Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1847-10-15
Election Day.

Our faith in the potency of the ballot is SO
small, being considerably less than a grain of
mustard seed, that we had forgotten that
Tuesday last was election day, and should
probably have continued in a state of forget
fulness until the flourish Of the ~victors' trum-
pets, had not the battle charges Of our politi-
cal exchanges recalled the important fact to
mind. We suppose that since our last num-
Der was issued, the State has been saved
from total destruction, if the word of the sue
c%essful party is to be taken as evidence of the
fact.
Perhaps we have less faith in the ballot
than we ought to have; it is possible that our
estimate of the efficiency and importance of
to this matter we know we are in the minor
ity. Politics and Steam are presented as the
agents by whose power every thing may be
accomplished and the people have come to
regard it quite as much a matter of course for
a person to rely upon political action for the
accomplishment OF a moral reform, as 10 use
steam to drive a locomotive engine. Do you
wish TO restrain the rum-seller !-pass a law
against vending ardent spirits. Do you de.
sire to reclaim the drunkard !-make it a Pc
nal offence to get drunk. Would you abolish
slavery frame a legal enactment against it.
So we might go to the end of the chapter
1t is about as much as a mans character for
sanity is worth, to hint at any other means of
changing the character of the Institutions or
customs of society than by political action.
This is the c%ure-all, the sovereign specific,
the remedy that never fails.
Politics have taken a strong hold upon the
affections of many, so strong that they are
made willing to sacrifice for the advancement,
Of their party every thing that honorable men
hold dear. Falsehood, bribery, corruption of
various kinds is resorted to in order 10 secure
party success; and we have not the shadow
Of doubt, but in the political brawl that has
just terminated, many, very many have been
guilty of acts, which in their private business
they would scorn to stoop 10.
Under a properly organized government,
under a constitution which fully recognizes
the rights of man, we have nothing to say
against casting a ballot, and would not hest
tate TO throw one ourselves-if permitted
could our faith in its efficiency be somewhat
increased. 1t is not the abstract ballot that
we now feel disposed to complain of, but the
undue importance which is attached to it, the
idolatry with which it, and its consequences,
Legislative, Judicial, and Executive action
are regarded. However extensive may be
the influence of these three powers of the
realm, however great their authority, there is
done. They cannot effect a radical change
in the heart, they cannot destroy the evil and
r~e-create the good, they cannot abolish error
and establish truth. And while they are I'M
able TO do ~this-which all admit must be
done before the world can be brought into
ha~rmony-those who claim for the ballot box
that it can accomplish any thing and every
thing, are greatly injuIing the cause of re-
form and are infdel to the power of truth.
Among the other idols of the Romish
church which Luther felt it to be his duty TO
attack was the Sabbath, for he saw that a
reverence was paid to the day for "the days
sake" and in order 10 bear a testimony
against the way in which the Catholics re-
guarded it-a testim ony that should be long
remembered, he is said to have danced and
sung on the Sabbath. We wish it were in
our power to bear a Luther-like testimony
against the supposed almighty power of the
ballot, SO that men might be led to regard it,
even in its best phases, as an agent of but
secondary power-so that they might be
brought to rely more entirely upon the mean;
which the prophets, apostles, and Jesus him
self used to regenerate the world-the fool
ishness of preaching.