Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1855-06-02
For the Antl-slavefy Bugle.
LETTER FROM VIM. GO0DELL.

Mr.. EDITOR: The Anti-Slavery Bugle of the 5th
of May reached me this morning, and, as usual, /
have given it an early r%erusal, for l consider it
one of the best conducted and most liberal Anti
Slavery papers in the country, che that l could
not well spare, and none the less interesting TO me
because of the important differences of opinion
between us in respect to the best methods Of
carrying on the conflict with Slavery. That cir
cumstance only renders it the more important
that | should peruse it, and see what additional
light can obtain on that question. If am wrong
or mistaken in my measures | desire to find out
what would be better. If l am right, l ought to
know what objections are brought against the
views | advocate that | may be the better able to
remove them. And the courtesy with which you
have treated my views, and my little Jubilee
enchances always the pleasure with which | look
over your columns. For the first time since |
have received your paper. l now find in it an
Editorial concerning myself and my course which
gives me r~egret-not that l find anything to com
plain of you; but that l perceive you have felt
that you had cause to complain of me. In your
remarks upon Frederick Douglass speech, you
introduce my name, and say that "month after
month, in the American Jubilee" | 'charge that
the American Society has abandoned the great
idea of the emancipation of the slave, and is
seeking the dissolution of the Union as its great
primary object. You' complain therefore thai
the Society is Contaminated" know not to what
paragraphs of the Jubilee you allude. But
disclaim, utterly, any idea or intention of i,npeach
ing the notices or disparaging the aims of the Soci
ETY. or its leaders. All l intended to say was tina
dis solution is not abolition, that it cannot do thu
York of abolition, and that its ultimate 6earinS
on abolition at all, is at best remote and doubtful
that, in its effects. il is, of necessity, an enterprise
of gradualsm and postponement, that it would
be, on the part of the North, should they secede
an abandonment of the slave to his fate, with M
direct political aid for him from the free State,
and leaving him in bondage until he should lib
crate himself, as he best could.
Now, my dear Sir, these objections, whether il
founded or well founded, arc honest and sincere
| do verify believe, in my heart that the propose
to dissolve the Union between the free and tn,
slave States, is fraught with mischief to the slaves
And with my views of the Constitutional RICH
and duty of Congress to abolish Slavery, of thu
perfect ease and feasibility of doing it by tn,
I hOA y fOtS1 oAA Va tAS SOhsVHuNht uhN
political responsibility of the citizens of the Nortl
to do it. How can | help saying that they hav,
no moral right, in the sight of God, of the civil
lied world and of posterity, to abandon the slave
by q dissolution of the UniCn? Am / not morall
bound and have l not a corresponding right t
utter as earnestly and as impressivcly as l bes
may, my conscientious convictions of this sub
ject? And may not do it without giving offence
Abolitionists are out-spoken men, who use stron,
language to express their convictions, and VIII
should | be expected to be an exception to tn
general rule? When one Of those holding you
views told me, recently, in a Convention, that m
views sayored of insanity, when another of then
told me that it was not consistent with honesty t
~construe the Constitution as Ibid, and when AT
other insisted that Gerrit Smith and Williar
Goodell, by remaining in the Union with slav,
holders, made themselves ms pro-slavery in tn,
relation rs President Pierce himself, / took I
oifense. | understood them only as using stron
language to express their OVID convictions of II
moral incongruity Of my position. / would n
allow myself to believe that they meant to que
ton the integrity of my motives. Perhaps
might be an improvement in good taste, if son
, of us on both sides (ao! including yoUrsifJ .hou
: learn TO ute mildcr Language, cm willing