Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1847-10-01
From tie LibcraiOr.
Voting for DiSuniOn at the BallOt-BOX

The following are the remarks offered on
this subject by EDMUND QUINCY, before the
last Annual Meeting of the Massachusetts
A%nti-Slavery Society:
The resolution is on the duty of abolition
lists, with regard TO political action under the
Constitution of the United States. | suppose
that almost all of those who listen TO me now,
are aware of the position which abolitionists
of the American and Of the Massachusetts, A.
S. Societies occupy, with regard TO the Con-
stitulion and the Union. | suppose that you
all know that in the course of our history, as
we looked about TO see where we stood with
regard to the great evil OF American Slavery,
and to see what we could do to remove il, in
due time we discovered that we ourselves
were mong the main supporters Of slavery;
that our shoulders were underneath the ill.,
verted cone which was standing upon its
apex in this country, and threatening us with
destruction. We found that the very first
thing which we, as abolitlonlsts had to do,
was to take away our support from that lnsti-
tuition. 1t was as Frederick Douglass said,
You have your feet upon our necks, and our
demand is to take them off,
We looked at the Constitution, and found
that, by the provisions which it makes to sus-
tain slavery, which protected the slave-trade
for twenty years, which made slavery a ma
tional institution, which gave The whole DOM
ination of the whole country to a small oil
garchy of Shareholders, and which pledged
the whole physical force of the entire nation
to put down a servlle revolution, if it should
break forth when we discovered that this
was what the Constitution required, and that
men could not enter into public Office without
swearing 10 support the Constitution, we
found that we could not swear TO do these
lhings, resolving not TO do them. We could
not escape from this by verbal equivocation,
or by mental reservation, and we therefore
refused to accept office, because we should
be obliged to swear to support that Con-
s%titution. BY another step, by precisely
the same course of reasoning, VT discover
ed that what we could not do ourselves, we
could not do by attorney and therefore, we
arrived at that further truth, that not only may
we not accept an office which requires an
oath to support the Constitution, but W. may
not appoint another to take that oath, and do
that work for us. That is the position in
which this Society now stands.
The resolution before us is one which has
been brought before the meeting by one of
the most faithful, uncompromising friends OF
abolition in the country, who suppOses that
there is a way in which abolitionists may
vote, without compromising their principles,
and may thus do a greater work by a testi-
mony, as our friend calls it, against the en-
istence of slavery, by recording a vote in this
particular manner-that abolltiOnists shall
vote only for such persons pledged not to ac-
cept office; that their candidates shall be per-
sons who are VIGOROUSLY pledged not to ac-
cept office in the possible contingency of cleo
ton. That has been the subject of discus
sion this afternoon.
-. ,l.. .Iz.o 80 ol,,z
tions to this plan of my friend, deeper than
those arising from expediency-of a more vi
tai character to our fidelity to our principles,
to the consistency of our conduct. 1t is said
that voting, in itself, is a right thing; that
there is no harm in dropping a piece of pa
per, of a particular form and reasonable size,
into a particular box of wood. | fully assent
to that proposition, of course. SO there was
nothing wrong in the mere act of the Govern
or of the State, to-day, in signing a piece OF
paper, which piece of paper is the commits
sion of Col. Caleb Gushing. The mere act
of dipping his pen into the ink, and writing
upon a piece of paper, has nothing wrong in
it. But there is something very wrong sig
niied by that act. There is nothing wrong
in the mere act of cutting a rope; but when,
in consequence of cutting a rope a trap-door
falls, and a human being is launched into
eternity, it becomes a serious matter. So il
is with depositing a ballot in the box; and
the mere act has, in itself, nothing wrong,
but it may become something wrong by the
fact of which it is the outward symbol. Now
what is voting under the Constitution! The
act of depositing a ballot in a ballot-boX, is
not simply limited by that act. 1t is the high
est act of sovereignty. In this country, the
people are the recognized sovereigns. The
will of the people, signifed in the man
ner which they have themselves directed, is
the will Of the sovereign. The officers of thu
government are the ministers, the servants
of this sovereign power, appointed in the man
ner which they have themselves pointed out
The act of voting at the ballot-box is the &C
by which the sovereign of the country ap
points his ministers.
This is a matter of fact, not of opinion.
The necessary results of the act of votin!
are decided by the Constitution itself. VIVA
is the Constitution? Why, it is the charter
by which the sovereign has limited his owl
powers. The sovereign being absolute, hav
ing absolute control of his political power, O
life and death, he limits his own power by
charter. This is'done in The old world i
has been done over and over again. We hav,
done it in this country, only the sovereign
were many, instead of one. The sovereign
have limited their power by this charter; AM
when they vote under that charter, the mean
ing of that act is to be determined by wha
that charter contains. BY that act, he hai
not renowned, but limited his sovereignty
lie cannot hold his seat upon the throne, ant
abdicate it at the same time. The Constitu
ton of the United States is the commission
of the servant, by which the sovereign ind
Gates what it is his pleasure that he shoult
do. The Constitution, containing these pro
slavery, these wicked, these inhuman clau
SEES, is the commission by which the sove
reign directs his servant what he is to do
and when he comes to the ballot-boX, he take
up his paper sceptTe, and indicates this mai