Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1856-04-19
From the A. s. standard.
WE WILL B YOU I

These are the Roman words addressed Nv Mr..
Douglas, rs the representative Of the Slayeocracy.
to Mr.. Summer, rs the embodiment Of the politi-
cal Anti-Slavery Of the country, in the Senate. not
long ago. 1t may not have been prudent in tho
champion OF Slavery to put his resolution into so
very portable II shape. Epigrems are bad things
tor politicians, because they stick so easily in mems
memories. But we do NOT think it very material
IN this case. The whole prestige of success in
Time past is on his side, and the chances of il still
holding good for the future are very promisins.-
we think that he tciH subdue the opponents Of the
admission Of Kansas as a Slave State. Ilo may
himself be crushed under the wheels Of the tri-
umphal chariot of Slavery as it rolls up to the
Capitol with Kansas following in chains. There
rs every probability that he will be. But the great
victory over the North will be won, and he can re-
tire TO Chicago as Scipio did to Linternum, and
complain to the voters Of Lake Michigan Of the
lngratitude of the country he had helped to save.
Rut we think she will be saved. The sacrifice of n
slrgin State to the monster we serve in this coun-
try will be completed, and we shall have an inter
val of gorged repose until itsappetite Graves anoih-
or victim.
The Republican party, which represents the pc.
lltical phase of opposition to the aggressioRs Of
Slavery, has at least Shown one sign of strategic
skill. 1t has taken the Macedonian pAalanx as its
model, and has made the poiRt it opposes to the
enemy to the very finest possible. Everybody, OF
all shades of opinion, and clad in the tattered
remnants Of the uniforms Of all possible parties.
nre welcome to enlist in its ranks; aud the plan of
the campaign is laid out with u iudicious economy
of Anti-Slavery expenditures. An manner of men
who are indisposed 10 let slavery help herself to
Kansas are invited TO join its banners and make
a stand against the fastening armies of the aliens.
Men who really hate Slavery like WADE of Ohio,
and men who only hate negroes, like the editor of
the Hartford CUurant, are TO stand cheek by jowl
and fight in this conflict. We don't know
that this is to be complained Of. 1t is the way in
(which parties must be made up. As Lord Mahon
well remarks, parties are like coin, which would
be never fl for common use without some consid-
cradle alloy of the bsscr metals" But VIC must
be pardoned for thinking that there is a more ex-
cellent way for the eHpendi ure Of Anti Slavery
energies than this. This may be better than moth
ing; but there is something vastly better than
this.
We do not believe that the Republican party
can obtain even the moderate ohiectit proposes to
itself. Even if it could, what would it amount to?
The Constitution Of the United States remains the
same Palladium of Slavery that it has always been.
All the Legislation which has been had under it
will still hold good. Slavery will sit en- permaHence
IN the Senate as it now does. The atoms NAV
change, but the personal identity will remain, and
1T would be still as impossible as it is now that any
substantial measure of Freedom should ever force
its way through that impregnable defle. The do
mestic Slave Trade would still 90 on. The Fugi-
tive Slave Law would be still in force. Slavery
would still rule us with her rod of iron, and the
day of the final victory would be as far off MS ever.
We ale glad that the Kansas outrages should have
excited even this degree Of antagonism to Slavery;
that there is this degree of spirit aroused by the
immediate sense of the wrongs which Slavery
scatters with an impartial Aand on the free as
g'ell as the bond. But we are only glad for those
TO whom this step IS an advance. To patients
suffering under chronic Whiggery or Democracy
it may be q wholesome shock, this blow in the face
Slavery has dealt them. 1t may be the beginning
of a genuine convalescence. But it is a terrible
stap l.lpt uvorH fnr n " npa ,rho nnoa etorI ~, ~ |
firm heights of Anti-Slavery, and one from which
it will be very difficult to recover.
We do not complain of the course of events and
of the difficulty and slowness with which the Anti
Slavery Idea struggles into life. For it is the due
course of Nature. 1t cannot approach its end ex-
cept by t%aiterinG footsteps at first. But let us be-
ware how we confound the beginning with the end
and take the uncertain footing of one who sees
men as trees walking for the firm tread Of him
that has received his sight. The Republican par
ty triumphant and seated in the White House, with
& clean majority in the House of Representatives,
would Slavery be materially weakened? Some of
her more gratuitous insults might be repressed, as
far rs We are concerned; but would the Slave be
81 substantially better off? Would the arm of the
master be shortened, the scent of the bloodhound
impaired, the grippe Of the kidnapping Judges and
Commissioners relaxed? The work an Abolition
lst proposes to himself is not principally the re-
covery aud defence of his own rights. He recog-
Misses 10 the injury which Slavery has worked to
these the just and necessary punishment Of his
accomplishing in the crime. lie will receive his
restoration to them as an inhering part of his re-
ward for having tried to make amends for the sins
OF his days of darkness; and he sees that even for
this subordinate and secondary result, so partial a
as the Republican party is entirely in
sufficient for the work. lie recognises in it q
symptom towards recovery, and not the sign Of en-
tire restoration to health.
One thing. however, is certain. Mr.. Douglas
may subdue the Republican party, and very likely
bat he can never subdue the Anti-Slavery
feeling, which'is the breath of whatever life that
has. Whatever attempts may be made, in
herent in the very nature of n political party, to
lower the pale of the Church SO that tho greatest
possible may be induced to slip into it,
still it is on an honest hatred of Slavery that it
must depend for what earnest service add for what
measure Of success it can look. This spirit will
not ole Of disappointment or failure. The Slave
will not withhold from it abundant food to
keep it alive and active. If this mode of express
ing itself fails, it will find another. A true soul
will never fail of a transmigration. AS for those
who cone into an Anti-Slavery party for what
they can get in the scramble of a success, it is of
no moment what becomes of them. Men grow in
&c wisdom By mistakes, and We think we can dis
Germ that it has made perceptible progress already.
This Republican party, far as it is from the ideal
OF an Ant+Siavery political party, is still, on the
whole, an advance on the parties of an AnG-Sla-
very complexion that went before it. From de-
and disappointment, which must needs be the
lot Of such men, even if they could succeed in
their immediate aim, many of them must 60 on
iroB strength to strength Many Of them, I'M
sxestiSnaNy. are ready for much more radical
measures, did they but see that the time had come
for them.
The-business of the Abolitionists is to ~criticise
all halfway covenants, and to spoint oat their in
bereuT weakness, and to shew the mere e~Iee&eat
way Politics are Of no svsal,except SO far az they
express ana project q State of mind. When the
saind OF the American people is made Up to be rid
@s Slavery. It viii very seen find the means of de-
IEg ii. Until 1t is SO resolved, all attempts to
check its excess rnusr be imperfect and disappoint-
Ins, The business of the AbJii6onists il thes to
the general minG-fo impress on it the de-
gree II its guilt in what it does and what 1t neg
Scots 10 DO in tins matter--4o show the deserved
penalty 1T brings upon itseif-Ghd to point out tire
eSaly ~suficlent deiiyerrncs. Slavery rs not to be
a3esshee-onr cwn completely is not 70 be shaken