Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1849-09-22


representatives than to the many non-slave.
holders. So far is this system carried, that
less than One-third Of the free white popula-
tlon elect a majority Of the members OF both
houses OF the legislature. The tract also
shows That the property qualification for a
seat In The legislature is virtually an exclusion
OF non-slaveholders. No man can be elected
10 The lower house, unless he possesses real
estate worth 800 clear Of debts, or 500 acres
OF land and TEN NEGRoFs To be a senator
requires double the amount of real estate
The Legislature being thus secured to the
Shareholders, that body appoints the whole
judiciary, including Justices of the Peace,
and the Presidential Electors; and 10 perpetu-
ate this monopoly of slayeholding power, no
alteration can be made in the constitution but
with the assent Of two-thirds of'two success.
siye legislatures. The writer proposed a
voluntary convention to form a new constitu-
ton TO be submitted to the legislature. Not
a word is said against Slavery as unjust or
criminal bat its pernicious influence with
poor whites was pointed out, and its erien-
s'on 10 Tie new territories, TO which poor
whites are f~ocking, deprecated. Yet for
merely putting In the post-ofice this tract,
under blank covers, is MIR. Barrett treated as
a ielon, denounced as an "incendiaty Abo-
liiionist," and, as we learn from a Carolina
journal, liable to "twelve months mprison-
ment, and one thousand dollars fine" Nav,
we are assured "there is more than a posi-
billty that Mr. Barrett may be indicted for
an offence, the penalty Of which is DEATH,
without benefit Of clergy, and assuredIy, il
convicted, all The Abolitionists in the United
States cannot save him."
We see in these effors of the Shareholders
to keep their indignant fellow.citiEens in ig-
norance OF the wrongs they suffer, and of the
rights TO which they are entitled, and 10 pun
ish whoever would enlighten them a des-
potism as jealous and as heartless as any
known in The Old World.
Our 100000 Shareholders are now threat
enlng, 10000, 900 of people with rebellion
and civil war, il forbidden 10 establish, over
vast regions of The American continent, now
Tree, the system Of white serfage, with a Lam
ded aristocracy like that with which South
Carolina is cursed. To their i%nsolent and
Ubiquitous demand the Wiimot Prouiso inter-
poses a stern denial, Yet multitudes OF
northern citizens, recreantto their own repub-
hcan professions, and a~ctuaied by the most
selfish, sordld motives, are devising how they
may Cooperate with the champions Of human
bondage IN preventing the enactment Of III,
i PLoylsos Many Wing ieaders, fearful o
otfendfHg theif Southern Aires, are heapfn.
contempt upon the proviso, by. calling !
ian a6sraefion," and denouncing those who
insist upon IL, a Jaction! The Hunker de
mocracy, in the face Of the world, unblush
lngIy avow that they cannot consent 10 di.
vide the party, and sacrifice their expectation
Of power and emolument merely to secure ,hr
future liberty and happiness of New Mexico
and California.
When we read Of the princes OF Dahome,
or Gaboon entering the villages of thei
neighbors, burning their homes and %carryin!
off their people 10 be sold into perpetual Sla
very, none can be found here so s;olid or s
polite as not 10 shiver with horror at the tale
but when it Is proposed to open a new marke
for property thus acquired IN a vast t%erritor
which we found free, and by force of arm
have subjected to our rule, we find even i
the State of New York, a party unwilling t
l express any opinion upon the subject b
, which, as a party, they will be bound, lie;
they peril thereby their political fortunes.
7 is a saddening reflection, that with all tn
] political and social az advantages which are er
} joyed under American institutions, Their
: should be so little difference, morally, betwee
Gaboonism and Hunkerism, between the lea
4, ders in Dahomey and the leaders al Rome.