Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1847-11-05
Extracts from Sermons by c. l.. Watson,
pastor of the First Presbyterian church, Ohio
City.
Slavery.

City.
Slavery.
Our example and our efforts should cor
respond with our privileges. But, alas they
do not. While the very heavens are made
to reverberate our shouts of exultatlon, on ev-
cry anniversary of our national independence,
there are within our Republic a people, as
numerous as were the colonists at the period
of the Revolution, who are groaning under a
tyranny manifold more grievous than that
which our high-souled fathers deemed intol-
erable-yea, even worse than death ITSELF
Though deprived of many inalienable rights,
the colonists were not lett entirely destitute.
They were not doomed by law to intellectual
aad moral darkness. They were allowed to
acquire a knowledge Of letters, and to read
the word of God-to assemble together for
purposes of devotion, and to sit untnolested
under the %droppings of the sanctuary. They
were even encouraged to make intellectual
improvement, and furnished by government
with many facilities for the purpose. They
had also guarantees of property, and many in
c~entives to industry and economy-much TO
sweeten toll, and inspire hopes OF comfort
And better still, their domestic rights were
fully secured. With that highest earthly
bliss, which has survived the fall, no selfish
tyrant was suffered to interfere. Every man,
according to Gods ordinance, was permitted
to have his own wife, and every woman her
own husband. To every welded pair was
guaranteed the privilege of training up the
pledges of their love in the nurture and adj
monition of the Lord-of imbuing their minds
with useful knowledge, and of fitting them
for the enjoyment and diffusion OF good.
But from that down-trodden people among
us, all such rights are torn. 1t is the policy
of government to keep them in mental and
moral darkness. They are denied the privi-
lege of learning to read the sacred Scrip
tures-aTe greatly trammeled with regard to
assembling together for purposes of religious
improvement; and though sometimes orally
taught enough of the Gospel to save their
souls, yet never fully instructed in the knowl-
edge of human rights, and their high destiny
as moral beings. Of property they can pos
sess none-all the products of their toll are
guaranteed to others. And in many instances,
The very food which s~ustains them is furnish
ed solely with reference 10 the masters profit.
OF domestic rights they are utterly deprived.
In no slave code in the land is there provision
made in accordance with the appointment OF
Heaven, for family relations. The slaves are
therefore doomed either to a life of ~celibacy,
or concubinage. If welded in heart, and dis.
posed to the fulilment of conjugal vows, as
doubtless many of them are, they have it no
in their power. Neither can they discharge
towards their offspring the duties which God
has made obligatory on parents. In short
they are wholly incapacitated. by law, for the
performance of any duty springing out of the
domestic relations. Upon the will of the
master, and upon fortune, which is always
liable to reverses, every duty in Gods domes'
tic code, is made to depend. Yet this OPP
p~ressive institution, which reduces intelli
gent, immortal man, created in the image Of
God, to the condition of a dumb beast, or ar
implement of husbandry, and sets at nough
Heavens ordinances, is sustained by a go
vernment, for which the Most High has don,
more than for any other on earth, and which
makes its boast of higher degrees Of freedom
intelligence and piety This is not all
Now, in the middle of the nineteenth cent?
ny, when all other Christian nations, and eve
barbarous powers, are sundering the shackIe
of slavery, and giving liberty to the captive
this most free, most enlightened, most piou
of all governments, is extending the area c
oppression, and striving to render an institu
ton, at war with every right Of man, and al
tribute of God, perpetual! How long, {
thou Vindicator of the oppressed ere tho
wilt be avenged on such a nation as this?
confess that, with Jefferson, l tremble for m
country, when remember that God is jus
Is this the kind return-are these the thank
we owe, for those exalted blessings OF whic
this day is a memorial AS this oppresse
people have peculiar claims upon US, and a
at our own doors, we ought first TO sund'
their yoke, and elevate them to the prop
condition of freemen. How this can be dol
is a question which | submit to the decisi(
of Christian statesmen. On them rest anna
ing responsibilities at the present crisis.
these, however, all American citizens a
sharers, according to the stations they occul
in society, and the influence they are capab
of exerting. Though the multitude may
inadequate to the task of devising the b'
measures for the demolition of slavery, tn
can assist in executing plans originated
the wisdom of others. And all can ask 9
dance of Him who giveth wisdom libera
to such as implore His counsel.