The weekly Louisianian., 1872-08-24

as we'll. Surely this generation can nc
have forgotten tho labors of jas. g. Bi,
ney, Samuel Lewis, Gamaliel Bailey, Sal
mon r. Chase, Gerrit Smith, Williar
Goodell, the Tappans, Garrison, Phillips
and scoros of others, who did noble sc,
vice in tho cause of the slave. To singl
Mr.. Sumner out from o gcneration, i
which the best heads and hearts of til
Nation were enlisted in the anti-slaver
cause, as the man who above all others
to be hailed As the champion, is to d
gross injustice to many noble souls, ivin,
and dead.
Another assumption at which I wonde
Is that of MIR. Sumner, who imagined TIM
the colored people Of the country woul,
fall into line at the wave of his hand an,
vote as he might dictate.
When he argued our cause before thi
Nation he asserted that we were intelli
gent and dispassionate enough to form
just views of public policy, and homes
enough to sustain those views by ou
votes. When we refuse to follow Mr.
Sumner We vindicate the truthfulncss o
that assertion, and we mean to show b,
the independence of our action that ne;thel
he, nor any other man. can claim ou
votes as his personal property.
In his letter of advice Mr.. Sumner as
serts that Horace Greeley stood forth a:
reformer and Aboltionist. Horac.
Greeley, from early life, WIS earnest ant
constant against slavery, full Of sympath,
for the colored race, and always foremos
in all the great battles for their rights"
It is an easy thing in these days to make
an anti-slavery record. In the old days
now happily gone forever, when fugitiv>
slaves where passing through our hand.
seeking safety and freedom and Cana,la,
Democratic and politically pro-slavery
men would contribute to assist them al.
most as readily as anti-slavery men, and
numbers of them como to mo now asking
me to bear witness that they never were
friends to slavery.
Hon. Jas. ]. Faran, whose staunch De.
mocracy no one will doubt, can provo IN
anti-slavcry record, for he was one of the
men who concoctcd the famous Wilrsu,
Proviso, and passed it successful through
lie House vi Representatives.
I have heard VIM. S. Groesbeck, in a
speech to a Dentocratic audience, declare
himself IN anti-slavery man, and avow his
belief that slavery would be brought to an
end through the influence of that party.
Yet no one to-day would ask votes fol
Messrs. Faran and Groesbeck on the
of their anti-slavery record.
have been a careful and interested
reader of anti-slavery news for many
years, but never heard of Horace Greeley
making speech at an anti-slavcry meet
ing: never heard of his attendance at one
except as spectator. I do not believe
the roll of any Anti Slavery Society in the
land can show the name of Horace Greeley
among its members. He has never in his
life been in accord with the friends Of
liberty. Just as to-day he is claiming that
the Union mny he rendered strong, and
impartial freedom be guaranteed by the
Democratic party, which is the only party
in the land which has struck at both, SO
he in the. past refused to join with the
|he Liberty party or the Free Soil party in
their resistance to slavery, but gave his
adhesion to the Wing party, which died
because it did not dare to oppose the ac-
cursed institution which was eating the
life out Of the nation. His model states
nan was Henry Clay, whose compromises
we're swept out of the way with contempt
~ both parties, and now stand in history
IS evidences of the folly of building with
,ntempered mortar.
1t is truo Mr.. Clay declared himself op-
,oscd to slavery in the abstract. But this
entimental opposition lost him no friends
lmong shareholders, for he was ono him
eli, It was slavery in the concrete that
hey defended. Tho failure of Mr.. Clay's
ifs was that he tried to please everybody
nd this saying about slavery in the ab-
tract was ono Of the amiable nothings
'hich no was always uttering. Slavery
4 the abstract never freighted a slevo
hip, never erected m auction block for
he sale of human beings. never parted a
,other and child, never drove g man with
10 lash to a day Of unrequited labor,
ever closed school or q church to those
,irsting for knowledge. Opposition to
avery in the abstract, which no ono at
.cked and no one defended, was a fit po-
tion for the great compremiser and his
imirer, Mr.: Horace Greeley. =
And this was in the days when the anti
avery and pro slavery hosts Of the coun-
y were gathering in opposite camps for
le great battle. Il It was in those days,
hen the ounce Of preventive which is
orth a pound Of cure, might have been
,plied to our political machinery, and
le dreadful catastrophe Of the rebellion
zen, perhaps, ayerted. In all those days
{. areeleY stood aloof from the anti-sla-
~ people, foolishly striving 10 bore an