Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1858-12-04
0be Anti 5lauerp Blalc.
LETTER FROM GERRIT SMITH TO JOSH
a.- UA R. GIDDINGS.


You are determined to have me think better of the
Republican Party :-and to this end you again re.
fer me to it, Platform.
1 once knew man of not the best life, whose
habit was, Whenever he wus charged with any of
his rascalities. TO defend himself 10y drawing from
his pocket u well'oigued certificate o! his honesty
you remind me Of him. You confront the practice
Of your Party with its Platform aud you would
have its past promises Of good outweigh all the
damnng proofs of its present delinquency.
l am willing to admit--at least for the sake of
the argumens-that the general language of the
Plstform covers all your specifications, and calls
for the abolition Of slavery in the District of Co.
iumbia anG in other places. But surely there is
nothing in the practice Of your Party 20 justify
your Interpretation Of this general language. to
abolish slavery here and there, nevertheless the
fact that it never undertakes such abolition, and
never in terms commits itself to it, shows that it
never intended it. Said n slave when told that
his deceased master had gone to Heaven II think
not-for never heard him talk of going there
Now. just for the reason that never have heard
your Party talk of abolishing the slavery you re-
fer to, must think that il does not. and never did.
intend to abolish it.
I admit that you would be glad TO have your
Party undertake to abolish the slavery which you
say it is "pledgod" to abolish. | admit that you
would be glad to have the undertaking avowed in
the boldest and most explicit terms For you are
an honest and earnes. mana sincere and deep
hater Of slavery-in word, an abotionist. But
you very well know that tie Republican Party
standing on its present low ground would consent
to nothing, that would drive from it scores OF
Thousands it has by coming down to this low
ground. For that Party, however to expresses the
purpose of aboisLing slavery in the District Of
Columbia would drive away these scores of thou
sands certainly if it were to express the pur-
pose of abol;shng it in the City of New Orleans.
You still defend the Republican votes in the last
session of Congress; and you still claim for them
the saving of Kansas from the curse of slavery
But no votes and no speeches either in or out o!
Congress have saved Kansas. With the help OF
tho men, money and munitions thar Eastern enter
prise brought to her, Kansas has saved herself,
Had all Congress gone against her. she would still
have been safe.
The vote for Kansas to come into the Union with
or without slavery as she might choose, is that
YOU still approve and that | still condemn. Ex.
plain away it's evil bearings you WILL it has
erthsless sunk the eRepubcanParty down ,rrerieva.
bly to the low level of "Squatter Sovereignty -
Il has done more than all things else to reconcile
the public mind to the admission of Slave States.
Nav, the wide open door for such admission will
never again be shut until an earnest abolition Par
ty shall have attained to the power to shut it. All
this deterioration is ihe legitimate result" of that
vote, notwithstanding your claim that the salvation
of Kansas was "the legitimate result" which the
Republicans "iutended."
have heard of a Church Member who was ar
raigued for adultery. The testimony went hard
against him and all that left for him to say
was: Il know that my intentions were good
His good Intentions however did not excuse him.
Nor must the good intentions in the present ca G
land cheerfully admit that they were abundant)
be allowed to cancel the sin which the Republican
Members of Congress committed against the Cause
of Freedom and against all sound ethics.
We are oil dcbauched by slavery: and what we
most n ed is to be educated in respect to its
matchless wickedness. So familiar are we with
it, denominations and horrors as not to be disgust
cd and appalled, in their presence. The Republi'
cau Members Of Congress. although having some
just conception of the political and economical
evils Of slavery, were far from seeing it to be an
unequalled outrage On human and divine rights
What if the Lecompton Contribution had provided
for the murder Of the light haired men of Kansas
by her dark. SHARED men would the Republicar
Members of Congress have voted that il mi ght with
her CONSENT become her actual institution? No
Nol!-nOt one Of them. Why then should they
vote that a Constitution authorizing slavery might
.L A tba al ~,
Kansas? Is not slavery worse than murder p
Certainly. Every parent would confess it, who
should be called on to elect between the ensase
msnt and murder OF his child.
z That the Republican Party has failed to abolish
any slavery. or even to try to abolish any, is moi
strange. IL invests this unmixed ard enormous
wrong with sacred rights-for it acknow wledges the
legality of slavery, instead of holding it to bs
b piracy and an outlaw. 1t is the protector of sla
ssry where it is, and wars upon it Only where it i,
not. That the public sentiment should be demor
allied and made more and more proslavery by
such a Party is no mystery.
But have further reason for condemning the
Republican Party. 1t is a one.idea'Party. Nc
political party. that does not identify itself with
the whole province and all the duties of civil gov
srnment is entitled to support We have no righ
to connect ourselves with any political party, thai
does not propose to protect its subjects from al
wrongs against their persons aud property from
me dramshop and land-monopoly well as from
slavery: from one form of Expressions al we'll al
from another Even if the Republican Party vert
d eminsutly faithful it is unfaithful to its on,
idea Of the non'extenson Of slavery; or even if i
were an Abolition Party and were intent dsliv
srihg men from the yoke Of slavery. still all tbi
would not stone for its neglect or other wrongs
siuultsneOus with its duty to protect its subject