Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1857-10-10
Gbe Anti 5Iouerp BuoIr.
REASONS FOR sNoT SUPPORTING THE
REPUBLICAN PARTY.

The Associate Editor of the Reformer, give;
the following good reasons for not supporting th'
RepublicanFparty. lie goes for candidate OF
the Gerrit Smith platform
To me the so-caled republican party has never
possessed that character for high-toned politica
Observation-Disclosures may be said in favor Of indi
yidunls. or even candidates in t--that seemed nee
essary for an efficient instrumentali,y to do any
ching in opposition to the aggresslons OF the slave
power For years it has leveed all Its artillery, In
both state and national elections merely against
the spread of slavery in Kansas, ana what mas II
done1 Why, to read its organs and hear Its ora
tors one would conclude that even there slavery is
getting in advance of it all the time. And why is
this the case y Because it is nothing more than
mere compromiser. In 1883 1t began ana IN lts
creation it was the essence OF a compromise OF
wings and Freesoiers, the latter conceding many
of their cherished principles in order to form a
union whereby they could beat the democrats'-
Since then every year. in their state conventions
the republican party has been abandoning one po-
sition after another, until they now stand JUST
about where the democratic party stood from
J847 to 1850 or 1851 Then we free soiers OPP
posed the democrats for their pro slavery posluon
now many in Ohio who then acted against the
democratic party because OF its pro slavery posi-
ton, acknowledge that they are on the same
ground that the democrats ten years ago occupied
To me this looks like rapidly progressing back
ward. Is that the true policy for resormers to
practice? 1t don't look quite right. We should
he aporessors instead Of retreaters in reformato-
ry movements.
The Cincinnati Gazette (Republican) says;
"lf, therefore, the republicans are aboitionists
at this day. they are precisely what the democrats
platform of 1855, was the democratic platform
of 1850, so far as regards the question
of slavery There is not the shade of shadow
of difference between the two documents"
Where is the position Of the republican party
for instance, on tho temperance question? NO
where for anything the platform says they may
be with the democrats-they seem to have ignored
that issue entirely. In 1853 when the fusion OF
Free soilers and wings took place. the temperance
question was the entire ho6by-they had hundreds
of lecturers all over Ohio at an expense OF thou
sands of dollars-and so engrossed were they with
that issue, that they would not allow anything to
be said against slavery, if avoidable, in certain
localities, lest injury might result to the newly
formed fusion.
1t lis too true that the Pittsburgh platform of
1862 was not as radical the slavery question as
it should have been, but this modern republican
party has left out more than half the important
issues which even that celebrated document then
embraced. And to me the republican party now
seems in about the same relation to slavery that
the wings in the north in 1914 when they support
Clay--or certainly in 1o4S when they elected lay
lor-were in reference to that question And if
there would be nothing in the way to prevent
this party from sustaining either OF them Tor pres
ident Certainly either of them was as good as
Fremont and their northern friends made just as
warm anti-slavery speeches for them as Fremonts
did for him.
Some of the leading republican papers of Ohio
are open and undsguised advocates of the fugitive
slave law. This is the position of the Cleveland
Herald and certain prominent papers Of the
same party in Cincinnati are on the same ground.
A pro-slavery party, or one which acknowledges
the rghtfulness Of slavery anywhere, or the valid,
ity of its inhuman laws, never can nor never VIII
do any thing for the abolition of slavery.
Nationally the platform of the republican par
ty is far too low for radical an,i-savery men to
stand upon In the states also, it is the same. -
How is it? Last fall Fremont carried nearly all
the free free states but suppose the question
colored men might vote, how would it result p
1t was tried in Iowa, in August, and although the
republicans were in the ascendant by decided
majority the vote in favor of Tree suffrage was
comparatively mere handful. Political equality
say the leading republican papers, is not one OF
the objects of the party all they aim to do is to
stop the spread Of slavery nothing more. They
deny, also, that they wish to interfere at all with
slavery where it is. Mr.. Wimot, candidate of
the republican party of Pennsylvania, denies be-
ing an aboitionist radical, and says:
II hold that we have no power to NEEDLE with
slavery where it already exists in the states"
Is it not possible that in the course of human
events Judging from the past, that ere six more
years not few republican leaders may come to
where the democracy now is =? Stranger things
have happened.