Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1861-02-09
TO The PEOPLE OF vIRGIEtA.

We deem it our duty, as your Representative
at Washington, to lay before you such information
as we may possess in regard to the probable actor
Iof Congress in the present alarming condition o.
the country
AT the begiruing Of this session, now more thar
half over, committees were appointed, iu both
Houses Of Congress, 10 consider the state of the
Union. Neither committee has been able to a1re,
upon any mode of settlement Of the pending issues
between the Noyth ard the South.
The Republican members in both committees
rejected propositions acknowledging the right OF
property in slaves, or recommending the division
of the Territories between the Slaveholding and
Non-slavtho!dipg States by geogra phical line.
Io tHo Senate, tho propositions commonly known
as Mr. Crittendcn' 'sssere. voted against; by every
Republican Senator and the House, on a vote by
ayes and noes, refused 10 consider certain prone
sitions, moved by Mr.. Etheridge, which were even
less favorable to the South than Mr.. Crittenden's
a resolution giving pledge to sustain the pres
ident ia the use Of force against seeding States
was adoped in The House of Representatives Ly
large maj jority and in the Senate every Republic
an voted to substitute for Mr.. Crttenden's prom
o'itioni resolutions offered by Mr.. Clark, Of New
Hampshire, declaring no new concessions, guar
dntees, or cmcrGmcnts 20 the Constitution we're
necessary that tie demands of the South were
unreasonable, and tha! the remedy for the present
danger was simply to enforce the laws in other
words coarcon and war.
In this s'ato Of laotF, our duty is to warn YOU
that it is vain to hope for any measures of concil-
iation or adjustment from Congress) which you
pt,1I Il
publican party designs, by civil war alone, to
coerce the Southern States, under the pretext Of
enforcing the laws, unless it shall become speed
lily apparent that the seeding States are 50 nu.
merous, determined, and united as 20 make sucL
IN attempt hopeless.
We are confirmed in these conclusions by our
general intercourse here by the speeches of the
Republican leaders, here and ese ewhere by the
recent retusals of the Legislatures of Vermont
Ohio and Pennsylvania to repeal their obnoxious
Personal Liberty Laws by the action Of the Hi
nois Legislature on resolutions approving the
propositions, and by the adoption of
he resolutions in New York and Massachusetts
Legislatures doubtless to be followed by others)
'faring men and money for the war of coercion. il
We have thus placed before you the facts and 7
onciueIoub NHlcn nave become manifest to us 5
rom this post of observation where you have r
laced u.s. There is nothing to be hoped from r
)ongress-the remedy is with you alone, when G
GU assemble in sovereign Convention. o
We conclude by expressing our solemn conyic- f,
ION that prompt and decided action by the people &
Virginia in Convention, will afford the surest Il
leans, under the Providence of God, of ayerting tt
n impending civil war, and preserving the hope Y
reconstructing Union already dissolved. il
j. M. MASON, 6,
Il. NJ. T. HUNTER,
d. @. DE JARNETTE, At
NJ. r. II. GARNETT, 81
SHELTON F LEAKE, n,
E. S. MARTIN, Ii
II. a EDMUNDSON, b,
ROGER A. PRYOR, vi
TlIOS. S. BOCOCK, nj
A G. JENKINS. l.
Washington City. Janaary 26. 1861 dc
loving to she detention of Ex- Governor Smith, n,
his home in Virginia. by sickness, this address
ud not be presented to him for his signature. re
here is no doubt he would have Joined in it, if ar
esent m