Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1853-03-05

nOuT, prove tnle utSefUOU, Us W Vuit ous
the sources from which any one may satisfy
himself Of its truth.
will begin with certainly the ablest and
perhaps the most honest statesman who has
ever touched the slave question. When
JoHN QuINcr ADAMS first broke ground on
the Texas Question, he confessed his debt
TO the full and able exposure Of the Texas
Plot prepared by Benz. Lundy. Every one
acquainted with those years will allow that
the North owes its earliest knowledge and
first awakening on that subject to Mr.. Lun-
dy, who made long journeys and devoted
years to the investigation. His labors have
this nttestation, that they stirred the zeal
and strengthened the hands Of such men as
Adams.
Look next at the Right Of Petition. Long
before any member of Congress hnd opened
his mouth in ts defence, the abolition pres
ses and lecturers had examined and defend
ed the limits of this right, with profound
historical research and eminent constitution
al ability. So thoroughly had the work
been done, that all classes of the people had
made up their minds about il, long before
any speaker Of etninence had touched il in
Congress-. The politicians were little aware
of this. When Mr.. Adams threw himself
so galnntly into the breach, il is said he
wrote anxiously home TO know whether lie
would be supported in Massachusetts; little
aware of the outburst of popular gratitude
| that the Northern breeze was even then
bringing hin, deep aud cordial enough TO
wipe away the old grudge Massachusetts had
borne him so long. MIR. Adams himself
was only in favor of receiving the petitions,
and advised to refuse their prayer, which
was the abolition of slavery in the District.
lie doubted the power of Congress. Ills
doubts were examined by Mr.. William
Goodell, in two letters of most able and
acute logic, aud of innstery ability. IL MIR.
| Adams still ret aimed his doubts, IL is certain,
at leust, that he never expressed them alter
ward. When MIR. Clay paruded the same
objections, the whole question Of the power
OF Congress over the District was treated by
L. ID. Weld, in the fullest manner, and with
the widest research; indeed, leaving nothing
to be added. No answer was ever attemp-
ted. The beet proof of its ability is, that
no one since has presumed to doubt the
power. Lawyers and statesmen have tacitly
settled down into its full acknowledgement.
The influence of the Colonization Society
on the welfare of tile colored race was the
first question our movement encountered
To the close logic, eloquent appeals aud
fully sustained charges of Mr.. CnTisoli's
Letters on that subject, no answer was ever
made. Judge Jay followed with work
full and able, establishing every charge by
the most patient investigation OF facts. IL
is not too much TO say OF these two volumes,
thni they left the Colonization Society hope
less at the North. II dares never show its
face before the people, aud only fingers in
some few hooks of seciarinn pride, so Sc
cluded from the influence of present IDEAS
as to be almost fossil in their character.
The practical working of the slave system,
the slave laws, the treatment Of slaves, their
food, the duration of their lives, their igno-
rance aud moral condition, aud the influence
of Sonlhcin public opinion on their fate,
nave been spread out in detail and with
fullness of evidence which no subject has
ever received before in this country. Wit
uess the works of Phelps, Rankin, Grimke,
the Anti Slavery Record aud, above all,
that encyclopedia of facts and siorehouse OF
arguments, the Thousand Witnesses Of
Mr.. r. ID. Weld. Unique in nnti-slavery
literature is Mrs. ChiId's Appeal one of
the ublest of our weapons, and one OF the
finest efforts of her rare genius.
The Princeton Review, | believe, first
challenged the nbolilionists 10 an investiga-
ton of the teachings of the Bible on slove-
nv. Tint field had been somewhat broken
by our English predecessors. But in Eng
land, the pro.slnvery party had been soon
shamed out Of the attempt to drag the Bible
into their service, and hence the discussion
there had been short and somewhat super
ficial. The pro-slavery side of the question
Inns been eagerly sustained by Theological
Reviews and Doctors of Divinity without
number, from the half way aud timid filter
ing of Wayland up TO the uDbushing and
, melancholy recklessuess of Stuart. The
argumen! on the other side has come wholly
, from the aboliionisis. For neither DIR.
, Hague nor DR.. Barnes can be said 10 have
added my thing TO the wide research, crit-
cal ncunlen aud comprehensive views OF L.
ID. Weld, Berah Green, J. G. Fee, and the
old work of Duncan.
On the constitutional questions which
! have at various times arisen,-the citizenship
, of the colored man, the soundness OF the
, Prgg' decision, the constitutonality Of the
old Fugitive Slave Law, the true construction
I of the slave code,-nothing has been added,
either in the wny of fact or argument, TO the
=, works of jay, Weld, Alvan Stewart, Il. q.
= Loring s. T.. Sewall, Richard Hildreth, W.
3 ]. Bowdtch, the mastery Essays Of the
EmdncipaiOT at New York, and the IiberdioT
I of Boston, and the various addresses of the
0 Massachusetts and American Societies fol
: the last twenty years. The idea OF the anti
Z slavery character Of the Constituiion-th'
b opiale with which Free Soil fuiets It's coli
u science for voting under a pro-slavery gov
n ernIaent-I heard first suggested by MIR. Gar
: rison in 1893. IL was elabOyately argued il
y that year in all our Gnti-slavsry gatherings
Q both here and in New York, and sustained
o with great ability by Alyan Stewart, and j.
o part by T. ID. Weld. If il has either meri
Y or truth, they are due 10 no legal learning
recently added to our ranks, but to some o
Q its old and we'll known pioneers. This top
= ic has received the fullest investigation from
y Mr.. Lysander Spooner, who has urged !
y with all his unrivalled ingenuity, laborioul
= research, and close logic. He writes %