Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1859-11-05

LETTER FROM PENNSYLVANIA.
EDEN. October Is. 1856

LE11Gn EhUm II
EDEN. October Is, 1859.
FRIEND JONES: Seeing the younger Gilberts
have been trying their skill at ''Buglo' bio wing. I
have decided to make IN effort also. l make no
pretensions to musical talent, and AN ignorant of
the gamut. but 1 suspect, from the sounds, that
they blow from opposite ends of the horn. Per-
nit me to try 1t midway between the ends.
AT &c l continue to sympathize with the cause
which has brought them into the literary arena,
but alas! I am i~mpotent. I can't vote (havipg
given my last in 1907. 1 have not funds, like
c. F. Hoovey l can't lecture in these days of elo-
quence, and tho u. G. R. r. does not pass by any
of my places Of %sojourn. This is a privation, for
I do not forget that long ago the colored popula-
tion of York, Pa, and myself, owned all the stock
of the track that passed through that place, and
performed all the duties of 6remen, engineers,
b%rakesmen, conductors and baggage masters. The
duties of the last were not onerous. Firemen
had an easy time of 1t except when a temperature
up to lever heat was required brakesmen had
little to do but check empty trains that came in
quest Of freight. Engineering aud conducting
brought into requisition the skill and bravery of
our best men, but they proved equal to the work
for they never ran off the track, nor suffered the
freight to be damaged.
The by-gone will do we'll enough to remember,
but it will not do to live upon so having no pow
er for better work, it seems like doing something
60 scribble.
So much about the first person, singular, can
serve no conceivable purpose unless to console
some other superanuate that he is not alone in
having ouslived his usefulness.
might be supposed that living long in a world
governed BY uniform laws, wo sh ,uld. through ia
miliarity ibscene reconclled to our surroundings.
il u not always SO. As far back as memory
reaches, the Insbriate sat at his cups Labor vas
So coordinate to Capital; Products estimated above
the Producer ; the Slave was doomed to endless
servitude Life was not inviolable, for the Soldier
poured out his life blood on the battle field, and
the Criminal was strangled on the gallows. Wo.
man had a partial social existence, and a still more
limited legal one. All these, and more, have been
while have been, and that it is 80, instead of
innuring one to them, increases astonishment and
excites indignation, that two average a~geshave
but slightly modified them.
How is this to be accounted for, seeing we have
a large class of learned, ordained men set apart tt
discover, duu pOlug OuL the way We suOulU 20
holding in their hands a divinely inspired vol
ume. which with their explanation makes tie patti
so plain that the way farer need!be at no loss2 l
it tina. their authority is not reliablef Is it at
tributable to their incompetency, or unwillingnes
to ex2ouud il Alright? Or do they harmonic will
"The children Of this world who are wiser thai
the children of Lighter The unlearned in divini
ty must believe that when these expounders reat
the Jewish decalogue, they do it with their backs
to the South, while their eyes rest on Thou shall
not kill, steal, or commit adultery; )" or that the,
are not bound to declare the whole counsel o
Cod, in a superseded dispensation. But waivinI
their obligation to press ahtiquated injunctions
they have a nep hw for which they claim infali
bility. In that law are a few mysticisms whicl
require to be spiritualized to make them compre
hensible to ordinary intellects; such as II ON tn
door, the way" &C.; "except ye ca. my fest" &c
you 10 me and l in you" &c., cannot be take
literally. Not SO. however, with Forgive you
enemies as ye would that others do unto you.
&c. ''break every yoke" &c. There is no fgur
in these; they are literal common sense precepts,c
daily, life long obligations, and cannot be subst
tuted with conventionalities.
The expounders find no woe pronounced O.
the non-performance Of the works so compreher
sively implied in these injunctions on the cor
trary every palliation which clerical tact GA
devise, is resorted to for justification mot onl
SO, but the gospel ~ artillery is aimed wit
learned skill at those who strive to render simpl
justice popular, and to expand ~fraternal beyon
the limits of caste, or other conventionalisms.
| Those teachers of the people plead that matte
of infinite importance demands their almost unr,
hitting thought, aud undivided labor namely
the spread Of faith, on which alone, the possibilit
of never ending happiness is predicated, and o
, the absence of which an eternity Of misery lie il
t sVitable
. / marvel, nor can l cease to marvel, that deye
, oped intellects, if they are honest. can attach MOI
I Importance to questions of mere belief, regardin
, that Of which nothing can be knopn but by speci,
, direct revelation, than to our relations in thi
, sphere Of existence where our duties do NJ
. originate in speculative theories butin fell necess
r ties. The marvel 10 still greater that in a worl
of growing intelligence SO late as the %sfternoo
! Of tho nineteenth century, the people should ha,
: Sufficient taste fos such teaching to induce them
, patrouize such teachers. Why the very scho'
: children without a sacred book or expounder
: it, have ~iptuitiye perceptions, i~nsiruc.in
them better. Would they not say in theil
> childish phraseology. How Ugly it is
T get drunk. Amt women as good as men?
can't make a man better to hang him. Ar
the soldiers all mad at each otheri Would the