Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1850-07-20

ancient Charter contains the glowing word
established by the consent of mankind, a
the foundation of all true government, whicl
Jefferson made our own:
"All men naturally were horn free, an,
were by privilege above all the creatures
born to command and not to obey earthl,
authority not derived from their own con
sent"
That Charter is in our hands. If we
erase all that out, and give the Charter bach
TO New-Mexico, a mutilated and lifeless
thing, we shall have repeated the crime o
the partition of Poland, the crimo of the
slIbyersion of the recent brief but brilliant
Republic of Italy; we shall have emulated
the Stuart who seized the Charters of the
free Corporations of England, aud thereby
lost throne, and shall have surpassed the
Guelph who interpolatcd tnxation, without
representation, into the Constitution OF
Britain, and thereby lost the Empire which
we enjoy. Sir, it would be an act so unjust
and SO tyrannical, that it would, upon the
principles of our separation from Great
Britain, work forfeiture of our title alto
gcther. Hear what the good Las Casas said
TO the Emperor Charles V. concerning
these very possessions:
Notwithstanding your grant of all this
country from the Pope, and your title by
conquest, you have yet no right over them,
unless you do, in the first place, as the prin-
cipal end, regard their good The reason is
that regard Is to bo had to the principle and
cause for which a superior or un universal
Lord is set over them. which is their good
and profit, and not that it should turn to
their destruction aud ruin; for If that should
be there is no doubt but that from henco-
forward that power would be tyrannical and
unjust, as tending more TO the interest and
benefit of that Lord than TO the public good
and profit of the subjects, which according
to natural reason and the laws of God and
man is abhorred and deserves TO be abhor-
red"
Sir, beg those citizens of the metropolis
in the State from which ! came, who have
requested me to vote for this hill, to consider
il in these aspects, and then TO "examine
me, and say how look | that i should seem
to be lacking in justice and humanity so
much as this fact comes to-"
But it is said that the ordinance of 's7 is
unnecessary in New-Alexico, and therefore
is an abstraction, and that it gives offence.
l cannot yield implicit filth to those who
assure me that the pecuiarities of soil and
climate in New-Mexico exclude Slavery
They are combined with other Statesmen
who deny that poiut, and this bill comedies
the point itself 1t expressly covenants to
admit Now-Mexico as Slave State IL she
shall come in that character. / cannot sur
render just and benevolent purpose to ar
guments which knit contradictions as close
ly as words can lie together. know that
there are Slaves at this moment in Utah, and
know, moreover, that the discovery of
few flakes of gold, or of few grains of
silver, or even of few clumps of coal, in
the unexplored recesses of New-Mexico,
would be followed by new revelation of
the will of the Almighty in regard to it.
Sir, perhaps those who excuse this meas
ure, can point me to tyrant who ever de-
priyed his subjects of what he deemed ne
cessary for them. Nero thought one neck
would be more than enough for the Roman
people when he wished that thay had but
one that he might destroy the body polite at
q blow. Perhaps they can point me to any
act comforting or declaring Human rights,
that was not an abstraction. Ii was observ-
cd by one of the founders of the Common
wealth of England that the PRONUNCIATION of
those rights had always
"Becn in terms not concrete, but abstract"
Our own experience is the same There is |
the Declaration of Independence, with its |
solemn recital of the natural equality of
men and of the inalienability of their es-
sential rights. There is the Constitution of
the United States, beginning with sublime
of the objects and ending with its
Jealous bill of personal rights. What were
these but distractions?
There is the same bill of rights in every
Constitution, and even the Constitutions of
many of the slave States hopefully assert
distractions of equality which for want of
only complete development of political
Justice, are not yet reduced to the concrete
by established laws.
Perhaps, moreover, tho apologists can
show me some act declalatory of Human
Rights that did not give offence. The tyrant
)f France took umbrage at the noble motto
which Algernon Sidney inscribed in the al
oum of the King of Denmark:
"Maas haec iai8,ica tyrannis.
Ease petit Procidam SAB Li6eytai Q,titen."
Nay; Algernon Sidney expiated with his
ife the offence of publishing, as mere abb
the fundamental principles of our
,wn Constitution. And among them was
he Wilmot Proviso, thus expressed by that
patriot;
"The liberty of one man cannot be limit
d or diminished by one or by any number
IT men, and none can give away the right of
mother"
Equal justice always excites fear and
therefore, always gives offence; otherwise
is way would be smooth and its sway uni
'ersal. The abstractions of Human Rights
ire tho only permanent foundations of socie-
y. Il is by referring to them that men de-
ermine what is established because it is RIGHT
n order TO uphoId ii forever, and what is
tgLd only because il is established in order
hat they may lawfully change il in accor-
lance with the Increase of knowledge and
he progress of reason.
The abstraction now in question, is the
ignt oi all the members of State to equal
'ollticai freedom. That is the Wilmot Pro-
lso that is the proviso of freedom, call il
y whatsoever name you will. Ii il ever
vas r!ght at any time, in any place, under
my circumstances, il is right always, in all
'iaees' and under all circumstances. Ii can