Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1849-12-15
The Great ComprOmiser.

q brief speech, the substance of which il given
by his friends as follows:
Mr.. CLAY proceeded to remark fbaf fIe
gentlemen of this city who had directed the
z letter to him had referredin connection with
his return to the Senate to the grave o,es-
tons which had yet TO be settled there
great, threatening and alarming questions,
which had arisen out of the war with Mexi.
co, and the annexation to our Republic of
territory formerly belonging to that country.
All who were acquainted with these terri
tories, he thought, must have reached the
conviction to which his own mind had been
brought, that under no possible circumstan-
ces was Slavery likely to be introduced into
the Territories of California or New Mexico.
The climate, the character of the country and
its Inhabitants, and their industrial pursuits.
all forbade the likelihood of Slavery ever be-
ing introduced there.
That question had, however, divided the
people TO an u%nexampled degree and created
animosities to a most lamentable extent. On
the one side the prohibition of the introduc-
ton of slavery into these territories is urged
with a resoluteness and perseverance which
would indicate that those who urge it really
believe that if this prohibition is not passed,
slavery would be introduced. On the other
hand the prohibition is opposed with an en-
ergy and a perseverance that would also
seem to indicate that with them the belief
exists that ii the prohibition be not passed
that slavery might certainly be introduced.
But gentlemen, (said MIR. Clay,) / appeal to
you-is there, under existing circumstances,
any probability that the institution of Slave
~ could be introduced into these terrific
ries f? b..
Indeed, so far has the excitement growing
out OF this question arisen as TO threaten the
dissolution of the Union. l might have con-
suited prudence by saying nothing in refer
ence to these exciting questions-but as you
have referred to them in your letter, l have
deemed it proper to thus notice that refer
ence, and | would further say that on one
plot | stand pledged under all circumstan-
ces and in all stoTms-that is, TO STAND Ri
THE UNIONE enthusiastic applause. In its
dissolution / cannot see the remedy for
any evil, whether real or imaginary-noth-
ing could be gsined-all would be lost by il.
By the dissolution of the Union | see intro
duced with it all the calamities, all the mis-
fortunes, and all the horrors of civil war;
[Cheers.l Entangling foreign alliance by
the severed portions of the Union would fol-
low dissolution, and wars-bloody, desolating
and continued wars-would succeed; until
some bold, INSCRIPTIONS military chieftain
should seize the liberties of all and convert
the whole into one military despotism. We
should then need no history of our country,
hut all that had been written in that of
Greece-in that of her Philip and her Alex
ander-might be read as applicable to U.S.
lRenewed and continued applause.] ?
MFR. Clay, it will be perceived, is still true to
his petty ideas of craftsmanship, in the effort to
dispose of a great moral issue, not by meetingit
boldly and manfully, and settling it on just
principles, but by steering round it and seeking
a middle path between right and wrong. If the
people of the North can be bamboozled by tho
shallow pretencc that there is no danger that
Slavery will find its way to the new territories,
they will richly deserve to reap all the conse-
quences of their blindness and stupidity. They
are so accustomed, however, to the Southern
yoke-so much in the habit of permitting them
selves to be outwittcd-that they will doubtless
derive comfort from the reflection that
"The pleasure is as great ..'
OF being cheated as to cheat"
Is this habit of subserviency and self degrada-
ton to have no end Is there in the North no
latent manliness, no sense of honor, to be arous-
edi o. -4 -Iaa,-.
The god of Mr.. Clay's idolatry is the Union.
The national compact is with him the end and
not the means. To it he is willing to sacrifice
conscience, moral principle, and Liberty itself.
His talk on this subject, however, is the most
disgusting political cant. The dissolution of the
Union ttpo', principle and in obedience to the de-
: mands of Justice and Right, would be produc.
tive of the highest good. To doubt it is to
charge God with foolshnessa and with the injus-
tee of giving us a law adapted not to make us
happy but to aggravatc our misery. That Mr..
Clay should affect great horror at the thought
of dissolving a compact which binds the FREQ
States to support Slavery is all very natural,
but that Northern men should cling to a dead
carcass as the only means of preserving life is
passing strange. That the terrible c62sequen-
ccs which Mr.. Clay predicts as the result of dis
union would come upon the South, in ease of
her persistence in her career of crime, is indeed
probable; but the North, if true to God and
Freedom, would have nothing to fear. Her
light would break forth as the morning, and her
darkness be as the MONDAY. The nations Of
the earth would come to her light and kings to.
the brightness Of her rising. Alas for the Athe-
istic infatuation which looks for good fruit only
to a corrupt tree, and forsakes the paths of right
eousness under the impious expectation that the
God of Heaven will reverse his immutable laws
and bcstow blessings where curses alone are
promised. '''5I
ANTI-SLAvERY TRUE WIrNEss.-The paper
formerly published under the name of the New
Concord Free Press has assumed the title given
I.