Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1855-08-11
ANOTHER DEFENCE OF SLAVERY AND
THE UNION.

ANOTHER DEFENCE OF SLAVERY AND
THE UNION.
Rev. Robert J. Breckepridge, D. D. of Kentucky,
has we believe, been numbered among the gradu-
al emancipationists of Kentucky. But he seems
to have conquered his prejudices against the insti-
tuition, and comes to its defence with great zeal
and such logic MS so infamous II cause can afford
to its advocates. lie has addressed a long letter
to Charles Sumner, in reply to his last lecture dc.
livered in New York and other places.
Coming from such q source, for Mr.. Brecken-
ridge is unquestiona5ly q man of superior talent,
we resolved at once to publish it. But on reading
it over it seems to us too weak and trifing to be
worth the space it would occupy. We shall there
fore only make one or two short extracts to give
our readers u sample Of its character. 1t is a milk
and water affair entirely lacking in that spirit
which characterizes the out and out advocate Of
the Divine right of slavery. With Mr.. Breckcn-
ridge, slavery is right and it is wrong. But the
greatest Of wrongs is northern opposition to it,
The article Will be somewhat comforting to the
1oughfaces, the genus TO which the Rev. DR.. seems
to belong, but it will scarcely meet with more favor
from the Jealous slavery prOpagandists, than from
the abolitionist. The DR.. evidently thinks the
north has no right, moral, political or social, to be
opposed to slavery, and on behalf Of the South
threatens very largely in case any such opposition
is manifested.
Addressing Mr.. Sumner with something Of
southern grandiloquence, tho Rev DR.. says:
And yet, Sir, you, an American Senator, speak
ing in the name of that great Commonwealth in
whose bosom stands Bunker Hill and sitting in
I A. z~. e Nl,t ,oc Ct,toar,o, orI D.E;1t IL,
saw no hope for public liberty. higher than that
which rests upon the UEion Of these States, you
on American Senator, who have studied the past
and who fear God, allow yourself to bring the
whole force Of your character, your position and
your great gifts, to bear directly upon the point
at which alone it is possible to wreck the country,
and to destroy us all together! The very madness
Of the times assumes in you, its most frantic as
pect; and you openly ayow, that Slavery in Amer
lea, is u wrong so grievous and unquestionable
that it should not be allowed to continue,-nay,
that it should cease tie exist at once that a
wrong so transcendent, SO loathsome, SO direful,
, must be encountered wherever 1t can be reached,
and the battle must he continued without truce or
compromise, until the field is entirely won. Such
are your words, profoundly eloqueut-unspeakably
frantic!
Now, Sir, this means, neither more nor less,
than the edge OF the sword. Lay aside the rheto-
rio, and the simple sense is, grape and canister,
cold steel and stricken battle. Believe me, Mr..
Sumner, when | state two incts, one Of which |
know better than you do, and the other of which
you aught to know, better, perhaps, than | do
The fact, which | know better than you do is, that
whenever the very ~faintest indication of the set
tied purpose of the men of the North to follow
your advice becomes apparent to the men of the
fifteen Slave States of this union-a million of
armed men, will 3e ready to receive you and your
followers; and if you come not speedily thereafter
to execute your threats, your coming will not be
waited for; but they will seek you on the soil where
you now yainly suppose no danger will ever come.
The fact which you ought to know better than l
do is, that after two or three hundred thousand
men are arrayed in battle, on each side, it makes
no sort of difference as to the probable result,
whether one or the other party has the greater re-
serve Of physical force, left out of battle: because,
after two or three hundred thousand fighting men,
in the present state of the art Of war-everything
depends merely on brains. The sum of these two
facts is very clear; namely, if the North wants to
settle the Slavery question by the edge of the
sword, the North is in a very fair way to be per-
tectly g%ratifed; and when she gets what she wants,
there is at least an exceeding great probability
that the North will see reason to change her mind
very materially, as to the wisdom of that method
of settling that question.
What | say is, that it is no longer possible for
tho men of the North to open that question, with
out revolution, and without d~isloyalty to every ma
tional act and movement Of our past history; and
what | mean is, that they cannot do this without
so weakening and disgracing themselves, aud so
strengthening and ennobling us, that God, prosper
ity, fortune, and the hearts of the combatants
must feel the effects of the opposite conduct and
, position of the parties. To which add, in the
second place, that this conduct of the men of the
5 North, besides being a base political afterthought,
is o deliberate breach of faith, cemented by the
blood of our fathers; an ignoble r%etraction OF
y plighted honor and truth and justice; q calculated
e sacrifice of those of their own race, and lineage,
= and house. and blood, for those of a strange kin.
ll,o1 nnl u1ipna- Nritlopt n N " now nirpu m ctaDaa ar
additional reason, for so atrocious a peridy against
y plighted truth. And again, in the THIRD place, the
t a%trocity af that state of heart in which the North
4 presses this bloody arbitrament, under the settled
: belief that she risks nothing thereby, and that We
= risk everything; and the fervor of that state OF
soul, in which the South, reused by so much in
suit, injustice and danger, really does risk all
l. with a sublime purpose, TO the last man, to win all
o And then, IN the fourth place, add the sort of con
yiction, with which the two parties thus mutual
range themselves, in that deadly strife; and if you
a be as wise as you are eloquent-you may compre
h bend, what as yet you seem to have wholly over
i Ilooked-namely, the settled confidence Of the en-
tire Slave States, that they are fully able to maxi
II the men Of the North repent that ever they brok'
h constitutions, and forgot ancestral ties, and out
IS ragged national obligations, in order to ruin tel
"a millions of the most elevated race on the face 0
earth, upon the hazard-if not the pretext-o
beneftting the third part of that number, OF chi
N of the most degraded races in the world. You
will have battle--and that without truce or com
prOmise-and thatswheneyer you can reach US
and that until the field is entirely woR9 For m,
part, Sir, / would gladly shun that battle; gladl.
N give my Flood to arrest it, if 1t were begun. Fo
whoever lives to see that battle fought, will Sc,
70 one more example added to the multitudes which
already crowd the annals Of mankind, that they
II who boast themselves when they grid their harness
a on, are apt enough to wall when they come to pu
l-iit of,