Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1860-11-24
POSITIVE AND COMPARATIVE.

Inc mutdtlJub VI 4lmo WIN u HaNA'
transformation, and that which was positively bad,
comes to be regarded as comparatively good
But the change Of circumstances does not change
tho inherent moral character Of an act; that which
is positively and inherently bad, can never be
transformed into a positive good. It's perhaps,
a question yet to be decided, whether we should
most rejoice over the accomplishment of az act, or
q series of acts, which to day arc comparatively
good, but q score Of years since woul3 have justly
been considered as not only positively bad, but
comparatively so or whether we should most
mourn over the degeneracy Of the present, which
has transformed the bad into seeming good. For
ty years ago, the adoption Of the Missouri Com
promise was regarded bS the North as involving a
betrayal of her interests, an unmanly yielding to
tho spirit of slavery. To-day, the adoption of
suoh q measure by Congress would be regarded as
an anti-slavery triumph. Twenty years ago, abo-
litionists denounced the old Wing party as an or
ganization false 10 the principles of humanity, aud
so pro-slavery that no intelligent anti-s!aVery
man could give it his support; and Henry Clay,
the embodiment Of the party, the incarnation OF
its principles, and the eloquent advocate Of its
measures, was made the target against which was
hurled the denunciations of the friends Of free
dom. To-day, a man is elected to the Presidential
chair, who, upon the question of slavery, occr-
pies no higher ground than did the Wings OF 1870,
and whose claims to the suffrage of the people,
were, in many parts Of the country, urged upon the
ground that he stood where Henry Clay had stood,
and coupled identically the same position as did tho
Wings Of twenty years since. And yet there are
'abolitionists who regard bis election as o crafty
t. as echo n,nrl- nf n hOnnfnl onOah
in the progress of our cause, and who look upon
the Republican party" as a token OF q greatly I'M
proved public sentiment.
Now it may be that we are altogether
wrong in our estimation Of the merits Of the Re-
publican party, and Of the effect of its action ur-
on community, If we are, we should be glad to
be convinced Of the fact; and to make The labor OF
our conversion the more easy, we will state some
of the difficulties existing in our mind, which
would have 10 be removed.
LIST. We believe that the Chicago platform-so
far as slavery is concernod-is not one whit better
than the principles held, and policy advocated by
the leading Wings of 1910. When Joshua r. Cid
ings helped to nominate Van Buren, in '4S he ez-
ultingly declared that the Buffalo platform was
identical with the Henry Clay platform and ev-
cry body knows that Free Soilism, it its day, was
more radically onti-slavery than is Republicanism
now.
I'd. We regard Royublicanism as having obtain
ed votes in certain CAGES under false pretences ;
and in others, by inducing political abolitionists,
who, in 1910, mathematical Henry Clay and sus-
tanned James T., Birney, to aposta'izo from the
faith, and vote for a man who believes in the con-
stitutional obligation of slave catching, and who
does not stand pledged, and cannot be depended
upon to DO any single practical anti-slavery work,
unless it be to resist the extension of slavery over
the territories.
Sd. Having the assurance of Lincoln himself,
end of his leading friends, that the success OF the
Republican party will quiet the anti-slavery agi-
tation now existing, and restore the former good
feeling between the different sections Of our coun-
try, and which grew out of the Indifference Of the
North to the question of slavery, we regard this,
of itself, as a reason to deprecate Lincoln's sue
cess, and to welcome, as a lesser evil, the triumph
of Breckenridge, whose election to the Presidency
would have intensified, instead of allaying the
anti-slavery agitation.
4th. As a member of an Anti Slavery Society
we, in 1910, recorded our vote In condemnation of
Henry Clay and tho Wing party, and We do not
see how we can consistently, in 1860, rejoice in
the election Of one, who, without the talents of
Clay, trul represents him upon the question of
slavery as connected with the Federal government.
5;h. If community has SO retrogaded, that what
was to be condemned in 40, is to be commended
in go, instead Of rejoicing at the comparative good
accomplished to-day, we are more disposed to
lament the positee dogcueracy attained; and fecl
that we must labor even more earnestly TO bring
the. nation up to where it stood when Republican
ism wonld have been denounced by Abolitionists,
as was its prototype, Whiggory.