Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1846-02-06
II BLACK LAWS.

w. 80 ihoiNil iNui'HS VIZ lO
sition in which we stand. All about us
seems 80 strange, so dreamlike, that we are
tempted TO ask, can these things be? We
are living with the light of the 10Th century
shining around us; in an age when the mind
is seeking out new and untrodden paths; ina
land which claims to be above all others the
home of religion, the spot where freedom de-
lights to dwell; we are surrounded by a peo-
pie who are continually boasting that they
have solved the great problem which the po-
li,ical mathematician Of ancient Greece and
Rome vainly strove to ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
capacity for self government-and have build
ed a republic wherein the rights Of all men
are secured, and upon whose structure is
stamped the progressive spirit of the age
When we think only of these things, we are
inclined to believe that the sentinel's cry of
"alFs welF' may be relied upon. But not
long does the illusion last, fact after fact
comes crowding upon us in rapid succession
proclaiming in tones that ,oiU be heard, that
our profession is a lie; and testimony is heap
ed upon testimony. telling of the horrible in
justice that man daily pe-petrates upon his
fellow man; of the outrage and oppression Of
which even this State is guilty.
The report of the Committee on the Black
Laws recently presented to the State Legis-
%lature, contains Developments of the cruel
injustice which the colored man is compelled
to endure. We will briefly enumerate the
disabilities under which he labors.
First, we will put down "taxation without
representations" phrase which once possess
ed a mighty power, and whose utterance
would make the tagging pulse of age beat
with youthful vigor; but it has lost that pow
er. "Taxation without representation was
in 1776 deemed by the fathers a just cause
for a declaration of war, but in 1916 it is
p~ractised by the sons, not as though they
were ashamed of their tyranny, for they have
and adopted it as one of the governing prin-
ciples of their sham republic.
Second, the refusal to allow him the ad-
vantages of education. Schools are opened
vi siN "hiNcS NOiipShChi IdNuIlo dIC 'll-
ployed to instruct them, and all proper facili-
ties are afforded for mental improvement; but
these are denied to the children of the color
ed man. What wonder they are ignorant
when the people of Ohio strive to keep them
so! If in the foot steps of ignorance follow
degradation and crime, let their oppres-
sors take the blame to themselves, and not
taunt their victims with being what they have
made them.
Third, the denial of his humanity, unless
the same be certified with all due legal
form and minuteness by the officer appointed
to that duty. 1t is not enough that God has
but his royal seal of DIVINITY upon the soul
of the soul of the colored man, the State of
Ohio demands something more authentic, it
requires that his manhood shall be certified
by the clerk of a court, and sealed with its
republican seal.
Fourth, that when proved to be a man, and
not a thing, he is not permitted to settle here
as other men are, but he is insultingly re-
i"hSu w S''O Il pohu WI Boou DendNlOuT, anu
to secure the State against the possibility of
his ever becoming a public charge.
Fifth, the exclusion of his testimony from
every court in the State, in all cases in which
a white man is the opposing party. Aconven-
lent way to insult, and outrage, and plumber;
for the very fact that the testimony of the COL
ored man is inadmissible in the Ohio courts,
is a standing invitation to every one who feels
so disposed, to spoil and Cypress him.
If these wrongs had been inflicted upon our
fathers of 70, the Declaration of Indepen-
dence would have borne an earlier date; but
the negro is so degraded that we expect him
TO be patient under oppression; he is so vi
cious and vlndlctive that we expect him to for
get his many wrongs; he is by nature so in
ierlor that we expect him to be more peace
able and Christ-like than were our fathers, or
than We should be under like circumstances.
And then to think that there should be a ne
cessity for the Committee to whom was re-
ferred the petitions for a repeal of the Black
Laws. to enter into a learned and lengthy ar
gument in its report in order to prove a self
evident truth. The Committee doubtless fell
that the Legislature regarded this as a great
moral question, and one upon which it must