Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1855-10-13

was to be made an instrument in raising tho en-.
shaved Africans 20 a knowledge of the industrial
arts and Christianity, and in the subsequent civil
zation, through them, Of the vast continent from
which they were originally taken. All this reas
oning, however, implied nothing more than tenn
porary state Of slavery, making it probationary OF
propndeutic, and not justiyng it as finality or
permanent condition. The motives assigned in
APOLOGY for it, looked to the future redemption of
the slave, to his improvement in the methods OF
civilized fe and of course to his restoration to
condition in which those methods would avail him
self and his race.
A steruer logic was required to meet the diff
culties of the problem, which was nothing less
than the reconciliation of selfish interest to uni
versa conscience-at all times q most embarrass-
ing affair. If slavery right because only of
its probable aud ultimate benefits to the slave
caste, the inference could not be avoided that the
time must come when that caste, or the superior
portions of it at least, might be emancipated. The
opponents of the Shareholders might justly taunt
them, on their own premises, for continuing the
system beyond the period requisite for the fulfill
ment of its alleged purposes. They might reason
ably demand that some definite term be put to the
time of this educationary discipline; that the sys-
TEN, in fact, should be resolved into species of
apprenticeship; and that the lot Of its enforced
benefciaries should be illuminated by some hope
or prospect, however distant OF final release. For
of what use to the slave to his race, would be
an education protracted to the hour of his death
Education is o means to some end, and where the
end is withheld the means is worthless. How were
negroes, taught the social arts here to benefit their
fellows in Africa if they were to be held here in
perpetual bondage? Why teach them knowledge,
which, in raising them individually above their
original savageness, could only render them more
keenly sensible that their outlook embraced no
future2 1t was hard for the Shareholders to reply,
and the bolder among them shifted their grounds.
They began to discover and to aver that slavery
IF Al. 49, ,al.,
ton of the two races-that negroes could never be
anything more, by the fiat of God than the sell
wants of the white man; and that society con-
structed upon this arrangement, in which the in
ferior should do all the work, and the superior
exercise the protection and guidance, (beside
enjoying the best fruts,) was the truest and hap
piest society that could be conceived 1t was a
hcaven-ordained socialism thoroughly articuated
and organized, effective and economical as an in
dustral machine-benevolent as q provision for
the poorer classes so woefully overlooked in other
societies, ample in its furniture of motives and
means for tke rpest culture in the higher classes,
and rendering the interchanges of life between
different ranks whose interests radically united,
a perpetual reciprocation of gratitude, affection
aud care.
With this change in opinion. from despairing
lament or feeble apology to positive vindcation,
came corresponding change in tactics, from de-
fense to aggression While tie greater part of the
n
system, merely as polite reaction against the
bitter reproaches of the civilized world as a
pleasant couleur de rose dreamand, into which
imagination might escape from the too painful
reality there were others, more daring spirits,
with whom argument was action, and of whom it
might be said
".--.Straightforward goes
The lightnng's path and straight the fearful path
Without caring whit for the right or wrong, the
good or evil of slavery or Of anything else, and
animated mainly by an Unsuitable thirst for power
and gain, they found it exceedingly convenient to
adopt the philapthropc theory. They eagerly
embraced the premises, and more eagerly shot to
the conclusion Slavery is good thing desra-
bic thing, benefaction and heavens blessing to
all concerned and ergo, ought not to be restricted,
but diAused! There was the whole question
Why limit so excellent social institution to the
few states that now baskng in its genial
beams? Why not spread the benefits OF it over
the North? Why he so cruel as to Withhold it from
the poor benighted Territories, or from languish-
ing Mexico, or from the wilderness shores of the
Amazon3 Or why shut off its natural supplies
from the teeming founts of Congo and the Gold
Coast
They were consecutive reasoners. you sec, these
fellows, and practical men. besides; and, accor-
dinghy, they set to work both to remodel the prin.
ciples and practices Of the South. Exploding the
old democratic creed, that man had inherent and
inviolable rights, which had been the inspiring
faith Of the glorious days Of the Revolution, and
trampling down the once cherished conviction OF
the sovereign supremacy of tho states, within
their own jurisdiction, and over everything polit-
ical which had not been conceded in many
words to the federal authority, they proclaimed
that only particular race of mon had rights, that
the states were nothing more than departments,
that slavery was the ono supreme and universal
interest, and that it might go everywhere and de-
1ieto II
was TO you We owed the breaking down of all old
and sacred distinctions, to you we owed our wars
for the acquisition Of new land-to you the spirit
OF ercroachment and aggrandizement winch is
abroad-to you the ilibuster expeditions which
disgrace our name-to you the fugitive slave law,
which converts frecmen into bloodhounds--to you
the incessant agitation OF slavery and insolence
which hangs the fate of the Union on a constant
subseryience to its behests And now, as the Ia
test step in this career Of conquest, as the very
coup de grace to our national freedom and the in.
dependence of the states, this erasure of an
ancient landmark, which had stood for thirty
years, like long line of coast, against which the
black pillows dashed themselves only to be brokenl
Grant this triumph and where will you stop? On
what remote boundary of our possible empirc, in
what era Of unknown time, will your god Termi-
nus erect his alarY Whittier shall we fly to es'
cape your frowns, where look for rescue from
your abhorrent denomination?
1t must not be forgotten, however, that this
small but desperate and determined knot of prop
agandsts would never have achieved tho inlu-
ence they have, if the political parties of the
country had maintained their primitive rectitude
aud honor. Had they continued to fight as Wash
ington and Franklin fought and Adams and Mad
ison fought, for principles and not small expedien
ces there is no local faction that could have made
head against them for any length of time. But
with success comes relaxation; whith victory, in
dulgence with prosperity and power, corruption.
Our parties having tasted the luscious spoils OF
office, made them the end of their life They lost
the stringency and serness of conviction, the no.
blenoss and purity of purpose, in which they be-
gan. They were debsuched, they fell into the
hands of men of small ambitions and cold hearts.
their creeds became the merest hodge podge OF
contradictory maxms, and their conduct series
series Of contemplate shifts and doublings, and
prostitutons. A late foreign writer, observing
from an impartial standpoint, and describing the
aspect Of our affairs says, with equal justice and
force Few things have more surprised the
world than the deterioration Of the political men