Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1856-09-20

'tO' 'I-N OuI lOolluOnY Htllln as DrlUnI
and clear as it was on that glorious morning when
Mrs Foster first ushered into being the Anti .Sla.
very Bnsle' uttering its war cry OF mo Union
with Shareholders"
AS respects tho arguments of Mr.. pryne / do not
think any of you after having passed such n crisis
as that to which | have referred need 90 to the
pills to show that you bear a testimony against
slavery. When our FRIEND gives such assurances
when he has stood for years side by side with YOU
in bearing up the standard of freedom throu oh evil
report as well as through good report" and sur.
wives a trial hour such rs the present, / fancy
that the strife and scrambling Of elections will
have but little weight with him. There is some
thing more needed than voting at the polls, to give
lorco and efficiency to his testimony against slave
ny, and when that something is Supplied, there
will be no need of his appearing once in four
years at a Presidential election 10 yindicatc his
claim to anti-slavcry character.
When the old king of Israel was permitted to
choose between war and rcstilcnce, he choose the
the pestilence, for he would fall into the hand of
God rather than into the hand orman. So | should
say to day if God permitted it to me. Let the pes
thence CONS, "lct us rather fall into the hands of
God" than into this Presidential strife.
Nor do | c,re whethor the Constitution 10 for
Slavery or against Slavery, that question need not
enter into the contemplation Of an anti slavery
man. ! think however we have had no very illus
,rious examples Of political purity. Our friend
seems to exult that lie is not a Fremont man, and
thanks God that he is not a sinner like the Dem,
Gratis. But have we had even in his own party
any very pure specimens of political integrity? |
doubt not he thinks of New York and the "radi-
cal abolitionists." But how long is il since Fred
Douglass disappeared from that constellation and
now there is another lost Pleiad in their heavens.
The corrupting influence Of politics is such that
Gerrit Smith himself could not stand the test.
He tried it and finding it impossible to maintain
his integrity went home to private life. SO we
have little encouragement to trouble ouI selves with
political action, and l should not have referred to
it, but for cur friend. | have called attention
to those two prominent men only to show that we
can but lose by leaving the high table land of
principle, and going down to politics.
There was a question raised by our friend who
spoke first, which l thiuk we might pursue, and
that is, the question whether the Republican party
is doing any good. Neither of our friends seems
willing to say that the party is doing no good. I
do not say there are no good men in the party
There may be men in Congress who are honest in
thinking they can do some good by holding their
places. Yet if asked whether these men are do
ing any good by their position, | would answer
no, but evil, and that to a ~frightful extent, !
should not except even the names mentioned here
though l quite agree with my friend Whitson, rs
to the merits of Charles Sumner, Joshua r. Gid
dings aid others. But their action and position
.. I'll - 49, H. III 4.
any intention of theirs.
But for the Republican party, WI might ere now
have had slavcrv abolished. Had not those OPP
posed to slavery gone into compromise we should
have had ten fold more national conscience than
MS it il. Just as, when we had uncappol the bot
tomless pit of slavery and revealed its abomina-
tons, and the smoke of its torment was ascending
more fearful thon the smoke of Tophet, and when
weeping and wailing and g%nashing of teeth"
were reaching the nations ear, the church would
spread over the yawning gulf her pontifcial robes,
to cover up the evil and stihe the nations con-
science, and thus prolong the horrible iniquity,-
so, also, when we had reached the nations con-
science and made the people almost ajhor the bar
gain their fathers made-and when they were
ready to obey the living God rather than the dead
IdtuclS, tio anu pollNlCdi pt'y, W htcp NHi
Texas or prevent some new encroachmel.t is of sla.
very, would declare that we must not interfere
with slavery in the States. And now. just as the
nation is half ready to dissolve the Union, n class
Of men come up aud declare the nation las always
been mistaken about the national com paot,-thot
Washington, and Jefferson, and those who framed
it did not know what it meant, that so far from
being what they thought it, it is Anti-Slavery and
worthy of all honor and support. Thus they
come forward and blunt the edge of truth. When
we talk of trampling this constitution in the dust
they meet US with bubbles about its meaning,
and then, when a Republican candidate is nomina-
ted they give their influence and votes to his sup.
port. Thus the church on the one hand and the
politicians on the other, have kept off the day of
emancipation. ] would not stand in the place of
the best politician for a single day for all the
wealth and honor that all nations could give; for
l believe, had the words of truth been spoken to
the nations heart without any Of these compro-
mi. es or new constructions, that long ere this day
the last slave would have been made free.
Before thcday of the Slaves deliverance comes
J expect eto see this nation tried ia n furnace
that will consume political parties like fax before
the dcvourihg fire. Our best political party is
ready to make compromises, giving up everything
else so the Missouri Compromise is restored-a
Compromise 50 vile that when it was made the
whole North agreed in its condemnation. Missouri
was only admitted after a long and bitter struggle,
and to prevent more fearful evils. Yet the best
political party we have to-day is willing to COM
pound with stockholders to get back the Missouri
Compromise. ] tell you Slavery will not be Grad
icated from such a nation witho ut 6 struggle.
Sometime perhaps the Republican party will be
ready to ask and will ask, "Why could not we
cast out this demon of Slavery?" The nation has
yet to learn that this kind goeth not out" but by
means to which both our Churches and political
parties are strangers.
haya DO lesitancv in snpinr Tint tho man who