Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1850-04-13

! the Office Or would your Comeoutcr" scru-
pies forbid your taking or administering an oaths
Please address Box No. II, Vernon p. o., at
as carly period as convenient, and confer fa.
vor upon Yours respectfully,
+. w. MATTOCKS.
vRnSox, March 90, 1850.
MIR. +. w. MATTocKs:
Dear Sir-Your note of inquiry is duly re-
ceivcd, and hasten to reply.
l think have no Comcouter scruples"; If
l have, they will not 4" forbid" my either "ta-
king or administering an OATH" If the thing can
be done.
| An oath consider as neither more nor less
than an ordinary promise. When say. Thir-
ty days after date promise to pay to f. w. NJ.
or bearer, the sum of ono dollar and fix my
name to the writing am then under oath and
my oath is recorded; and no power on earth
can release me from that oath, "bankrupt laws"
to the contrary Notwithstanding.
II man signs a temperance pledge, he is as
much under oath as if Father Mathew or the
Pope of Rome had sworn hin, by oil the soints
in the calendar, and then recorded tho oath with
his own blood. Not only so, but whenever
man agrees that he will relate certain facts, or
when he relates them without 80 agreeing, he
is as much bound to relate them correctly as he
possibly can be.
Ifa man is under greater obligation to tell
the truth when he is what is called "under OATH"
then he is under less obligation when not under
oath. But obligation to speak the truth cannot
be lcsscncd, for whatever is less than truth is
falsehood; and n man is no more permitted to
speak than to swear falsely.
When one takes an oath as witness before
court, he is then bound to state whatever facts
he may know relating to the case then on trial,
because he has promised that he will do so; but
his moral obligation to relate them correctly is
not increased in the least by the oath.
If an oath is not limited, it is Of course unlm-
itcd in its bearing, and there is no power that
: can release ono from such promise. If q man
swcars he will support the Constitution of the
United States, he is just as much bound by his
promise after he becomes 4" Dsunionist" as
he was before he became such. If man ten
years ago sworc he would support the U. S.
Constitution, and did not limit his promise to
any time, he is as much bound to-day as he was
the day he sworc; and this is so, though he
may not have even ~ much as "votcd" from
that day to the pres snt time, and his obligation is
, no greater if he has both voted and sworn every
day since, and is even now taking the oath again
, for the 3,G50th tine his becoming q Disunion-
q list will not release him from obligation any
more than believing thing to bc white will
bleach it. The Devil pardon theological
j, tcrm,) is Just as much bound to tell the trItl
now as he was before he became tho "fathcr o
lies" and his becoming devil did not release
him from moral obligation.
AS man can never be permitted to speak
falschood, so he can never be allowed to do
= wrong act, and there are no circumstances tha
: can by any possibility place him under the leas
obligation to do so.
Though man should take upon himself thu
{ greatest oath that human superstition ever in
n vented, and in the most solemn manner imagina
c bic swear TO do thing which it is morall,
!. wrong to do, will his oath make it his dut,
to do the wrong deed By no means! A maj
cannot bind himself, neither is there any powe
in the UNIVERSE which can put man under a
oath binding him to do wrong!
y II one swears to support the Constitution @
= this country, and it is wrong to support it, h
! is Just as much bound to tranple it under foo
u as he would be if he had sworn to tranpie in
o stead of supporting it; while. the other hand
% if it is right to support it, one is bound to do S
h whether he swcars or not; for man is eve
{, bound to do right, and cannot possibly be boun
l. to do wrong.
e But hero the mischief lies men arc too al
"A to think themselves under greater obligation I
4, keep an oath, when once it is taken, than the
III arc to do right, whether they have sworn to d
!. so or not whereas the bond to do right and ne
to do wrong is the "golden chair" which bint
y the whole universe OF God together, and Meth,
=, oaths nor imprecations can weaken that bond
~ disannul the Obligation.
~ would shoot you dead" said supcrst
tious man to his noighbor, who had greatly O
Tended him on the first day of the week 9
n would shoot you dead yes, would, if it we
he not that fear to break GoD's HOLY SABBAl
DAY." AS though God looked upon the brea
nd ing brothers head as but mere trife comp
= red with the breaking Of tho Sabbath day in d
= ing it.
? A good man will not promise to do what
knows to be wrong, but much less will he do
hu If he swears to do thing which he thinks
Try the time is right, and afterwards finds it to
u, wrong, he is still under the same obligation
'st, koep the oath as before; that is, tho oath "
'n- not binding upon him at first, even though