Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1847-09-03
Fifth Annual Report Of the Executive
Committee of the Western Anti-S!a-
very Society.


Your Executive Committee, in presenting
their Annual Report feel that there is great
cause to rejoice in the progress which Anti
Slavery principles have made in the West,
during the past year. Every thing betokens
a healthier state of feeling than whenlast W.
met-the bitter prejudice with which the adj
vocates of freedom have had TO contend is in
many places giving way TO a desire TO learn
the truth, and their most ultra doctrines are
beginning to be more favorably received
The full endorsement which the Western So
ciety gave at its last Anniversary, of the doc
trine Of the Parent organization, "No union
with Slaveholders,'' has been attended with
The h~appiest results. 1t placed the Society,
your Executive Committee, and le%cturing
agents, on an eminence, which, by its moral
sublimity commended itself to the hearts and
consciences Of the rejecting portion of COM
munity. The beneficial results of this doc
trine have already been seen in our midst
1t has proved a test by the application Of
which both individuals and organizations ap-
pear in their true character.
The agents of the Am. Society, Stephen S.
and Abby Kelley Foster, whose enunciation
of Disunion principles in the West did so
much to give an impulse TO the cause previ-
GUS to your last meeting, continued their la
bors in Ohio between four and five months
subsequent TO that time, and in conjunction
with Parker Pillsbury, another agent of that
Society, carried on a most powerful agitation,
producing by their faithful and incessant la
bors, a mighty revolution in public sentiment.
The startling truths they so boldly uttered
the spirit of self-sacrifce and of devotion to
the bondman's cause, they SO constantly man
Tested, endeared them TO the lovers of hui
msnity and made them a terror to the foes of
God and man. Your Committee doubt wheth-
er any agency ever sent out by that Society
produced more happy results; and they feel
that they are but expressing the sentiments
Of the great mass of Disunionists in the West,
in acknowledging their obligation for the aid
thus rendered.
OF the religious sects in Ohio, no one has
furnished so many members in proportion TO
their number, that are ready to embrace ultra
Abolitionism, as the Wesleyan Me'hodists'
1t had in its ranks many true hearts-many
noble spirits, who were DESTROYS to learn and
willing to embrace the truth. Among those
who have been converted are some of thell
most prominent men. J. w. Walker, Presl
dent of the Allegheny Conference, a young
man possessing extensive influence In tina
body, resigned the highest office in the gil
of the Observation-Disclosures from thu
church, and fully identified himself with thu
Disunion movement. For four or five month
past he has been in the employ of this Societ.
as a lecturing agent. His greatzeal and abili
ty render him a powerful auxiliary 10 IN
cause, Several other ministers and many lay
men have seeded from the church; Two
the former have also been employed as lectui
ing agents.
Believing that with many it only require
a correct knowledge of their position to II
duce them to leave their pro-slavery churci
es, and repudiate a pro-slavery government
your Committee have endeavored so to e.
pend the limited means placed al their dlsP
sal as to ensure the diffusion Of the create
possible amount of anti-slavery light al
knowledge. We have employed such agen
as we were able to procure, and during mo
of the year have had from Two to four
In most cases the persons thus employ
have given general satisfaction, and al'hou|
some of them have had but little experlen(
vet their earnestness and fidelity have do
much to convince the opponents OF the eau
that the anti-slavery movement must event
ally %tiumph. We feel that a serious lt
has been sustained in the illness of our lie
eral Agent, which kept him out OF the ie
from Nov. till April. The labor perform
during that time was not so effective as
would have been under the supervision
one so energetic as Samuel Brooke has eN
been.
Many others have done much to advar
She cause, by l%ecturing in their mmedl
and more remote neighborhoods, calling
s,etber audiences in school houses, in bal
and groves, speaking TO them as neigh
should speak to neighbor. Such meetln
though unpretending in their character a
scarcely known beyond the town where II
are held, accomplish a great work for hum
ity.
By the accompanying Report of the II
surer, it will be seen that the exPend'tu
,bs present year amount to $3.50 30,
the receipts 5000 35, leaving the Society
debt to the amount of 1868 95. In orde'
Iiquidate this debt and provide resources