Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1846-12-25
A short Talk with orr Green Plain
Friends.
DEAR FnrEvos -:

to me that you, although you are but few, for
getting that the trace is not always to the
swift, nor the battle TO the strong" and that
numbers do not ensure victory, or change the
force Of a single principle, a single truth
should show such a desire to be connected
with the Indiana Yearly Meeting, and also
the other (iIicksito as they are called, Year
ly Meetings, on this continent. In this you
appear the more inexcusable as you seem to
have individually at least, seen your duty
very clearly on the slave question. But COL
lectiyely, in my opinion, you err greatly
And here let me say, but few persons seem
willing 10 admit that they are no more justi-
fable in the performance Of any act in a cor
porate capacity, as members of a society, a
church, a banking or rail road company, OF Of
a government, than they are individually
Yet, Notwithstanding their unwillingnes to
admit this, murder is not sanctifed by its be-
ing the act Of a govemmcnt-slavery because
1t is sanctioned by the church, or any other
iniquity because it is the act of individuals
in their collective or corporate capacity. even
though they should assemble rs a Quaker
Meeting, and cal. themselves the s'body.'-
In the first place. you were prescribed, for
what? Was it not for protesting against the
wickedness Of George F. White, one of the
recommended ministers of the New York
Yearly Meeting, and was he not med
by every Yearly Meeting on the continent
And while some were cast for that act, with
out the pale of the society, why should you
then, wish TO continue IA religious fellowship
with those who sustain the guilty, and crush
those who would rebuke them for their sins!
Can you, do you expect 10 derive any benefit
from the religious fellowship of any but tn o
good! Or can those who oppose the right
by fellowshipping you, aid you in your tcsti-
mony in flvor of the right! Or rather, will
not your testimony in favor of the right be
weakened and destroyed by joining yourselves
to those who oppose it? You can easily see
that by joining yourselves to a band of horse
thieves, your testimony against horse-stealing
would be destroyed and under these circum-
stances your testimony against other iniqui-
ties would have no influence for good. For
this act Of yours, in protesting against the mi
quitous course Of George f. White, the In
diana Yearly Meeting laid down your Quar-
terly Meeting. This you struggled against,
instead Of rejoicing that wrong doors felt so
rebuked by your upright, truthful testimony
for the right that they quit your company
But do yoa suppose that they continue to feel
that rebuke when you try to get back into
their company! Like seeks its like; and when
you seek their company, they mus. suppose
that you have a feeling of fellowship, after
all is said and done, for them in the course
they are pursuing.
But to the Indiana Yearly Meeting. This
body assembled in Waynesyille in 1912. and
on that occasion first attempted to lay down
your Meeting, which attempt did not then
succeed bat at that time an epistlc of ccr-
resPondence and religious fellowship was re-
ceived from the BtIiimore Meeting, one of
the association of Yearly Meetings on this
continent, urging Friends 10 employ no other
means to prevent the improper use of arden,
spirits but the testimony of Friends; and
when we reflect that one prominent member
Of the Baltimore Yearly Meeting is an extern
sive wine merchant-that some of the lead
ing Quakers there are wine bibbers-that
there were others who kept wine in their hou-
SEES. to treat v]isiters with, and some of them
stronger drink for occasional use-that some
Of the Young Quakers, who had acquired an
appetite fer alcoholic drinks in their fathers
houses, and by following the example of tho
older Qulkers, had become beAstly sots, and
that some Of them had gone down to Gil the
loathsomv graves of drunkards, and that the
testimony Of Friends, so far as using alcohol
ic drinks is concerned, allows the use of them
which makes the drunkard, and when he is
made, and would most Eeed help TO struggle
against his strong morbid appetite, in order
to overcome it and save himself from being
wholly ruined, he is cast outside the pale of
the society, as the retailer of grog casts out
Of his house the wretch who has become in
t~oXicated and rendered boisteIously crazy,
upon what he has purchased and drank there.
| say when we reflect upon these circumstan-
ces, and what the testimony of Friends in
this regard amounts to, and call to mind at
the same time the fact that when it was dis
covered that all use of alcoholic drinks is
an improper use, that to use such drinks Gre
ates a morbid appetite, which, when fed by
alcohol almost always leads to habitual in-
toXication, and that in this way thousands up
on thousands have been made drunkards and
thousands of parents have in consequence died
Observation-Disclosures of families have
been left destitute, and that their rrief and