Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1857-05-09

r.,o, ro,Id Ale out. The earliest continental
Congress U7T4)-thc first union OF the provinces
that was ever held-accordingly agreed to q dis.
continuance of the slave trade. In the original
draft of tho Declaration Of Independence, that
trade was stigmatised as "a cruel war against
human nature, "and the paragraph was Withdrawn
only by the instance Of South Carolina and
Georgia, not then prepared to abandon tho traffic
forever. BY 1854, Massachusetts and New Hamp.
shire had abolished slavery Pennsylvania, Con.
n%ecticut and Rhode Island had secured personal
liberty by statute to all the future natives of those
States Naw York, New Jersey, Delaware, Mary
land and Virginia had prohibited the further intro
ductiou OF persons claimed us slaves the last two
had repealed the old colonial laws against man.
omission 10y individuals and ut the close OF the
war, the last continental Congress proclaimed that
the war Of independence, then successfully closed.
had been a WARRIOR what ?-the rights of a
race mo! but 'for the rights of human
nature"
What we're the opinions, then, Of the men who
framed the Federal Constitution? What were the
opinions of Washington, j Herson, Patrick Henry,
Morris, Madison. Hamilton, Franklin, Adams,
Jay-and all the ether leading spirits OF the day I
We might quote in reply sentence alter sentence;
from the speeches or writings OF these distinguished
men going 10 show their deep. seated adherence
of slavery, their anxious interest in the question
rs to the best means of it's termination-and their
assurance that the curse was but transitory-d es-
tined to pass rapidly away. But the late political
catnpaipp has made their words too famlllar 10
every reader. to need that we should otto them
here. Mr.. Webster, who, it is universally admit
ted. whatever we may think Of his politics, was
more profoundly verseh in all the knowledge that
relates to the formation of tho Constitution than
any other man, has furcibly but accurately des-
.cribed the state Of feeling at the time OF the
Federal Convention. 1T will be found" he Said.
.'if we carry ourselves, by historical research. back
to that day, and ascertain mems opinions by au.
thentic records, still existing among us, that there
was then no diversity Of opinion between the
North and the South on the subject ct Slavery.
1t will be found that both parts of the country
held il equally IN evil, q IN jral and political evil"
''The eminent men, the most eminent men. and
nearly all the conspicuous politicians of the
South held the same sentiments--tha slavery was
an eyil,a blight and II curse. There were no terms
of reprobation of slavery so vehement at the North
at that day as in tho South. The North was not
40 much excited against it as the South, and the
reason is, that there was much less CT IT, at the
North, and the people did not sec the evil so prom
inently Ms at the South."*#* But Mr.. Webster
need not to have confined his remarks to the evil
dences of the politicians; the churches-every
leading denomination speaking through their most
influential organs and teachers-were lar more
urgent in their denuuciations than the politicians
while the general literature OF the country-the
first American novel that was over printed, one OF
the earliest Ameri ian poems. the newspapers ana
the culleges-was equally earnest in It's protests.
'If we Judge the future by the past" said iona
than Edwards, jr., i'll 1871, within nifty years
from this time il will be as shameful for a man to
hold a negro slave, as to BIO guilty OF common rob-
hery or theft"