Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1855-03-31
A CLERICAL DOCUMENT.

py the Rev. Henry Nj. Dennison VINO was 30 I'M
fortunate as to loose his property recently by the
decision of Judge Jameson of columbus After
the girl had been placed In the hands OF her CUR
dian, Mr.. Dennison arrived in Columbus and made
an imperative demand Of his property. Mr. Van
Slyke, her guardian politely declined a compli.
sncc. Then his Reverence went back to the Neil
House and issued the following address: 40 a
candid and honest public"
We omit the first part Of tho document which is
Biographical Largely detailing tho affection of
Rosetta to "Miss Alice" her mistress-and the oc.
ossion Of her being caught in a place so fatal to
slave holding rs Columbus proved to be. Proceed
ing with this topic, he says Of his friend who had
the girl in custody:
Gle thought by stopping in Columbus, where
he had once resided, and yet has many friends,
no might avoid observation, clustered under
what should be the sacred roof Of a private fam.
! lily. But alas in the merciless and maraudins
course OF abolitionism, no mans house is his cas-
te," and black women we're soon seen lowering
about the house like birds of illomen, and pres
entity the Sheriff OF the county appeared with a
habeas corpus, and by so infamous a prostitution
OF that writ of priceless value to a true Ameri-
can, and in spite of her reservations that she
did not want to be free, but wished to return
70 her parents and little Bessie" the poor
girl was forced away from her protector. on the
Sabbath day, and lodged in Jail. The next morn
ing she was brought before o court, and with n
mockery OF a trial, before time was allowed for
the attempt even to defend both her and her rights
guaranteed by the constitution to every citizen of
tho United States, she was declared free, and, be-
ing a minor, was put under a guardian, lest she
should exercise her liberty in returning to her
parents, and this when Almighty God has made
me her guardian, as l have ever been her best
earthly friend.
And now, after this simple statement Of facts,
u appeal to my fellow-countrymen of Columlu us
and Ohio, to judge between me and these men.
stealing Abolitionists. Who are the friends of this
poor child? Who is it likely is most attached to
her true interests, her master, or those who are
now, it is to be hoped, ashamed of their mean
ness in depriving as honestl and good q citizen
as themselves OF the humble friend Ct his dead
wife, and the faithful attendant of his innocent
child. thus calling in the majestic sanctions of the
law to give q color of responsibility to an action
tAat should sink its perpetrators to the lowest lev
Of OF the contempt Of every ingenious and upright
mind?
Who have sought really this girls freedom and
elevation In society, those who in defiance of all
right have placed the ward of another under a
guardian (forsooth) who is put over her to watch
with lynx-eyes lest, in obedience to every impulse,
she should make use of her freedom to return
home-a guardianship from which, when she
energies, she can never raise above the seryilitv of
your hewers of wood and drawers Of wafer -
or l, who designed to grant her most earnest
wishes in making her the fond companion and
cherished dependent of a beloved ohild2 Judge, |
pray you who sought her happiness. he who was
restoring her 20 the home Of childhood and the arms
of her parents, to her brothers and sisters, or the
kidnappers who have barbarously forced her from
the society of all she loved forever? Why, | had
understood that this last ruthless deed was the
special prerogative of Shareholders alone, and that
the abolitionists, those dear friends of the colored
race, detested nothing so much in the horrid in
sttutlon of slavery as the sundering of families
that 1t sometimes of necessity required But
what law, human and divine-what civil. social,
or moral obligation-what Constitution or Bible
what tie of affection or blood-will not t csc mis-
guided men or inhuman monsters, trample under
foot, it it stand in the way of their ungodly fan
n ticism Have they not encouraged slaves TO
run away from their masters, when Paul sent them
back?
Have they not scattered incendiary pamphlets
and sent willy and disguised cmissaries throughout
tho whole South, wherever, at least, the necks OF
their panders were safe from the halter. to excite
the lowest and most ignorant class of southern
people to discomfort, sedition and revolt? Have
they not thus. while adding 'bars of brass and
triple steel' to the shackels of the slave. done all
in their power to provoke a servile and internecine
war, a war that spares neither age nor sex in its
merclless fury against men MS patriotic, as moral,
as religious, and women as lovely in every relation
of life as the world can produce2
When the poverty of the slave stood in the wav,
have they not urged him to steal whatever had
been committed by u confding master to his trust.
and to suffer no consideration of duty, or love, OF
mercy to hold him back from the embraces of
his friends with white faces and black hearts.
who procured his freedom by such unhalIowed
means, only to allow him the most mental position
about their houses, or to wander as Il beggar in
their streets?
When the glorious Constitution Of our country
provided in its social compact for the preservation
of the rights of the South, have they not de-
nounced this great Union of the States itself as an
instrumental fraud and oppression that ought to lie
broken ? and have they not resisted tho whole
some provisions of the Fugitive Slave Bill with
chicanery, violence and blood? When the Ten
Commandments forbid the coveting and stealing
of a neighbours servant, and book of Leviticus en-
joined 1t upon the Jews to purchase their "bGnds-
mon of the eathen around them, who should be
their heritage forever" and the new Testament
repeatedly enioins upon slaves to be obedient to
their masters in all things" have not these same
men detied the injunctions of Holy writ, and pro-
nj iced the Bible a forgery, and God, if he sane.
toned such things, a tyrant?
l appeal to you, fellow citizens, to know if
all these statements are not truth and then I
ask you if you will continue, through your Leg.
~islatures and your administrators of Justice. to
permit, in default of your strenuous Opposition.
so dire n stigma to rest upon the noble. and
manly, and virtuous poplution of the North 4
from the actions of these deluded men, and these
unwhipped miscreants? If you persist in a
in all mournfulness, like n prophecy of Cassan-
sandra-be assured o day of retribution will {
come.
You or your children piN see this Republic d.
yided and its borders devasted by perpetual war.
born like yourselves upon free soil. | have spent
the years Of my manhood among southern men.
and know that every instance of tampering with
the institution of slavery alienates some true
hearted patriot from tina. Union which our faith
ers cemented with their blood. l know that S
personal rights are dearer to the people of the 6
south than the barren glory derived from n union
with strangers, from which too many already I
think they have nothing to gain and much to t
lose. q
And nowthat this growing dissatisfaction is 7
confined tn no one class Of men, but that it is shar- !,
ed in by the vicious and virtuous. the rich and the !