Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1849-10-27

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ting upon the moral condition and wants OF
mankind, the relations they sustain to each
other, and the duties and obligations spring
ing from those relations; and deeply anxious
! to promote the highest welfare of the whole
human family, to abolish every form of evil,
to advance the cause of peace, righteousness
and truth, and to discover and adopt the
means best adapted to secure these results
we embrace the opportunity to declare our
cordial and hearty assent to the following
PROPOSITIONS.
1. That all mankind arc the children of a
common Father, who has revealed to them his
will in the clements of their being, requiring
them to love each other as brethren, to seek
each others happiness, and to dwell together in
peace and unity.
II. That the law which God has written in
our hearts is beautifully Expressed in the words
of JESUS: =" Whatsoever ye acoula that men should
do unto you, do pc cren so unto them - and that
all the moral evils which exist in the world are
the natural and inevitable fruits of disobedience
to that law.
Ill. That the worship demanded of us byour
Father docs not consist in the observance of any
outward rite or ceremony, nor in the consecra-
ton of one portion of time as moro holy than
another, but in a life of obedience to his law,
and in the faithful performance of the duties we
owe to each other.
". That associated action, for the promotion
Of truth and righteousness, is the spontaneous
outgrowth of our social nature, and necessary as
a means of giving efficiency to individual effort
and that, in proportion to the strength and pu-
rity of our zeal, as individuals, to secure the
highest welfare of mankind, will be our desire
TO cooperate with each other and with all who
arc like minded
V. That in forming associations great care
should be taken not to infringe upon the ina
ienable rights of individual members, and to
harmonic them in all respects with the princi-
pies and wants of mans nature; that they
should always be regarded as a means and not
as an end; and that, whenever any organization
becomes clearly subversive of the happiness of
mankind, or fails to promote their welfare, it
should be either reformed or abolished.
VI. That the various sectarian organizations
now existing in our country, by their zeal for
lifcloss and peInicious forms, by their false and
superstitious ideas of worship, by the distinc-
ton which they have set up between religion
andmeraltys by-their- srnnndless assumptions
of spiritual authority and their claims to a spe-
cial and supernatural organic relation to Christ,
and, above all, by their criminal Indifference or
hostility to the Reforms of the age, have proved
themselves unworthy of the Christian name.
VII. That the various Rcformatory Associa-
tons of the present day-Tcmperancc, Peace,
Anti-Slavcry, &C., &c.--have done q great and
glorious work for mankind, by their struggles
to remove tho giant evils which poison the
sources of human happiness but that, notwith-
standing all their manifold benefits, they do not
answer all those wants of our nature, which
the principle Of cooperative brotherhood is in
tended to supply.
VIII. That we feel the want of a Society, not
for the promotion of one benevolent object nor
the overthrow of one evil alone, but for the alb
clifton of all sin and the promotion of universal
righteousness which shall embrace in its OBJ
jects every thing that concerns humanity, and
in which every true friend of man shall have
free scope for the noblest cndeavors and the high
est and hottest aspirations.
TX. That the basis of such an association is
to be sought, not in uniformity of opinions upon
theological dog1nas, nor in abstract creeds and
confessions Of faith, but in the spirit of Univer-
sal Love, in identity Of aims and aspirations,
and in the spontaneous impulses of our nature,
which prompt us to deeds of charity and bcncv-
%olonce, and TO cooperative labors for the relief
Of human suffering and tho improvement and
elevation of mankind.
X. That man is a progressive being, and that
it is essential to the usefulness of every a~ssocia-
ton that it should recognize this law of human
nature that it is irrational to expect that one
generation should be able to foresee and pre-
scribe the precise forms of organization best
adapted to the peculiar wants and circumstan-
ccs Of another; and hence that it is our right
and duty to alter the institutions that have come
down to us from our fathers, or to abolish them
and establish others in their place, if in our
judgment the welfare of mankind is to be there
bypromotcd.
Having united in the foregoing propositions, as
an expression of our present views, so far as
it is in our power to set them forth in such q
form, we are constrained to advise
/. That the friends of Progress and Reform
meet together in their several localities, at sta
ted periods, under such forms of organization as
to them may seem good, to promote each 9TH
ers moral improvement, to investigate still fur
thcr the whole subject of mans relations and
duties, to oxhort one another in love, and to
take cognizanco of such enterprises of philan-
thropy and benevolence as may from time to
time demand attention
2. That general meetings, to be composed of
all the friends of Reform, from various locali-
ties, be also held at stated periods, for full and