Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1849-02-02
COMMUNICATED.
Report from the field of Anti-Slavery
labor.
SuFFiELD, Portage County, o.,
January 90, 1919.

the Earth-childre rem /; and they christened !
Forty-Nine. Men gave theirs to their fami
lies and friends, and said Happy New-fear
as they gave. l gave mine TO the slave; and
wept it was too mean to give. Twas no
what he had a right 10 expect. Twas mol
what he prayed for. And twas not what the
All Father gave him at creation. | could moi
give him that priceless boon-once his, now
stolen from %him-which of old, the Sublime
Thunderer,
Red lightnings round him playing"
amid the mighty voices that poured the cho'
raj song for this new world, with awful ma
jes,y proclaimed to the listening universe The
dowry of the race he had just ushered in
10 being /; and which, 10 the very nIeanest o
that race, he decided as his own inalienablt
inheritance; in proof of which, he wrote The
tille-deed upon the human soul, and confirm
ed it, by engraving upon the tablet of tina
soul, the everlasting Signature of a God. The
soul still wears that impress. That Sigma
ture is still valid. 1t never has been, it ne
yer can be, counterfeited.
That birthright boon | could not give the
slave. And those who could, would not
That New Years morn, ere yet the first
faint tint had paled the Eastern sky-for
stern Duty gets up early-ihere fell a voice
from Heaven, that broke upon the solemn
stiffness of the dark world like the startling
blast of the trump of the Archangel calling to
Judgment, crying in the ears of men, "Pro-
claim LIBERTY throughout all the land, unto
all the inhabitants t~heregf!" The slave heard
she voice, and leaped as if his manacles were
already severed, and his letters fallen, and
shouted, "a Gift! a gift! The New Year
has brought me Liberty I! Liberty !! Liber-
ty !!!"--and then he fell upon his knees,
and with u%plifted hands, and streaming eyes,
and stifed utterance, fervently gasped, 80
God | bless thee for The boon!" Yes, the
slave heard, though the voice came not TO
him (; but those to whom it did come, heard
not and they gave not the Gift they gave
not Liberty! Eighteen millions of the peo-
pie Of this country, who had banded together
to rob three other millions of the people Of
the same country of their liberty, that day
refused to give back to the robbed the pre-
%cious right they had wrested from them, tho
among themselves, who needed not, they
failed not, on every hand, to scatter the pre-.
sents Of the Season thick as autumn leaves.
That Gift, emphatically The New Years Gift
OF the American Nation, because by the God
of nations made its first. greatest, and till
done, only Duty-the Gift of Liberty to the
Nations slaves-thdt Gift, the Nation refu-
sed to give! And therefore, Nation! brand
is on thy brow, and it is burned in indelibly,
and the reading Of the brand is-Hypocrite
So | could not, and the nation would not
And therefore, seeing neither from me no
from it the slave might receive the Gift-on'
worthy Of him-was it not fitting | shoul(
yet make him a ~gift-though unworthy 3
Seeing | could not give him the End, nigh
| not give him the Means 10 secure that End
Yet what Means? o for the boarded gol,
of the Incas, that tempted the robber-band
of Pizarro or the rustling treasure of III
MonteZumas Of the ancient Aztec Empire
that %glittered in the vision of Corlez-to hav
given it all that morning to purchase III
slaves Redemption! o for the shining dusI
spread broadcast over the millions Of acres
that spread themselves out beneath the gaz
of the astonished gold-hunters in the Vale
of the Sacramento-to have rained it all dow
on the land like thick falling dews, to lur
The people Of this money-loving nation to Jus
tice! Yes, for the sake Of the slave, an
that | might give up all 10 him, as a NEAR
of comforting upon him the deal boon of Lit
erty, | would have moved Heaven and Fart
to have become sole master of those acre
and 10 have used as mine all the golde
wealth and diamond treasure ever dug
or 10 be dug, from the mines of this long
sought-and-at-length. found Ell Dorado!
Yet even such a gift-how unworthy! J.
How infinitely mean, and less than nolhin,
compared with Liberty What is gold, tn
it hailed down in stones as big as mountain
10 him who wears a letler-who is not fir,
who may not call his human soul, niue
less that falling gold, his own! Yet
had not even that mean gift to give. And
| gave a meaner. gave of such as ! ha
Having nothing better, | gave myself.
made an humble present Of my time, inf
ence, powers and toll to the 5000, 900 of ?
ming bondmen in the Southland. And n
for a few months only, nor even for the who
d year, bot for Life; tina, is, if the Victor
come not sooner. God speed that Victory! :
q Yet it comes not, except as first comes Il
r Sacrifice. The End is not till after Il
Means. Gold, time, influence, labor, life
sell, our very souls. must be laid on the ;
~ tar, ere the Jubilee blesses the slave. In mo