Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1856-03-29
For the Buglr.
ANTI.SLAVERY POLITICS-PAST AND
PRESENT.

For the BugIr.
ANTI-SLAVERY POLITICS-PAST AND
PRESENT.
No intelligent abolitionist, it is presumed. will
desire to ID dispute that n the ranks of the Repub-
lican party are to bc found many excellent men,
whose sympathies are entirely enlisted in behalf
of the outra ged slave, and whose political efforts
are impelled by the belief that THEN tendency is to
promote his emancipation. The extreme sensi-
tiveness to criticism upon their measures, or their
men, INDUCED in by many of these, gives evidence
of the existence of q conscience i'll at ease with
the position in which they ind themselves placed
by their political connections. Satisfied of their
own anti-slavery desires and intentions, and fJr-
getting that n party must be judged by its profess
ions and acts in a collective capacity, rather by
the private wishes and motives of its individual
members, when the principles or policy of their
party as thus exhibited or assaulted, they feel per-
sOnal.y illused, and change insensibly to them
selves from phalonthropists into partisans. And
thus it will continue to lie with them until they
adopt II standard by which to judge of right, or
wrong, irrespective of the motive of the actor.
Meantime this exhibition Of sensitiveness is a most
uoptlul - mplpiu' Il cNcT tllS Rullty ultlOu Dt
lifted up from the deep degradation into which it
has been plunged by the completely of all its parts
with the sin of slaveholding, its elevation must
come through the cultivation of a higher conscien-
tiousness in the individual.
In the present crisis, a most Instructive docu-
ument might be prepared, in Il concise history Of
the political anti-slavery movement, from the for
.oation Of the Liberty Party in Ohio in 2S40,
tracing it through all its various phases, and the
compromise of principle accepted by its original
members, up to the present time. Some competent
and impartial person who has acces, to the mate
rial necessary,-the resolutions passed at these
anti slavery political gatherings, and the speeches
made thereat,-would confer a vast benefit by
bringing together the testimony afforded by these,
of the continually descending steps which have
been taken by those who have adhered to
the party, through all its changes in the strug-
gle for popularity. Those members of the old
Liberty party in particular who now feel agrieved
Mt the fidelity with which Aboltiionists feel called
upon to deal with the short con.ings of the Repub-
licans, would have their memories refreshed by
such a publication, and in reviewing their own
wholesome denunciation of the True Anti-Slavery
Party" as the wings of a former day were sell
designated, they would find abundant example for
the liberty which Abol.tionists now assume to-
wards each other.
The signs of the times indicate that the concess-
ions already made to "the dark spirit Of Slavery
by this party, are deemed yet insufficient by those
leaders who have assumed to direct them, and a
still lower deep yawns to receive them. In the
recent Convention at Pittsburgh, who but an actual
slave owner from Maryland was found worthy to
preside over their deliberations? And next in the
sequence of events We have the disgraceful pros
tration of Ohio at the very feet Of the slave power,
in humble and utter subserviency to the infamous
Fugitive Slave Law, with a Republican Governor
at the helm, and a Republican Legislature in ses-
sion, Republican Judges occupy the bench of the
Supreme Court and all powerless to prevent the
catastrophe! Why this inactivity of the Execu-
tive, Legislature and judiciary of the party SO loud
in its professions of hostility to Slavery ? Why
this ineHiciency, this completely in the enslavement
Of several human beings, whose lawful claim to
freedom in spite of the Constitution of the United
States they dare not deny and therefore were bound
to defend ? Was it through wan! of power to
avert the calamity Then what becomes of the
argument so often thrust upon us, that all we!need to
secure human liberty, is a different administration
of the Federal, Government, and not its over
throw The reply, that the Fugitive Slave bill
though unconstitutional must be obeye1 until it
is repealed, or annulled, by a Supreme Court will
not suffice, for this leaves the State government still
chargeable with dereliction of duty, in negleeting
to improve the opportunity afforded by this case
to test its constitutiOnality. Independent of the
claim of the State to the custody of the adult slaves
upon .the charge Of homicide, the authorities were
US much bound to Interfere to prevent the. removal
and consignment to slavery of those who were
proven by the evidence to be entitled to their free
dom, as they would have been if the requisition
had been made for the children Of Gov. Chase.
The converse of the old proverb "where there is a
will there is a way, would express the true reason
for this delinquency. The Presidential election is
approaching and the interposition of the sovereign
ty of Ohio to protect the acknowledged rights of a
few humble negroes, might jeopardise the success
of a party that now finds itself il Il position which
renders it covetOus Of the support Of Slave owners,
and prepared to court it by arts irrcccnoilable with
the virtue Of consistency or the call of duty, The