Profile of Wendell K. Phillips on Famous Like Me

Wendell Phillips (29 November 1811 - 2 February 1884), born in Boston, Massachusetts, was an American abolitionist, Native American advocate and orator. After graduating from Harvard in 1831, he went on to attend its law school from which he graduated in 1833. In 1834, Phillips was admitted to the state bar, and in the same year, he opened a law practice in Boston.

After being converted to the abolitionist cause by William Lloyd Garrison in 1836, he stopped practicing law in order to fully dedicate himself to the movement. He joined the American Anti-Slavery Society and frequently made speeches at its meetings. It was Phillip's contention that racial injustice was the source of all society's ills. After the 15th Amendment was passed, Phillips concentrated on issues such as women's rights, universal suffrage, and temperance.

"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." —Wendell Phillips

Phillips was also active in efforts to gain equal rights for Native Americans, arguing that the 15th Amendment also granted citizenship to Indians. He proposed that the Andrew Johnson administration create a cabinet-level post that would guarantee Indian rights. Phillips helped create the Massachusetts Indian Commission with Indian rights activist Helen Hunt Jackson and Massachusetts governor William Claflin. Although publicly critical of President Ulysses Simpson Grant's drinking, he worked with his second administration on the appointment of Indian agents. Phillips lobbied against military involvement in settling Native American problems on the western frontier. He accused General Philip Henry Sheridan of pursuing a policy of Indian extermination. Public opinion turned against Native American advocates after the Battle of the Little Bighorn, but Phillips continued to support the claims of the Lakota (Sioux). In the 1870's, Phillips arranged public forums for reformer Alfred B. Meacham and Indians affected by the country's removal policy, including Ponca chief Standing Bear and the Omaha Susette La Flesche.

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