Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1857-02-28
Communications.
FROM DIR. BROOKE.

of February 18th, upon 1.-THE Great Discourage
ment of our Enterprise" They express far better
than I could have done, the thoughts and feelings
with which my soul has been burdened both be
fore and since the meeting to which you refer, il
view of the practical Atheism of many, who in
times past, by their works gave evidence they
once were in possession of a living faith. When
we remember the influences to which our people
have been subjected 1t is not a condition Of society
so much to be wondered at as deplored. The grea'
Inner, who painted what human nature should be
as well as what it is, pre6gnred it in the parable
of the sower eighteen centuries ago.
The good seed of the gospel Of anti-slavery has
fallen on every variety Of soil. In the vast major.
ity of instances wherein a quick termination gave
abundant promise of a future harvest, the heaven.
ly plant has withered through want of depth in
which to root. In others, the weeds of self in.
terest, of desire for popularity, of partizauship, or
ambition of preferment to Office, have o~utgrown
and smotbered it. Toilsome years of sacrifice, Of
labor and of Alterations Of hope and discourage
ment, are before all those who have put their
hands to the pillow. with the determination never
to look back, nor to be turned aside BY any
obstacle, whilst strength is permitted them to
guide it, or a field of human degradation and op.
preston invites them to it's culture.
The philosophy upon which you remark is as
old as history, and so common as to be almost uni,
versal in its prevalence. Very many repudiate it
when verbally expressed, and teach that we may
do evil that good may come Of il, or the end JUST
fes the means, is a Jesuitical doctrine which no
good man may sanction, whilst in practice they
frequently are seen to conform to it. The great
want in society at present, is an acquaintance
with some inialliblc standard by which to deter
mine the morality of given acts. Christendom
once believed she possessed this standard in the
Bible. The morality taught in the New Testament,
particularly, was conceived to be perfect, and the
golden rule q criterion to Judge by, which left
nothing to be desired. But since Slavery has
the Bible to her car as tho chief locomo-
tive which propels her in her ~triumphal march
over the interests and the rights of the whole
people, and more especially since so large a pro-
portion Of Northern Divincs and church members
have accepted with alacrity her Interpretation Of
the golden rule, that book has lost much of its
influence. And this is q necessary con-
of the acceptance or rejection of any
belief upon written or spoken authority. Dog.
matte assertions may enlist the hopes, or excite
the fears of an individual, but never convince his
A faith or belief which does not grow
of a knowledge of why n thing is true indie
of its enumeration by any supposed au-
is not reliable and will always be SUBJECT
to change. And yet this is the kind of faith or
H. l. IL -I l..
to educate society. In respect to Slavery we now
witness the employment Of the supposed au-
with equal zeal and efficiency, on both
sides of the question. The need then Of an infal-
lible standard by which to. measure tlss squ1sy 'sd
our action on this question, is most apparent. The
golden rule is good enough, if he who adopts it
understands why it is a rule. for then it admits of
but one Interpretation, and that adverse to
no matter how many texts in opposition
to it and given by those reckoned equally inspired
with him who uttered j., may be adduced.
Grant that it was afforded to mankind by lips
inspired, yet It was a declaration of what was as
true before its utterance as it was afterwards, and
its verify was in no degree dependent
upon the verbal expression. And why Because
in the creation Of mankind, human interests were
made an unit, one and inseparable. And as none
of the natural or Divine laws, whether they relate
to our physical or moral nature, can be violated
without mourning n penalty, the influence Of
which extends from the individual offender to
society in general, so it is impossible that good
results can ensue through such violation, no mat.
ter what may be the motive for it, because another
of these invariable laws compels like always to
produce like, or in other words the effect to par
take of the nature ana character Of tho cause.
Upon the present occasion re can legitimately
apply this standard only to the question of slavery.
Let the anti-slavery politician who proposes to
enforce this government in all its bearings upon
the slave, though actuated by a desire to free him
from thraldom, intelligently comprehend chy we
should do unto others as we would have them do
to us. and he will have no longer a motive for such
sibility of accomplishing in this manner the OBJ
iect at which he aims.
Out of the number of those who have been dis
satisfied with the course of the members OF the
and Western Anti-Slavery Societies
because of their refusal to vote with them, and
they believe it a duty to exercise their
privileges in behalf Of the slave, why is
t that so few seem disposed to form or enter a
POLITICAL party which refuses all compromise with
1t is not for want of opportunity, nor a
ack of knowledge of the way in which it may be
lone, for every moment of time affords the one,
and the lessons taught by our revolutionary
fathers and reiterated by the aboiitionists of the
present day, proclaim the other. The proposition
to withdraw from the unholy alliance of these
confederated States and rely upon our own State
government or erect n better, affords n criterion
by which all such may test the genuineness Of that
anti-slavery zeal, which, they declare, has prompt
ed their adhesion to the political combinations of
men with whom they have acted. An honest ap-
of it in a critical determination, will
enable them perhaps to detect how much of their
motive has been a desire to continue in the possess.
ion of the advantages to themselves which they
imagine they derive from the confederation, ire
spective of its bearing upon the interests Of the
slave. 1t is from this class alone that Disunionists
raaeonahlv aynect ad1it;ono m ,ba;r a,uLoxa