The Buchanan County guardian. (Independence, Buchanan County, Iowa) 1858-1864, 1859-08-04

avoided. The whole tenor Of the consti-
tuition, and all contemporary history, in
dictate the hope and belief of speedy alb
clifton. Those phrases were deliberate
ly selected, in the view and confident ex-
pectation of time speedily at hand,
when there would be no subjects to which
they could be applied in that meaning.
They were chosen with a direct refers
ence to that period, that when it did
come there should be nothing in the con-
stitution to indicate that its trainers had
SO far yielded to supposed necessity,
as to compromise any Of the fundamen-
tai principles for which the constitution
was ordained I; that it might be without
seeming blot, harmonious, and instinct
throughout with the great principles
then to be organized in living institu-
tons.
AT that time-for cotton was not then
king---the people of most of the States
now free would not have adopted it but
upon such conditions. They did not,
and could not, imagine the probability
that their sons would be so humble and
would SO degrade themselves, as to speak
in subdued and deferential voice, and
in the spirit of slaves. of services and of
rights assumed to be guaranteed forever
by cheating circumlocutions. which were
employed in very shame and loathing of
the foul thing they were earnest to hide
from the eyes of the world. They could
not have conceived that the day would
come when such men as the "Oberlin
Rescuers' should be cast into prison for
carrying out the principles inaugurated
by the revolution. They could not dream
that when they had gone to their rest,
editors claiming to be christians and phi
lanthropists should interpret the bible for
slavery, and never against it; that citi-
zens styling themselves democrats should
use the golden rule for shareholders, and
never for the slaves that many men, or
dained as ambassadors of Christ, should
fear to present the cause of the down
trodden negro to high heaven from their
! pulpits, and should not dare to enforce
anti-slavery in their sermons, lest some
of their democratic Pensioners should
take offence and that the Declaration
of independence, itself, should be pro-
nounced only tissue of glittering gen
eralities.' s.A
If these men could have foreseen such
things, they would have torn the consti-
tuition into shreds, and trampled it un-
der their feet. Let us suppose that the
constitution had then explicitly sanction
ed slavery. and pledged continued sup
port oi II trro-0' -u-><>.>,;ne. esnnarotinns
for ever, and announced the internal doc
trine that man can hold property in man,
can even democratic editor entertain the
idea that it would have been accepted :?
Unless the Declaration of independence
was an impious mockery, and the revo-
luton only an unbessed work of ordi-
nary human butchery, every sound Of
that immortal contest, from Bunker Hill
to Yorktown, must ring out with an in
dignant denial. Every instinct of hui
manity cries out against the perpetra-
ton, the advocacy, or even the apology
of slavery. All men are created equal'
though skins may differ all have the
unalienable rights of life, liberty. and
the pursuit Of happiness" and when a
fugitive slave law would violate these
truths, let it be regarded with detestation
and horror.