Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1857-11-21
LETTER FROM MR.. GIDD1Nes.


the letter which ,0a addressed to mo through tho
Trumbull Democrat. / r~ecuguiza your right. as
u constituents, freely to express your views and
that IL is my duty re spec fully to consider them,
mud so tar es ihey mas accord with those enter
I tined by the great hudy ef my constituents, with
truth and justice, ] shall feel bound TO maintain
them.
You say you are q Uerman. As such | respect
von. | admire tho learning, the philosophy Of
Germany. May of her sons in past times have
nobly stood forth as advocates of reform, and
%. human progress md most Of those now resi-
dcuts ia our country, are active and efficient pro.
inoters OF the great reformation progressing 10
the United States. To them | yield more than
mere respect: | greet them cordially rs patriots
and philanthropist yet, my first duties are due
to you as men. You are all members four com.
mon brotherhood. Most Of you left your native
Germany unScr tho impression that you were
coming to II land Of liberty. When you arrived
within u marine league Of our shores, You came
within the jurisdiction of our Government. Our
laws threw their protection around you, and you
felt that you had reached a land of liberty.
You cannot be ignorant Of the momentous issue
before the PEG pie of our nation. YUn must know
that the Republicans holl that our Constitution
was based upon the primal truth that men of all
nations and governments have received from the
Creator equa! rights to liberty and the avails of
their own labor. That the President and the
leinicrasc party deny this doctrine and insist
that outside tho States whero the Constitution
holds exclusive jurisdiction, it protects oppression
and Slavery. That within our territories, with.
in a marine league of our shores, and in the
district Of Columbia, men may s0ize and bold
their fellows in bondage may rob them of their
food which they gather ly toll. You must have
known that the late democratic candidate for Gov.
crnor Of this State was II distinguished supporter
Of these revolving doctrines. Yet you say you
voted for him. You certainly had the right to
vote for him. 1t was your duty to vote for the
man who would carry out your views. But |
have a wight TO demand cnndor and truth from
you and while you vote for candidates who
openly and boldly proclaim their intention, if G
lected, to prostitute tho power and character OF
our States to the work Of selling, imprisoning
and enslaving their fellow men, you have no NOR
al right to call yourself n lover of freedom, or
TO proclaim your devotion to the equal RICH is Of
men. BY such vote you deny the brotherhood OF
cur race, and avow the right of men to enslave
their fellows.
For years Mr.. Csss and Mr.. Douglas, and the
democratic party of Cur nation, proclaimed the
right Of tho people Of our territories to enslave
and brutalize their fellow men. The Supreme
Court Of the United States has advanced one
step further. and fatty deny the selfevideni
truths that all men are endowed by their Creator
with the right of life, to erjoy liberty and Lappi
ness saying that our fathers did not intend to
assert that black men held from God the right to
live, and to enjoy the fruits Of their labor.
Yet. the democratic party, instead of striking
down these usurpers, tamely echeed their senti-
ments. and in the State and County Conventions
publicly resolved to become the instruments fur
carrying out this piratical decision.
But you appear to charge the Republicans Of
having united with Know Nothings and you
evidently desire this should be understood as one
reason why you voted for Mr.. Payne. Of the
men who composed that organization, | would say
nothing unkind. | know many of them to be
honest, and | believe lovers of Justice and liberty,
while others undoubtedly entertain the same ideas
which Mr.. Buchanan, Mr.. Douglas and the demo
cratic party hold in regard to Slavery. | never
belonged 10 tho order | have always believed it
founded in error. Yet, you and every candid man
must acknowledge there was much 10 provoke its
organization.
Many ignorant, dissipated. vicious foreigners
reach our country. That class is net unfrequently
controlled by men ready to prostitute their infu
ence to almost any purpose. | do not refer solely
to Catholics l lay down facts, and assert tina
any class of men, or any p~rcfesscd religious sect
who holds the intellect, the judgment and con
science Of its members in subsection TO prescribed
dogmas, limiting the sphere of human though
within prescribed boundaries. violate that religi
Gus and spiritual freedom which constitutes thu
very basis Of American liberty. So far as they
do this, they enslave the mind, and so far act i:
concert with the slave power of our nation FOL
no people, no individual, can DO enslaved, unles,
their intellects be p%aralyzec and no man, with
his moral nature unperverted, ever did CT evel
will enslaye either the body or mind of his fellow
man.
But that class of foreigners, with their own
minds held in subjugation by corrupt men, are
often made the instruments for controlling cleo.
atoms in favor of Slavery, against the interests OF
humanity, and the judgments Of men born upon
our soil, whose fathers bled to establish a free
government. | realize what l say.-My own faith
CIR and uncles served in the Revolution. they
toiled and sufered-two of them bled-and one
died in Efforts to establish a government based
upon the self evident truth that all men, of every
nation, and kindred, and people. and language
hold from the'Great Central Mind equal and in
alienable rights to civil, religious and spiritua
liberty. You an other foreigners came here t.
enjoy this liberty; when here, many of you be
stow your influence and votes to pervert thu
government to the work Of enslaving your fellow
men.
True. this wrong. on the part of some portion
nf our foreign brethren, constitutes no %suffcien
justification for Withholding the elective franchise
from men of intelligence and patriotism, but i
explains what gave rise to the Know Nothing or
gsnization and | repeat it was based upon er
roneOus views. Men cannot lie reformed by pro
seribing them foreigners and native born mus
be reformed by the same means. We must dea
with them alike we must demonstrate with then
in the spirit Of kindness. Show them that We
are controlled by justice, by devotion to liberty
that we acknowledge them MS brethren entitled
to the same inheritance of freedom as ourselves.
These were the views which directed mo il
the Philadelphia Convention last year, when
opposed the proposition to coalesce with tn
Know Nothings and | hesitate not in saying
these are the views which directed that Conven
ton when it publicly and by an almost unanimou
vote rejected the proposition. You are awar
that the Republicans OF this State have faithful,
adhered to this policy, and that most of thos
Americans who voted for Fillmore last year. vo
ted with you at the State election for Mr.. Payne
With these facts before you, it is passing strang
that you should intimate n political connection
between Republicans and Know NDthings.
| presume that that order will never enter IL,
field again as a political party; each member will
Hereafter take position according to the dictate
3 Of his judgment. | do not ask, nor Go ! wisl
those who really desire to uphold and extert
2 slaysry. to act with Republicans. But have NJ
doubt that all who love liberty. who really fee
that others as well as themselves have receive,
from our Creator the right 10 live, and to eniol
The fruits OF their labor, will vote with the Re
IT L.