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

Ndh6 Care OF themselves, anu 10 brave Tue
storm" Is this to act like menl Heaven
knows we are no fanatics-we detest the
madness which actuated the .4mis des NOirs.
But something ought to be done. Means,
sure, but gradual-systemaiic, but discreet
ought 10 be adopted for reducing The mass Of
emil Which is pressing upon The South, and UiH
still more press upon her the longer ii is put
pf. We ought not to shut our eyes nor avert
our faces. And though we speak almost
without a hope that the Committees or the
Legislature will do anything at the present
session 10 meet this question, yet we say now,
in the utmost sincerity of our hearts, that our
wisest men cannot give too much Of their at
tention to this subject-nor can they give it
200 SOON"
Well, the system Of slavery still exists in
Virginia, and all its blighting influences are
still active there. But where is the voice of
her sentinel! Alas, its clarion tones ring no
longer with warnings against the perpetual
ton Of slavery. The eye that then was pain
ed as il wandered over fields desolated by
slavery, is panied no longer. Instead Of call
ing on his fellow.cilizens to unite together
in the great and glorious work Of reGeeming
the State from a system OF bondage that
blights the Joys Of home, and withers the
flowers Of social happiness, us well as sears
and blasts The fields, he is now engaged in
iustifying those who seek 10 perpetuate this
bondage, and in condemning as traitors all
who echo the sentiments that he spake years
ago when his mind was in the freshness and
fulness Of strength.
Virginia has, since Mr.. Richie so elo-
u%uently denounced the whitening influence OF
slavery, been experiencing still more bitterly
its many bitter evils. Her patriotic sons are
deserving the hearlhs Of their forefathers for
stranger homes. The Free States of the
Northwest, which are girding themselves for
a race Of true national greatness and renown,
are every year enriched with immigrants
from Virginia whose hearts have sickened as
they contemplated the intense curse Of slave
~, as il lay like a black cloud on the soil
and exhaled its pestilential influences on the
social circle. Such men, the very bone and
sinew Of Virginia, the worthy descendants
Of those great and good men who were nour-
ished on her bosom in the last century, are
deserving their native homes for others in the
States where slavery is not known, and where
the soil and society are not suffering from
any hopeless paralysis of their energies. Our
own Commonwealth is not yet so far gone
in the fatal embrace of slavery, but that she
is able to rally her energies and throw the in
cubus from her breast, We rejoice that the
example of the mother State has not been lost
on the daughter. and that kentucky, looking
at the ruin and desolation that slavery has
brought on Virginia, has resolved. before 1t
is too late, TO redeem herself from thraldom,
and to stretch out her hand and grasp The
greatness and prosperity which nothing but
the wretched system of African slavery can
prevent her reaching. The collapse of Vir-
ginia's greatness is one of the most melan-
| nI1l, nf ennaN,.lnR AT Lant,oI-t h, tra
ed by her example and be wise before it is
too late: before the fatal system has, like a
foul canker, eaten too far into her strength to
permit her to rise.
There are no people who cherish the feel
ing of State pride more devotedly than Vir-
g%inians. SO profoundly are they attached 10
their State, that they would not think of en-
patriating themselves under the influence OF
any force other than that of necessity. They
look around them and they see nothing but
wreck, and ruin, and desolation. There is
no sign of prosperity in all the wide land.
scare before them. Fields once fertile, bu'
now smitten with sterility, frown in every d.
r%ection, and there is nothing TO cheer then
in the present, or to stimulate their hopes o
the future. A leaden langoT reposes on ev
cry interest. They then cast their eyes to
wards those younger c~omnonwealths tina
havg recently started on the career of nation
al prosperity and renown. The contrast il
o~verpowering, and with signs upon the liz
and tears upon the cheek, they bid adieu Il
old familiar things that make the haunts o
their boyhood precious to their hearts. G,
where You may in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois
5 Iowa and Wisconsin, and you will find mel
who have been driven, reluctantly, from tn
Old Dominion. Ask any one of the thou
I sands you will there find, why he left hi
early home, and there is but one answer t
that question. Slavery is banishing ffor
Virginia a large majority of her best and mos
. enterprising sons. Every year her case be
n comes more hopeless, and unless she speed
ly rises and with the strength still left he
: throws of the incubus, she must sink lowe
and lower in the political horizon. Can an
n Kentuckian look at Virginia and refrain frol
T vowing eternal hostility TO %slavery9