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

In the year 1887 this Association was reorgan
lied and placed on a broader basis, taking the ii
tie Of the pennsylvania Society for the Abolition
of Slavery, and the relief of Free Negroes unawfuly
held in bondage, and for improving the condition
Of the African race" The object of the Society
thus defined in its title is still distinctly set
forth in the Preamble to its Constitution and By
Laws, which is as follows:
ut having pleased the Creator of the world to
muke of one flesh all the children of men, it be-
comes them to consult and promote each others
happiness, as members of one family, however d
versi6ed they may be by color, situation, religion
or different states Of society. Ii is more especial
y the duty of those persons who profess to main
tain for themselves the rights of human nature, and
who acknowledge the obligation of Christianity to
use suct means III their power, to extend the
blessings Of freedom to every part of the human
race and in more particular manner to such of
their fellow creatures as are entitled to their free
dom by the laws and constitutions of the United
States and who notwithstanding, are detained in
bondage by fraud violence. From full con
viction of the truth aud obligation of these princi
ples-from desire to difuse them wherever the
miseres and vices Of slavery exist, and in humble
confidence of the favor and support of the Father
Of mankind-the subscribers have associated them
selves under the title of The Pennsylvania Socie'
tv,' &c."
The FIRST elected officers of the Society under its
new organization we're; President Benjamin
Frankln Vice Presidcnts-James Pemberton,
Jonathan Penrose /; Secretaries-Benjam amin Rush,
Tench Cox /; Treasurer-Jamer Starr; Counselors
William Lewis, John d. Cox, Miers Fisher and
William Rawle-aR honored names in the history
of Pennsylvania, and two of them signers of the
Declaration of Independence. That the Society was
not dead form, but living, active body, is seen
in the iact that at its first meeting it ordered thou
sand copies of its Prea amble and Constitution to be
printed for Distributing directing its Secretaries to
send copy to each of the Governors of the States
with copy also of Ciarkson's essay or the "Com.
merce and Slavery Of the Africans" Another of
its measures, adopted at subsequent meeting, was
petition to Congress, couched in the following
words:
From a persuasion that equal liberty was orig
inally the portion and is still the brthright of all
men, your memoralsts conceive themselves bound
to use all ustifable measures to loosen the bonds
of slavery, and to promote general enjoyment Of
the blessings of freedom. Under these impress
ions they earnestly entreat your serious attention
to the subject of slavery that you would bo
pleased to countenance the restoration of liberty
to those unhappy people who alone, in this land of
freedom, degraded into perpetual bondage,
and who, amidst the general joy of surrounding
freemen, are groaning in servile subjection that
you will devise means for removing this inconss.
tency from the character of the American people ;
that you will promote mercy and justice towards
this distressed race, and that you will step to the
very verge of the powers vested in you for dscour
aging every species of traffic in the persons of our
fellow men,"
This petition signed by Benjamin Franklin,
President of the Society.
Among the members of the old Pennsylvania
Abolition Society the records show such names as
that of Hon. Richard Peters, Judge of the District
Court, and of Rev. John An 1rews, d. D., Provost
of the University of Pennsylvania; of Tn ,mas Sa-
very. merchant and member of the Society of
Friends. and of Thomas Paine, author of "Com.
mon Sense" and "The Age of Reason" Among
it honorary members were DR.. Price, the eminent
philanthropst of London, and the Abbes Gregoire
France. Thus it will be seen that in those days
Quaker and priest civilian and soldier Christian
and infde worked side by side in the holy cause
of emancipation. That this was not done without
risk the part of some to religious reputation is
matter of no doubtful inference The hue and
cry agast infdelty was perhaps as loud then as
it is now, The French Encyclopedias, at that time
at tie height of their popularity. were the dread
of religious and political conservatives everywhere
and French Jacobinism was in no better repute or
regarded with more favor in those dars than
Garrisonan abolitionism is at the present; and
yet Christian ministers and religious laymen uni
ted with people who were understood to hold or fa
vor the most latitudinarian doctrine, and all la
bored together for the slaves redemption 1t is to
these men, members of the Pennsylvania Abolition
Society and their oadjutators, that this Common,
wealth is indebted for what she enjoys of credit
and advantage growing out of the fact of her being
a free State
On the Sth of November, 1779, the public mind
having been duly agitated. bill was introduced
into the General Assembly providing for the grad
ual abolition of slavery in the States. On the 10Th
of February following, after much discussion and
strong opposition. that bill became a law. 1t was
but partial measure Of justice, 60 he sure, but
1t was all that the philanthropy of that day de
manded. The doctrine of Immediate, not Grad.
ual. Emancipation" first advocated by Elizabeth
Heyrick, in a pamphlet bearing that title, and
subsequently, adopted by Wilberforce and his co.
adjutors, was not broached until nearly half a
century after that period Our fathers appear,
therefore, to have acted up to the light of their
time. If their mode of emancipation was not
wisely devised, it well intended, and the good
spirit that prompted and aided in its execution
did much to couuteract the evils of it's plan. What
that spirit was may be inferred from the pream.
BILE which introduces the act, and which reads
thus:
1--WE conceive it to be our duty, and rejoice that
it lie in our power, to extend portion of the free
dom to others which has been extended to u.s.
1t is not for us to enquire why,