Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1854-01-14

sentence according to the statute, will condemn
her to imprisonment for not less than six months,
| 1t is crime, then, in the State Of Virginia ID
teach certain class Of the Inhabitants of the State
to READ and tEis too tho class who from theii
position in the social scale have the greatest need
ofinstruction. The penalty for this crime is i'm
lprisonmen for not less than six months, and fine
ut the discretion of the court. Now does amy man
in his sober senses believe that this- is crime
against the State?
N In late exchange paper we fnd under the head
'of news items" the two following in juxta-pOsi
tion.
Margaret Simmons has been arrested at Chga-
go for numbering her own daughter, aged IL years,
DIV beating and drowning her in atub. The mother
lwas intoxicated Mrs. Margatet Douglass was
tried in Norfolk, Va, on Friday for teaching
children to read and write"
What will be done with Margaret Simmons. re-
mains to be seen; perhaps sent to the insane ASYLUM
But Margaret Douglass is sentenced TO not less than
six months imprisonment. Can any man place
these two Margarcts in the position before the
tlawl The one murdered her own child this is q
crime against society and the State. Tho other
teaches poor ignorant children 70 read and write
Is this also crime against society and the State
What sort Of society, what sort of II State is tha
whore such an act is accounted crime to be punish
cl with imprisonment? What sort ola State is that
which deems such q statute necessary for its owl
Protection? Is It State founded upon freedom
Intelligence Justice. and virtue or State in whicl
the tyranny and barbarism Of past ages fingers un
der the forms ofa popular government! Tho Grau(
Duke Of Tuscany imprisous his subjects who rcat
the Word of God In their own houses, and also i'm
prisons tho female subjects ofanothor governmen
who distribute Bibles within his territory. A Nir
gna court imprisons tho citizens Of the State foi
teaching persons to read, in their private houses
and would visit scycror pcnaltesupon citizens from
another State should they attempt the same ?
Well we are thankful that do not live either il
Tuscany or in Virginia. whero such crimes agains
civilization, against liberty, against humanity
against both man and Cod are perpctratod in the
name oflaw.
We cease to wonder that statesman Of Virginia
could boast that in this district there was no news
paper, and that he desires none. Yet one would
think that even Mr., Wise would blush for the Old
Dominion. How can Virginia hold up her head in
coniedcracy of civilized and Christian States
And how long shall those States bo asked to hold
her barbarism in their fellowship? The free States
tax themselves in every way to educate all classes
of the people. and 70 maintain our free iustitu
ions Virginia makes il penal offence to teach
her most degraded inhabitants to read keeps on
her soil an ignorant horde, dangerous to the public
welfare, and then demands that we give up princi-
pie for such Union.
We commend the State of Virginia to the inn
mediate attention Of the Southern Aid Society. A
State of ample territory and of vast material re-
sources, settled under the highest auspices royal
flyor, and longtime blessed with an Episcopal
establishment, which after more than two centuries
is still to great extent missionary ground, depen-
dent upon aid from abroad for the support of its
rural churches and which makes il a penal offense
to teach the most ignorant and degraded of its in
habtants to read and write, has surely large claim
upon the sympathies and aid of those who have
undertaken to evangalize the South without refer
cnce to its local and peculiar institutions.