Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1846-01-30
MIR. PERKINS.


On the 22nd inst. in the Senate. the peti-
ton Of 5Si females of Madison in Lake, Aus
tinburg, Andover, Now Lyme in Ashtabula
Go. asking for a repeal of the Black Laws.
He said that as his fair constituents had
done him the honor of making him the agent
of introducing to the Legislature their petit
tons, he hoped the Senate would indulge him
in submitting, in support Of their prayers, a
few words.
lie said 1t had been not unusual for men
sometimes to treat with discourtesy petitions
of females to Legislative bodies, on the as
sumption that they, being by the usage of So
ciety, declared from participation in public
affairs, had no business to express their fears,
alarms, or sentiments respecting them. lie
said he entertained a different opinion. That
the happiness and honor of their husbands,
fathers, sons, and brothers were theirs alsa.
They were as deeply interested in the honor
and glory OF our common country as we were
With us they were equally affected by the
prosperity or adversely of public affairs. Why
then. he asked, should they not directly cX-
ert their influence for the public honor and
good! 1t is true, he said, party politics were
Of so exciting a character, were conducted so
rudoly, that they were lily adapted to the re-
firing mcdesty OF females. In these they did
not interfere. Bot as to all matters of NOR
ais, religion, and rights, these were their es-
pocidl theatres of action, in which woman was
always right-seldom or never wrong. Men,
in the midst OF strife and irritation, sometimes
even in these things, act by hasty Impulse
At other times, and more usually, cold calcu-
lating policy dictates their action. But wo-
man, sheltered from the strife of public life,
,,.,N,,,a. l- N.at,- f.,-ar. ,,-., -
fish considerations, acts only from motives Of
duty-sets before the eternal altar Of RIGHT,
to which she kneels as a holy priestess, of
fcrs there the sacrifice of a pure heart, and
thence comes forth TO the world Invested of
all sordid and selfish considerations, with her
persuasive eloquencc t. plead the cause of the
oppressed.
In those laws which the petitioners ask us
to repeal, he said, woman discovers nothing
but the heavy hand of tyranny upon a feeble,
down trodden, supplicating people. She dis
Germs no good In them-nothing but unmlll-
rated evil to both races. She does not stop
to enquire why the Creator colored the skins
of a portion of NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. their minds
are equal OF inferior with her race-she be-
holds them in the form of humanity and asks
for them the rights of humanity. She sees
your proud state humiIiated-scofred at and
derived by the Slave States, and mourned
over by the free, and she asks us to wipe a.
way the only stain upon the fame Of the re-
public which she lovee.
lie said members from the southern part Of
the State sometimes wonder that we of the
north urge this matter. Let them consider
that it is righ'. Let them look at this and
kindred petitions, and remember that the
signers of them are our wives. our mothers,
our sisters and our daughters. Let then
come into the midst IF our social organism.
and hear all men of all parties crying out a
gainst the unrighteous laws. Let them read
the letters which We daily receive from ouI
ccnstitue.t',2nd see the urgent terms in which
they impel us to action, and they will CEASE
to wonder. But, he sail, the State is not al
ways to blush over this worse than slavisl
tyra ny. He saw popular opinion in the
southern counties, steadily advancing, anC
rested with entire satisfaction that the time
is not far distant when those miserable relic
of prejudice, cowardice and oppression, vii
be written in the past; and men who now op
pose this repeal will not cease to contemplat
their present action with new wonder.