Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1858-11-13

ees and compelled their inmates to seek safety in
Hight beyond tho limits of the city. But thew
oterdid their work, A reaction cnsued, which.
fostered and favored by this Society put the prrpc.
traitors and abetturo OF these outrages to shame,
and secured q measure Of redress for their victims.
An increased sympathy for the culored man and
an augmented regard for his rights were manifest,
ed from that time forward.
In 1877 the Legislature Of Pennsylvania, in
answer to the prayer Of AbolitiOnists, passed an
act repeating from the statute books of the State
certain relics contained therein Of the cd system
of slavery, and forbidding all State officers to aid
In the capture Of fugitive slaves, and prohibiting
the use of their jails for tho Imprisonment Of rcr,
sons thus apprehendcd.
In 1850 anti'slavery become 50 powerful, and
had done so much to impair the tenure Ly which
Shareholders on the border States held their prop,
erty, that the aid of the FEEDER i Government was
invoked in the passage Of the Fugitive Slave law,
That law the Abolitioui-ts denounced us infamous,
and, appealing to the rising love Of liberty in the
people, avowel their purpose to tramplo it under
foot. The government, on the other hand, pro-
claimed their determination to execute it at all
hazards and here the issue was joined. Penn
sylvania, from her phical position and the
large number of refugees within her borders, he
came the national battle ground for the two par.
ties. Apprehensions and renditions under the
new act were frequent, disgracefully frequent =,
but they were not made without resistance. Ia
ono instance this resistance was unto blood. The
Methodist class leader Gorsuch, coming with a
body of armed shareholders, at midnight, into
one of our peaceful valleys to r~ecapture an esca2.
ad Fnntfivo mid NTH h;s l,Co ,La Tsr.. II L..
rashness. Uanway and Lewis, Scarlet and Jack,
son. Clarkson and Williams, and twenty-four 9TH
ers. were arrested and imprisoned as accessories
before the fact, and put OF trial for High Treason.
No pains were spared to ib0ame the public mind
against them but it was of NO avail. The peo-
pies indignation was reused, q strong reaction en-.
sued against the government, and the prisoners
wero triumphantly acquitted. This trial virtual.
ly determined the contest between the government
and the people. Since that time the Fugitive
Slave law of 1850 has been of no more force than
that Of 1903. the inadequacies OF which it was de.
signed to remedy.
The next stage in the progress of our movement
was the passage Of the Kansas and Nebraska bill,
and the election of James Buchanan to the Presi.
dency. These two events, following each other
In quick succession, bring us to the present period
OF our anti slavery history. Pennsylvania took q
part in both that was more conspicuous than cred
liable. In the passage of the Kansas bill, the I'M
concealed object of which was to increase the
power Of slavery by adding a new slave State to
the Union, Pennsylvania furnished a larger NUN,
Der of votes in Congress than any other free State.
In the election of Mr.. Buchanan, the most un.
scrupulous pro slavery President that has yet held
the reins of our government, Pennsylvania shut
her eyes to the truth, stopped her ears against
evidence, and, insisting on believing a lie, cast
her electoral vote for a man who had VIGOROUSLY
come under pledges to use the power of the gov.
erDment for the benefit of slavery. Tho fact was
before them that Mr.. Buchanan speaking through
his special friend. Samuel w. Black, of this
State, and using the expressive language of Ruth
to Naomi, bad said to the slave holders at the Gin.
cinnati Convention:
"Entreat me not to leave thee or to return from
following after thee for whittier thou goest | will
80, and where thou lodgest | will lodge: thy God
shall be my God, and thy people shall be my
people; where thou diest | will die, and there will
l be buried. The Lord do so to me and more also
II aught but death part thee and me-"
That Mr. Buchanan has redeemed the pledge
souo sNOu W Nv pedS U lis dDililJ1 III u Will
question. No entroaties have prevailed with him
TO leave the shareholders or to cease for a moment
from following after them. Where they have
gone he has gone, and where they have lodged he
has lodged. Their God has been his God and 1t
would really seem as though literally nothing but
death would part him and them. Body and soul.
he has surrendered himself to their use and more
than this, he has done what he could to make a
similar surrender Of his State. But happily this
was q task to which his power was not adequate,
With all the patronage of the government in his
hands. and with the aid Of such Pennsylvanians
rs Black in the Cabinet, Bigler in the Senate,
Florence, Phillips and the two Joneses, and the
rest Of the infamous tools who voted FOR the ad
mission Of Kansas as q slave State, in the House,
he has not been able to transfer either his State
or his party in it to the service of slavery. On
the contrary, his efforts have proved thus far a TO
tai failure, and Pennsylvania stands immovably
opposed to the policy of her 'favorite son" on the
question IF extending slavery. Even the men of
easy virtue in Congress, whom he had persuaded
for awhile into the support of his course, now,
when confronted with their constituents, and
obliged to make efforts to secure their re- lection
abandon his policy and pledge themselves in ad-
vance to vote for the admission of Kansas as a
free State, when she may present herself, with or
without the requisite population.
These facts indicate the present state of public
feeling in Pennsylvania on the subject of slavery.
So FAR as that question is involved in the political
issues of the day. Pennsylvania is against slavery
and in favor of freedom. The entente cordial
which used to exist between her Democracy and
the Shareholders has been broken. party ties are
sundered and the people Of Pennsylvania and the
Slave Power Of the South now occupy toward each
other q position of antagonism.