Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1855-11-03
THE ANTI-SLAVERY DUGLE.

i IL IL n N j . IL y
ment, by the two great political conventions of the
country, representing the whole people Of the Uni
ted States, assemble Mt Baltimore in 1852; and
how the heroic and generous Scott was rejected,
to bring into the Presidency one who might more
safely be trusted to defend and preserve and estab-
Itch it forever.
Nevertheless, scarcely one year had elapsed, be-
fore the privileged class, using some IF cur own
representatives MS their instruments, broke up not
only this Compromise Of 1850, but even the Com
promise of 1920 and the Ordinance of 1857, and
obtained the declaration Of Congress, that all these
settlements, SO far MS they were adverse to the
privileged class, were demonstrations usurpations
OF legislative power.
| do not stop to stigmatize or even TO character
ize these aggressiOus. OF what use would it be
to charge perfdy, when the losses we deplore have
resulted from our own im3ecility and cowardice ?
| do not dwell, as others so often and so Justly do,
upon The atrOcious usurpation of the government
Of Kansas by the Shareholders of Missouri, nor
even on the barbarous and tyrannical code which
they have established to stife Freedom in that
Territory, nor even yet on the fraudulent and ne
furious connivance Of the President with the usur-
pers. Nor will | draw into this picture, .lrcady
too darkly shaded, the personal humiliations which
daily come home to yourselves in the conduct Of
your own affairs. You are commanded 10y an I'M
constitutionallaw of Congress to seize and deliver
up the members of that privileged class their fU-
gltlNe slaves, under pain ot imprisonment ana Tor
FIXTURE of your estates. You may not interpose
between the armed stakeholder and the wounded
slave, to prevent his being murdered, without
coming under arrest Cor treason, nor NAV YOU
cover his naked and laccrated limbs except by
stealth. You have fought twenty years, and with
but partial success, for the constitutional right to
lay your remonstrances on the table of Congress.
You NAV not tell the freed slave who reaches your
borders that be is free, without being seized by n
Federal Court, and condemned, without a trial or
even an accusation, to an Imprisonment without
bail or mainprize, and without limitation of SEN
tence. Your representatives in either House Of
Congress must speak with bated breath and hum
BILE countenancc in presence Of the representatives
OF the privileged class, lest justice be denied to
your old soldiers when they claim their pensions,
or to your lnborcrs when they claim the perfor-
nance of their contracts with the government
The President Of the United States is reduced to
the position of a deputy of the privileged class,
e~mptying the treasury and marshalling battalions
and ships Of war to dragon you into the execu-
ton of the Fugitive Slave Law on the Ole hand,
while he removes Governors and Judges, at their
command, who attempt to maintain lawful and
constitutional resistance against them in the Ter
ritory of Kansas, The Vice President of the Uni
ted States and the Speaker Of the House of Rep
resentatives are safe men, whom the privileged
class can trust in every case. The care of the iu-
dietary of the Territories, and even Of the foreign
relations, is intrustel in either House to assured
supporters of that class. Protection is denied to
your wool, while it is freely given to the slavchold-
er's sugar. Millions Of acres Of the public do
main are freely given to Alabama, for railroads,
and even as gratuitics, while not a dollar can be
obtained to remove the rocks of He'll Gate and the
sands of the Oyerslaugh, or the bars in Lake St.
Clair or in the mouths Of your Lake harbors.-
Canada, lying all along your northern borders,
must not even be looked upon, lest you may lust
after it, while millions Upon millions are lavishod
in war and di plomacy to annex and spread Sla-
very over Louisiana. Florida, Texas, Mexico, Gu
ba, and Central America. Your liberty of speech
where is it? You may not, without severe rebuke
speak Of despotism in foreign lands, lest the slave
overhear you on the plantations Of the privileged
class, or the foreign despot visit them, in r%etalia-
ton for your unavailing sympathy. The national
flag, the emblem Of universal liberty, covers car
goes of slaves not only in your own view, but
haunts defiance over them in foreign ports. Judg-
es OF the United States Courts, safe under the pro
lection of the President and the Senate. charge
grand juries, in advance of any question, that OBJ
noxious and unequal Federal laws are constitu-
tional and obligatory; they give counsel to legisla-
tive bodies how to frame laws which they will sus-
tain, instead Of waiting to review those laws uhen
enacted. They even convert the writ of Freedom
to an engine OF slavery, and they pervert tht pow
er of furnishing Irregularities ommitte in their
presence into the machinery Of a tyranny as obi
Gus as that of the Star Chamber. The privileged
class in Virginia inprison your seamen in their
ports, in retaliation for the independence Of your
ItAeCutNe dutuOritles; anu you are ulltHIy III IL
doubtful struggle for the right to exclude the trait
fc in slaves from your own borders.
| will only ask, in concluding this humiliating
rehearsal, whether there is not in this favored coun-
try a privileged class; whether it does not stand
on an enduring foundations; whether it is not grow
ing stronger and stronger, while the unprivileged
class grows weaker and weaker; whether its fur
Their growth and extent would not be, not merely
detrimental, but dangerous; and whether there is
any hope TO arrest that growth aud extension here
after, if the att mp shall not be made now?
The change, that has become at last so necessa-
ry is as easy to be made as it is necessary
The whole number Of shareholders is only
three hundred and fifty thousand. one-hundredth
part Of the entire population Of he country. II
you add their parents, children, immediate rela-
tires and dependents, they arc two millions-one
fifteenth part of the American people. Slavery is
not, and never can be, perpetual. 1t will be over
thrown either peacefully and lawfully under this
Constitution, or it will work the subversion of the
Constitution, together with its own overthrow.
Then the shareholders would perish in the strug-
gle. The change can now be made without vio-
lence, and by the agency of the ball0t-Lox. The
temper Of the nation is just, liberal. forbearing.-
1t will contribute any money and endure any sac
rifces to effect .his great and important change;
indeed, it is half made already. The House of
Representatives is already yours, as it always
must be when YOU choose to have it. The Senate
Of the United States is equally within your power,
if you only will persis:ently endeavor, for two
years, to have it. Notwithstanding all the wrong
that has been done, not another slave State can
Eow come into the Union. Make only one wears
constant, decisive effort, and you can determine
what States shall be admitted.
From the St. Louis 1ntelli-oncer.