PHILLIPS, Wendell [1811-1884] -- American abolitionist

was born in Boston, Mass., Nov. 29, 1811; eighth child of John and Sally (Walley) Phillips; grandson of William (1737-1772) and Margaret (Wendell) Phillips, and of Thomas Walley; great-grandson of John (1701-68) and Mary (Buttolph) Phillips, and of Jacob Wendell; great2-grandson of Samuel Phillips of Salem and of Nicholas Buttolph of Boston; great3-grandson of the Rev. Samuel (1625-1696) and Sarah (Appleton) Phillips, and great4-grandson of the Rev. George Phillips (1593-1644), who with his wife and two children, left Boxted, Essex county, England, embarked on the Arbella, April 12, 1630, and arrived in Salem, Massachusetts Bay colony, June 12, 1630. Wendell Phillips attended the Boston Latin school, 1822-26, and was graduated from Harvard in 1831. While in college he was president of the Hasty Pudding club and of the Gentlemen's club, and had so little interest in reform that he defeated the first proposition to establish a temperance society at Harvard. He showed no taste for oratory, but was fond of debate. He was graduated from the law department of Harvard university in 1834, and was admitted to practice at the Suffolk bar. He continued his law studies in the office of Thomas Hopkinson, Lowell, Mass., and established himself in practice in Boston. He took no part in the early antislavery movement, but upon the imprisonment and subsequent outrage upon the person of William Lloyd Garrison, Oct. 21, 1835, he cast in his lot with the antislavery party. He was married in October, 1837, to Ann Terry, daughter of Benjamin Green. She was deeply interested in the antislavery movement, and was largely instrumental in converting him to the cause. On Dec. 8, 1837, at a meeting held in Faneuil Hall for the purpose of giving expression to the horror felt by a number of persons headed by Dr. William Ellery Channing, at the murder of the Rev. Elijah Lovejoy, Phillips made his début as an orator, in an impromptu reply to the scurrilous utterances of Attorney-General James T. Austin. He was one of the first to take part in the movement for a lyceum-lecture system, and in 1836 he delivered his first lecture. This was followed by several others, including one on "The Lost Arts" 1838, which was probably one of the most popular lectures ever delivered in America. He was one of the lecturers who succeeded in breaking down the old rule of refusing negroes admittance to the lyceum lectures. He delivered his first antislavery lecture at Lynn, Mass., and in 1838 delivered a Fourth of July oration at Lynn. He advocated the rights of women as co-equal with men, and was a delegate to the world's antislavery convention held at London, England, June 12, 1840, where he earnestly spoke on the eligibility of women as delegates. His advice was out-voted, however, and the women were excluded. He traveled in Europe, visiting France, Italy and Great Britain, and returned to Boston, July 12, 1841. He was foremost in opposing the slave measures of 1841-50. The fugitive-slave act was passed in October, 1850, and a meeting was held in Faneuil Hall, Boston, for the denunciation of the law, at which Phillips was one of the speakers. Instant repeal of the act was demanded and a vigilance committee of fifty was appointed to protect the colored people from the new danger. In 1853 he addressed the antislavery woman's rights and temperance conventions held in New York city. Upon the election of President Lincoln and the outbreak of the civil war, Phillips favored the commencement of hostilities and delivered an address to that end in Boston Music Hall. On Sept. 22, 1862, the President issued his proclamation of freedom to the slaves, to take effect Jan. 1, 1863, and the Negro was allowed to enlist as a soldier. Phillips was one of the first to favor the enlistment of colored regiments in Massachusetts, and authority was obtained, Jan. 26, 1863. On March 11-12, 1863, Phillips delivered his panegyric on Toussaint L'Ouverture in New York and Brooklyn, and on July 4, 1863, he delivered an address at the mass-meeting of the Friends of Freedom at Framingham, Mass., which was perhaps the most remarkable speech delivered by him during the war. He also spoke on "The Amnesty" at the Cooper Institute, N.Y., Dec. 22, 1863. Upon the re-nomination of President Lincoln in 1864, Mr. Phillips opposed, while William Lloyd Garrison favored, his election. This led to a controversy, as Garrison held that as slavery had been abolished, the Antislavery society should be abolished. Phillips, however, contended that it should not be discontinued until the Negro had gained his ballot. He succeeded Garrison as president of the society in 1865, and continued in office until 1870. He was an advocate of temperance, an upholder of trades unions, and was in favor of a greenback system of finance. He was nominated for governor of Massachusetts by the Labor Reform convention held at Worcester, Sept. 8, 1870. He supported General Butler for governor on a joint Republican and Labor platform, and in the presidential canvass of 1872 he supported General Grant and his southern policy. In 1878 an unsuccessful effort was made to induce Phillips to accept the nomination for governor on the Republican ticket. He delivered addresses on: "Capital Punishment," April 29, 1866; "The Meaning of the War," July 4, 1866; "The Perils of the Hour," 1866; "The New Constitutional Amendment," Jan. 24, 1867; "General Grant," Nov. 18, 1867; "The Political Situation," Jan. 29, 1869; "Sir Henry Vane" in May, 1877; "Trades Unions" in April, 1869; "A Review of Dr. Howard Crosby's Anti-total-abstinence discourse" Jan. 24, 1881; "The Crisis in Irish Affairs," in February, 1881, and "The Scholar in a Republic," delivered at the centennial anniversary of the Phi Beta Kappa of Harvard college, June 30, 1881. His last address was delivered on the unveiling exercises of the statue of Harriet Martineau, at the Old South Meeting House, Dec. 26, 1883. He is the author of: The Constitution, a Pro-Slavery Contract (1840); Review of Daniel Webster's 7th of March Speech (1850), and a collection of speeches, letters and lectures, revised by himself (1863). By vote of the legislature and city government his body was laid in state at Faneuil Hall, where it was viewed by a large number of citizens. His name in "Class A, Authors and Editors," received nineteen votes for a place in the Hall of Fame for Great American, New York university, October, 1900. He died in Boston, Mass., Feb. 2, 1884. [Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans]