Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1847-03-19
From The Liberator.
Products of Slave Labor.

-
Having been requested by several friends
in Pennsylvania, to express our views in re-
gard TO the use Of articles raised by slave la
Dor, we shall endeavor to do so in a very few
words, as indicative, on our part, of the COM
paratively small importance we attach to the
discussion Of a subject which is ~entangled
with inextricabIe difficulties, and which can
not, therefore, be made a test Of moral cha
racter.
At an early period Of the anti-slavery en-
~terprise, we were led. for a time, to regard
the use of slave productions as personally in
volving a direct support of the slave system;
but we were soon satisfied that we erred in
judgment on this subject, that it was wasting
time upon what no man could strictly reduce
TO practice. and that nothing would be gain
ed by pressing it upon public attention.
There were a thousand strong and vital issues
that could be made with the slave power, and
we deemed it far more important TO grapple
with these, than to raise questions OF eon-
science, which no casuistry could settle like
a moral axiom. 1t is for this reason that We
have said so little in the Liberator on thi'
subject.
We greatly respect the truly conscientiou
scruples of those who endeavor TO abstain
from the use of sl~ave-grown articles; and IA
be il from us, at any time, either TO condemn
them for entertaining such scruples, or TO pre-
vent them from making as many proselyte:
as possible. If we have given them no spe
cial encouragement, they cannot charge Us
with waging any opposition against them
We nave felt it to be one Of those cases
which do not admit of clear demonstration
and hence must be left to the Individual con
science. TO him that esteemeth any thing
10 be u~nclean, to him il is u~nclean. He tina
doubteth is condemned if he eat, because ht
eatcth not of faith. One man believeih tina
he may eat all things another, who is weak
eateih herbs. Let every man be fully per
suaded in his own mind
We have not found the same spirit of char
ity manifested toward those who do not Sc,
that drty requires them to abstain from tn
use of slave produce, on the part of those VIII,
do. In the various reports and essays, whicI
have been given to The public by the latter
from time TO time, we have seen severe Grim
nations of the former, as though they had lii
tie or no regard for principle, were unwilling
TO deprive themselves of any luxury or com
fort 10 redeem the slave, were doing more I
perpetuate than to abolish slavery, and though
more of the qualification of their appetltes tina
of principle! To all such unkind, or at leas
untounded charges, we have made no reply
but have allowed them to be freely circulal
ed, believing that they have proceeded tTof
a zeal not according TO knowledge, howeve
well intended, and that they needed no fol
NAL refutation. The Notwithstanding abolI
tionists-such for example, as the Jacksons
the Phillipses, the Quincys, the Fosters, til
Pillsburys, the Wrights and the Chapman
need no certificate from any persons, tina
they are as willing as others TO bear heav.
burdens in the anti-slaveTy cause, and hero
n cally to discharge all the duties they peTcelv
devolving upon them. They need only t
+ be convinced that they are on the wrong tTacE
and, cost what it may, they will instantly rec
= tify their course, and pursue 1t unfilnchingl
q TO the end.
5 1t is, perhaps, somewhat singular-ln
cause like ours, which embraces all classe
of persons, without regard to sect or party
: that this zeal for total abstinence from slave
grown productions is almost exclusively cor
= fined to a particular locality, and to member
Of the Society of Friends. There are a FEY
S exceptions, but they only prove the genera
e rule. For the consciences of some Of thes'
f we entertain very little respect. lhey al
= those who strain at a gnat, and swallow
o camel. They have no scruples against W
Y holding the pro-slavery position OF the Socl'
ty with which they are connected. or agalh'
c voting for pro-slavery Wings or Democrats
t or against supporting the oppressive and wa
! making Constitution of the Uniten S'd,e
But they wear linen, instead Of cotton; the
eat free labor sugar and rice; and they thar
i God tiat they are not like those antl-slave'
publisans and sinners, whose garments a
made of sIave-grown cotton, ard whose Tea
sweetened with slave-grown sugar. Inc
are of the race of Pharisees and hypocrlie
who flourished eighteen hundred years ag'
u and as no persecution is the consequence
d their choice of food and wearing apparel
If it subjects them to no oPprobrinm-as II CT
At ates no disturbance in the communities