Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1851-06-07

| think that if each one of you should be
asked whether he thinks Slavery to he an
evil, every one would answer, yes. There
would not be dissenting voice. Whoever
will look it through aud through from core to
skin aud back to core again, il in his Senses
will declare it TO be an evil, solitary, gaunt,
hdeous, with which we can have no synpa-
thy as men, no sympathy as republicans, no
sympathy as phlanthropists no sympathy as
Christians. How, such as it is, it has taken
root, how it has gained room, how It has cast
out liberty, this is the wonder. Against hu-
manity, as indeed ii is, against nature, against
the spirit of our history, against the breath of
religion, against the Constitution, against the
providence of God--in truth the world never
beheld such an anomaly
And it is interesting to know how aud in
what way it has lived and thrived, how it has
advanced upon us like the sea breaking
down dykes aud sweeping inward ON the
land. In every man there is an essential love
| of irresponsible power. IL is the same under
all governments, and in every nge; for Gov
ernments aud Institutions do not make men
dcspotc. AL men love irresponsible pow
er. Every man has kings heart beating
under his ribs, yes, a pOpe's heart beating
under his rbs-I have, you have. The feel
ing is, 1 will he master and you shall he SER
want; and when n man gets hold of this pow
er he holds on to il. This is the way mon
urchies are sustained and despotislns. The
power is held, and strengthened, and accu-
mulated till it becomes irresistible aud after
men become owners of slaves they feel like
holding Oh to them-they like the power;
and although Slavery came upon us in our
Colonial days against our wishes, yet, once
tasted, it is not strange that power became
sweet, and men desired to retain it, aud this
is the reason, ] take it, that American Slavery
has come to be as strong as it is. But there
were other causes for this. There was a
time at the formation of the Constitution
when it was thought that like the late SHOWS
in April it would soon melt away else there
would have been no such compromises of the
! Constitution as there were. But then came
II time when commercial profits became con-
nected with Slavery the cultivation of rice,
and cotton aud sugar became profitable and
then Slavery became rejuvenated; and al
though Christianity can do much to control
commerce and temper commerce, and does
do much, yet where the gains are large, there
is no power which can restrain il throughout
the ichoie community. Yet money is not the
root of all evil. All, no not money, God
forbid for what could we do without it p
But the ioue of money, that is the root, and
not any ordinary love either. like money
and we all may and ought to like il; but that
intense, burning, sou-absorbing love, that
love which leads men 10 bow down TO il and
worship it, such love as is due only 10
BROTHER or sister, or u mother, or wife,
such love as is due only to God, that is the
love men give to money. This spirit tends
to increase, and thus fur Christianity has not
succeeded in taking it away. 1t was Lord
Brougham, ! think, who said that where the
slave trade was so profitable as TO pay 300
per cent, not all the natives of the globe could
stop it; and when Slavery began TO pay
enormous profits, not all the power of Chris
tanity could stop it, especially when minis
| terS of the Gospel were found TO step in and
| baptze it and call it Christian. (Cheers.)
Not only was commerce concerned in the
augmentation of Slavery, but to-day com
nerce, both in the South and in the North,
is the bulwark of Slavery but for il no pow
or on earth could save it; but the love of
money blinds the eyes aud stops the ears, and
hardens the heart to all persuasions of truth
aud justice. At the time of the formation of
the Constitution, Slavery had not come to he
so profitable, and the Christian feeling, North
and South made leadway against it,
And now we come TO another reason of
the continuance Of Slavery, which is TO be
found in the development ofa political ele-
ment of power, whose seeds were sown in
the constitution without any foresight of
what the fruit would be. For, to a great ex-
tent, the framing of laws, and the making of
| constitutions is experimental. You cannot tell
beforehand how law will work. The Con-
stitution was built in one sense as men build
steaInship-they built il as perfect as pos
sible-ailer the best model, and yet they can
not tell certainly when it is OH the stocks
how il will sail. One ship from which the
best was expected lags behind, and another
outstrps all competitors. And so the IRA
mers OF the Constitution could not tell how
it would work till it was tried-they built it
after the best model-but some provisions
have turned out great deal better than was
expected, and some great deal worse than
was expected, it is TO he hoped! But this
one thing is certain, that the Constitution
was formed as bOnd.fde instrument OF lib
erty. Its trainers never thought that II would
be twisted into an instrument TO build up
Slavery. acqut every delegate, whether
he came from The North or the South, OF any
such designs. Not a delegate from the
South had the first purpose of establishing
Slavery. This Just compliment lwould pay
TO the South, aud shall have other compli-
ments to pay them before i am through.
Now, have we treated the colored popula-
ton as the spirit of Christ enjoins? Let us
first ask the South. We see there 3,O0O,OOO
slaves. Their rights as men are taken AWAY
their manhood is taken away. This idea
would have you feel. would burn it into
your souls. The wrong of Slavery is not in
muscles and bones-il is not that the slaves
are poorly fed or well fed, but il is that they
are chattels The radical idea of Slavery is
that the slave, who is man, is not man
that he is property, like piece Of furniture,
or brute. Christianity in the South has not
effectually protested against system which
deliberately destroys the manhood Of men,