Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1850-04-06
The General Government a Dcspolism.

/ am opposed 10 tho extension or slavery
into territories now free, because | am or
posed TO dcspoiism throughout tho world. /
admit that this government cannot preach
crusade of Liberty into other States and ma
tons, much as she ahlors tyrants and ty-
rauny. There she can only mourn over It's
existence. But when the question of gov
ernmcnt is within her CONTROL and she per-
miis dcspotism TO exist, aud aids its diffusion,
she is responsible for il ia the face of tho
| civilized world. and before the God of Lib
| eriy. In my Judgment, not only the slave
States but the General Government rccog-
nzing and aiding as il does slavery, is des-
potsm. i do not use tho word in decln-
matory, but strictly legal signifcalon. That
government is despoiic where the rulers
govern subjects by their own mere will--by
dccroes and laws enianating from their un-
controlled will, in the enactment md cx-
tension of which the ruled have no voice,
and under which thuy have no right except
at the will of rulers. Dospofism does not de-
pend upon the number of the rulers, or the
number of tue subjects. IL may have one
ruler or many. Rome was n despotism un-
der Nero; 80 she was under the triumvirate.
Athens was n despotsm under her thirty
years tyrants under her four hundred ty-
rants. II has been generally observed that
| despotism decreases in severity with TIE
humber of dcspois; the responsibility is
more divided aud the elsiIna more uuuier-
| ous. The triumyers, each demanded his
| victims. The smaller the number of sub
Jects IN proportion 10 the iyrants the moro
cruel the oppression, because the less dam
erfrom rebellion. In this Government, the
free white citizens are the rulers; the soyc-
reigDs as we delight to be called. All 9TH
ers are subjects. There are perhaps, some
seventeen millions of soyereigns and sono
four millions of subjects.
The rulers and the ruled are of all coIors.
from the clear Caucasian tribes to the swar-
thy Ethiopian. The former, by courtesy,
are called white. The latter black. In this
Government the subject has no rights, So
cial, political or personal. lie has no voice
in the laws which govern linn. He can
hold no properly. His very wife and chill
dren are not his. His labor is another's. lie,
and all that appertains TO him, are the nbso-
lutte property of his rulers. lie is governed,
bought, sold, punished, executed, by laws TO
which he never gave his assent, aud by ru-
lers whom he never chose lie is not
scrf merely, with half the rights of men like
the subjects Of despotic Russia but naked
slave, stripped of every right which God and
nature gave him and which the high spirit
of our revolution declared inalienabie-
which he himself could not surrender, and
which man could not take from him. is lie
not then the subject OF despoiic sway?
The slaves OF Athens and OF Rome wcrp
free in comparison. They had some rights
could acquire some property; could
choose their own masters, and purchase
their own freedom; and when free could
rise in social and political life. The slaves
of America then lie under the most abso-
lutte and grinding despoiism that the world
ever saw. But, who are the dcspots? The
rulers of the cOunIry--the sovereign people!
Not merely the STAKEHOLDER WHO cracks the
lash. lie is the Instrument in the hands of
despotism. The despotism is the govern
-ment Of the slave States, and ofthe United
Suites, consisting Of oil It's rulers--ail the
free citizens. Do not hook upon this as
paradox because you and | aud the sixteen
millions of rulers are free. The rulers OF
every dospotism are free. Nicholas OF Rus
sin is free. The grand Sultan of Turkey is
free. Augustus, Antony aud Lepidus were
free while they dronched Rome IN blood
The thirty tyrants; the four hundred; the
three thousand, were free while they bound
their couDtymen in chains You, and ],
and the sixteen millions are free, willie we
fhstcn iron chains, and rivet manacles on
four millions of our fellow men; tear their
wives and children away from them ;-sepa-
rate them; sell them aud doom them to per-
petnal, eternal bondage. Are we not then
despOts-despots such as history will brand
and God abhors 3-Speech q Hon. THatideus
!Steuens.