Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1850-03-09


ers? A thousand times rather would YOU
see the partner of your bosom enduring Mr..
Clay's "heaviest sanctions" than bringing
ignominy upon herself, and covering her hus-
band aud children with shame and coniii-
sion of face, by committing crime so foul
and damnable Mr.. Mason, in his speech
insists upon the right of the hunter, "to en-
ter peaceably any enclosure or DWELLING
where such slave may be found, for the pur-
pose of taking him." Should this asserted
right be Incorporated into the compromise
bill, then may southern rlfliams aud north
| ern dOughinccs ere long be roaming through
our bed rooms and ransacking our closets in
search OF prey. Should an attempt be made
| to enforce "tlIo heaviest sanctions" for
which Mr.. Clay, is ready to vote, he may be
insured tho prisons in New York and New
| England are too few TO hold the vast multi
tide of men and women who would willing
" tenant them, rather than peril their souls
by bctraying the fugitive or assisting in his
capture. Mr.. Clay very kindly declines re-
quirng n private individual 10 make The tour
| Of his ichoic state" in search of n slave, but
lac insists that all tcho are present when the
game is started, ought TO follow the hounds.
Could he but enforce this obligation, we
should have some grand turn-outs in New
York aud New England, some like the one
fancicd by the poet!
Good luck to our hunters how nobly they
ride,
In the glow of their zoal and the strength Of
their pride
Tho priest with his cassock flung back on the
wind,
Just screening tho polite statesman behind
The saint and the sinner, with cursing and
PRAYER
The drunk and the sober ride merrily there.
Oh goodly and grand is our hunting to see,
In this Gland of the brave and this homo Of
the frcc!'
Right mcrrily hunting the black man, whose sin
Is the curl of his hair and the hue of his skin.
SO speed to their hunting or mountain and glen,
Through canc-brcak and forcst-thc hunters of
mcn!"
But the Constitution This instrument
] declares, in substance, that the fugitive slave
shall bc delivered up; but MIR. Clay, be-
| ieve, is the first lawyer who has commended
that the obligation of delivery rests upon
"privato individuals" Even Mr.. Mason, in
| his speech, insists that the mandate to deliv-
er up is "addressed TO the jurisdiction Of The
state into which the fugitive may escape"
OF course, individual citizens, as such, nre
under no constitutional obligation 10 yolun-
teer TO catch slaves. But suppose positive
law should cnjoin each individual TO betray
or aid in capturing the fugitive? the ques-
ton put by the Apostles, when lc"ally-foi
hidden to teach in the name OF Jesus, would
then recur: Whetherit ii be right in the sight
of God, to hearken unto you, more than I'M
to God, Judge yc." II is not merely the
right, but the duty of Christian to refuse
an actipe obedience TO any and every law of
man, which he believes contravenes the COM
mands of his Maker and then, like tine
Apostles, TO offer no forcible resistance TO
the penalties attached TO his disobedence.
Mr.. Clay may rest assured, that the bill of
pains and penalties promised in his 1th reso-
luton will not have the composing influence
he anticipates. Filling our prisons with pi-
ous, benevolent, kind-hearted men and
women, will have little effect in suppressng
agitation. In his compromising anodyne,
| Mr. Clay has omitted an important ingredi-
ent. Ample provision is to be made for the
recovery of southern slaves, but none for
the recovery of NORTHERN CITIZENS. If the
constitution gives the southern planter a
right to seize his slave in New York or Mas
sachussetts equally explicit is the grant TO
citizens of those states TO enjoy all the rights
of citizenship in South Carolina. Yet, if
certain of our citizens, freeholders and cleo
tors at home, think proper to visit that state,
u prison is the only dwelling they nre per-
mitted to occupy; and should the state TO
which they belong send an agent to inquire
why they are immured in Jail, and 10 bring
their case before the Supreme Court of the
United States, he is compelled to flee at the
hazard of his lfe
8. The last item of this grand compro-
mise is virtually guaranty that the Ameri-
can slave trade, vile and loathsome as il is
shall be held sacred from prohibition or OBJ
structon by the federal government for all
time to come. The stars and stripes shall
forever protect each coasting vessel thnl
shall be ffcightcd with human misery and
despair. and manacled coflles shall, without
molestation, be driven across the continent
from the Atlantic TO the Pacific. The slave
trade in the District, that is, in one single
market, Mr.. Clay pronouncos detestable,
and talks with horror of "the cortGges which
pass along our avenues of manacled human
beings" But why this sudden outburst ol
indignation against lawful commerce? Is
il dishonorabIe to sell merchandise? Has
not Mr.. Clay himself proclaimed "that Is
property which the law makes property 7!
WHY does he dishonor the Washington
man-merchants Is it base TO buy and sell
human beings? Mr.. Clay forgets that this
detestable trade" is, in fact, supported by
, the gentlemen breeders who sell and the
gentlemen planters who buy. But this trade,
, which is so detestable," and these coteges
, which are so horrible on very little scale
are now to nssume national importance,
, protected and sanctioned by the government
OF the whole republic!
) Such sir, is the mngnanimous compromise
! which so many of our wing and democratic
f politicians, now that the elections are opeT
J and the solemn pledges made in favor OF tn
> Wilmot proyiso, supposed TO be forgotten
r are willing TO accept as mighty boon Il
4 human rights, and mighty barrier agains
0 the further encroachments OF the slave pow
: err In my cars the only language addresse
: by these eight resolutions, to the north,
r. lie cry of the horse-leech-eIYE, GIVE. N