Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1855-07-21

or die if it must, by IL own local %enactments, You
have made manifest your purpose to nationali2e
Slavery in this Republic We now proclaim our
fixed purpose to denationaliSe it. Yea have broken
II tme.honored compact, when you can no longer
use 1t to advantage we now make your breach the
exodus of our people from the bondage of all COM
promises"
This, Sir, would have been our position, had we
been in earnest. The Nebraska iniquity was
only a single link in a great chain OF measures
aiming at the absolute supremacy Of Slavery IN
this Government, and thus inviting a resistance
commensurate with that policy and to cut down
the issue between Slavery and Freedom TO SO
marrow. equivocal, and half-hcarted a measure,
at a time when every considerations plead Tor
radical and thorough work, was practical infdelity
~ the cause and the crisis. ltWus sporting witt
humanity, and giving to the winds a glorious vic
tory for the right, when it was almost within our
grasp. it was, in fact, stabbing Freedom in its vi
tails, and closing up an artery in the Slave Power,
madly opened 10y its own hand which threatened
TO bleed it to death.
Mr.. Chairman, the view I have been enforcing
IS confirmed by the general course Of political
action against slavery. | refer, moro particularly,
to the party styling itself the Free Democracy. |
certainly would not speak Of this organization in
any terms of undue disparagement. l have my
self been recognised as a member of it, and have
trusted in it as an instrumentality likely to accom-
piish great good for the Anti-Slavery cause. Its
existence was n necessity, springing out OF Tho
proslayery serviNty of the old parties, and it
promised to destroy them, as an indispensa-
BILE preliminary to any effective help for the slave.
In this needed work Of destruction it has been sue
cessful to q very considerable extent, and so FAR Is
entitled to general gratitude. 1t has done excel
lent service in forcing thcSlavery question into gen
oral discussion, and sending to our National Leg
~islatlre some noble representatives OF its primer
pies, who gave it an influence it could not other
wise have expected. The controlling purpose OF
the party at its formation was the divorce OF the
Federal Government from Slavery, by keeping it
actually and rorpetually on the side of Freedom
and its members pledged themselves TO fight on,
and fight ever, till a triumphant victory shall re
ward their exertions. Young, vigorous. and with
ont claiming to be healthy" il went forth for a
season upon its mission, striking terror into the
Slave Power and its abettors, kindling the fires Of
agitation. drawing TO its standard the better sort
Of men in the old organizations, and wanting only
faith, patience, and fidelity, to insure IL glo-
rious triumph, in the fullness of time appoin-
ted by Providence for all great moral achieve
ments,
But. Sir, where row is the Free Democracy
Is it dead. OF only s~lceping2 Has its mission been
abruptly terminated, or has it yet p futureS Per-
hsps it still lives, but it has, ! know received some
terrible shocks from the combined assaults OF
Anita ebraskaism and Know Nothingism; and If
IL competent political doctor were called in, he
would probably find the patient in a state of great
prostration, accompanied by a painful difficulty OF
breathing. Sir, why is this? How comes it to
pass that men who had braved the prescription OF
the old parties and dared to stand for the right for
six or seven years, should SO suddenly grow weary,
and exhibit such eagerness for new associations
Whence came the strange infatuatiOu that has in
vested fnSioniSm with such charms, d%espoiling many
of the leaders of the Independent Democracy OF
their courage and strength, and causing its rank
- u. L., -l,1L 1slooN-orl- ,,t, 4lo 1orl- an,nr
of Know Nothingism, and identify their fortunes
with the mongrel and invisible hordes that rail-
under its bannerP And why should the Fret
Democracy die with theWhig and Democratic par
ties? 1t was delightful, l admit, TO see the en'
of these organizations approaching, after they ha'
SO long numbered the ground and cursed the caus
of Freedom, and | can readily pardon some act
Of indiscretion, even some degree Of Anti-Slaver
delirium, in the near prospect of an event so yer
prophetic of the good time coming" But GU
singular misfortune was, that instead OF borrowin
new life from the death Of these parties, instead c
absorbing their vitality as it ebbed away, and thu
rcinvigcrating our organization by appropriatin
it to our own life, we determined that our time
die had come also. Certainly! Why should not Ere
Sellers follow in the footsteps of their i~llustriou
predecessors ?"
To say that we would eight on, aud fight ever,
was a mere philanthropical flourish. Was not on
organization got up purely to worry and bedevi
the old ones to death, and not as a permanen
movement, designed to displace them ? Why SHOULD
we struggle against the immense odds that encoun
ter us, in the vain endeavor to bring the people ~
to our high ground? Why not come down from
our exclusiveness, freely affiliate with them, ant
adapt our action to their slower movement ? WIZ
not strike our colors, disband our little army, g
with the multitude, and commit the result to Prov
idcnce and the politicians? Such appeared to b.
the logic of hundreds and thousands Of Free Dem
odrats; and the result is, the disruption and dis
persion of the party, att time when both principle
aud policy demand its continued existence. | be-
here not to be misunderstood. | have never hat
any idolatrous attachment for this party. l hav
regarded it only as Il means and if | have beel
devoted to ii, it was because of my devotion to tn
great end which | believed it fitted to accomplish
| have never been so silly as to look upon the Ere
Democracy as "a great tree, on which all the bird
of the air must come and sit" or "a great net, i
which all the fish of the sea must be caught.
When Freedom shall have her final triumph it wi
probably not be under any single name, or in hoi
or of any exclusive leadership but by such a graz
ual diffusion Of Anti-Slavery truth as shall
length pervade the minds and sway the hearts
the people of these States.