Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1854-03-18
LETTER FROM J. MosHER.

DEAR MARirs; Permit me, through the columns
of the Bugle, to make few remarks and give my
opinion on the subject of non-purticipancy in the
use Of slayc-grown produce.
have regretted exceedingly the position of such
men as Garrison Pillsbury, the Fosters, Treat and
others, names which / honor and revere for their
constancy and pcrsevcring opposition to the slave
power; that they should fall so far in the rear on
this important subject. If understand their po-
stion correctly, they are not willing to adopt a
theory which it is impossible to reduce to practice
in all its minute details. It here it seems to me-
that they do err. Not that / would charge them
with Inconsistency to their duty; but it does seem rs
if they had satisfied their conscences, and pred-
Gated their conclusions upon false and untenable
premises.
They admit it to be wrong and sinful to support
this prc-slavery Government, by voting or holding
Office according to its Constitution and laws. am
with them here. But do We not, in many ways.
directly or indirectly, give it our countenance and
support Do we not pay our taxes, to avoid the
sacrifice Of property? Is there not tax levied
annually, upon the printing press and apparatus
to the Office of the AntiSayery Bugle, and paid by
the Executive Committee into the Golfers of the
State treasury And is net our money taken,
more or less, to swell the funds Of the National
Treasury? Did not we, by and through the chan
nels of commerce. help to build those slave pens or
prisons in Washington, and furnish our quota Of
the monies taken, to keep in readiness the army
and navy of the United States to quell slave insur
rectionsl
admit We do not do it voluntarily, but from the
force Of necessity that it is difficult to avoid it,
and retain home for our wives and little ones
within the precincts of the Government. Yet we
are not willing (like many Free Soers,) to aban-
don our premises, in consequence of not being able
to carry them out in all their mnutia and cease en-
tircly from supporting this pro-slavcry Govern.
ment
Then why any moro inconsistent for free.labor
men to cease purchasing tho blood-stained fruit Of
slavery, in consequence Of not being able to extr
cate themselves entirely from save-grown produce
We might as well abandon our disunion views be-
cause we cannot entirely extricate ourselves from
the guilty Government. In the language of Jos
Treat to Whittacre, "Is it right to support the
Government at all ? if nay, then why do itY We
support the Government every day-at home OF
abroad, in what we cat or wear, or in buying the
land we till, in paying duties taxes some way OF
other; and if it is right to support the Govern.
ment, then why make such noise about other
people supporting it? ?" cannot see, for the life
of me, why it will not apply to us in supporting
the Government with equal force, as to those who
are trying to abstain from the voluntary use Of
slave produce. On neither horn of the altar would
/ hang my hope; but encourage all to abstain az
much as lies in their power from countenancing
supporting and sustaining slavery in either way
and if we cannot walk over the surface of the
earth dry shod, is that any excuse for wading anC
plunging in mud and miro to our middle, or ever
to our necks and earsi 1t does appear to me
there is heavy responsibility resting upon all VIII,
are making no efforts TO extricate themselves from
the participaney in the crime of holding thei
fellow beings in hopeless bondage, by buying
selling eating and wearing the price of their blood
By so doing, that is, meeting the slave produce
trader or merchant at the landing. or depot, Will
money in hand, to buy his cotton. sugar, rice, coi
fee, molasses tobacco. &C., and paying him fjr Tn
same, we become participants with him in tn
crime Of slayehOlding, and furnish the means, tn
funds, which keep the system moving. 'Tis lik
the handspring to watch or weights to clock.
is money, money, and that too, Of northern an,
British freenen, which enables the shareholders
sustain and perpetuate that dark and diaboiica
system 1t is tho SaOScy which they obtain in es
change for their cotton, &C., that enables then,
: ply the lash to tho poor cotton picker II Is In
money OF northern freemen, with which they pa,
chase slaves; hire oyerseers to drive and viii
them; the slave traders to bay and sell them, wit
all the brutal aud hcartrending scenes copnecte
: with this dreadful trafdcf and romunorate th
manufacturers for forging fetters, chains thumt