Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1848-05-26
WHOLE NO. 1l5.

To inform them of the feeling that existed in
this slaveholding community. TO expose
the spirit of violence and anarchy which was
exhibited here against those who dared TO
speak the sentiments which they entertain ed
in favor of liberty and the rights of humanity.
He wanted his constituents, the people of
his State and the free States, to understand
what violence and lawless mobs arose from
the slavehoiding and slave-dealing influence
in this District. This was what he wished
them to understand. He cared not whether
the House passed this resolution or not. 1t
was well known to the members of this
House that for forty-eight hours prior 10 the
introduction of this resolution, a lawless mob
did control this city that men, if report
were true, and there was no reason 10 doubt
it, in office, clerks in the employ of the
United States, attended and led on that mob
that men in official stations were there slim
u%lating that mob to violence that the mob
consisted the first night Of hundreds, and the
next night OF thousands and during this
time here, where the arms munitions, and
the whole power Of protection was committed
to the Executive officers of the government,
not a movement was made to suppress it so
far as they were concerned. The object Of
this mob unquestionably was to PROSTATE one
of the presses of this city. There was no
doubt about that. And not only this, but
who were those who led it on? Not the re-
spectacle citizens OF the city of Washington /;
so far as he knew their department they
were 10 be excepted from any charge of par
ticipating in the disgrace. They were your
Shareholders from Baltimore, Alexandria,
Richmond, and the surrounding country /; it
was the slave-dealers and slave-breeders /;
the men who raise mankind for market,
whose living and support was by raising
and selling their fellow-men. 1t was that
class of characters who came into this city
to threaten its Government and community,
disturb its peace, and overthrow the press to
which he had alluded. These men, asso-
eating together in this way, were the leaders
and ~eXciters of this mob.
Now another thing known to every man
here, and one which had been referred TO
this morning, was that the mob, when it as
sembled on the first night, did avow the in
%tention of prostrating that press and that of
| flee and with this publicly avowed purpose
adjourned until the next night for the purpose
OF bringing in more of these despicable cha
o ~racters from abroad to enable them to effect
5 their object. This was all known by report,
and was proposed to be inquired into.
So far as report charged that a member OF
. CllluC VI MS IlOuSC q DtCl lntldIGu
was also 10 be inquired into, he cared nothing
about it. He would state, as his name hat
d been connected with it, that on Tuesday Of
last week, being a member of this body, and
feeling some little interest in the way their
v laws over the District were to be carried into
execution, he had visited one Of the public
: institutions Of our country, a prison in this
= city, erected by this Government, and where,
if his person was protected in this building,
| it was there as much as 1t was in the Trea-
| sury Department, or any other of the Depart
= ments at the seat of Government. He had
| gone there under the consciousness of pro-
lection as much as if he had been in front of
5 the Speakers desk, because It was a public
building, erected by the funds of his own
n constituents as we'll as of the people of the
: free States, together with those of the slave
States. He had gone there for the purpose
declared here on a former occasion. He had
: then said all he wished 20 on this point
; There were your slave-dealerS and slave
breeders gathered toe ether in the entrance of
the Jail TO threaten and menace him. Did
, he ask protection from this House? No,
S when he felt in danger he would let them
know it. But what he held in unutterable
contempt was that a member of this body, in
e visiting one of the public institutions erected
$ by this Government, should be threatened by
a miserable mass OF moral putridity, called
Shareholders and slave-breeders. Had il
5 come TO this, that the members of this House
could not 90 in and out of the public ~institu.
$ tons of this District without meeting thai
class of men and being threatened by them
He knew not who these men were, but
o from reports which he had received from
n various quarters, he understood they were
f, that class of men. Now, the resolution OF
o the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr.
: P4lirey) proposed an inquiry into those
n facts.
n But again: Who was it that stimulated
that mob 1t was members in this hail.
While their galleries were filled with slave
A dealers-men who drove whole families to
o the market, and battered them, men, women,
{ and children, for gold-honorable members
stood up here in this House and declared
that they justified the mob TO the fullest ex-
n tent. And did he (Mr. g. ask for protec-
# ton from such men =! Such a declaration had
q been made and repeated and reiterated here.
n This was not the place to which he should
go for protection. Yes, members of this
q House Of Representatives stood in their
4 places and proclaimed, not only to this cOun-
q try, hut 10 the whole civilized world, that in
S their capacity of Legislators they stood by and
sustained those wretches In their lawless vlO-
lence. And it was with humility and deep
4 abasement that he acknowledged that these
v declarations came principally from members
d of the political party TO which he himself be-
s longed. He also felt compelled to acknow-
G ledge that, while this was going on here, the
President of the United States, to whose par.
st ty he (Mr. g. did not belong, was said to
,r have been making efforts TO put down the
mob. 1t was due to the President that he
n should state this fact. The people should
e know it. No man there would accuse him
= of being a friend to the President; but he
ID honored him nevertheless for his efforts t.
:. cunnrnsa thncn rinInns nrucandinns and 20