Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1856-08-16
WHOLE NO. SGT.

lTaucr tO hDaHuOn 1t, Dut so many OF the slaves
ran off, that we had 10 return to the old method
! of securing them. | then endeavorcd TO Introduce
family worship and reading the Scriptures mor6,
ing and evening to the slaves and to the men
who conducted the coflles but the slaves were go
sullen and sleepy, and the drivers so profane
and frequently so drunk, that soon found
could he Of no service there. As a last effort I
tried my uttermost to induce them to remember
the Sabbath dny Tut the men said no such thing
! had ever before been heard of.-that the slave
trade knew no Sabbath, and the trader did not
care straw they used another and worse word \
Tor lt-and so after many faithful efforts had IL,
give that up also. II MY christian brethren had
sustained me, perhaps might have succeeded !;
but as was alone, with the world against me,
fear my feeble efforts will be lost"
Miss Williams: "You condemn. of course. tho
African saye-trade, do you not sir?"
Not at all, miss, not at all. We who support
and believe slavery to be right; have unwisely
lost great point by yielding to the assertion,
that the foreign slave trade is wrong. If you
Will examine the arguments urged against it, you
will find that they are generally directed against
Its abuses, and do not touch the vital question
ltselt. They condemn the practice of crowding
so many slaves together in the holds of the
vessels, without adequate food water, so that
many OF them perish the passuge the cut-
throat and piratical-ooking men who conductc,F
such vessels; and above all, the great fact that
Spanlards and Catholics frequently officers Of
the ships. and cruel in their treatment to their
s,rNesi 'iese are tHe great arguments against the
African slaye-trade.
I but that too, should have been reformed u
only as many were brought over as tho ships
could comfortably hold if the slaves were well
| fed and supplied with water; if Protestant Chris
tlans were officers of the vessels; then il Isl
PLAIN that the trade would be respectable, and
would probably have continued to this hour. It's
tne abuses OF slavery, and the savetrade, that
should be the object of our solicitude. If the
slave-trade is wrong, then it follows inevitably
mat slaVe-holdlng Is wrong too if you condemn
the one, you must also condemn the other; and if
you sustain the one, you must also sustain the
other.
Mr.. Jones said 81 think heard yod say
that you endeavored to reform the practice Of
hunting fugitive slaves with dogs. | suppose
sir, OF course that you tried to abolish it alto
getber."
No sir, not at all-not at all. The practice is
necessary aud proper. | know it shocks your
preudices to hear tI6 say so but little reflection
Will convince you that it is only prejGdict, nna not
reason that is surprised.
'lIear me then, for moment. 1t is right to
hold slaves--thdt IS setled'-laying his hand upon
the table. "Now that right cannot be enjoyed, if
every slave is allowed to walk off at his pleasure.
The right to hold, implies the right to recapture.
his being so, if one off, it is right to hunt
him. But you object, perhaps to the means used.
Dogs, however, are found from experience--the
experience of hundreds of planters and for
hundred years--to be the best means Of hunting
fugitive slaves But for them, many who have
escaped and hidden themselves in dense forests
and swamps could never be retaken. 1t is, there
fore, right to use dogs. | did so at first | put
wrem mus1les over their mouths but this put the
poor dogs completely in the power OF she fGgitives
they killed them fast as the dogs came up
with them. This was extreme cruelty to the dogs,
and was too, great waste of money, for each dog
killed, was worth. at least, twenty dollars. ID
made the dogs useless; l therefore .yoA off the
muzales.
"fhis branch of the business really needed
christian reformation, and still needs it. Those
who are engaged in ii, are too frequently low,
vulgar men very prOfane, and they actually des-
ecrate the Sabbath, by following it on that day.
therefore went into the business, hoping to re-
form it; but alas my brethren in the Ministry
did not sympathze with me. ] could not con-
vince them that | was right. l suppose, that
their minds were So full of prejudice against the
class of men who are engaged in it, that their
prejudices extended even TO the work isef-a very
common case"
Captain Garter said to Mr.. St. John: "Did
you ever have any bad luck, while you were out
with your hounds? 1t appears to me, sir, that
sometimes mistakes might be made that would be-
quite Unpleasant"
such mistakes do not often occur; but in
that business, as in all other human affairs" said
MIR. ST. John with sigh. "accidents will hap
pen. can never forget, that four or five years.
ago, l was out with my hounds, in pursuit
been infested for several days with something
greatly destructive to poultry and pigs +; it
was difficult to determine Nhclher the hayes
was made 10y negro or bear. I sAtns
fled myself, that the mischief done by a
negro; and came the more readily to
this conclusion, because Colonel Kimberly had
lost slave, largo athletic negro, a few days.
before. | determined, if possible to capture ,he
creature, because he seemed to be unusually behb
in his dc?redations; and his example rnisht eaxss
ks.nf a.ll otlA ~ 4
borhood. Accordingly | set out, one Saturday
morning at dag break with five good hounds II
was dark, drizziy disagreeable day. About
ten o'clock the hounds struck a trail; it was
along path that led through great forest.
The ground was nearly level, and thickly over.
grown with bushes these bushes and the ttees'
were dripping with the rain 20 MIKE matters
sill worse, my horse became lame Pie trail,at
first, was hard to follow; my hounds EahdereR
into by-paths, and then returned to the regular
track, that led directly west from the Mississippi
river. l should have told you before, that il was
N the northern part of Louisiana. My mind
vas as gloomy as the weather. While vas thus
ad, | thought of the hard task l had under
aken--to remove popular prejudice from voca-
ion, that is an essential part of the systens 90
lave holding, by showing the people, that all the
utics that grow out of slave-holding, may be-
,erlormed in christian manner, and by chris
ian minister. But one of my brethren in the
ministry in the country, sestainea me and he did
o in theory only That the Rev. Reason
'arbut, most pious minister-humble and filled
Gith the odor of sanctity
In the midst Of my goomest thoughts it oc-
urred to me with great force, that our system Of
laye-holding is sustained by great many Of ths'
hurches in the free states.
"Ile that is not against us is for Us.
Nearly all these churches condemn going TO,
heaters and dancing as sins; and do not condemn
.ayehoiding such 4: does it not follow that thew
egard slave holding as lighter matter than dan
ing or visiting the theater? 1t is either clearly
ght or grossly wrong.
"Assuredly, il northern ministers and churclr
ew bers really Believe that slkSeholding is
rong, they would not hide their light aader a
ushel.
"While these thoughts we're crowdihg through
y mind, cheering, sustaining, and encouraginA