Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1861-03-16
From the Principal.
THE GREAT CHANGE.

The fourth of March has come and gone. James
Buchanan has moved out of the great white house.
Abraham Lincoln has moved in. The Democrat
10 party has gone out of power. The Republican
party has come into power.
The first great object of the outgoing President
and his Administration was to protect slave
"property". The first distinct annuncaiation of
his policy, by the incoming President is, that the
same species of property" shall be protected rs
heretofore. OF no other property, of no other inter
est, material, or otherwise, of any section of the
country, does he utter a syllable, unless it be to in
quire, timidly, whether it might not be well, at
the same time, to provide by law for the enforce
ment of that clause of the Constitution which
guarantees that the citizens of each State shall be
entitled to all the privileges and immunities of
citizens in the several States"-including the
privilege of being lynched for speaking the truth,
or for cot wearing a paddock on their lips.
The outgoing President was z~ealously intent on
the business of catching runaway negroes. The
incoming President is careful to assure the christ
ian world, that that sublime function of the Gov
eminent is to continue in exercise, as usual. He
thinks-and we think with him-that "if the
slave is to be surrendered, it can be of little con-
equence to him OF others, by which authority,
Estate or Nationally it is DONE" To which it
might have been added that i. is Of little conse-
quence to the slave or others, whether the hunt
ing pack of biped bloodhounds, be kennelled and
by james Buchanan, or by Abraham Lin
coin. Or this, only, that the execration Of good
men, the world over, will have to be transferred
from the former to the latter, he himself, with his
eyes open, consenting.
The outgoing President, up to the hour when
the incoming President was elected, always held,
as did all his predecessors when in power, that
The Federal Government is a government proper,
and not a mere confederacy of States, at liberty to
secede or nullify whenever they pleased. The in
coming President, like all other Presidents in Of
is Of the same mind. In this, we think him
altogether correct.
The outgoing President held that the Federal
Government must protect slavery in the Territor-
les. The incoming President raises the question,
Must Congress protect slavery in the Territor-
lest" And he returns for answer, Tho Constitu-
ton does not expressly Sav." And 30 he leaves it
to be inferred that it is a doubtful question, in his
mind. He is not quite certain as to his duty on
that subject. As to The question, whether Con-
gress may not prohibit slavery in the Territories,
he ignores it altogether, making no mention of
it, as though it were a by-gone controversy, as
Mr.. seward said, in his speech of January Both
in the Senate.
The outgoing President always acted upon the
principle that ''the Federal Government shall
never interfere with the domestic institutions of the
States, including that of persons held for service
The incoming President adds to his avowal of the
same principle, that he has no objections to an
amendment of the Constitution, "making it express
and irreVocable" beyond the power of the %''sover.
eign people" to amend it back again.
And so he thinks it very strange that any
body should be dissatisfied" with Mr.. Buchan.
ans moving ont of the white house, and letting
him move into it. We think SO too; and we think
it equally strange that anybody except political
jobbers and aspirants, should have lifted a finger
to turn out Mr.. Buchanan and put in Mr.. Lincoln,
when all the fuse of secession, threatened, before
hand, might have been avoided by the selection OF
another tenant for the white house.