Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1850-11-16

der is as much trnnsmissible by inheritance
as the right to enslave! II is plain to me
that IT is the natural duty of citizens to res
cue every fugitive slave from the hnuds of
the murshal who essays 60 return him to
bondage, TO do il peaceably if they can, forci-
bly, If they must, but 10y all means to do il.
| Will you stand by and see your countrymen,
/ your fellow-citizens of Boston, sent off to
slavery, by some Commissioner? Shall
see my own purishoners taken from under
my eyes and carried back to bondage, by a
man whose Constitutional business il is to
work wickedness by statute? Shall never
lit up my arm to protect him? When con-
sent to that, you may call the hireling shep-
herd, an infdel, wolf in sleeps clothing,
even a defender of slave-catching il YOU
will, and will confess was poor dumb
dog, barking always at the moon, but silent
as the moon when the murderer comes
near.
am not man who love violence. / re.
spect the sacredness of human life. But
this | say, solemnly, that will do all in my
| power TO rescue any fugitive slave from the
hands of any officer who attempts TO return
him TO bondage. will resist him as gently
ms know how, but with such strength as /
can command; Twill ring the bells aud alarm
The town; | will serve as head rs foot, or as
body TO any body of serious and earnest men
who will go with me, with no weapons but
their hands in this work. will do il MS
readily MS | would lift man out of the wa
ter, or pluck him from the teeth OF wolf, or
snatch him from the hands of murderer.
What is a fine of a thousand dollars, and n
iailing of six months, to the liberty of man?
My money perish with me, il il stand be-
ftvppn mo mud tho ateru,1 luNv Of CnI tr,gt
there are manly men enough in this house
to secure the freedom of every fugitive slave
in Boston, without breaking limb or rend-
ing garment.
One thing more think is very plain, that
the fugitive las the same natural right TO de-
ltnd himself against the slave catcher, or his
constitutional tool, that he has against MUIR
derer or a wolf The man who attacks me
to reduce me to slavery, in that moment of
attack alien0tes his right TO life, and if
were the fugitive, and could escape in no
other way, would kill him with as little
conlpunction as would drive II mosqueto
from my face. II is high time this was said.
What grusshoppers VIC are before the law of
men; what Golaths against the law of Godl
What capitalist heeds your law of usury
when lie can get illegal interest? How rnu-
ny Banks are content with six per cent when
money is scarce? Did you never hear of n
merchant evading the duties of q Custom
House? When q mans liberty is concerned
we must keep the law, must we? bctray
the wapderer, and expose the outcast?
1t seems to me very strange that men SO
misunderstood the rights of Conscience and
their obligations TO obey their country. Not
long ago, an eminent man tauuted one ofhis
opponents, telling him he had better adhere
to the higher law" The newspapers echo
cd the sneer, as il there were no law higher
than the Constitution. Latterly, the Demo-
cratic party, even more completely thun the
Wing party, seems to have forgotten that
there is any law higher than the Constitu-
ton, any rights above vested rights. An en-
inent thcologinn of New England, who has
hitherto done good and great service in his
profession, grinding off the barb of Calvin
ism, wrote book in defense of slave-cutch-
ing, on Conscience and the Constitution"
book which not only sins against the sense
of the righteous in being wicked, but against
the worldliness of the world in being weak
aud he puts the official business of keeping
"a compact" far before the natural duty Of
keeping a Conscience void OF Otlensc, and
serving God. But suppose forty thieves us-
semble on Fire Island, and make compact
| TO rob every vessel wrecked on their coast,
and reduce the survivors to bondage. Sup
/ pose am born among that brotherhood of
! pirates, am | morally. bound TO keep that
compact, or to perform any function Which
grows out of it? Nay, / ann morally bound
TO violate the compact, to keep the pirates
from their plumber and their prey. Instead
of forty thieves on Fire Island, suppose
twenty millions of men in the United States
make compact TO enslaye every sixth man
the dark mun-am | morally bound 10
heed that compact, or TO perform any fiInc-
zion which grows out of il? Nay, am
morally bound TO violate the compact, in
every way that is just and wise. The very
men who make such q compact are morally
discharged from it as soon MS they see it
is wrong. The forty Jews who bound them
selves by wicked oath to kill Paul before
9 they broke their iast--were. they morally
bound to keep their word? Nay, morally
: bound to break it.
will tell you portion of the story of I
Fugitive Slave whom have known. ] viii
call his name Joseph, though he was il
f worse than Egyptian bondage. lie was
"owned" by a notorious gambler, and once
ran away, but was retaken. Ills master pro-
ceeded TO punish him for that crime, took
him TO n chamber, locked the door and light
ed a fire he then beat the slave severely
After that, he put the branding-iron in, took
a kniie-I am not telling what took place in
Algiers, but in Alabama--and proceeded TO
cut off the ears of his victim The owners
wife, alarmed at the shrieks of the sufferer,
beat down the door with sledge-hamnier,
and prevented that catastrophe. Afterward,
two slaves of this gambler, for stealing their
masters sheep, were beaten so that they
died of the stripes. The Minister" came
T to the funeral, told the others that those
were wicked slaves, who deserved their fate;
that they would never "rise " in the general
resurrection, and We're not fit 10 be buried
, Accordingly, their bodies We're thrown into
hole and left there. Joseph ran away
again; be came TO Boston; was sheltered by
man whose charity never fails; he hal
heen In my house. and often has Morshipnet