Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1849-11-24

Letter from Harriet Maftlneau.
My DEAR -: We can think of little else
at present than of that which should draw you
and us into closer sympathy than even that
which has so long existed between us. We. on
our side the water, have watched with keen in
tcrcst the progress of your War of OPINION
the spread of the great controversy which can
not but revolutionize your social principles and
rcnovatc your social morals. For fifteen years
past, we have seen that you are " in for it" and
that you must stand firm amidst the subvcrsion
of Ideas, Customs and Institutions, till you find
yourselves encompassod by the new heavens
and the now earth of which you have the
sure promise and foresight.
Wc,-the whole population of Enropc,-arc
now evidently entering upon a stage of conflict
no less important i'll its issues, and probably more
painful in its course. You remember how soon
after the conclusion of the Napoleohic wars our
great Peace Minister, Canning, intimated the
advent, sooner or later, of a War of Opinion in
Europe a war of deeper significance than Ma
polcon could conceive of, and of a wider spread
than the most mischicvous of his quarrcls.-
Tho war of Opinion which Canning forcsaw
was in fact a war between the further and nearer
centuries, -betwcen Asia and Europc,--bctwccn
dcspotism and self government. The prepara-
tons were begun long ago. The Barons at
Runnymode beat up for recruits when they
hailed the signature of Magma Charta and tho
princes of York and Lancaster did their best to
clear the field for us and those who are to come
after us. The Italian Republics wrought well
for us, and so did the French Revolutions, one
after the other, as hints and warnings and so
did the voyage of your Mayfowor,-and the
Swiss League, and the German Zol Nercin,
and, in snort, everything that has happened for
several hundreds of years. Every thing has
tended to bring our continent and its resident
nations to the knowledge that the first princi-
pies of social liberty have now to be asserted
and contended for, and to prepare the a~sscrtors
for the greatest conflict that the human race has
vet witnessed. 1t is my belief that the war has
actually begun, and that, though there may be
occasional lulls, no man now living will see the
end of it.
Russia is more Asiatic than European. 1t is
obscure to us who live nearest to her where her
power resides. We know only that it is not
with the Emperor, nor yet with tho people,
The Emperor is evidently a mere show,-bcing
nothing except while he fulfls the policy or
pleasure of the unnamed power which we can
not discern. But, though the ruling power is
obscure, the policy is clear enough. The aim
is to maintain and extend dcspotism and the
means chosen are the repression of the mind,
the corruption of conscience, and the reduction
of the whole composite population of Russia to
a brute machine. For a great lapse of time, no
quarter of a century has passed without some
country and nation having fallen in, and become
a compartment of the great machine; and, the
fact being so, the most peacc-loving of us can
hardly be sorry that the time has como for dcci-
ding whether this is to go o~n,-whcthcr the
Asiatic principle and method of social life arc
to dominate or succumb. The struggle will be
no contemplate one. The great tarantula has
its spidcr-claws out and fixed at inconceivablc
distances. The people of Russia, wrctchcd a
home, arc better qualified for foreign aggression
than for any thing else. And if, within he
OWN empire, IbuSSlu kNoWS I'LL W pe lOOSc I'LL
; prccarious, poor and unsonnd, and with non
l but a military organization, she knows that sh
7 has for allies, avowcd or concealed, all the dcs
, potic tcmpcrs that exist among men. Not onl
3 such Governments as those of Spain, Portuga
Rome and Austria arc in reality the allies
, Eastern barbarism but all aristocracics,- It
4 self-seekers,-bo they who and where they ma,
1t is q significant sign of the times that terrific
+ rial alliances are giving way before politics
t atfinities ,-the mechanical before the essentil
union and, if Russia has not for allies the na
r tons that live near her frontier, she has thos
l men of every nation who prefer self will to free
g dom.
, This corrupted "patriarchal" system of SC
ciety, (but little superior to that which exist
in your slave States) occupies one half of tn
great battle field where the hosts are gatherin
for the fight. On the other, the forces are i'll
assorted, il-organizcd, too little prepared; bu