Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1861-05-04
LETTER FROM PHILADELPHIA,

ED, BUGLE IL mas Oeen SOme ume sihVo a mI
truded myself on your notice. 10 my last | wrote
tina, 'things were workin," and may now add.
they are working harder-matters are Fastening
to o crisis. Our politicians, heretofore, have satu
rated us with crises, but oil their talk Of tariffs,
banks, and other state and national affairs, seem
like mere moonshine 10 comparison to what is now
going on. The bloody issue, it seems, has at last
arrived, 10 which the great contest between liber-
ty and slavery has to be decided-ior that is the
question Of the day, although fighting for the
union is the ostensible object held up to view by
the administration and those who are in for the
war. To me il looks as II the Union is gone past.
patching, and ] cannot think that our southern
brethren can be whipped in again--ihough l am
quite sure they will be conquered in the field Of
battle.
Webster once said, there IS no Sunday in revo-
lutiopary times. For that saying, his political OPP
ponents stigmatizod him as a sort of heather; but
the sentiment he uttered is verified now, and here
in this city Of Brotherly Love, last Sunday the
work Of enlistment was going on as on week
days; and this morning l went to the Philadelphia
and Baltimore station, aud there | saw some half
dozen companies, e~ncamped in the tent or iaber-
nacle Of the Young Mems Christian Association.
The captains were marching their various COM
panies along the streets to the sound Of the drum,
and putting tho men through some Of the military
evolutions in order to train them how to kill and
be killed according to the laws Of war, on tho field
of blood and glory! And passing by the Girard
House, (now 20! a hotel, but sort of military
place l could hear tho rattle, of perhaps hun
drcds of sewing machines, making uniforms for
the volunteers, and there are a thousand women at
work, ii is said.
Companies from other States have been passing
through here, and among those, / saw the Massa-
ehusetts regiment, which the next day were at
tackled in Baltimore, aud some Of them killed,
while othere shot down q number Of mobocrats
in turn. | also saw the celebrated New York 9Th
regiment, q jolly set of chaps, enter the ship
which conveyed them to Washington. And on the
streets, in the armories, at a score or two of public
rooms, and in the parks, we can continually hear
the din of drum and fife, the measured tread Of
raw recruits or experienced fnglemen, and COM
panies, preparing for some woeful conflict which
is to send weeping, if not desolation in many a
household, aud blight the prospects of many n
dreamed future of happiness. Truly, war is a
dread scourge.
And the war enthusiasm seems almost unboun-
Ged. There are tens of thousands Of aags, within
this city, today, 6uttering in the gales or breezes
as they come to US from the warm south land.
There are great flags, costing their hundreds OF
dollars each. down to the tiny, thumb paper size,
carried by the little, ragged street boys. who also
have their lilliputian drums, and other cheap &C.
coutrements with which to play the soldier and
show their enthusiasm. We have a tremendous
unanimity on that point here. Were a man, even
ever 80 privately, to say any thing indicating that
he sympathised with our southern brethren, he
would be in danger OF being hung on the dearest
lamp post. Why Bob Tyler, son Of ex-Pres;denl
Tyler, one of the F. f. VS., had to run for his
life, and seek protection at the hands of the police.
The Palmetto Flag was sumarily suspended, and
the Office where it was printed would have been in
RACED to the ground, l suppose, had not the police
terfered. | saw some two or thres hundred excited
peoIl e as near the Office as they could get, discuss
ing the question Ct demolition in great earnestness
l think it doubtful, under the present state Of pub
lie feeling, whether DR.. Lord, or DR.. Spring, Oh
any of those pro slavery d. DIS, could with safe
, ty preach some Of the sermons attributed to them
especially in such as they expressed ~sympath,
S with the south. Men whose breaths are ladei
r with the fumes of alcohol, now denounce tn
whole south as a set of tbieves-pro-slsvery a
r they have been, thus verifying the allegations 70
: which the rankest abolitionists have heretofor
e been mobbed for utteriug against the STAKEHOLDER
: and not the entire southern people.
e Last Sunday the war question got right in tn,
. meeting of Progressive Friends. One man mad
c an excellent little speech in favor of leace princi
s Piles, but so warlike did many of the speakers an,
: others feel, that he was listened to with great i'm
D patiencs. Two or three others who frequentl,
S speak there, declared for the war, and felt wha
s they said sensitiyely, when two of them said the
e had sons in the army, and another that he wa
o going himself. Miss Dickinson, to whom / hav
n heretofore referred as an able and eloquent cham
; pion of liberty, wOmen's rights, temperance, an
e all that is good, who has been raised in the peace
). full faith of Friends, made q brief but eloauer
e speech for the war. And in concluding sh
t brought down the house, as did others. with thei
anti-slavery denunciatiOns.
o Perhaps | am premature, or you may even thin
u preposterous, but it does seem to me that this va
mo matter how much it is intended in behalf
y the UniOu-will ultimate in the overthrow of slt
very. This may be rather sanguine, but l hea
= many others uttering the same sentiment. TIL
y people will see that slavery, and nothing elst
is the cause of the war, and interest, if no otht
. reason, will prompt them to demand its overtime
if the south remain in the Union. And il th
south remains seeded they can't we'll sustain th
! institution. But perhaps this is indulging rattle
. freely in the realms Of speculation.
"This war has been brought on by you abOl
~tionists," SO | have been told by more more tina
one old pro-slavery Wing, land now we have
fight it out" l tell them we abolitionists are
very meagre crowd, and without influence. N
matter is the response, you are chargeable for II
war. You will remember that the same part.
held US responsible for the annexation of Texa
and the Mexican war. So if We are ths potter
fellows they make US out, by holding out a lit