Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1847-09-10
COMMUNICATIONS.
Extract from a letter of a friend.
PnILApELpHIA, August, 26, 1871.

EAlIdCt lIOHl Il lCtler OIL a friend.
PHILADELPHIA, August, 90, 1917.
DEAR FRIENDS: -
Your weekly remembrances fail not to
call 10 mind my obligations 10 you and to the
cause Yet when ! have thought of writing,
1t seemed to me that all that was interesting
10 you or to your readers, you received through
the papers much more satisfactorily than it
was in my power TO detail them to you.-
The event of the last week, however, yod
may not find in your exchanges. 1t has been
no other than the passage of HENRY CLAY
through our city, and his %soiourn at Cape
May, our iar-flmed sea bathing place. You
very naturally ask, what there is in this cir
cumslanco 10 interest Aboliiionists? What
is there in the private movements Of a slave.
holder worthy OF note, especially if unattend-
ed by any of his victims; and | have not
heard that any Of these, though "sleck and
fat" have been displayed to the admiring
gaze of the multitude.
lie came among US a private citizen, vet
every step has been marked by an oration-
thus showing what it is that the people de-
Light TO honor-for this much credit we must
give them, that their manifestation of dovo-
ton rave been the true outpouring of their
souls-Ihe unbought homage of their hearts.
Neither place nor profit are now in his gift.
nor can it be supposed they ever will be-
As he has the genius to be loved,' let US
have the justice to accord this much to him.
Sorry as | am to acknowledge it-sorry that
for the hearts Of the people it is a true ex-
ponent (would they were better)-it must
be confessed that few persons have ever been
the object of more enthusiastic attachment
than this man. speak Of the manifestations
of those who do not know him personally.-
What the feelings of his near neirhbors, his
plantation slaves may be, l cannot say-of
those who imagine him TO be the realization
of their highest ideal-anj this is to me the
sad part OF the alfair-that the multitude per-
ceived not how greatly deficient in justice,
mercy, and truth is this idol they have set
up and to which they delight to render their
homage.
The work befole us is to lay bare to the
eyes of this nation the true character of their
great men; their hard -heartedness, their cru
city, their exceeding great corrup,ion-for
my faith is, that it IS the leaders of the peo-
pie that cause them TO err. Men wish to be
good-they wish to do right-but they dis
Germ not the wickedness beneath the polish
ed exterior, the bland smile, the courteous
shake of the hand. The homage of our hearts
is not given 10 the devil, as a devil it is on
ly rendered when he assumes the livery of
Heaven-appcaring to our eyes as an angel
of light.
This has been the week of your Annual
Meeting, and you have been comforted and
strengthened by The occasion. Personally !
you have been interested in watching the eff.
fects produced by the presence of Garrison
and Douglass. Your previous acquaintance
with them has left you at leisure to watch
the manifestations of the feelings they have
excited; these doubtless have been various,
yet cannot be mistaken in supposing that
warm greetings and heartfelt welcomes have
been extended to them, by the faithful Abo-
lilionlsts among you /; and in this case we
have the satisfaction of feeling, that it is to
no spurious greatness, no hollow mockery,
that the hearts of these people have yielded
their admiration and their love.
Soon, too, you will have amongst you our
Lucretia Mott, who is worthy of all COM
mendation. + =