Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1849-11-17
Fiom The Anti-Slovcry Standard.
Right and Remedy.

1t rs a maxim of law that where there is n
Right there is n Remedy. Where there is n
Wrong there isa Redress. However imper-
fect thus theory may be carried out in the adj
nhnlstrailon OF Justice in this world, it I'M
questionably stands for an Idea in the Divine
Mind. There is a Remedy for the recovery
of every Right and there is a Redress for
every Wrong, and il is the grand purpose of
the Ways of God to Man to teach him what
they are, and to show him how Right is to be
vhidicatcd and Wrong subdued. Like all
other advances in knowledge it is only to be
reached through mistake and failure. Man
grows wise by trying experiments, though
God does not. There is an Absolute Best
Way of doing everything, and it is part of
the education of the Race to reach after it,
if happy they may find it. In Science, this
is called Discovery, in Mechanics, Invention,
IN Morals, Reform. 1t will hardly be main
tanned that the progress of Science or Me
chanics would have been best promoted by
stopping at the lower stages of Discovery or
Invention, instead of advancing TO the high
er,-lf Newton had been content with the
deductions of the Ptolomean System or
Watt with the speculations of the Marquis
of Worcester. And yet very sensible men,
as the world goes, seem TO think that the
most thorough application of Reform may
be injurious TO the best interests of Morals.
SO when n question of Morals becomes
complicated with politics, when wickedness
has been "organized," as the Rev. Edward
Beecher hath happily described the process,
into Legislative systems, the best way of dis
entangling the Evil from the Good, and eli
minating the one without injury to the other,
is that way which strikes most directly at the
root of the matter, md which, however start
ling or apparently impracticable at first, COM
mends itself TO the sober thought of the
most earnest inquirers as the only ~all-sufli-
Gent ole. Half measures only make the
knot more intricate by wasted energies and
wasted time, and render the task of unloos-
ing it harder and harder. If this is only to
be done by cutting it, the sooner this issue is
deliberately contemplated and resolutely at
tempted, the better. They who contrivcd
the Gordian knot of the Constitution, upon
the untying of which men are beginning to
perceive that the destinies of America de-
pend, did their work so well, with such con-
suminate skill, that it almost seems as if no
thing but the conquering sword of an Alex
ander can dissever il, and with it the evils
which are bound up with it. But the con-
quering Alexander for whom this adventure
is. received is not II but many, even the
People VIZ everywhere have the Sovereign
Power wiTin their reach if they will but
seize 1t, bit who have here solemnly invested
themselyeA with it, and the trenchant blade
that is to 20 the work is the Sword of the
Spirit, of ne enlightened and determined
Mind of tlf constituents elements of the Ma
ton. AT tie present low stage of civilization,
it is not impossible that the Sword of Steel
may be called in before the problem is
worked out; but it will not be as a Necessity
but as a Superstition and a Blunder.
The more we consider tbn StIplptiIrn of tba
Constitution of the United States the more
marvellous do the ingenuity and s~agacity of
its trainers appear TO us. Whether it was
that they were really f~ar-sighted statesmen
before whom the genius of Machiavel or of
Richelieu might have stood rebuked, or
whether it was a diabolical felicity by virtue
of which they builded better than they
knew" certain it is that they produced a mir
acle of Statecraft. 1t has been from the be-
ginning the mystery of Government to sub
ject the many TO the Few or TO the One
But all former a~rtificcrs of Systems had their
materials ready at their hands, and it took
but little skill, comparatively, to erect such a
fabric as they chose. The masses were ig-
norant and debased; the few had all the
Arts and knowledge and Culture which are
the Regalia of the Empire of Mind over
Matter or Brute Force. The architects of
our destinies had a different description of
elements to deal with when they entered up
on their task, at the end of the Revolution.
The masses, in the Free States at least, were
educated and enlightened as to their rights
by their struggle with the Parent Country for
a century and a half which had just culmi-
mated in the Revolutionary War. The right
of the majority to govern was one which
they well understood and had battled to main
tain. For the first time within the limits Of
authentic History a Nation assembled to or
gani2e itself according to its own good plea
sure, Instructed and warned by the successes
or tie failures of all preceding times. They
r digested the Scheme by their elect wise Incl
+ and they weighed it and acted upon it wheI
|, complete in their persons. They ac
5 cepted it, because they believed that the RICH
! of tie majority to govern was secured in tin
| mosi e%ffectual manner. And yet, such wa
the skill of the Magi who assisted at its con
| %coction, by a few words, innocent in look
but Of deadly potency, the command of tin
political machinery was put into the powe
| of a small and relatively diminishing mino
rity,Cof an insignificant numerical ifagmen
of the Misunderstanding their Oligarchi
sway solely in virtue of their ownership il
: their felow-men! And so well was it dom
that men are but Just beginning To find OF
: that il is so!
S The Constitution is so contrived that ey
{ cry person acting under it becomes a part
S 10 it, aud even by his struggles TO free it iroI
v the noxious element draws the cord all tl
y tighter which ties that element up TO what
1 ever of good is bound up with it. The fac
r got must be united before the rotten and COZ
e %rupting member can be separated from it
d companions and given TO destruction. Thi
can only be done from without, or else, I
o speak paradoXicalIy, by honest trcache'y iroI
a within. The Free Soil Party, for instance
S is the best example of an attempt to attac
h Slavery within the Constitution and yet
is disarmed of its power by tho very neces