Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1855-07-07

tnCy DOunQ themselves 10 support tne ErOSScSt III
justice that under protense Of securing tho
blessings of liberty" they entered into n compact
for the support of Slavery. Their language in
the Constitution indicates nothing Of the kind, but
the opposite, aud there is no proof that their in
tentions were in conflict with their language. We
deem it therefore right and proper to construe the
Constitution as it reads and not rs the Shareholders
pretcnds that it means. And by such q construc-
ton the Constitution requires the Federal Govern
mcnt to abolish Slavery in all the States.
More than all this: we maintain that if il could
be proved las it cannot bel that our fathers men.
tally intended to protect Slavery, while their words
in the Constitution required its suppression, we
should still hold ourselves at liberty and under
obligations to use the constitution according to its
righteous intentions. If men use language for
dishonest purposes and with dishonest intentions,
it becomes the duly of honest men who may sue
coed them, and to whom their written Instruments
are committed to defeat such dishonest purposes
and intentions, If they can. by interpreting the
language according to its natural and just mean;
ing. Every enlightened and upright jurist will
thus decide, and the decision commits to the Fed,
eral Government u Constitution that binds it to
suppress Slavery.
We deny that the Constitution could have con-.
tanned any valid recognition of Slavery, because
there was never any legalized Slavery in the coup.
try to be the subject of such recognition. We
deny that Slavery can be legalized by any conceiv-
able process whatever. And aside from this, We
affirm that according TO the rules and maxims even
of Slavehold;ng jurisprudence and of the Supreme
Court of the United States, there nerer has been
any legalized Slavery in this country. On this
point we are ready to produce abundant testimony,
even from eminent Slaveholding i%urists and states
men themselves. And the whole history Of Sla-
very and the slave trade proves the statement to bo
truthful.
We affirm that the general structure of the Fed
eral Constitution, as well as its particular proyis-
ion, preclude the legal existence of Slavery, forbid
the States to maintain it, provide for the liberation
Of the enslaved, and authorize and require at the
hands of the Federal Government its suppression.
The powers of the Federal Government Ly the Con-
%stitution are amply dequate to this Object. And we
deny that the exercise of those powers for the sun
preston of Slavery would be any infringement Of
Constitutional State rights, or of any of the ere
served rights" of the States or of the people.
With these views of the Constitution of our
country we feel ourselves pre- pared for an aggres-
slye-not q merely defensiye-contest with the
Slave Power. We take our position accordingly,
and ask our fellow-citizens to do the same. We
sue for no needless amendments of the Constitu-
ton, requiring the concurrence of two-thirds of the
States. Properly construed, it already gives us all
we need. We attempt no dissolution of The Union.
The Constitution makes no provision for it, and
nothing short OF al revolution could effectuatc H.
We consent to no dissolution that would leave the
slave in his chains. We demand the Constitutions.
al deliverance OF the slave, and of the whole coun-
try, North and South, a deliverance by the peace
full ballot-box, and within the power of the non
shareholders of the United States. We seek not
to amuse, to console, or to delude ourselves or
others, with mere idle efforts to prevent the further
erten$ton OF Slavery, while admitting its COnstitu-
tlonal righttO continue Uhere IL already crisis. We
will consent to no compromise with the decievcr
that keeps no faith with its dupes; no compromise
with pollutions and crime. We yield not one inch
Tor one moment, nor on any conditions, to tho
control of the demon over any portion of
our country, or over a single human being over
whom floats our national flag. We are Ameri-
cans, knowing no North, and no South, no Slaves
and no.Siavc States. We are not Ionly Americans
but men, and demand that irrespective Of race or
complexion, all men shall be free.
Believing, as we firmly do, that the time to
maintain, to fortify, and to render effective this
high and commanding ground has fully come,
and that the occupancy OF any lower ground would
invite further aggressions and insure final defeat,
we r~esolutely take our stand on the platform al
ready defined. Our political activities must meet
the demands of our convictions. We can consent
to nothing less.
With our ideas of the nature of Civil Govern
ment, of our Constitutional powers, of our cores
ponding responsibilities, as Republican citizens
with our views of the common brotherhood of the
human race, and of the equal rights of our fellow
countrymen in bonds, the position we have here
taken rises high above any mere calculations of
expedients, avaiiabilities, or of exigencies, how
ever pressing and portentous. The ground we
occupy is to us HOLY ground, the ground of the
TRUE and of the IIGHT-the ground marked ont nv
the instincts OF our moral natures, by our relations
to our f%ellow-men, by oar allegiance to the COMMON
FATHER OF ALL; by the divine law of loving our
neighbOrs as ourselves. We feel that our PRAYERS
to Heaven for the security of our liberties, for the
liberties, of the non-slaveholding States, or of any
portion of our free Territories, would be impious
and offensive to a just God, the impartial parent
OF all men il, in act of offering such PRAYERS, and
putting forth our own effort to that end, we should
consent to leave any portion of our fellow-country-
men in bondage, entitled as they are, BY the or
ganic and supreme law of the land" to the same
freedom and protection with ourselves.
The moral government of God over the nations,
as revealed in the holy Scriptures, and as illustra-
ted in the page of universal history, furbids us to
cherish any expectation of securing permanently
our oon liberties or the liberties of any DO, ton Of
the nation to which we belong by any process
short of securing the libeties of each and of all.
The foundation principles of civil government
and OF civil law confirm us in the same belief.
The past and passing history of our own country,
and of the pending struggle between Despotism
and Freedom, ~testiies to the same truth, and as
sures us that there is no rational ground to expect
the deliyerance of our country but by a strict ad-
herence to the great principles upon which our
measures are founded. To these principles and
measures we cling. as the sheetanchOr of Ameri-
can liberty and We call on all the friends of hu-
manity, of the Slave, of free Institutions, of pure
religion, and OF our common country, to come up
to the rescue, and cast in their lot with us in this.
great struggle. Sink or swim, survive or per-
ish," we are resolved to go forward. Our panoply
is the truth. Our confdence.is in Him who is the
refuge of the oppressed, and in whose hands are
the destinies of all.
The Meeting seems to have been one of deer
earnestness and thorough purpose for tho over
throw of Slavery. We rejoice that it has been.
held, that this class of abolitionists are at last
really contemplating and have commenced to carry
forward a vigorous systOm of agitation. Hitherto,
with very few exceptions, those of them whose prac-
tice at the ballot box has conformed to their creed,
of the Anti-Slavery character of the constitution