Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1846-09-25
GOD BLESS THE BABESl

-
Mis-. Aniseed plucked the shawl aside, and
discovered a sleeping infant. "What a hrav-
emily babe !" she cried and, truly, the child
in its marble whiteness looked beautiful
lovely human bud-a sweet, unsullied So
j%onrner Of earth, graded on the knees of
vice.
For an instant the watchmen gazed In 81
lence on the babe. Even their natures, har-
dened in scenes Of crine and destitution,
were touched by the appealing innocence of
the child. Poor little heart,' said me-
"God help it," cried another,
Yes, God help it! And with such easy
adjuration do we leave thousands and tens Of
thousands Of human souls to want and igno-
RANGES; doom them, when yet sleeping the
sleep Of guiltlessness, 10 future dcvils-their
own unguided passions. We IN ike them
o%utcasts, wretches, and then punish, in thsir
wickedness. cur own seltishness, our own
neglect. We cry--"God help the babes J"
and hang the men.
Yet a moment-th the child ia still bceof us.
May WI not see about it, conteuding for It,
the principles Of good and evil Come
hiiher, statesmen; you, who live within Il
party circle; you, who nightly fight some
miserable fight; c%ontinu lily strive in some
selfish struggle for power and place, consid-
ering men only as tools, the merest instru-
mcnt of your ACCOMPLISHMENT come here in
the wintry srCe i. and look on Gods image in
its babyhood. Consider this lille num-
Are not such creatures az these he noblest,
g~randest things on earth Are they not
subtly touchal for tn hi est purposes
Of human litel Come they not into this
world 10 dignity it! There is no spot, no
coarsrr stuff in the pauper flesh before you
that indicates a lower nature. There Is no
felon mark upon it; no natural formation in
dicating the thief in its baby fingers; no in
cvitable blasphemy upon It's liIs. 1t lies be-
fore you affair unsullltd thing, fresh from
the hand of God! viii you, without
an effort, let the great fiend stamp his fiery
r brand upon it? Shall it, even in lis sleep
ing innocence, be made a trading thing by
misery and vice. A creature borne from the
street, a piece of living merchandise for min
gled beggary and crirne-say what, with It's
awakened soul, shall it learn! What les
sons whereby to pass through life, making
an item in the social sum Why. cunning
will be its wisdom; hypocrisy its truth
theft it's natural law oil soii-preservation.-
, 10 this child. go rurturcd, so taught, you
whole code OF morals, nay, your brief RICH
=. and wrong are written in stranger character:
, than Egyptian hieroglyphics-and time pass
es-and you scourge the creature, never tlught
for the heniouS guilt Of knowing naught bur
ill! The good has been "a sealed book
to him, and the Ounce is punished with tho
frlil.
Doubtless, there are great statesmen wiz
cards in bullion and bank paper, thinkers
profound in cotton, and every turn and variA-
ton in the markets, abroad and at home
Blu! there are statesmen yet 10 come; states.
men Of nohler aim-of more heroic action
5 teachers of the people: indicators Of the
universal dignity of man apostles of the
. great social truth, that knowledge, which is
|, the spiritual light Of God. like his material
3 light, was made TO comfort and bless all men
And when these men arise-and it is worse
, than weak il is sinful. to despair of them
the youngling poor will not be bound upon
the threshold of human life, and made by
, want and ignorance liie's shame and ursp.
d, There is not A babe lying in tho public street
on is mothers lap-the unconscious mendi'
can't, to ripen into the criminll-that is not a
r reproach 10 the state--a scandal and a cry.
ing shame upon men who study all polite.
save the politics of the human hcar..-D0u.
|, gas JerrOId.