Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1850-05-11


TINT il required praise. The Corstitu-
ton has been published, think, aud most
of their audience have read or can read i'll
Is il not very strange that they cannot trust
II 10 speak for itself?-or that when they
have spoken for it, aud no one contradicted,
they cannot proceed TO something else P
They keep such n ding-doug about Support
ing the Constitution" One might imagine
it was some miserable, dccrepit old creature
tnat was no longer able to totteron crutches,
but must needs be held up on every side, aud
dragged along like q drunken loaier, on his
road to the lookup"
have somc considerable respect for tho
Constitution, and AIN sorry those who should
best understand II, think it so wet k as to re-
quire such continual bolslering up, a
propping and defending, u clustering, n
staggering, u blowing, u Dragging. Strength
should bring cahnuess! The consciousness
OF integrity should set folks at tlIoir ease
aud the nervous eagerncss with which these
gentlemen haste TO defend and laud the Con-
siilution, when no one is attacking 1t, looks
as ii they thought it very vulnerable. As adj
nlniscrcd and generally understood, there is
no doubt but it IS 80. Those compromises
II is said TO have made do really require some
defence. For instance, in going from Pitts
burgil to Cincinnati few weeks ago, there
was u woman on board onr boat WHO had
been purchased by the mau who had her in
cmrge for five hundred aud fifty dollars-as
much as would pay Congrcssman's salary
sixly-eight days She hud been sold :" for 10
fault" but because her master was in debit
She had left fjther, mother, brothers, sisters,
q husband aud three small children, one of
them an infant.
looked on her face with its haggard grief
Where Compromises were written in brief,
counted her tears as they fell amain,
Saying " Conn promises again and again.
thought of babe at n cabin door,
Where mothers shadow shall fall no moro
thought of the wisdom of this great land
Assembled togcthcr-a mighty band,
With armies ard nayies at its command,
With laundering cannon and cleaning swords,
And praying chaplains, and learned boards,
With their pompous words about Freedoms
charms,
As they tore the babe from its mothers arms.
The tears might have moved them. They were
but men,
But what of the Compromises thenl
looked on her palid check ngain-
On her sunken eyes with their scalding rain,
Aud thought Of tho husband far away,
She should meet no more at the close Of day;
fthc hearts all torn aud the hearth laid waste;
And, like David of old, 90 l said in minc haste"
Some things that fan would repeat below,
But the Compromises say plainly, "No."
Forgive my rhymiug Mr.. GREELEY. did
not mean TO do il but the case of this poor
woman affects me much; and sadness seeks
rhyme for expression. IL was looking on
this poor mother weeping for her children
that determined me TO come TO Washington.
l wanted to see what the descendants OF our
Revolutionary fathers looked like, when in
Congress assembled TO devise ways and
means for extending the area of such deeds of
Chivalry. 90 now into their great marble
wonder, and wander through its magnificent
rotundas aud halls, its lalyrinths of stairs
aud passages, gaze on its wonders. Of art and
before me at every turn fits up the shadowy
nppartion of that sorrow-stTicken face. see
the humble form of that servant-w woman
skulking hitler and tlither as though she
would escape to her children. AT every turn
mn impediment prevents! Then there is "a
dead, cold wall. There, in the open passage,
stands group of sentines! strange looking
too-children and plying men, and
kind-hearted women. There are
many of them who would scarcely kill a
worm, who would weep that poor bird
should be taken from her nestlings: but they
bristling bayonefs and naked swords, to pre-
vent the stricken mother flying to her child ! |
Why is il so? Why il the voice of Nature
and of God suppressed within us, and hidden |
10 be silent? Ii is that we may hear what |
he compromsers say; and how honorable |
gentlemen talk about few more compromi- |
ies. You, with the rest, MIR. GREELEY, in
inlge "a generous spirit OF compromise" 1t |
$ considered very pvaisewortlIy to do so /;
md no doubt you are a very clever man ;
]ut IN this matter your generosity does not
'ost you much. II is very easy for you, or
my other Northern gentleman, TO make a
low TO a Southern gentleman, and, in the
pirit of the " most generous compromise"
gree that he may tear mother from her
Iabes, and set her up on an auction-block TO
get money TO buy racc-hOrse or gold chain,
md Danish her forever from all she has
,Bown or loved. You are nothing the poor
n when the deed is done. 1t is the mother
md her children who are called upon to foot
he bill aud it not unifcqueutly costs one of
hem the last remnant OF life your former
had made scene of suffering aud
oil.
am little thick in the skull, and never
ould understand nice distinctions in eti-
uette and ethics When Mr.. HARRIS of
Icnn. rose the other day, with all lils powers
# oratory-a burning eoqueuce that requ-
ed those glasses OF water TO prevent its
ursling ont into n ilame-pleaded for the
igllts OF the s5ouih" just sounded 10 me as if
e had been saying, Gentlemen, we have
right--a nnlural and inaIienable right, 10
whip women aud sell babies. Our Revo-
lutionary fathers died on the battle field TO
establish the glorious principle OF women
and baby-selling. Our immortal
Constitution was found to secure TO us the ,
exercise otthese incstimnhle principles; and
!, Sir, ], Mr.. HARRIS of Tenn. do now pro- ,
claim myselithe yalorous champion of A.
merican woman-scourgng! Ii is our priv
ilege, Sir. We of the South, here, on the
floor of this House, claim the right to sell
Dur children with our sheep and oxen. We,
Sir, il is, who can, and do, and will sell