Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1860-06-23

~ - ~ Wv W. W"NA
sciousness OF its true character, surrender blindly
to it's barbarous tendencies, and, verifying the
words Of the poet:
$50 perfect is their misery,
Not once perceive their foul disfgr rement,
But boast themselves more comely than before
Mr.. President, It is time to close this branch Of
the argument. Tho barbarism Of Slavery has
been now exposed, first, in the law Of Slavery,
illustrated by a contrast between the Free States
and the slave States, sustained by official figures.
From this exposure Of Slavery l proceeded to con-
slider it's influences on Slave masters, whose true
character stands confessed, Arst in the law Of Sla-
very, which js their work next, in their relations
between them and their slaves, maintained by
three inhuman INSTRUMENTS next, in the relations
with each other, and with society, as here we have
seen them at home under the immediate influence
of Slavery-also in the communities Of which
they are q part-practising violence, and pushing
il everywhere, in street fight and duel; especially
raging against oil who question the pretensions of
Slavery; entering even into the Free States, but
not in lawless outbreaks only; also in official acts,
as of Georgia and of South Carolina, with regard
TO two Massachusetts citizens; and then, ascending
10 audacity entering the halls Of Congress, where
they have ragged, as at home, against all who set
themselves against their ~asSumptiousI while the
whole gloomy army of UNREASONABLE facts has
been closed by portraying the melancholy unoon.
sciousness which constitutes one of the distinctive
features of this barbarian.
lMr. Sumner briefly disposes of the argument
of the inferiorlty of the colOred race.
!, This is not the time to enter upon the great
eaa.Aso1 sc rnoa - H. ,n.;o.o l.Lk, &c .Is-,oo
history and science. Sure l am that they who un-
, d%erstand it best will be least disposed to the pre-.
tensions which, on the assumed ground of inferior
5 ity, would condemn one race to be the property of
, another. If the African race be inferior, as is
f ~alledged then is it the unquestionable duty Of a
Z, Christian civilization to lift it from lie degradation,
not By the b~ludgeon and the chsin-not by the
3 barbarous pretensions of ownership-but by a gen.
D erous charity, which shall DO measured precisely
by the extent Of its inferiority. The second argu-
G ment put forward for this pretension, and twice
repeated by the Senator from Mississippi is that
E. the Africans are the ~posterity Of Ham, the son of
Y Noah, through Canaan, who was cursed by Moab,
: to be the 'servant-that lie the word employed
e of bis brethren, and that this malediction has fal-
: len upon all his descendants, who are accordingly
devoted by God to perpetual bondage, not only in
n the third and fourth generations, but throughout
/ all succeeding time. Surely, when the Senator
quoted Scripture to enforce the claim of slave
n masters, he did not intend a lest, and yet it is
!: hard to suppose him in earnest. The Senator is
Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs,
in which he is doubtless experienced. He may,
perhaps, set q squadron in the field but be has evil
i, IDENTIFY considered very little the text Of Scripture
on which he relies. The Senator assumes that it
has fixed the doom of the colored race, leaving un-
/; touched the white race. Perhaps he does NOT
know that in the worst days of the Polish aristoc
I sacy this same argument was adopted as the ex.
cuse for holding white Serfs in bondage, precisely
as it is now put forward by the Senator, and that
even to this day the angry Polish noble addresses
A his white peasant as the 'son of Ham,
1t hardly COMFORTS with the gravity Of this de-
bate to dwell on such an argument, and you can.
not go wrong If, for the sake Of q much injured
race, ! brush it away. To justify the Senator in
his application of this ancient curse, he mus
70 maintain at least Eve different propositions, as es
sential links 10 the chain Of the Afriu'Americar
slave; first, that, by this maledietion, Canaan him
8 self was actually changed into q 'ehattel,' whereas
he is simply made the servant of his brethren
, secondly, that net merely Canaan. but all his pos
= terity, to the remo:est generation was so changed
i; whereas the language has no such extent; thirdly
that the Afric-American actually belongs to tn
posterity of Canaan-an chronological assumption
absurdly difficult to establish; fourthly that eacl
+ of the descendants of Shem and Japheth has
RICH. to hold an Airic.American follow man as
'chatter-a proposition which finds no semblanc
Of support; and filthy, thai every slave.master i
;. truly descended from Shem or Japheth-a pedi
gree which no anxiety can establish This plail
analysis, which may 6tly excite a smile, shows tn
n FIVE fold absurdity of an attempt to found this pre-
tension on
Any successive title long and dark,
Drawn from the moldy rolls OF Noah's ark.
From the character Of these two arguments 70
is property in man, l am brought again to its denial
"a After discussing the connection of slavery witt
the constitutional question. he thus closes.
Mr.. President, this argument is now closed
be Pardon me for the time I have occupied. 1t
e. long since l have made any such claim upon you
attention. Pardon me, also, if have said any
at thing which l ought not to have said. l hav
es spoken frankly, and from the heart; if severely
yet only with the severity of a sorrowful candor
calling things by their right names, and le!tinj
'e, historic facts tell their unimpeachable story.
ms have spoken"in the patriotic hope Of contributip
In to the welfare Of my country, and also in the al
'et sured conviction that what l have said would I'm
a response in generous souls. l believe that
ge- have said nothing which is not sustained by We
Ire founded argument OF well. founded testimon,
es nothing which can be con'roverted without a dh
"a ect assault upon reason or upon truth. The tw
M assumptions of slave. masters have been answered
IN but this is not emf ugh. Let the answer become
he legislative act by the admission OF Kansas as afr,
er. State. Then will the barberism Of Slavery be r
ug PEELED, and the pretensiOn of property in man
all rtbuked. Such an act closing this long strugg
not by the assurance of peace to the Territory, if u
te Of TRANQUILITY to the whole country. will be mo