Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1846-01-02
New Brighton, Dec. %, 1915.
FRIENDS lGDIToRs:-

FRIEHDs EDIToRs:-
l have perusod with
interest the reply Of ]. Barnaby, Jr. in your
last, to my article the previous week, and am
gratifed to perceive a disposition of candor
and a desire TO maintain the true issue perva-
ding his arguments.
Friend Barnaby charges the Society of
Friends with being an contemporaries, pro-
slavery, war-sustaining Society-immoral
and corrupt. l scarcely believe these accu-
]sations applicable to the worst man in our
community; he must therefore pardon me for
dissenting from him on this subject. To that
part Of his argument by which he conceives
these charges are sustained, | have as yet
made no reply. Absence from home will
probably prevent me from giving attention to
this matter next week, otherwise, | should
have made it the subject of a separate article.
Friend Barnaby, il appears to me, has COM
pletely failed in his attempt to prove the a.
bove allegations. lie produces several rea-
sons to prove them. Let us examine their
soundness.
First, the Society is pro-slavery and war
like for voting under this government. lake
it for granted he will oxonerate the Anti-Sla-
very Society of which he is a member from
such a charge. l will also take their consti-
tuition and declaration OF sentiment, as he
takes Friends discipline, as the best expo
nent of their principles. Those documents
declare ''poiiiicGi action in q Constitutional
rag" to be among the means they pledge
themselves to use for the overthrow of slave
ry! The common acceptation Of this is to
vo'e and maintain the principles of the United
States Constitution. Friends discipline,
(new edition, page 22) clearly discourages
such things, and goes as far as a Society, toll
Grating freedom of conscience, can well go to
discourage it. Those who vote generally
vote against Slavery, by doing thus, dc they
support it? To be prO-siarery, is to be in ia
vor Of Slauery. The term has no other def
milton. Now if he has proved that the Soci
ely is in favor of Slavery, ! have entirely o.
verlooied all his proof. He has proved truly,
that Friends in many places are opposed 10 The
measures and movements Of the Anti-Slavery
Societies, and every argument he has produ-
ced except the one | have just answered, goes
to establish this one fact and nothing more
Let US see. For illustration, take the Ortho-
dox Friends of Salem, and apply to them this
kind of reasoning and see what the result is.
They close the doors of their meeting house
against lecturers on temperance, abolition,
peace, and the meetings of horse thief detect
ing societies, therefore are they in favor of
grog-drinking, slaveholding, war-making and
horse-stealing! They shut their doors against
the Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, &C.,
aud their ministers use their influence against
them, and they diSown their members for Join
ing and ''acting consistently" with those So
c%ieties; therefore are they opposed to the re-
demption of souls! They must also, accord
ing 10 this logic, be opposed to the marriage
covenant, because they disown their members
for marrying a certain way. One Of our lead
ing temperance men recently objected to the
uso Of a meeting house by the Temperance