Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1857-02-28
0be Anti 5lauerp BuoIr.
GOOD REASONS.


The editor Of the Practical Christian gives tn,
following satisfactory reasons for moral opposition
70 the slaveholdng Union:
II asked by the encomiasts of the Federal Union
on what grounds Of moral protest denounco it,
briefly answer -
i. hold that man-stealing is capital Grim,
against God and humanity, more heinous, al
things considered than murder that slayeholdinl
is smsn-stealing deliberately perpetuaed; that the
systom OF slavery generates in its natural work
ings all the sins forbidden in the law and gospel
and that from this system proceeds al manner o.
evil continually.
2. know that the Federal Constitution, wkicf
10 ths prescriptive basis and bond of the Fedora
Union, expresses no condemnation of saveholding
but regards it as innocent and laudable-investin
slavsholders with extra political power in the gov
eminent proportionate to the number of their
slaves, and binding the rest Of the nation to faci
sats the reclamation of their fugiuves.
3. see that the actual administration of gov
srnment under the Federal Constitutions thouol
declaring the foreign slave trade to be piracy pun
ishabe with death, has nevertheless favored slave
holders, and extended and fostered their pcculia,
institution as perfectly righteous, honorable and
meritorious one until now Shareholders claim for
themselves Of right the lions share in all the ad.
yantages of the Union, making it summary death
or bauishment in fifteen States for any man to use
his Constitutional freedom of ecch and tho press
against slavery.
Itake these to be undenabc truths. When
therefore, as man, a philanthropist and a Chris
tisn, contemplate the whole in this light.
with the slave population increased from little
over half million to four millions, all free dis.
eueson Of the evil mpete'y closed by n reign of
terror in half of the States, and all parties agree
ing that the Union affords to Shareholders their
greatest security, it is impossible for not to
abominate both slavery and the Union together
Slavery rises to view complex and gigantic
embodyment, not only of capital crimes per Sc,
but of AL possible sins against God and humanity
And the Union stands forth the deliberate pledge
Of the nation to tolerate, Uphold and defend this
conglomeration of wckedness to the last extrem
ity. If slavery is what hold it to be, tho Union
which endorses, upholds, promotes and defends it
must be correspondingly abhorrent to every true
moralist. l therefore declare my uncompromisng
moral protest against the Federal Union as n huge
national crime working in deliberate aid and abet-
msnt of slaveholdiig.
Granting nv premises, the logic by which pre-
coed to my conclusions is inexorable And from
that conclusion there is no escape, but by denying
che primary premss. Accordingly most of the
oompromisers with slavery, whether in politics or
ethics. uon,rive p.se""do ths."sslsas. oither
that slaveholding is per Sc no sin at ALL that
10 only one of those renal sins which by common
consent mankind pass over in each other as ex-
cusable. Even Charles Francis Adams in his
letter to the Worcester Convention lowers his Anti
Slavery to this fiat keynote. He says,-"I do
not mean to charge upon Shareholders, as a class
that thoy are irredeemably wicked, any more than
should upon banketsUr brokers,or hotel keepers,
or liquor-sellers, or horsedealers any sort of
tradersW lie then goes on to argue, that in this
imperfect world must mix with and tolerate
common sinners. ourselves being in the same cat
eYory; and then adds :-"On this basis am will
ling to continue Indefinitely to live with slave
holders, even though some Of them should trench
q little on my rights" Now, il | viewed slave
holding in this light,it would be uni aud absurd
for me to object to the Federal Union on account
Vt it, or to denouncc slavery great crime, On Il
very deplorable evil in any sense 1t would be no
such thing. | could condemn and disfeowship |
only its grosser abuses 70 be consistent, all pol
iticians and religion sts wau in union with
slaveholders, should take substantially This posi-
tion Of MIR. Adams. And then they should be
very whist against tho evil of slavery; since il
can be no very bad thing after all. For political
lecturer to work up tho moral Indignation of his
auditors, by making out slavery to be the most
devilish sort Of thing ir the universe, and then
wind up with solemn protestations of mis- devotion
to the Union 4c,, is blowing hot and cold with the
same pair of lungs most ludicrously. not TO say
since if the thing is half bad as
he paints it, no decent man ought to be in Union
with it,