Soldan High School - Scrip Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

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hearted, his tongue whispered words of encouragement and new hope. To the successful, he ever called out of the things that are eternal. He reached the end of earth's journey in the year of 1887 while resting calmly in his home. As a ray of sunlight full and strong flashed across the room, his mortal nature passed out into the spirit world. He loved the multitude and the multitude came to his funeral. He loved the Howers and ten thousand buds breathed their fragrance and clad his resting place in beauty. He loved music and the voice of the organ rose with the anthems which had delighted him. He loved the sunshine and it streamed through the windows and was a halo around him. But Henry Ward Beecher lives on in the lives and institutions that he has made better through his earthly ministry. -Howard Shupp. Wendell 'phillips measure a period by its great men. Like the shuttle in , weaving they play into the very warp and woof of the time. 1, f,,':l 15.33531 T They represent its history, its toil and its struggle. Thus 5 it is that forty years of American history, can be summed ll' 'I up in the life of one man, Wendell Phillips. It is respecting this man that I shall speak this morning. Let us investigate the conditions which called him forth. It was a time when slavery ruled both Church and State, when it commanded both the press and pulpit, and when it controlled both the finances and the armies of the nation. Few facts need be stated to show the moral stupor of the nation. In Alton, in 1837, Elihu Lovejoy, an American citizen, was killed by a mob for declaring the right to his personal lib- erty. It was at a time such as this that the young aristocrat stepped into the anti-slavery ranks. Wendell Phillips was the first and greatest American agitator. Agitation , said Sir Robert Peele, is the marshaling of the conscience of a nation to mould its laws . To the service of this cause he brought all his own rich and unusual gifts. Educated to be the aristocratic lead- er of a privileged class, he became the defender of the lowly and despised. Gifted with an eloquence that could transform a nation, he consecrated it to the welfare of the downtrodden and oppressed. l Wendell Phillips was one of the gentlest and most sympathetic of men. His devotion to his wife was a poem. He had no children. His wards were the poor, the outcast and the friendless. With him a cause despised was a cause espoused. He was emphatically a man of the peo- ple-the great popular tribune of modern times. Emerson once said, There is no true eloquence unless there is a man behind it . Character is the secret of all oratory. Thus it is no less a 111

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44-f ha 'L c r ..., - Henry Ward Beecher was during the War of 1812. Darkness had settled like a t gg pall over our peaceful land. But a little ray of sunshine town of Litchfield. This was not the only ray that had come to the home of Dr. Lyman Beecher, for seven such beams had preceded it: but this last was destined to bring undying fame to this humble home, the birthplace of Henry Ward Beecher. Under motherly care and watchfulness, this son grew and became a man. Nature, too, favored him by holding him to the soil, until his strength and ambition united and broke the bonds that held him. Henry Ward Beecher was a man of great resources and magnetic personality. His one recreation lay in his search for a task so much larger than the last that there was no comparison between the two. Think a moment of a man with a broad smiling face, so full of kind- ness and strength, that he drew you to him when you first looked upon him, for you knew that his heart was warm with love for you. They say he never could reflect, but just felt, and felt with you, and put his feelings into burning words and deeds of kindness. It is one of nature's wonders that such a being should come to a realization of his power and a deep sense of responsibility toward the uplift of his fellowmen. In view of these peculiar powers, it was most fitting that Mr. Beech- er should become a preacher. He Worked at his chosen calling with the same zeal which revealed to him his surpassing ability. Men came from everywhere far and near to hear this powerful orator, who, they said, could warm the heart of a stone. He gave to many a discouraged mor- tal a helping hand and cheered him on in the Fight that seemed a losing one, His voice, his power, were lifted against humanity's foes. His pul- pit rang with not only denunciation of the iniquitous slave traffic but with pathetic appeals for the support of his people in putting down this cruel monster. When the international crisis came in 1863 and England seemed about to recognize the Confederacy, Beecher braved the jeers of the mobs in England, and fearlessly raised his voice against the whole institution of human slavery. No voice, except perhaps that of Wendell Phillips, was lifted with such powerful effect both in America and abroad against this deep- rooted curse. Beecher's life was full of gotd deeds. His kindly but powerful words touched the needy on the streets, in the lowest hovels, and in the mansions and business offices of the wealthiest. He lived for humanity and humanity worshiped at his feet. To the discouraged and broken- I ix4 T 5 came to a humble fireside back in the quaint Connecticut A m y ll0

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aan at -1-f tribute to his personal character to say that as an orator Wendell Phil- lips ranks with the greatest of all time. In reading his speeches you seem to hear the lion-like roar of Mirabeau. Yet he never ranted. A southerner who heard him said, He was an infernal machine set to music . His plainness of speech appalled because it was so unusual. He called a hoe a hoe, not an agricultural instrument. He said, Slav- ery is slavery, not a form of economic subordination. His magnetism of manner and witchery of style were such that it is said he could talk en- tertainingly about a broom handle . This superb and matchless elo- quence was the means by which he accomplished all that engaged his attention as a reformer. As a reformer, Wendell Phillips was far from a man of one idea. Standing in isolation, against parties and established order and old tra- ditions, he devoted his life to the freest and broadest discussions of the questions and issues of his time. The best years of his life, however, were devoted to the cause of the slave. The slave power grew by leaps and bounds after the invention of the cotton gin, but due largely to the untiring efforts of Wendell Phillips, the anti-slavery agitation likewise did not remain in the condition the year '37 had found it. During these years Phillips advocated disunion. Tried by his standard the constitu- tion had become a sinful compact with slavery and he longed to see it broken. With the first sound of the cannon in Charleston harbor, how- ever, the welcome which he gave the war was hearty and hot . Throughout the war he was wrapt up in one mighty passiong justice as the policy of the uniong justice to the negro! He said, Peace if pos- sible. iustice at any rate . With this sign his matchless eloquence was creating the public sentiment which guided the hand of Lincoln as he signed the Proclamation of Emancipation. After the Civil War, the slave, indeed, was freeg but this did not free the great reformer from his task. He saw clearly that the next great contest would be waged with the slavery of poverty. With clear, un- flinching logic he announced his principle, Labor, the creator of wealth, is entitled to all it creates , and attempted to follow it out to the utter abolition of the present distinction between capital and labor. He was also foremost among those claiming the ballot for women. His powerful presentation of the woman suffrage problem, more than any one cause, has started the agitation which can ultimately result in but one thing, universal suffrage. His was the voice which exposed our national crime against the Indian. His, the voice which early brought forth the temp- erance question and his, the voice which championed every other reform of the age. Wendell Phillips has exercised a greater influence on the destiny of our country than any other man of his day. H2