Wendell Philips

Wendell Philips

Conclusion

Why did he become an abolitionist?

• Influenced by William Lloyd Garrison and watching an attack on an innocent man
• Joined the American Anti-Slavery Society and started making speeches at events
• Believed that radical injustice was the source of societies illness

"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty—power is ever stealing from the many to the few . . .. The hand entrusted with power becomes . . . the necessary enemy of the people. Only by continual oversight can the democrat in office be prevented from hardening into a despot: only by unintermitted Agitation can a people be kept sufficiently awake to principle not to let liberty be smothered in material prosperity".

What did he do?

• Started by making small speeches at meetings
• Gained popularity and some felt that he should be the leading speaker for the abolitionist movement
• Authored pamphlets
• Refused to vote until emancipation
• Lobbied for the South to be removed from the Union
• Wanted Northern states to avoid slavery

After 15th Amendment

Early Life

• Came from a wealthy family
• Father was a lawyer and the first mayor of Boston
• Attended Harvard
• Became a lawyer himself

• Focused on issues such as women's rights, universal suffrage, and temperance.
• Helped to gain equal rights for Native Americans
• He proposed that the Andrew Johnson administration create a cabinet-level position for Native American Rights
• Helped create the Massachusetts Indian Commission with Helen Hunt Jackson and Massachusetts governor William Claflin