Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1857-12-26
IMPORTANT HISTORICAL DOCUMENT

Position Of the United States in respect TO slacery-
ho,c il tras understood in France Another con
.ti.tation Of Judge Taney.*
The following is copied from Appendix to
the american Museum, Universal Magazine
published by NJ Carey, Philadelphia, fer June,
$780, Radical A6oiitionist.
Translation Of letter ,critten by the Society Of the
Friends Of the Negroes in France, TO the different
GaWdgeS, or dist'1cts, entitled to send delegates
TO The Statcs.generat.
GENrLEMEY-At the very time in which Ameri
ca shook off her serv,ude, the generous friends of
liberty conceived, that their cause would be de
graded, if the Siarery ofMe negroes 'eceired the
sanction Of Law a free man. who holds slaves
or approves of his countrymen holding them,
either acknowledges himself guilty of Injustice
or must assume Il prncIplr. that liberty is only
an advantage procured by force net right re-
ceived from nature. The abolition. therefore, Of
negro slavery, was esteemed by the United States
and by the Convention, in which they were repre-
senied not only measure dictated by sound poll
cy, but an act of justice. required by humanity
aud homer. And indeed, how could they claim,
without blnshing. those declarations of right,
those nviolable buwarks Of the liberty and seouri
ty Of the people, if they INDUCED themselves in
the continual violation Of their most sacred princi.
pies? With what propriety could they talk of
those rights had they de5ased them into arbitrary
conditions of mutual agreement. by showing in
their conduct that they did not think them intend
ed for all mankind
As the French nation is now busy in recover
ing rights the exersse Of which she has neglect.
ed, she will show a spirit similar to that of the
people. whose cause she has espoused-to whom,
probably. she owes great part OF her knowledge
and whose cool and steady wisdom, (nOtwith
standing the differences of circumstances, of OBJ
stacles and the proposed end), it were to be wish
ed she would initiate. How can the nation pro.
test against abuses, sanctioned by time. and esab-
lished by legal FORMS and urge against them the
natural and unprescriptive rights Of mankind,
and the authority of reason, ii she tolerates. by
silence on the subject, so glarng violation of
reason and natural right, as the slavery of the me-
groes?
The Society Of the friends of tho negroes there
fore trust the nation will consider the trade in
slaves, and slavery, among the evils, the desruc-
tion Of which she must resolve on, and prepare for
and they address themse Ives confidently 10 their
countrymen, met to cho6se their representatives
to bring to their view these criminal customs es-
tablished by violence, sanctioned by law, and
pleaded for by prejudice.
We know. there arc abuses that cannot be reme-
died in a day which. being connected with poli'
cal interest, seeming to be so, are only to be
done away with tho precauton requisite to insure
the desirable object and are not to be bought at
too dear a rate: and we do not requeet you to
vote for the instant overthrow of such evils.
| We now beseech you only to turn your atten-
,ion to the sufferings of 100000 men, consigned
to slavery by treachery or foree-condemned with
their families to labor, without hope of release, ez.
posed to the rigorous anu arbitrary treatment OF
their masters-deprived of all the rights OF ma
y 1T is difficult at this late day to realize the
state of public opinion in relation to that uIfortu'
nale race, which prevailed in the civilized and en-,
enlightened portions Of the world at the time OF
the Declaration of Independence and when the
Constitution of the United States was framed and
adopted. But the public history of every Eoro-
pean nation displays it in manner too plain to
be mistaken. They had, for more than a century,
been regarded as beings Of an inferior order and
altogether unfit to associate with the white race
either in social or political relations, and so far
inferior that they had no rights which the white
man bound to respect; and that the Negro
might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery
for his beneft.'-Judge fancy. Vide Report Of
the Decision Of the Supreme Court, &c, in the case
of Dred Scott, p. 4o7, a-