Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1856-02-23
MARLBORO, Feb. II.
For the Bugle.
For the Bugle.
THE ANTI-SLAVERY MEMORIAL AND
THE SENATE'S ACTION.
A. BROOKE.

The first noticeable feature in the proceedings of
the Senate upon this petition is the ~unseemly haste
which characterized them, evidently denoting a
fOregone conclusion in the minds Of those who vet
pretended to take the subject into consideration
Presented in the Senate on the morning Of Satur-
day, and referred to the Com mittee on Federal re-
lations, the chairman of the committee Mr.. O. p.
Brown, of Portage county offered his report upon
it 'before the Senate took n recesc," according to
the record in the Columbian. This report COM
mences with the declaration, your ommittc have
given all the consideration to the subject of the
memorial thatits Importance demands" Whether
this be a truthful representation, let all who arc
concerned judge when the admission OF the COM
mittee in their next sentence, that the Federal goy-
ornment has its imporlections. is borne in mird, in
connection with the fact that a petition to ielicve us
of the guilt which an adherence to this imperfect
government fastens upon us was before them, and
was hurried out Of the way, in less than half a
day. If due consideration was given to the me-
mortal why were notthe petitioners and the public,
favored with n rufutation, or at least an attempt at
it, if some one of the various reasons assigned in
the document for asking the action of the Legisla,
ture ? Instead of giving these reasons q respect
ll COnslueThtlOn, anu, IL the petitioners were 10 De
denied the further hearing prayed for by them,
cmbodying in their report some show of argument
why the petition should not be granted, this com
mittee indulge in vague generalities, and branch
off into what may yet prove to be II misrepresen-
tation of public sentiment, in place of meeting the
facts and arguments presented, fairly and candidly.
The Inference which intelligent minds will neces-
sarily draw from such treatment of the subject
will be, that, unable to answer the arguments and
unwilling to allow this to appear to their constit.
uents, the committee, and the Senate by its en-
dorsement of the report, designedly lodged an
issue they dare not openly meet. Clothed with a
brief authority, these men forget they owe the OPP
portunity to exhibit upon a public stage even the
diluted quality of anti-slavery sentiment Of which
they make profession, to the abolitionis SITS, whose
respectful petition they treat with a contempt equal
to the actual rejection of it, which unlike the dem
ocra is, they have not the manly courage to venture
upon. Let those who did it be rem embered, and
this record Of their deeds be preserved for future
use. by all Of us who are not infected with that
~'loyalty to the confederacy Of these States, and
unfaltering adherence to the obligations of the
Federal constitution" which this report stigmatises
the people of Ohio with, by declaring it to be one
of their 'predominating characteristics" If we
but preserve our faithfulness to the cause Of the
slave, the time cannot be distant when these polit-
ical weather.cocks will indicate the prevalence of
the popular breeze from q quarter different from
that from which they now profess to revere it. By
the way if the people OF Ohio are really character
ised by untaltering adherence to the Federal Con-
s%titution, what means the utterance of such revo-
lutionary sentiments, even in the very courts of
the United States, as those proclaimed by JoliiFe
in his late argument in Cincinnati, and the APP
plause with which they we're there and everywhere
received The committe on Federal Relations, Of!
the Senate, will hardly venture to assert that what,