Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1858-06-26
Gbe Anti 5lauerp Buole.
TESTIMONY AGAINST SLAVERY,

By .hc Pennsylvania Yearly meeting of Progress
i've Friends
The holding of q human being as property,
under whatever circumstances we regard as a
sin against God and crime against humanity
AS there is not bondman in the land who has
not an inaenable right to DO free, we can do no
less than to demand that every chain be instaR tly
sundered In dealing with sin Of such magni-
tude-a sin by which millions of our fellow. .crea-
lures are reduced to the condition of chattels and
covered with the dark pail of ignorance and deg
radation-we can give no place to the spirit of COM
promise. There is no hope for the country but in
persistently and INCREASINGLY applying to the con-
sciences Of the people the unqualified demands of
justice and righteousness. 10 whisper half'truths
at such lime as the present is to "daub with un-
tempered mortar" and trlhe with the most fearful
responsibilities that ever weighed upon the con-
science of nation.
There is much in the history of the past year,
pertaining this great subject, that is well cal
culated to excite righteous Indignation and ava.
ken deepest solicitude The Supreme Judi.
cial tribunal OF the country has proclaimed the
atrocious doctrine, that persons Of African descent
many of whom, it is well known, children of
men who shed their blood on the batttle.f fields of
the Revolution and participated in the organiza.
tion Of the State and National Governments, are
not and cannot be ctizens-that, in short, they
have mo rights which white men are bound to re.
spect" This dogma is already incorporated in
the platform Of the party which bears sway in the
councils of tho nation it shapes the legislation
of Congress and the action Of the Executive ;
while the only numerous political party which
makes any pretension to anti'slavery is declared
by not few of its champions 10 be not the advu-
cate Of equality for the blacks, but the "tchuc
mans party" thus interposing effectual ress.
tauce to the tyrannous decree. The President and
his official advisers and agents have prostituted all
their powers in the effort to establish slavery on
sniI IniK in onpOSitipn IN tha wall kun,vn
wishes Of her people and an ingeniously con-
trived scheme, intended to effect this object, has
been forced through Congress by Executive intimi-
dation and political bribery. 1t should be added
that few of the men, even at the North, who
share the responsibility of this gigantic wicked
ness. hold high rank in Churches calling them
selves Christians. While the leading and most
powerful despotism Of the Old World is preparing
to emancipate her millions of degraded serfs, the
boasted Model Republic" chershes the system of
chatel slavery as if it were the mo st precious Jew.
ell in the Of her glory. Despotic Russia
breaks the fetters of her bondmen, but Republi
can America, with the declaration upon her lips
that all men endowed with inalienable right
to liberty and the pursuit Of happiness, dooms
one.seventb Of her population to the most degrad-
ing servitude while not a few of the champions
of this wickedness have the effrontery to propose
that the foreign slave trade, now branded piracy
by our laws, should be revived for the purpose of
augmenting the number of their victims and
extenllng tue system over territory as yet unpolu-
ted by its presence.
If we turn to the popular Churches Of the coun-
try, the prospect is no better they still remain
heretofore, "the bulwarks Of slavery" OF the
numerous sects which swarm in every part of the
land and which must be regarded as the exponents
of its morality, there is not one that is Thoroughly
imbued with an anti slavery spirit not one whose
garments not stained with the blood Of the
slave. Even those whose organic law is opposed
to the system fail to live up to tho principles they
profess, and by their connvance or non-action
strengthen the hands of the stakeholder The
Amercan,Tract Society, the organ and represen-
tative Of the great "evangelical" denominations
and which processes to have for its object the pro-
motion of vital godliness and sound morality"
while 1t fails not to rebuke dancing, theatre'going
and sleeping in church sins perilous to the soul
deliberately refuses TO utter single word in
'"mnation IT the sin of man stealing, and conides
NC Ito ce ,sorship over all its publications to
"n ,sbo q, ,fends slavery from the Scriptures,
" n,au hoao HS,, rM,side View" Of that system
sho,led the moral 8. nse of the friends of freedom
.hronShont the ciylize,1 world. The American
Bible Society not only refu, es to make any effort
to give the Bible to the slaves Det sanc1hs .nose
interpretations of the Book wi,ich make IL 'he
bulwark of oppression.
This is indeed gloomy picture /; but we beheVe
that, on the whole the cause of freedom is adVanc
ing, and we do not for moment permit ourselves
to doubt that it will ultimately triumph. The truth
faithfully proclaimed, is the mghtiest agent in the
Universe. Ii must eventually work the destruc
ton of the system which exposes US to the scorn
of the world and the retributions OF Heaven.
The Union between the free and slave States is
compact of guilt and shame. Every days expe'
rience of tho workings of the National Govern
ment serves to demonstrate the preposterous alb
surdity as we'll as wickedness of the attempt TO
bind together as ono nation States founded up
on the principles of universal liberty and equality
and States which nourish and rerpeIuate the worst