Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1854-12-30
THE PRESIDENT AND THE SLAVE TRADE

Mr.. Gi1dings, rs usual, has %manfully commenced
the Slavery agitation in Congress. lie made re-
Gently nm excellent speech ON the Presidents Mes
sage. The speech is published in the Globe, and
is highly instructive, as well MS entertaining. We
have room only for the following extract, relative
to President Picrce's favorable disposition towards
the foreign as well as the domestic slave trade.
Speaking of the proposition to revive and lcgalizo
that trade, Mr.. Giddings says;
The proposition is most reasonable, if the Presi-
dents doctrine be correct. If we sustain slavery,
it follows that we must sustain the traffic in slaves.
If slavery be right, the slave trade cannot be 1Urong,
and II we protect one We must protect the other.
1t is idle to pronounce him who sells slaves n
pirate, and hang him, and then turn round and
uphold and encourage him who buys and nogs
thcrh. We cannot sustain the President policy
without restoring the African slave trade. And the
movement in the other end of the Capitol for that
purpose was an effort to carry out the Presidents
doetrine, " was an important movement; one
Mat HAS excited wcnder and establishment through
out the Christian world. Captain Smith. now
awaiting, in the prison of New York, the time on
which he is to eS piate upon the gallows the crime
of slave dealing, has done no more than the Pres
ident and his friends now propose authorizing
every Amer;c IN citizen to do with impunitv. If
the Presidents's doctrine be correct and Just, this
man ought not to safer. If the Presidents ideas
he correct, the law pronouncing the slave trade
piracy is unjust and cruel. If the President be
morally innocent, Captain Smith cannot be morally
guilty. Nor do / blame the President so much as
some do for this attempt to restore the African
commerce. 1t is no worse, indeed it is not Sc
aggravated in some respects as the commerce in
slaves, now carried on upon our southern coast, and
in this district, for the sole purpose of encouraging
and sustaining slavery. Here, in this District, as
well as on the coast, we authorize the sale and
transportation of civilized and Christianized men
and women. We authorize the sale and transfer
of Methodists and Blptists, Episcop0lians and
Catholics, and even preachers of the gospel ar,
made merchandise. We authorize the sale and
purchase of the Savior Of mankind in the persons
of his followers. This traffic in Christians is
sustained by tie President and his friends; he
insists that we are bound to uphold it. Indeed
we have, under former Presidents, silently lent oui
national influence to encourage it, to obtain indem
nifty from Great Britain for slave dealers who were
far more deserving the halter than Captain Smith.
We legislate to encourage one and to hang the
other.
But my object in referring to these attempts to
restore the foreign slave trade was to exhibit the
Presidents silence in regard to it. He makes Nc
allusiOn whatever to the subject; and | shall await
with interest any movcment Of his friends in the
other House, and in this body. Will they, too, re
ccde? | am curious to see whether they will follow
the Presidents sileut example. In short, l am
anxious to learn the precise effect which the late
elections had on the advocates of sl. tcry in the
two Houses of Congress.
Sir, one other administration attempted to pros
titutc the influence and powers of the nation to
protect the c~oast-wises slave trade. 1t was the
Wing Administration of John Tyler. Ispcak not
of past parties to iniure the feelings of any one
and it would be no more than justice to say tina
Mr.. Tyler was abandoned ard rcpuliated by tn,
Wing party. Yet ], us a Wing, voted for him
God forgive me- When the victims on board tn,
slave ship Creole, in 1911, asserting that God hac
endowed them, too, with the inalienahlc right t.
liberty, took possession of the ship. landed on
British Island, and, by the magic influence of Brit
ish laws, were transformed into free men and FIRE,
women, the slave dealers, who richly dserved tn
halter, returned and called on President Tyler t
assist them in obtaining compensation for thci
loss. Mr.. Tyler (hOncst soul that he was( reall,
thought, as Mr.. Pierce does, and IS many member
of this body do, that slavery and freedom wer
based on the same moral and political principles
and he, too, like Mr.. Pierce, attempted to carr,
the doctrine into practice; but the people denounc
ed such ~inidelity to God, to our Constitution. an,
to mankind; and the press spoke out in thunde
tones; and Mr.. Tyler, Il slavcholier, had the grac
to rcccde, and leave the claims of the stakeholder
without pressing them farther. and to abandon til
doctrine since proclaimed by Mr.. Pierce at his in
auguration.
1t has been said with great propricty, that tn
principal distinction attained by the present I'D
ministration, consisted in the fact that it had, b
way of contrast, adle diyHiy IN that Of NJ. Tgic3
1t is certainly tue, that the present Executive la
assumed doctrines which Mr.. Tyler discarded.
shall wait to see whether Mr. Pierce will have tn
grace to r~epudiate them, rs his worthy predecesso
did, or will he, in the midst of this political storm
initiate the slilpr who, when the ship was going tt
pieces ullef directions of the captain for ever
one to seize upon something on which to fol
ashore, laid hold of the anchor and went dow
with it.