Wendell Phillips, Theodore C. Pease, Speeches, Lectures and Letters of Wendell Phillips: Volume 1

Then we have Lincoln for President [applause],--a Whig,--a Revolutionary Whig,--a freedom-loving Whig, --a Whig in the sense that Jefferson, Hamilton, and Washington were Whigs. How much is that worth? I said we had passed the Rubicon. Caesar crossed the Rubicon, borne in the arms of a people trodden into poverty and chains by an oligarchy of slaveholders; but that oligarchy proved too strong even for Caesar and his legions. Judged by its immediate success, Caesar's life was a failure as much as John Brown's; the Empire rotted into the grave which slavery digs for all its victims. What better right have we to hope? Let us examine. The Republican party says now what Mr. Sumner said in 1852, that it “knows no better aim, under the Constitution, than to bring back the government” to where it stood in 1789. That is done. The echo of cannon from ocean shore to the Rocky Mountains proclaims it accomplished.

How much is such success worth? I suppose you will not claim that Mr. Lincoln is better than Washington. As only Abolition telescopes have dared to discover any spots on that sun, certainly, while Mr. Everett lives and the Ledger is printed, no one will presume to say there can be a better President than Washington. Indeed, Mr. Seward asks in great contempt of any man who undertakes to improve the Constitution, “Are you more just than Washington, wiser than Hamilton, more humane than Jefferson?” Well, then, Washington, pursuing the very policy which Mr. Lincoln proposes to follow, launched the ship of state on seas white with the fervor of the Revolutionary love of liberty, and made shipwreck. Every administration grew worse than its predecessor, and at last slavery, having wound its slimy way to the top of the Capitol,

Hangs hissing at the nobler man below.