Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1860-03-10

than in the power Of politics.
II our friend will turn to The Brotherhood Of
Thieves" by S. S. Foster, published in 1874, be
will perhaps be able to better understand why
he has been counted as a Disunion abolitionist-
as one who understaudingly regarded the U. S.
Constitution as a pro-slavery document After
quoting from some Of tho Southern papers and
Southern speakers in Congress to show that the
North, through the government hold iho slaves,
he says;-
Testimony to the same effect, might he multi
piled to an indefinite extent. Bot more is unuec-
essary. Every person, acquainted with the poll
tics OF the country, knows that slavery is incorpo-I
rated into the constitution of our government. and
10 made a part Of fits settled policy | have already
said that slaveholding was necessarily a social
crime; that it was only ty means Of a social organ
~ization, by which the power Of q whole commune
ty could be combined and concentrated on a given
point. at q given time, that the liberty OF an Judi
vidual could be crushed. The federal and state
governments, linked together as they now are, con-
stitute such an organization. The protection Of
the slave system was one Of tho objects for which
the Union was formed. By the terms of the fed
eral compact, the citizens of every state in the
Union are required and pledged to protect the
slave-claimants, in each of the states where slave
ry exists, against any attempt of their slaves to
regain their liberty by q resort to arms. The
army, the navy and the militia Of the whole coun-
try, are placed at the bidding of the slave power !;
and every officer in them, from the highest to the
lowest, is put under oath to fight the battles of
slavery at the masters call. \ n
The guaranty of personal security against their
slaves, given by the North to the slave-claimants,
is the very life blood of the slave system. Dives.
ted Of the protection Of Northern bayonets, the
slave power could not sustain itself & single hour,
as the South herself is forced to admit. Sup
pose the Union to be dissolved, what has the South
to depend upon ? All the crowned heads are
against her. a million of slaves are ready to rise
and strike for freedom at the first tap Of the
drum" And why, | ask, 90 they not n3C rise ?
Not, surely, because, in q country like ours, such
a step would be deemed morally wrong. The
doctrine taught IN all our pulpits, and received by
the church universally, is, that resistance ~ ty-
rants is obedience to God" Our clergy tell us
that selE-defence. and the protection OF our fani.
lies, is q duty which we may not innocently neg.
lect, while they denounce non.resistance as q doc.
trine of devils" Why, then, do not the slave as.
sert their freedom, and meet the invaders of their
rights in mortal combat, as our fathers did ? And
why are not Charles Remond, and Frederic Doug.
lass, and Lundsford Lane, the Henrys. and Han
cocks, and Adamses Of q second American rero
luton
But one answer can be given to this question,
and that is the enc already given by the Mary
vile lntelligencer. The consciousness thnt, in q
controversy Win lu6lF mdSIeTe, lucy must iDtet
the combined forces, military and naval, Of the
whole country, alone deters them from such II
movement. 1t is not the lily.tiGgered aTistOcracy
of the South that they fear, as the South herself
tells us, but the "white slaves" Of the North, who
have basely sold themselves for solutions to the
slave power, and who ate always ready to do the
bidding of their naughty prOprietors, whatever
service they may require at their hands. The
slaves know too well, that, should they unfurl the
banner of freedom, and demand the recognition
of their liberty and rights at the point of the bay
onet, the Northern pulpit, aghast with holy hor-
ror at the incendiary measure, would raise the
maddening cry Of iHSurrectton-the Northern
church, animated by a kindred spirit, and echo
ing the infamous libel, would pour forth her sons
in countless hordes, and q mighty avalanche Of
Northern %soldiery, we'll disciplined for their work
Of death by long experience in Northern mobs,
would rush down upon them from our Northern
hills in exterminating wrath, and sweep away, in
it's desolating ruins, the last vestage OF their pres.
ent "forlorn hope |" Do l misrepresent the church
and clergy No! You, at least, know that this
would be but to redeem their plighted faith. They
stand, before the world and before high Heaven,
sworn to protect every slave. breeder in the land in
his lauJM business of rearing men and women
for the market; nor have they, as a body, ever
shown any symptoms of an intention to violate
the requirements of their oath. They preach and
practice allegiance to n government which is based
upon the bones and sinews, and cemented with
| thO blOOu VI hAlAiOh VI NhSll YUM 1hiCIiI ullu
hold themselves in readiness to execute its every
decree, at the point of the %bnyoaet. n \ \
The Federal Compact contains another proyis-
Tor. as l have already minated, which, in its
operation, is no less fatal 10 the liberties of our
enslaVed countrymen than that which we have
just considered; and one which duplicates every
friend and supporter OF the Union in all the guilt
and moral ~turpitude of slaveholding. l refer to
that article of the Constitution which requires tie
surrender Of fugitive slaves. If the Northern
States were really free, the slaves would fcrthwilh
escape into them, and slavery would soon become
extinct by emigration, as Mr.. Underwood has well
said. But what is now the fact? Is there liberty
for the slave anywhere within the borders of the
United States? When he steps upon the soil Of
Pennsylvania, or New York, or Massachusetts, do
lis shackles fall2 Can he stand erect, and Say,
u am free :" No lie is still a crouching slave
still clanks his chains, and starts a~frighted OF
the crack Of the drivers whip. Holly pursued by
? the human hounds which, like the tabled vulture
Of Prometheus, have long gorgcd themselves upon
1 his vitals, he reaches forth his imploring hands to
J the protested ministers and followers of the meek
and loving Savior, and, with looks that would
I draw tears from adamant, beseeches them by oil
that is endea-ing in the ties Of our common ma
} ture, and by all that is horrible 10 the doom of
v rccaptured slave, to save him from the fangs .
these terrible monsters. But what is their reply
y $50 5ack"-Shame, shame on the church &c,
/ back, and wear your chains! True, all men nu
created equal, and endowed by their Creator will
+ certain inalienable rights, among which are life
n liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and Go.
t said, Thou shalt hot deliver to his master tn,
= servant which is escaped from his master unit
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. We have covenanted will
the wretchos who nave robbed you of these rights
y never to give you shelter, nor protection; but t
3 return you, if found within our borders, again in
to their power.
This is no picture of the fancy, as thousands o
. our unhappy countrymen would testify from sac
r experience, if they could ent speak. Indeed, it il
r the language Of every citizen Of the North wit
Z holds any other relation to the Federal Compac
than that which George Washington and the frs
American Congress held to the colonial edicts o
George III for that instrument. as interpreted b,
b the Supreme Court, pledges all who assent to it Il
o withhold protection from every man who is claim
ed as a fugitive slave, and allow him to be drag