Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1855-07-28
WHOLE NO. 5l2.
FROM The National Era
THE SLAVERY QUESTION.
IN ITS PRECISE RELATION TO AMERICAN PoIITIcs
Speech t.sticerrd before State Conrention al
Indianapolis,
yY THE non. c. W. JULIAN
lCoNTiNCEn1

H'"'u'uPOttSb
| W THE non. C. W. JULIAN
[roNriSrFpJ
i The spread Of our principles is the grand ol;ec,
and this insist, best be done by steadily mn
infexibly prosecuting high aim, aud trusting in
the power of an honest example to bring the peo-
pie ultimately to standard When we saw as
we thought tho Whig and Democratic parties pass
| ing away and proudly felt that these great bull
| warks OF Slavery mainly through our agency,
were at last about to be overthrown, we should
have remembered that their dsinteSration is ono
thing, and the organisation Of their fragments into
n new party, upon broad and welldefned issues
) is quite different thing. We should have remem-
bcred, in the language Of Whittier that waster
is the builder too and hat if the people were not
ready TO lay hold of fundamental doctrines we
could not fuse with them, but must uphold our
standard as the only means of drawing them to us,
or towards us, We thould have maintained our
ground, and beckoned the people TO come up and
possess 1t, instead of meanly deserving it ourselves
for some narrow issue, and then vainly expecting
them to advance beyond it. Instead Of dying as
an Independent organization, we should only havo
agreed to cease our seperate work, ON condition
of being translated into larger movement,
first committed to the essential articles of our
faith,
This, sir, has beon the fatal error of frpe Dem.
ocrats, especially here in the West. The truth is,
our party has been tainted with an unhealthy ele-
ment from the beginning. Some rather suspicioue
characters ofEciated at it's birth and baptism at
Buffalo, in 1913. We then took into our embrace
many who were as alien to princi pies as light
is to darkness, Native Americanism is to Anti
Slavery. fear we were swaycd then, as we have
sometimes been since, by measure of that expe.
diency which we had condemned in the old par
ties. We were estimated rs much, perhaps, by O
desire to have the multitude go with us, as by an
ovcrmastcrinS fidelity to cherished convictions
AS party, there is some reason to apprehend
that we have never been soundly converted. We
are too much inclined to worshi ip success, and we
decidedly prefer that it should be immediate. We
are not plenarily inspired with that earnest all
trusting faith, that becomes the genuine disciples
OF the TRUTH and that even gathers strength the
opposition to it increases Our zeal too often bazes
forth by spasmodc fits without any steadfast fer
vent heat within to sustain it. We easily grow
I disheartened at our numerical weakness and the
forces arraycd against us, forgetting that the real
power of party. justly considered lies not in
the numbers it can muster, but in the truth it
teaches, and the loyalty with which it maintains
it. In overlooking this fact, we arc led into per-
petual temptations, and blinded to the faith of
duty.
We are induced to overrate the value Of present
success, and thus to achieve it if We can, by the
'''sc rupulous acts of tho politician. The martyr
.isi s.cS outin our ranks; and as we descend,
Step by step, to the level of other parties and ep
rare sly enlist them on our side, we lose our dis.
tinctiyc character as Anti-Slavery men, and with
it our power to serve the cause, and thus find our
|
strength. By narrowing the issue we Ihad made
with Slavery, and incorporating the new princi plo
of hostility to Catholics and foreigners, our move
ment, in the opinion of some, has grown immense
ly in numerical power; by Incorporating the kim
dred and equally orthodox principle of hatred,
towards negroes still larger numbers might be en-
listed. But, in the mean timc what would be the
fato of the AutSlayery enterprses Sir, with
parties, as with individuals, it is character that
constitutes real strength and this must often be
obtained by the sacrifice of popularity and present
success Who has not witnessed the power of one
bold honest man, in making an unpopular cause
+ espected, and putting thousand enemies to
fight2
Character is everything. 1t is priceless; and
if regard it, if he is willing to sacrifice
all temporal hOnors and advantages, even life it.
self, on the altar of his fidelity, he gives to tho
world testimony that is worth more to the cause
he espouses than any temporary success could pos
sbly be, achieved by a compromise of his ntegri
! ty. lie shows forth example that will be an
everything fountain of inspiration and strength.
The real benefactors of our race have not been
worldly minded calcuators, who prudently adapted
themselves to current opinions or practices, but
bold and Independent spirits, who brave every
| form of peril and suffering in upholding a lofty
ideal of duty The world bears witness that they
have succeeded in the highest sense of the term,
and that the kind of influence men exert in favor
of a cause is far more important than the quantity
of it. Had the Free Democracy been ipfexibly
true to its best IDEAS had it maintained "a position
of immovable frmness, like rock in the bid
ding defiance to winds and waves, what glorious
tribute it would thus have offered to the cause of
Freedom! cannot pretend to say what its num-,
bers would now have been, Tut know that such,
an example must have been contagious, and that
our power, an Independent movement, would
have been immensely augmented. Instead of q
shattered organization, sinking into common /,
grave with the Wing and Democratic fparties and
dishonored by the meretricious embrace of Native
Americanism, we should now have found il germi-,
mating into life upon their ruins, knit together
as unit by tho intensity of common zeal for
Freedom, commanding its own fortunes instead of
committing them to the keeping of it's foes, and
thus holding in its own hands the destiny of our
cause. At all events, and moro than all else IL
would have stood before the country in the upright,
ness of genuine manhood, and with the resolve
of martyr to be true. Here sir, has been our
weakness, and herein is seen how poorly we COM
prehend the dignity of our cause, and how feebly
we espouse it. We desire to lean upon it,, whilst
pretending to give it our support.
We do not ally ourselves to it with perfectly
unselfsh devotion, resolved to stand by it, cost;
what it may, but our end too often is TO make IL
accommodate some private end, or to ADVANCE it BY
methods that shall not imperiously affect our world
I ly interests. Think of the early Confessof OF
asperation could inyent-mobbed pslted, hunted
down as outlaw a wild beast aud often fac,
ing death ITSELF and yet showing forth his fth IN
God and in the Truth through these fiery trialssnf
thus sowing the seeds of Freedom in suferngs
and sacrifices that absolutely necessary ~ ts
growth-think Of such heroism as this, aHf coh:
trast it with the course of the modern tiSlavery
politician dstrusting the power of his own prin.
ciplcs intent upon disarming them Of theif tapQp
uarity, perpetually deferring to the ruling inaY
ences of society, instead of bravely witAstaaIihc
them, and even blindly abiuring his creed, and en
i listing in the ranks Of Know Nothingism in ths
l. hope Of thereby Fastening the millennium 0s Free
C dom
It But must leave these reflections for another
Y topic. ! have apvded, incidentally, TO the new
iaitneltt in our politics popularity styled Know
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