposed Lincoln's renomination. Phillips held that the government owed blacks not merely their freedom, but land, education, and full civil rights as well. This led to a break between him and Garrison in 1865 when Garrison proposed to dissolve the American Anti-Slavery Society on the grounds that its purpose had been fulfilled. Phillips became the society's president and kept it active until the adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment enfranchised the blacks. While most of the victorious crusaders for abolition were content to rest on their laurels, Phillips continued his agitation for social reform, speaking for many unpopular causes—prohibition, woman's suffrage, the abolition of capital punishment, currency reform (see greenback greenback, in U.S. history, legal tender notes unsecured by specie (coin). In 1862, under the exigencies of the Civil War, the U.S. government first issued legal tender notes (popularly called greenbacks) that were placed on a par with notes backed by specie.
..... Click the link for more information. ), and the rights of labor. He was the unsuccessful candidate of the Labor and Prohibition parties for the governorship of Massachusetts in 1870. Phillips's advanced doctrines became indistinguishable from those of Marxian socialism, and he defended the Commune of Paris of 1871 and Russian nihilism. As an orator he was rated with Edward Everett and Daniel Webster; his style, however, was easy and colloquial.
Bibliography
See his Speeches, Lectures, and Letters (1st series, 1863; 2d series, 1891); biographies by J. A. Green (1943, repr. 1964), O. Sherwin (1958), and I. Bartlett (1961, repr. 1973).
Phillips, Wendell
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Wendell Phillips
(credit: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.)
Phillips, Wendell (1811–84) orator, reformer; born in Boston, Mass. A graduate of Harvard College (1831) and Law School (1834), he soon abandoned his legal practice, and, influenced by his abolitionist wife (Ann Terry Greene) and his Calvinist upbringing, dedicated himself to lecture on behalf of abolition, even at the expense of dissolving the Union; in many respects he was the most radical of the abolitionists. He also espoused such causes as women's rights and humane treatment of the mentally ill, earning a national reputation on the lecture circuit. After the Civil War, Phillips, unlike many abolitionists, turned to seeking social justice for blacks, succeeding William Lloyd Garrison as president of the American Anti-Slavery Society (1865). He grew concerned with the welfare of all workers, and, becoming increasingly radical, he upheld violence as a labor tactic and denounced corporate wealth and the wage and profit system.
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