Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1848-02-11

wholly 10 discontinue u, anu hot W lWPOI''
or purchase any slave imported after a certain
date.
Cd. That in I77G they adopted a declara-
ton Of sentiment, asserting tha, every one
was endowed with al inalienable right to
liberty. .ta
In regard TO their demonstrations of the for
eign slave trade, or Of slavery itself, it is
hardly necessary to say that words cost but
little; that paper resolutions are of no value
unless accompanied by corresponding action.
In the issues got up between the c%olonists
and the home government, one of the char
ges preferred against the king OF Great Brit
ain was, that he suffered the slave trade 10
be carried on between Africa and this corn-
try, and they went so far as 10 propose to the
Congress of l77G TO table this charge against
him. What was the object in so strenuous
Iy opposing the slave trade we are unable to
say, for the c~olonisis had commenced the
trade themselves without any action on the
part of the British government, or the coop
Grafton Of British merchants. In the year
the Mayhower landed her company of exiles
on Plymouth rock, Virginia bought of a
Dutch trader the first slaves ever imported
into this country. The trade thus commen-
ced was continued and although the North
and the South both spoke of it in terms of
condemnation, and in 1774 adopted the reso-
luton the Erdminer has quoted, yet the ques-
ton arises, did they live in accordance with
that resolution and thus prove they were sin
cere in adopting i'll The colonists had brisk
and stirring times from l714 to I193-war
with the English left them no time to war
with Africans, but as soon as peace was de-
clared and business began 10 assume stable
character, the former c~olonists commenced
the importation of slaves, and SO openly and
unblushingly did they carry it on, that in the
report OF a committee presented TO the Legis-
lalure Of Pennsylvania in 1883 the following
language is used
"Your Committee are credibly informed,
that persons of this description (artful and
unprincipled men) have, as in a variety of
llStdlctS, anu III COUlfdVPnllOn OF the TeSolO-
ton Of Congress of the Goth October, l77i,
by which that august body did, for them
selves and their constituents, firmly agree
and associate, under the sacred ties of virtue,
honor, and love of their country, that they
should neither import, nor purchase any slave
imported. after the first day Of December
then next but would wholly discontinue
the Slave trade. and would neither be con-
cerned in it themselves, or hire their vessels
or sell their commodities or manufactures to
those who should be concerned in it-equip-
ned and fitted out from the port of Philadel-
phia, vessels provided with handouts and
military implements, in order 10 stir up the
princes of Africa to wage war against each
other, for the encouragement and support of
an unrighieous traffic in human flesh a tral-
lc, by which, husbands torn from their wives
and wives from their husbands, parents from
their children and children from their parents,
are sold as captive slaves into a long and
cruel bondage"
The young republic, cherishing slavery as
it did, soon found that the slave trade would
be necessary, or at least desirable; and in
the Constitution which it adopted in IL
80, and which was to be the glory of the
world and the admiration Of future ages, an
express provision was inserted for the pro-
lection and naturalization of the foreign
slave trade and strange as it may seem, the
very men who in the Pennsylvania Legisla-
ture but one year before denounced it as ian
unrighteous traffic" were among the first to
legalize it, and give it the protection of the
-.:...I a. Shall ura tho fathnrc
were, or were not opposed to the traffic q
Shall they be judged by their resolutions or
their actions
Men may talk abou. slavery being ''deba-
sing" %'cruel," ''uuna,ural, and 'fend ish;''
and may declare that every man has a God
given right to liberty, but what does itamount
to if their practice conrradicts their declara-
ton, and they engage in that which they Sc
strongly denounce! The Shareholders who
signed the Declaration of independence,
pledging their lives, their fortunes, and theiI
sacred honor to establish its principles, and
calling upon God to witness their sincerity
either did, or did not believe that all men
are endowed with an inalienable right TO lib
erty. If they did believe it, and continued
to deny to their slaves that right, what Ian
guage is adequate to describe the basenes
of their conduct; if they did not believe it
should the falsehood they uttered-for unde
such circumstances the truth was TO them
,falsehood-be pointed to as an evidence 0
,their goodness' is it not rather their condem
,nationi Thomas Jefferson died a slavehold
.er, leaving his W p%osterity in bondage
Charles Carroll of Carrollton died the repu
ted possesso1 of one thousand slaves. Wa
the afixing Of the signatures of these mel