Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1860-09-08
ATTEMPTED SUICIDE AT THE covINdTbN
AL.

JAIL.
Yesterday forenoon a negro, hdmod EphraiTh,
the property Of Samuel Rice, a farmer, residing
short distance from the city, attempted to dssifoN
his life by cutting his throat with an old Slab
knife, in the jail, but owing to the dulness of the
blade, a frightful, though not a dangerous wound
was inflicted. Ephrsim had given his master con.
siderable Trouble and he was therefore sent TO the
jail OF That city, with the intention of being sent
South for sale.- Cincinnati Commercial, Auo. 3lst.
The history of a life is sometimes ccmpreossd
into a few words, and the brief paragraph above
is Of this character. To the tbougbtful mind The
dozen lines contain a volume. The outlines of
life, stranger in its truth than the widest pbanto.
sizes of Imagination, ere here hastily sketcbed he
one whose familiarity with slavery and its inci-
dents have made him, perchance, a though,less
observer of its terrible outrsges. In a nation az
Democratic as we claim 10 be, and as Christian az
is our profession, what would be thought Of an
oppressor, who, t~rampling under foot the great
charter of political rights, and 10 direct contrayeu-
ton OF every principle os christianity, should seize
upon a fellow man and claim him as bis propertv.
subject to ell the rules by which property is gov.
ernedf No punishment would lie considered too
severe for the crime, no perdition to deep for The
location OF the criminal. That such is not the
itei'ng OF the American people in relation to the
case OF Ephraim, and the cases Of the four millions
OF hphraims in our land, is proof that We ara
neither Christian nor Democratic.
Ephrain was born a slave, or rather made onS
at his birth. Branded with the mark Of a despis.
ed and servile race, to him was allotted the fate Of
his unfortunate prOgonitors, and the SANS bitter
baptism that had made the life Of his mother, and
his mothers mother a WEAKNESS and a curse, over
whelmed him. Every aspiration of his nature
was checked; every instinct Of his manhood crush
60; and even hope-which clings to humanity
through iite-could hardly pierce the darkness Of
bis prison home, for be was doomed to tread the
dreary path of existence, not as the owner of him.
self, but as the property Of another.
Even shareholders themselves tell US that their
system with oil its terrible power cannot wholly
.obhterate the instincts which God planted in the
human soul-it may mar and deface the image OF
the Creator, but cannot destroy it. Ephraim fell
the injustice that was done him, and resented the
ontrages he received at the hands of bis oppres-
sor. Though hopeless OF obtaining redress, he
would have been false to his manhood had he no,
remembered his wrongs.
Had he been born of that race of which Roma.
NhlS1 NOuuO
after her conquest of Britain made slaves, it would
have been manly, and noble, and grand, and elo-
rious to have smitten his oppressors to the earth.
and have vindicate1 his manhood at the point of
the sword and his praise would have been in the
mouths OF the people who now crush him, as are
the praises of Gar ibaldi. But such action WAS
not suited to a descendeht of that race which gave
to the world Sheba's queen, and whose science and
learning date far back of all knowledge, even Of
the existence of the savages of Britain, and from
whose fires Greece and Rome gathered the sparks
they afterward kindled into flames upon their all
tars. Ephraim had no right to long for freedom.
for the more of q man he was, the more trouble,
some he became as property; and The sugar PLAN
tation of Louisiana being deemed a safer prison,
than a farm in Kentucky, his master determined
to separate him from the few things which made
life endurable-to sell him, perchance, IRON his
wife and little ones, to tear asuuder the ties of fam.
lily, and thus destroy the one oasis in the Sahara
oil bis existence. This was filling the already
trimming cup too full. Ephraim felt shore was
nothing in slavery to live for, and what Patrick
Henry declared with his lips, and for which peaps
have been sung to bis name, Ephraim strove 20 do
with his hands. Give me liberty or give me DEATH
demanded the orator of Virginia. Give me liberty
or give me DEATH said the slave Of Kentucky by
his deeds. The one was regarded as a hero, ,h.
other as a fool. The one is honored, the other
cursed.
Alas, poor Ephraim |