Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1856-08-30
For the Anti Slavery Bugle.
T. w. HIGGINSON'S SPEECH.

DEAR BROTHER MARius-You probably will re-
publish the very excellent speech of Mr., lIiggin-
son., made at Arlington, Mass-the LIST of August.
1t contains the following passage:
Take even this war in Kansas. The standard
of Freedom in Kansas is not what we would have
it; but take it rs it is and show me q parallel to it
in the history of tho world Compare it to the
American Revolution. 1t was a tax on tea that
drove cur fathers to revolution-nothing more than
that perhaps but mark you! that tax upon tea
was imposed upon hemselves-they were to pay
it. What tax has ever been imposed upon the
people of Kansas? What have they been called
upon to do that they did not want to do except
this one solitary thing? They were called upon
to do the very thing our fathers were willing to
do-the thing that your John Mitchels fresh from
the struggle for European freedom long to do to
hold slaves and they would not consent to do it.
1t is a new thing in history a revolution not to
escape from being slaves but to escape from hold
ing slaves. What isit-nothing else. The only
foundation foy this revolution in Kansas is that
there men are unwilling to hold another slave in
chains"
! wish for the honor of human nature that this
representation Of the Kansas affairs were true, but
it contains so much of mistake that Abolitionists
should take great pains to correct it. Nobody will
pretend that any power could force the emigrants
to Kansas to become s~lave-ow ners If they shall
ever stand in that relation to their fellow-men it
will be a voluntary act. They are contending
merely for the possession of the soil and for their
own selfish purposes and are shrewd enough to
perceive their own advantages in excluding the
slaye-owners from the territory. That this is the
true reason for their opposition to the extension of
slavery into the territory is very evident from the
eagerness with which they are willing to assist the
slave holders upon other soil. 1t is manifest more
over in the fact that they have studiously sought
to exclude the free-colored population from Kansas,
"A fact by the way which the Republicans endeavor
to keep out of sight, as | have heard several of the
most intelligent Of my acquaintances among
them almost deny, and affect to doubt it. 1t is
simply absurd to claim for the Kansas emigrants
that they are fighting to avoid becoming
slave-owners. By the endeavor in their funda.
mental law to exclude colored emigrants they com
mitted themselves to the doctrine that the stronger
party may rightfully Danish such would be resi-
dents as are obnoxious to them, and have no right
to complain of the carrying out of their own prin-
ciple. That their natural rights have been in
vaded and outraged is true and thus far they are
entitled to our sympathy, but not to our respect as
heroes battling for principle. In this respect they
will not compare favorably with many who were
engaged in the American Revolution. They fought
to establish the right of a people to govern them
selves. And on the score of outraged rights the
four millions of our coiored brethren have an i'm
measurably stronger claim upon us. regret
that this mistake has been fallen into by so glorious
a champion of freedom as Mr.. Higginson..
MARLBORO, O., August 20. A. BROOKE.
TIE SHAREHOLDERS POSTAGE BuLs.-Thc New
York Tribune says;
"The reduction Of postage was almost if not
quite the first measure that was carried by the
North against the South. The South generally
opposed it, because it was mainly for the advan-
tage OF the Northern States, and of commerce for
which they have the hatred natural to semi.ciwl-
lied communities. The Southern postage bills
had always been footed by the North, and the
Shareholders were afraid that the new experiment
might enure in some way to their detriment.-
Even the Empire of South Carolina, the land of
Brooks and Bludgeons, cannot pay it's postage
Dill by a matter Of S70,0 900 or more. Not a single
Slave State pays in postage what it costs to carry
its mail matter, excepting Louisiana, and that is
done by the Northern MERCHANTS established ip
New OrleanaD