Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1850-01-26
From our Philadelphia Correspondent.
PHrLAprIrurA, Jan. 7th. 1919.


PHILADELPHIA Jan. 9TH, 1910.
My DEAR FRIEND Jules Lechevalier, the
London correspondent of The New York Tri-
bunc, speaking of the very complicated political
and social condition of France as contrastod with
the United States, smiles good.naturedly at the
inexperiencc of our youthful society, which
supposes the "secrot of stability in America TO
lie in the mechanism of our Constellation" and
then proceeds to show how very little this has
to do with the fact. He says: 4" If you had in
America moro than 1900 years of fcudal tradi-
ton; if you had three or four dynastic factions
engaged in dispute for power; if, instead Of
being people under the influence Of Ctristidn-
Hy C) and He Bj6ie, you were skeptics and athe-
lists; if instead of being the children of IyIQiaD,
Penn and the Pilgrim Fathers, you wero the
sons of Voltairc and Didcrct; if"-and he con-
tnues adducing a variety of circumstances, such
as the vast extent Of unsettled country, the alb
scnce of State Religion, the spirit Of great en-
tcrprises rather than of philosophical controver-
sy, as tho real balancing power in the notion.-
But what struck me most forcibly in this excel
lent paragraph was, the acknowledgment that it
is the North-thc free North-that alone has
any tangible existence to Europeans. In the
sentence italicised, you perceive that the very
existence of a civilized people South of Pennsyl-
vania is virtually denied. The writer quoted
above might conccdc, with shrug of the shoul-
dors, as did the Frcnchman when urged to ad-
nit that spite of all, this was great country
-" yes, it is rery idrye;" but still, all tho vi
tai force lies North of Mason and Dixon's line,
and what is recognised below that, is known on
! ly to be dcspisod. Then, is it not singular and
sad both, to witness the blind fanaticism with
rupt, bcggarly South-how she loves to pay her
postage, feed her armies, and be ruled by her
boistcrous dcmagogucs? Let us rejoice, howev-
or, in the rapid spread of disunion principles
principles of justice and love- Let us work for
the glorious future; and docs it not lie in the
bosoms of men and women who believe in it :
What docs the South do to forward this-to
keep alive the Promcthcan fire. She asks us
to wait centuries in passive state, on the
ground that Slavery is providcntial, and provi-
dentially expansive, too
Yes, a crisis is fast approaching which will
far exceed in grandeur that of the American
Revolution, inasmuch as it will be in reality
what that only profcsscd to be. This crisis be-
ing past, the country will "spced her way" un-
trammclcd by any weight. Let those doubt or
cavil who never indulged hope beyond their
own narrow individual interests. There is n
spirit abroad that no opposition can stay. The
timid and unbcleving may fall in the rear,
(morc's the pity for them y there arc enough to
lead the van tho that were forlon hope. Yes,
enough, and such souls as for a profound en-
thusiasm and truly religious zeal have not
trod tho earth since Christ bore his to Cal
vary. Postcrity will smile with broader, and,
it may be, moro contcmptuous smile than that
of our friend of the Tribune, at the tcnacty with
which the living North clings to the dead South
at this fanatical worship of the Union and tho
Constitution. by tho way, it is my opinion that
if Lcwis's Free Soil and Slavery Map could be
more extensively circulated it would do cheap
anti-slavcry preaching. 1t ought to be got up
in better style, and on as largo scale as Pei
toms, for the use of schools. No matter if, in
the dark shading of those vast regions given to
Slavery, the children discerncd with difficulty
the names of cities noted only for their slave
prisons and their hired patrols, who at noon-
day go the rounds with a cat-o'-ninc tails to
whip women at dollar head, OF the names OF
rivers whcreon no citizen may sail unqucstion-
cd as to his business the impression made on
the mind would be just one, and considering
the tcmporizing manner in which this fact of
slavery is CLOSED over in our school geogra-
phics to suit Southern latitudes, exceedingly de-
sirable. However well acquainted you may be
with the relative proportion of slave and free
territory, this gloomy area, stretching so far
South and West of the Ohio, yet fills tho mind
anew with astonishmcnt. Oh, the mystery of
iniquity! the ort-sightedncss of sclhshness 4!
G.. b.