Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1860-04-07
Tssnslatsd for the Libsrator.
MR.. SEWARD.

Motto, What honest and decided friend Of free
dom will cay, Down with Browpl Hurrah for
Seward ~
Ga the Goth Of February, in tho Senate, Mr.
Seward moved the admission Of Kansas ia 3
ApcecA which mus. be regarded hs ain authentic
exposition Of the policy Of the Republican party
and it's prominent candidate for the Presidency,
and which, therefore. deserves a close examina-
zion. We desire to follow its chief points 10 order,
with some remarks by way of criticism.
Mr.. Seward, with manifest solicitudo, avoids
representing slavery as al absolute wrong, or even
as a ba, barism and q crime eonfo bly,, Of
course, to his owr individual conviction. lilo is
content to let Others speak about that, and, for
himself, to point out tbs fact that, wherever sla-
very exists, by one party it is pronounced right
and by another wrong. And even Of this fact, be
makes ms short work as possible, since it is evi.
IDENTITY no concern of his to make thc moral ques-
ton OF right and wrong the s%tarting-point of his
presidential programme. FJr if right and wrong.
slavery and freedom. be once placed in opposi-
ton, the consequences are inevitable, and result
precisely in the 'irrepressiblec conflict which Mr..
Seward formerly proclaimed. and for which be
has been SO repeatedly attacked. This be former
'ly expouuded in such O way that he showed cx-
,plicitly the alternative: either freedom or slavery
would one day prevail throughout the entire re-
public. He even spoke of the possibility of being
obliged to seek an asylum in another land. Such
an alternative is no longer to be employed at a
time when the 'irrepressiblO conflict has really
performed it's prelude, and thrown the presidential
speculation as o stone Of stumbling in the way.
The moral question has become burdensome, and
-. ~ - z...
cal one. As q man and q statesman, one can
speak Of right and wrong, humanity and bar bari
"; as a politician and a candidate for the P'esiden.
ey, one speaks of capital and labor Before
Brown attacked the Shareholders, it was possible
TO speak for freedom without risk Of molestation;
but now, because Of the risk, the aim is to pdcJy
for slavery.
- To be sure, Mr.. Seward gives sufficiently TO uu.
derstand that he is no friend TO slavery, and also
enlarges upon the fact that the Fathers # the
Republic condemned it, and that, through the
Constitution, they made the slave a person, so far
as the federal policy had to do with him, but prop.
erty and a thiRg solely within the jurisdiction Of
tAe once existent States; but this whole display
because it evades the chief point Of the speech, il
30 distorted and diplomatic, that even the slave
holders can no longer diseov, r the so often quoted
'irrepressiLle conflict between freedom and so
very. SPITE of slavery, Mr.. Seward is persuaded
thatour institutions Of freedom can not only be pre-
served, but their benefits also enjoyed with con
~Gentnent and harmony lie says this, although il
the pame breath be narrates the whole history OIL
the discomfort and discOrd which slavery has DC
casioned.
In order to End the proper ground for his con-
- NJ C...l Ill
uishes not between freedom and slavery, Fret
States and Slave States, but between labor State
and capital States. In the Slave States (whicl
treat slaves only as property, ~('capital invested il
slaves becomes a great political force while il
the Free States, (Which acknowledge and entitl
the laborer a man. labor thus elevated and en-
frar caised becomes the dominating power. II thu
happens that We may for convenience sake, an,
not inaccurately, call Slave States capital States
and Free States labor States
This new discrimir alton. which is retaine,
throughout the entire speech, not ouly bears n
mark Of stutesmanlike wisdom in itself, but is BIZ
aides intrinsically so unauthorized, that it at one
becomes absurd. The capital invested i
the slaves would be worthless, if the slave
did not labor; so it is precisely the labor thc
makes The power in the South. Yes, becaus
there the laborer is valued just merely as a labo
or. as a beast of labor, and not as a mar
the true, naked labor, labor per Sc, exists at tn
South, and therefore there were better authorit
for styling the Slave States labor States, than tn
Free States. Mr.. Seward might have escaped tn
difficulty of such an artificial distinction, very cas-
ly, If he had Disseminated between free labor an
slare labor; but then this would have brought hir
.-.:r q. A. ;,ooono;IoIIo .nn.;.;,. - a.
laborer and his master, betwee the rights of ma
and the plumber Of man, between freedom an
tyranny, and it is this very opposition that it
desirable to conceal, in order that the conservG
iives, who wish not to oppose slavery, may be wo
over to. or retained in, the Republican party.
On the other hand, the designation of the Ere
States as labor States corresponds as little wit
the truth as the new invention of capital States
The North would procure as little 'dominatinI
power by means Of labor without capital q
the South by means Of capital without labor
Moreover, q manufacturer who employs a hundre
workmen, and through their labor becomes of il
fuenco in the State, does no more work than
planter Hho employs q hundred slaves. Both al
c.pitalists by the returns of labor, but with tn
difference, that the one pays labor with none,
the other with the lash.
Without being a communist, one would have
laugh at that 'irrepressible conflict which NJ
Seward seeks to establish between capital an
'llbo r ,ifhe were Lot forced 10 be indignant at II
'ststesmanlike' unworthiness of interposing,
matters of such importance, an ingenious confu
ion of ideas, for the purpose Of avoiding an III
comfortable conflict of principles. WhoeVe
wishes to disoWn such an attempt, mast pronounC
Sspard's distinctions a play upoa words,a as unne,
esSsry as Ibey are witless.
OF Mr.. Webster. Mr.. Seward says, that thi
distinguished citizen whose unquesrionable devC
lion 70 the Union Yaa manifeaied By bis acnnias