Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1860-12-08
THE ONWRITTRN LAY,

FROM Tue EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE
wEsTERN ANTI-sLAyERY SOCIETY.
In a Lay of ancient Rome the legend saith,
that when the city was in imminent peril from the
descent Of a Tuscan army, the brave Horatius, as
sisted by two men reriled his life in destroying
the bridge across the Tiber, which rendered it i'm
possible to enter the city. Inspired with the
holy purpose of saving the town, of defending the
ashes of bis fathers, and the temples of his Gods,
of protecting the tender mother and the holy
maiden, he went out to face the fearful odds-to
ofOr himself a sacrifice for the good of the many.
Thrice thirty thousand foes were before him, and,
"There lacked not men Of prowess,
Nor men of lOrdly race
For all Etruria's noblest,
Were round the fatal place"
But the bold Roman kept the bridge the toss
ing sea Of steel before him ebbed and flowed un,
der the weight of his mighty hand. The bravest
of the brave Tuscans who strobe out before the
crowd to win the narrow pass were instantly dis
abled, and felled to the earth. Meanwhile the
axe was diligently piled to hew down the bridge,
the timbers began to crack, battlement and plank
and pier, and every loosened beam at length fell
with one tremendous crash, and Rome was saved.
Then arose a long shout of triumph from the walls
of the city-one rapturous cry of joy at their de-
liverance. And the memory of him who wrought
this valent deed, passed down through the ages,
stirring the old Roman blood like a trumpet's
blast. Mothers prayed that their sons might be
like him men and maidens We'd with each other
in doing homage to ;he name of Horatius.
But in the coming future, when the Lays Of an.
asnok Apaa,;oo eAol1 bo r,sttaa KLo,a ,.a- l.. -.
Of a christian hero, who spent the best part of a
lifetime, in deVising plans to meet a deadly foe
and then taking counsel Of the Almighty, he went
out to face not 90. 1000 men, but q whole empire in
arms against him. And the Lay will tell how
bravely he kept the fort. how tenderly he treated
his prisoners, how g%randly he bore his captivity
how triumphautly he assembled the scaffoid, and
how the whole civilized world recognized the wis.
dom Of his words, the heroism of his deeds. As
the blow from tho rod of Moses cleft the desert
rock, and caused the waters to gush forth in the
wilderness, so the blow which he struck
opened the stone-covered fountains Of human sym,
pathy, and sect and party we're unable to restrain
the spontaneous exclamation, Well donel To the
op2ressor, bis presence at Harper's Ferry was like
she hand writing upon The wall, TO the oppressoI
Of old.
And The Lay will show that this story was re,
peated in the home Of the master and in the cabin
Of The slave, that it awakened hope in the hear
of the enslaved on the shores Of the Potomac, and
IN the heart of the oppressed ON the shores
Of the Tiber that every man who fel,
the CALLING of a fetter, whether in the new
world or the old, thanked God for this faith
tol testimony against despotic power. And it viii!
tell also of the noble matron who gave her hus-
band aud her sons to Truth aud Liberty, and
when she was told that the former had been made
9 captive, and the latter had fallen in battle, sim
ply inquired, Will the sacrifice be available p
Whist effect will this have on the cause Of human
frsedom2
Horatius offered himself for Rome and for Ro-
mans. lie looked upon the Eternal city, with all
its spleudOr and mAgnihcence, its temples and
towers, its works of Art, its princely appoint
nentss he looked upon the mother who gave him
birth. upon the wife who nursed his babes at her
breast, upon the maidens who fec the eternal fame.
upon the noble Roman, and for these, for. all these
he kept the bridge at the peril of life. Ourtius
Marcus also srsrifeed himself for his compeers-
people of the same blood, the same nation
Winklereid gathered to his bosom the spears that
his associates might pass ON to conquest, and
Switzerland be saved.
But our hero, who was one Of q dominant class,
locked upon a ~despised race, race dspatioualiz-
Cd and dehumanizeI. with no culture, no mnrri-
sge, no rights thai are respected, mere tools to