Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1847-10-01
VOL. 3.---N0. 8.

or that man to do his will. He may not say,
| do not mean that he shalt do these very
things. Voting is a legal act.
There are those in this country, who have
set up the opinion, that the Constitution is a
dogma, a belief, to which every man may APP
ply his own standard, his own vagarips of
belief. But any man who knows anything
about the application Of law to life, knows
that the Constitution is a law, the highest
rule of civil action, and is to be interpreted
according to the received rules for the inter-
probation Of laws, and its meaning is to be
determined by the tribunal it has itself erect
ed for that purpose.
1t seems 10 me, therefore, that the aboli-
%tionisIs, holding these sentiments with regard
to the Constitution of the United States,
would forbid US from appointing persons TO
do these things, when we know that they will
not do them. II seems 10 me, that II Is not,
in the highest sense, good faith to enter into
a course Of political action of this kind. 1t
seems to me, that there is 10 alternative be-
tween acting under this Constitution as it is,
appointing men TO act under ii as it is receiv-
ed, and refusing to act under it altogether,
doing what we can TO overthrow it and SUBJ
stituie another Constitution in its place. That
seems TO me 10 I've the honest, open, fair, above
board course, to be taken in a case like this.
Voting under the Constitution is a definite
thing, which is decided by the character of
the Constitution, and the laws under it, and
we cannot make it anything else, by any opin-
ion in our own minds. 1t is a thing which
we ought not to do. We have the highest
Constitutional authority in this country, the
late Chief Justice Marshall, that the Consti-
tuition Of the u is created anew every time
the people 90 10 the ballot-box; and he says
that, whenever the people should cease TO
vote, the Constitution would die, for want of
breath. The Constitution is renewed, is Gre
ated atresh, every time a mar goes and pla-
ces his vote in the ballot-boX. That is the
breath of its %nostrils, the lile-blood which
circulates through its veins.
| do not think this course, which has been
proposed, is consistent with the principles
which we have laid down; ana | I'm conf
dent that it would be mischievCus, so far as
it had any effect at all. | do not believe that
1t would be adopted to any considerable en-
tent; and if it were, | think that it would
lower our position, would iniuro our standing
and relations TO the world. We shall gain
nothing, we have gained nothing, by the at
tempts which we have made to show oul
numbers, because our numbers are few. Oul
physical force is nothing in this nation; bu
our moral power is omnipotent. The mora
power of the Anti-Slavery movement ha.
changed the aspect Of the nation, has produc
ed political results, such as no other revolu
ton has done. And it has not been by vo
ting, by the force Of numbers, but by the pow
err of truth, told in love and in fidelity. 1t
that method | still believe; that philosophy
| still hold; and holding that philosophy, be
Levine i'm that method. mill nv nDlninn i
changed by argument, | shall decline assent
ing TO the plan proposed by my friend, impli
ed in this resolution, and shall continue Il
act in the manner in which | have ever don,
since the commencement of the cause.