Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1848-03-10
EXTRACTS FROM
JOHN 0. ADAMS ADDRESS
AT NORTH BRlDGEWATER, NO
NEMBER G., 1911.

The benefits Of the Constitution Of the u
nited States, were the restoration of credit
and reputation, TO the country-the revival of
commerce, navigation, and ship.building-
the acquisition of the means Of discharuing
the debts OF the Revolution, and the protec-
ton and encouragement of the infant and
dropping manufactures Of the country. All
this, however, as is now well asceriained,
was insufficient TO propitiate the rulers Of the
Southern States to the adoption of the Con-
s~titution. What they specially wanted was
protection. Protection from the powerful and
savage tribes of Indians within their borders,
and who were harassing them with the most
terrible of waTs-and protection from their
own negrdes-protectiOn from their l%nsurtec-
tions-protectlon from their escape--protec-
ton even TO the trade by which they were
brought into the cou ntry-protection, shall |
not blush to say, protection to the very bon
dage by which they were held. Yes it can
not be denied-the slaveholding lords of the
South prescribed, as a condition OF their as
sent to the Constitution, three special provi-
sions to secure the perpetuily of their domin-
ion over their slaves. The first was the i'm
munity for twenty years of preserving the
African slave-trade; the second was the slip
ulation to surrender fugitive slaves-an en-
gagement positively prohibited by the laws
of God, delivered from Sinai; and thirdly,
the e~xaction fatal to the principles of popular
representation, of a representation for slaves
for articles of merchandise, under the name
of persons.
The reluctance with which the freemen of
the North submitted to the d~ictation of these
conditions, is attested by the awkward and
ambiguous language in which they are eX-
pressed. The word slave is most cautiously
and fastidiously excluded from the whole in
A stranger, who should come from
a foreign land, and read the Constitution OF
the United States, would not believe that
slavery or a slave existed within the borders
of our country. There is not a word in the
Constitution apparently bearing upon the con-
dlllon OF slavery, nor Is there a provision but
would be susceptible of practical execution,
1t there was not a slave in the land.
The delegates from South Carolina and
Georgia distinctly avowed that, without this
guarantee of protection to their property in
slaves, they would not yield their assent to
the Constitution; and the freemen of the
North, reduced to the alte rnatiye of departing
from the vital principle of their liberty, or Of
FORGETTING the Union itself, averted ti,eir f.
ceS, aud with trembling hand subscribed the
bond.
Twenty years passed away-the slave mar
kets OF the South were saturated with the
blood of African bondage, ana from midnight
of the 3lSt of December, 1906, not a slave
from Africa was suffered ever more to be in
troduced upon our soil. But the internal traf-
fc was still lawful, and the breeding States
soon reconciled themselves to a prohibition
which gave them the monopoly OF the inter-
dicted trade, and they joined the full chorus
of Reproduction, TO punish with death the slave
trader from Africa, while they cherished and
shielded and enjoyed the precious profits of
the American slave-trade exclusively TO them
selves.
Perhaps this unhappy result Of their con-
cession had not altogether escaped the fore
sight of the freemen of the North; but their
intense anxiety for the preservation Of the
whole Union, and the habit already formed
of yielding TO the somewhat peremptory and
overbearing tone which the relation of master
and slave YIELDS into the nature Of the lord
prevailed with them to overlook this conside-
ration, the internal slave-trade having scarce
ly existed, while that with Africa bad been
allowed. But Of one consequence which has
followed from the slave representation, per-
vading the whole organic structure OF the
Constitution, they certainly were not preset
emit for if they had been, never-no, never
would they have consented to il.
The representation, ostensibly Of slaves,
under the name of persons, was in its opera
tiun an exclusive grant of power 10 one class
of proprletors, owners of one species OF pro-
perry, to the detriment of all the rest of the
community. This species of property was
odious in its nature, held in direct violation
of the natural and inalienable rights of man,
and of the vital principles Of Christianity; II
was all included in one geographical section
of the country, and was all held by wealthy
men, comparatively small in numbers, moi
amounting to a tonth part Of the free white
population of the States in which it was con-
centrated.
In some of the ancient, and in some mod
ern republics, extraordinary political power
and privileges have been invested in the own
ers of horses, but then these privileges and
these powers have been grantedfor the equiv
alent of extraordinary duties and services to
the community, required of the favored class.
The Roman knights constituted the cavalry
of their armies, and the bushels of rings ga
theTed by Hannibal from their dead bodies,
after the battle of Canine, amply prove that
ihe special powers conferred upon them were
no gratuitous grants. But in the Constitu-
zion of the United States, the political power
invested in the owners of slaves is entirely
gratuitous. No extraordinary service is re-
-quired of them; they are, on the contrary,
themselves grievous burdens upon the com
m"aity, always threatened with the danger
of Instructions, TO be smothered in the blood
of both parties, master and slave, and always
depressing the condition of the poor free la
.borer, by competitor with the labor Of the
slave. The property in horses was the gift
of God to man, at the creation of the world E;
the property in slaves is property acquired
and held by crimes, differing in no moral as
pect from the piliage OF a freebooter, and to
whichnO lapse Of time can glve d pIescTlpIIVe