Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1849-10-13
From the Portland Transcript.
Progress of Reforms,

'VoiVSD vi htlUflnS,
True reform is not volcanic in its opera
lions IL 9oes not s!artle a sleeping world
by the sudden belching forth of fierv torrents
of innovation, or the up-hoaying of ali foun-
datiors. IT is rather like the little riyulet
which steals forth from its source amid the
hidden r%ecesses of far-awav mountains. and
glldes along, noiselcssly at first. but as its
course become DISTRACTED, it works in its
bed, gathers strength from all its tributaries,
and rtsfes tearlesEfy ON, until it forms a part
OF the great sea of life. And as the sources
OF many streams are often forgotten or TN
known, SO the origin and originators of most
reforms are sighted and traduced by the
world.
Illustrations Of the truth of this proposition
are numerous in the worlds history, but
there is one now existing in our own land,
which, to our mind, is very striking.
Just now the world is all agog at the enor-
NIFTY of Slavery. The murmIir of indignant
voices rises all over the land, and strong
arms and stout hearts are valiantly at work
TO destroy the monster, or at least to STAY his
farther progress. A great reform is in oper-
alton. The dead sea of Slavery rumbles and
roars and dashes its dark waves heavily UNI
der tie strong gale of popular Indignation.
The purifying process has fully begun. To
one who wishes to investigate the secret
springs OF human action, it is an interesting
question, whence cometh this cOmmotion?
Where and when did the work begin? Who
first aroused the sleeping sense of Justice of
the nation, and directed the sympathies of
the popular heart to the sufferings of the
blacks?
Doubtless since the earliest times, and in
nearly all hearts there has lurked a sense of
the wrong inflicted, but it took not bodily
form and cried not boldly out for justice I'M
I'll some eighteen or twenty years SINCE
Then was heard the voice of one crying in
the Wilderness, and saying, Repent We, Re
pent! Then Garrison girded up his loins
and went forth TO battle with a nation, a ma
ton proud of its institutions, and righteous
in its WI esteem. That he was opposed
denounced, imprisoned, mobbed, and nearly
murdered, the world knows; and the world
knows, too, how impotent were those acts
The truth had been spoken-God's truth
and, as the truth ever will, it found its wa,
to the hearts of the people. In vain die
" gentlemen of property and standing" swea
and fight, in vain did dignitaries threaten
in vain did politicians spout sham patriotism
and tfemble for the safety of the "dear peo'
pie" and in vain did r~eligionists and priests
lift III their hands in holy horror and call
down curses on the heads of those who
wQutE disturb the established order af So
c7At..s Slowly, hat s,,rplv. the divine leaven
worked iu the hearts of the people, and now
behold the change!
Slavery is a dangerous evil, cries the uni
ted voice of millions, and in that cry how
many once discordant voices blend! He
who once assisted in placing a halter around
the neck of an innocent man, is now shocked
at the barbarities of the slave system! They
who but yesterday said that ell Aboli,ionists
should he imprisoned, are now thrusting i'll,
to jail the agents of the Shareholders! Loud
/ mOuthed politicians now shout themselve.
hOarse to prove their devotion to human
t freedom, as once they shouted i'll the deicnc,
of Slavery! And pious priests drawl dole
fully over the iniquities of our "Southerl
, BRETHREN" and pray for the liberation of tin
= bondman, as erst they prayed for the destruc
. ton of his best flicndl And do not all jon
5 in doing justice TO the man who opened thei
eyes TO this wickedness? Alas, for the pei
versity of human nature, no! The divin
truth which he and his followers promulgt
ted has forced itself upon their acceptance
but the promulgators they reject. And why
Because, as the Spanish proverb has it, I'll
man who has done you an injury will nevt
forgive you. Shall they acknowledge then
e selves in error TO those they once reviled
d totally in the wrong? Pride and prejudiC
forbid it. And nov comes the most lud
II cr0us part of their performance. Not only {
they reject the early Abolitionists, but tht
become suddenly alarmed on account of Il
d injury they are doing to the good cause!
e Pious, benevolent souls, how it grieves the
to think of the good that might be done t
a the slave, were it not for these "hot-head'
e fanatics" They, good, honest, consistel
id CONSCIENTIOUS men, are expanding all TIT
sympathy for the slave in words, while tho
T. dlslurbers of the peace will persist in CALI
Is Tor action! How provoking that the II
n friends of the slave should be tllwarted
? their good intentions by the rash measm
NJ ofthose deluded men! Now if all this is I
to the utmost height of the ridiculous, it is ass
IL redly the lowest depth of the contemptih
Why, is it not as plain as the light of heav'
that all these mourntul philanthropists 1
nj bankrupt, utterly bankrupt, and are tradi
es on borrowed capital? Who aroused the pr
ne lie mind to a sense of the ehormity of Sla'
ry? The early Abolitionists. Who gath
ed together the facts and statistics viii
an now form the stock i'll trade of the politicii
til The early Abolitionists. Who created Il
public opinion which the demagogue lab,
e, to propitiate, and before which the pri
he bows? The early Abolitionists. Aud WI
IL power now holds the mass of the people
IL to a certain point in the Anti-Slayery fait
ot The influence of the early Abblitionists. A
~ yet " gentlemen of leisure" make speed
ed occasionally, and call themselves the o
true friends of the slave! While the ha
re working, prosecuted pioneers of the cal
Ill are his greatest enemies! True, the 2
no neers have gone a long way in advance
IL the multitude, and have struck into straI
paths, but we must remember it was th
Nv task to drag behind them a people with "A
RI ny swinish propensity to hold back, a
hence. they had to advance a long way, in
ISL der TO get the mass 70 move Gtsll. They Ia
gone far into the future, and the future "
do them justice,