Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1845-06-20
THE LIBERTY PARTY.

One of the most unpleasant labors in which a refjrmcr
can be called to engage, is to oppose those who have pro-
fessedly as much at heart as himself the good OF the en-
terprise in which he is engaged, but whose measures he is
convinced instead of promoting, are ~retarding its progress.
We have found it so in our controversy with the Liberty
Party. 1t was comparatively easy and pleasant for US
to battle against open and undisguised ro-slavery, to tear
off the fair but deceitful mask from the hideous features Of
colonization, or to expose the windings and cunning tricks
of the insidious serpent New Organization in its clerical
garb, but we confess that the Liberty Party has so assum-
ed the guise of an angel of light, and we find drawn into
its ranks so many sincere and conscientious, but mistaken
friends of the slave, that our duty in exposing It's pro-sla-
very character and tendency is more difficult and more un-
pleasant.
While we admit that there ere such among them, we al
so contend that as sincere and conscientious advocates Of
emancipation are to be found in the colonization Society,
and in the Wing and Democratic parties which the Lib
erty party men se;un sparingly denounce, and in the pro-
slavery ~sectarian organizations, which they do not de-
nounce; but at the same time we insist that the measures
of colonization, of wing, of democratic and %ofliberty party,
however they may for while seem to promote the cause of
emancipation, all, ALL tend to build up the accursed system
of slavery, and we insist moreover that the leading men Of
t he5e parties, the influences which govern the rank and
file, are not 10 be trusted with the slaves cause,
The American Anti-Slavery Society has from the first
opposed the formation Of a distinct political ALti-Siavery
party as inexpedient and unwise. and always has condem-
ned the so called Liberty party, as a meature originating
with those who had proved themselves false to the
cluss of the slave, and whose motives were far from
being above suspicion; and this society holds that a politi-
cal Pnrty, whether liberty party or any other which acts
undes the United States constitution, is to be condemned
upon principle, and does not regardit as a measure whose
eXpediency is questionable. We will briefly state why
we, in common with other members of The American soci.
ETY., occupy this position. The United States constitution
we regard as a covenant with death, and all agreement
with hell ;" a partnership contract which all who vote UNI
der promise to fulfil, or to aid in fulfilling. We knOD thar
it requires its supporters to surrender the fugitive slave,
and to gather with force and arms and hew down the insur-
gent slave We knoW that such was the character designed
TO be given it by its trainers and original ~adop:ers, and that
all honest and enlightened minds will so interpret the instru-
ment. And we also know that before any one can cross
the Threshold of office, he must swear 10 support it and
therefore believing it to be wrong to enter into, or promise
to fulfil such a compact, knowing that such partnership
and such promise gives additional power TO The STAKEHOLDER
to crush, and bruise, and bind, we are bound by our duty
to the slave, ourselves, and to God to protest increasingly
and theoretically against usirg as an Antislavery agency,
the pc vel which is derived from, and is the reward for
swearing to ~supportit, but to declare on the contrary that
it is r roslavery In its character and tendency, and that no
matter how sincere or how consistent the Liberty party
man may be, that Liberty party ground is proslavery in por