Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1847-02-19
THE RANSOM.
Letter 10 Frederick Douglass, with his
Reply.
DoNcAsTER, Dec. l2th, 18l(

DEAR FREDERICK
This is the first letter of advice | ever
wrote to you-it is the last. | like to bear
the responsibility of my own existence. |
like to see others bear theirs. | say what |
am about to say, because | think it is my
right and duty TO say it at the same time,
not wishing to interfere with your right TO
follow my advice, or not, as you shall see fit.
That Certificate of your freedom, that Bill If
Sale of your body and soul, from that rihain,
Aud, who dared to claim you as a chattel,
and set a price on you as such, and to de-
mand and take a price for you as such, | wish
you would not touch it. | cannot bear 10
think Of you as being a party to such trans
action, even by silence. If others will take
that paper, and keep it as an evidence OF your
freedom, you cannot prevent them but ]
wish you would see it to be your duty, pub
licly to disown the deed, and never to recog-
nize that hateful BiH!-nor to refer to it, as
of any authority TO establish the fact that you
are a Freeman, and not a Sdre-a Han, and
not a UaHek.
The moment you entered a non-slave State,
your position ceased to be Fredcrick Doug
lass, versus Thomas .7uH, and became Fred
erick Douglass, versus the United States.-
From that hour, you became the antagonist
of that Republic.
AS a nation, that Confederacy, protesting
to be based upon the principle, that God
made you free, and gave you an inalienable
right to liberty, claims a right of property in
your body and soul-to turn you into a chat
tel, a slave, again, at any moment. That
claim you denied the authority and power
of the whole nation you spurned and defed,
when, by running away, you spurned that
miserable wretch, who held you as a slave.
1t was no longer a contest between you and
that praying, psalm-singing slave-breeder,
but a struggle between you and II 900, 900
of liberty-loving Republicans. By their
laws and constitution, You are not a freeman,
but a Stare you are not a man, but a chatieL.
You planted your foot upon their laws and
constitution, and asserted your freedom and
your manhood. You arraigned your antago-
nist-the slave-breeding Republic-before
the tribunal of mankind, and of God. You
have stated your case, and pleaded your
cause, as none other could state and plead it.
Your position, as the slave of that Repub-
lie, as the marketable commodity, the dehu-
manized, outraged man of a powerful nation,
whose claim and power over you, you have
dared to d~espise, invests you with influence
among all to whom your appeal is made, and
gathers around you their deep-felt, absorb
ing, and efficient sympathy. Your appeal to
mankind is not against the grovelling thief,
Thomas Aud, but against the more daring,
more impudent and potent thief-the Repub.
lie of the United States of America. You
will lose the advantages of this truly manly,
and, TO my view, sublime position; you will
be shorn of your strength-you will sink in
your own estimation, if you accept that de,
testable certificate of your freedom, that bias
%phemous forgery, that accused Bill of Sale
of your body and soul /; or, even by silence,
acknowledge its validity. SO ] think.
cannot think of the transaction without vexa,
ton. / would see you free-you are free
you always 1rere free, and the man is . vii.
lain who claims you as a slave, and shoulC
be treated as such and the nation is a bias
~phemous hypocrite, that claims power owe
you as a chattel. | would see your right tt
freedom, and to a standing on the platform Q
humanity, openly acknowled ged by ever,
human being-not on the testimony of a bi
of paper, signed and sealed by an acknowl
edged thief, but by the declaration of a peni
tent nation, PROSTATE at your feet, in tears
suing TO you and to God for forgiveness, fc
the outrages committed against God and MAJ
in your person.
That slave-breeding nation has dared t
claim you, and 3 1000 900 of your fellow-mer
as chattels-slaves--to be bought and sold
and has pledged all its power to crush yoI
down, and to keep you from rising from is
norance to knowledge-from degradation /
respectahility-from misery to happiness
from slavery 10 freedom-from a ChaHek TO
Man. rs an advocate for yourself, and yol
5000 900 brethren, you have Joined issu
with it-and in the name of God and human
ity, you will conquer! The nation mu
and shall be humbled before its victims,-
not by a blasphemous bill of sale, alias Ce
tificate Of freedom, for which ESQ are pai
but by renouncing its claim, plotting out i
slavery-sustaining constitution, acknOwleds
itself conquered, and seek forgiveness of II
victims of its injustice and tyranny. IT
plea, that this is the same as a ransom pa
for a capture of some Algerine pirate, or b,
douin Arab, is naught. You have airead
by your own energy, escaped the grasp
the pirate Aud. lie has no more power ov
you. The spell of his influence over you
forever broken. Why go 10 him ? WI
ask the sacrilegious villain TO set a price II
on your body and soul! Why give him h
price The mean, brutal slaveholder-d
ring to price your freedom, your soul, in dc
lars and cents, and with cool, consumma
impudence, and villany unsurpassed, sayin
iii be satisfied with $50 dollars-Ill gir
up my right of property in your person, al
acknowledge you to be a freeman, and not
slaye,-a man, and not a Jeast-for Else
Satisfied forsooth You cancelled his "
famous claims, when you turned your baC
upon him, and walked away. But the n
ton claims you as a slave. 1t does Let
dare to assert that claim, and attempt yo
reinstatement 1t is worth running son
risk, for the sake of the conflict, and the CT
tain result.
Your wife and children are there, it is tru
and you must return to them but the grei
er will be your power to grapplo with t
monster; the shorter and more glorious W