Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1849-01-12
American Characteristics.

Extract from an article in the last numbe
of the Massachusetts Quarterly Review, oil
The Political Destination of America b,
Theodore Parker;
"There is a lamentable want of First Prin
ciples well known and established we have
rejected the Authority of Tradition, but no
yet accepted The Authority of Truth and Jus.
lice. We sill not be treated as stripliDgs,
and are not old enough to 60 alone as men.
Accordingly, nothing seems fixed. There is
a perpetual see-sawing Of opposite principles.
Somebody said Ministers ought to be ordain-
ed on horseback. because they are TO remain
SO short a time in one place. 1t would be as
emblemstic 10 inaugerate American Politi-
clans by swearing them on weathercock.-
The great men OF the land have as many
turns in their course as the Euripus or the
Missouri. Even the facts given liz the spiri-
tual nature of man are called in question. An
eminent Unitarian divine regards the exist
ence of God as a matter Of opinion, thinks it
cannot be demonstrated, and publicly declares
that it is not a certainty Some American
Protestants no longer take the Bible as the
standard of ultimate appeal, yet venture not
TO set up in that place Reason, Conscience,
the Soul getting help Of God others who
affect 10 accept the Scripture as the last au-
thority, yet when questioned as 10 their belief
in the miraculous and divine birth Of Jesus
of Nazareth, arc found unable 10 say Yes or
No, not having made up their minds.
SIN Politics, IL is not yet decided whether
it is best TO leave men 10 buy where they can
buy cheapest, and sell where they can sell
dearest, or to restrict tina, matter.
alt was a clear case TO our fathers in &c,
that all men were created equal each with
.Unalienable Rights That seemed SO clear
that reasoning would not make it appear
more reasonable; it was taken for granted
az a selEevident proposition. The whole ma
tion said so. Now it is no strange thing It
find it said that negroes are not created
equal in Unalienable Rights with whit,
men. Nay, in the Senate of the United
States, a famous man declares all this talk
dangerous mistake. The practical decision
of the nation locks the same way. So, t
make our theory accord with our practice, W,
ought TO recommit the Declaration to th,
hands which drafted that great State Paper
and instruct Mr.. jefferson 10 amend the doc
unent, and declare that all men are created
equal, and endowed by their Creator will
certain Unalienable Rights, if born of whit,
mothers: but if not. not
ain this lack Of first principles, il is no
settled in the popular consciousness tina
there is such a thing as an Absolute Right,
great Law of God, which we are TO keep
come what will come. So the nation is no
upright, but goes STOPPING. Hence in pri
vate affairs, Law takes The place Of Con
science, and in public, Might of Right. S,
the Bankrupt pays his shilling in the pound
and gets his discharge, but afterwards beco
ming rich does not think Of paying the o,he
nineteen shillings. He will iell you the La,
is his conscience (; if that be satisfied, so
he. But you will yet find him letting nj
ney at one or two per cent. a month contrar
TO law ard then he will tell you that payin
a debt is a matter Of law, while letting m,
rey is only a matter Of conscience. So
rides either indifierently-now the publ
hack, and now his own private nag, accort
ing as it serves his turn.
So a rich State borrows money and repl
dates the debt, satisfying its political col
science, as a bankrupt his commercial col
science, with the notion that there is no A
soiute Right; that Eypediency is the on
Justice, and that King People can do !
wrong. No calm voice Of indignation cri
out from the pulpit, and the press, and Il
heart Of the people, to shame The repudiato
Into decent morals-because it is not settle
in the popular mind that there is any Abs
lutte Right. Then because we are strong
and the Mexicans weak-because we wa
their land for a slave pasture. and they ca
not keep us out Of tive think that is re
son enough for waging an infamous war
plumber. Grave men do not ask about ii
natural Justice of such an undertaking: o
ly about its cost. Have we not seen an
merican Congress vote a plain lie, with on
sixteen dissenting voices in the whole bod
And do not both parties, even at this ds
sustain the vote?
"Now and then there rises up an hon'
man, with a great Christian heart in his |
som, and sets free a score or two of slay
inherited from his father; watches over a
tends them in their new-found freedom /;
another, who, when legally released fr
payment Of his debts, restores the utterm
arihing. We talk of this, and praise it
an extraordinary thing. Indeed, it is
Justice is an unusual thing; and such n
deserve the honor they thus win. But 81
praise shows that such honesty is a rare h
es,y. The northern man born on the ba
ground of freedom, goes to The south. and
comes the most ,~tyrannical of slave-drivI
The son of the Puritan, bred up 10 aust
ways, is sent TO Congress to stand up
Truth and Right, bat he turns out a 'dou