Anti-slavery bugle. [volume], January 09, 1846, Image 2

About Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861

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COMMUNICATIONS.
PRIESTLY ARROGANCE AND RELIGIOUS
INCONSISTENCY.
BERLIN. December 17th. 1845.
Fricndt Editors.
When selfish anil de
signing men sought to lead a people by the
nose, to obtain the cntiro control of a nation's
goods, and make chattels of flush and blood,
to dictate to them in every circumstance from
cases of individual bickering to national warf
how potent and fearful to tho ears of the ig
norant was the edict "Thus saith tho Lord."
Tho priests have made "Thus saith the
Lord" tho sanction of somo of the most ab
surd, unjust, and damnable practices that ov
er disgraced a band of fools or a hordo of rob
bers. It sanctions theft under the garb of
charity, and justifies the picking of pockets
under the garb of tho priesthood. In fact it
legalizes all crimes by throwing over them
the mantle of faith. In the language of an
other; joyfully would I believe that tho mil
lions they d:ain from men's pockets, and the
hours and the days they abstract from useful
industry are spent to some profit, but I can
not. Stubborn truth is there, and I cannot shut
my ears to the voice. Do you ask me where
the proof is to bo found? Wherever a priest
is, or has been; for there have been quarrels,
there have been heart-burnings, there has
flowed human blood. I need not point you
to the far distant East, whero the crescent
glitters, andwhero Juggernaut's car rolls over
the prostrato devotee ! I need not point
you to the infernal machinations so mysteri
ously horrible as the Inimisition, which was
founded by priests ! I need not point you to
tho Crusades with the millions of victims that
were aroused and sent forth to slaughter by
priests ! I need not tell you of Socrates, who
was poisoned for his infidelity nor of Aris
totle, who was banished for unbelief nor of
Galileo, who was compelled to belie his own
noble discovery, and to swear thai the earth
stood still nor of Jesus, who was admired
and followed by the people, but was perse
cuted and slain bj the priests ! I need not
refer to these tilings, I need not point you to
the eighteen millions of human beings sacri
ficed to appease the blood-thirstiness of the
priesthood. I will point to crimes on our
own shore, crimes fraught with more misery
than War and Intemperance, and compared
with which all others seem as mere drops in
the ocean of human woe.
You are aware that I mean slavery, yes,
slavery, which is born and nurtured in the
sanctuaries of this land. Were Jesus to a
gain appear on earth lie would not recognize
the religion of this land as Christianity, but
would declare unto its professors "Woe un
to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites !
for ye pay tithe of mint, and anise and cum.
min, and have omitted the weightier matters
of the law, judgment, mercy and faith: these
ought ye to have done, and not to leave the
others undone." How little does this nation
act in conformity with that declaration of Je
sus "Blessed are they that are merciful for
they shall obtain mercy." Is it merciful, 1
would ask, to coldly fold our arms, and hear
the agonized groans of the poor slave, who
suspended between the heavens and the earth,
calls upon us by the ties of a common !broth'
rhood to stay the hand that wields the bloo
dy lash and applies the torturing thumb screw!
Is it merciful in us to stand quietly by while
the dearest ties of nature are rudely torn asun
der, when husband and wifo are forever sep
erated, when the lisping babe is torn from its
mother's arms and sold by the pound? Un
heeded are the agonizing screams of that
mother, and unanswered save by tho sharp
crack of the driver's whip as it falls on her
quivering flesh. In vain does she imploro
them in acconts of despair to let her keep her
babe, promising to work night and day for
the blessed boon. Alas, she knows not with
whom she is pleading, she knows not that
two hundred years of legislation and religion,
have sanctioned and sanctified that accursed
system which a Nero, or a Caligula would
blush to own.
And because you had a meeting called to
ask the people of Derlin to lend their aid in
putting down this terrible evil, all the foul
and lying epithets that ever fell from tho lips
of man have been hurled at you by a Protes
tant Methodist priest, Mr. Burgess, who at
one of Mr. Hudson's lectures had the impu
dence to tell some as downright lies as his
largo sccretiveness could unfold. Ho denied
that he took hold of Miss Hitchcock's arm
wh en you were here, and asserted there were
no signs of a mob, yet I had myself heard
some say they would glory in a chance of
tarring and feathering you. He further said
that all the enormities you mentioned were
charged upon that particular church and that
alone, while all who heard you, know that
your charges were made against the Amerl
can Church and clergy generally. He also
proclaimed thathehad made the discovery (and
toasted that he alone had made it) that Abby
Kjlley and her associates, together with Fred
erick Douglass were infiJch, and that he could
prove it from their writings. Frederick was
an infidel because ho spoke of the religious
masters as being the severest.
This will give you a faint idoa of tho char
acter of Mr. Burgess, the Jacobin priest of
Berlin; and ro doubt he has his accomplices
in meanness. 1 know of one whom I con
sider fully qualified for a priest, so far as lit
tle, mean, low-lived inhumanity and incon
sistency go, and that man is Dr. James W.
Hughs. Of all tho foul-mouthed vituper
ation that has been heaped upon tho head of
tha devoted Abby Kelley, that of Dr. Hughs'
caps tho climax. And yet this man will say
grace before meat, "and mako a prayer both
loud and long" he is in fact tho holl-shedj
of the Methodist Episcopals of Berlin. 1
have evory reason to believe that he was con
nected with the Tar and Feather Cub of '37,
when Marius Robinson was dragged from
Friend Garrctson's house and so shamefully
treated; and I know that his brother Morde
cai, who lived with him at tho time, was one
of the drag-outers, and is now a good Meth
odist. When I survey in sympathetic thought tho
miseries of tho human family in what are
called civilized and christian countries, and
all through tho instrumentality of political and
ecclesiastical hypocrites, my soul is filled
with indignation. Can such ever enter the
kingdom of God? Never! unless repentance
overtakes them ere it bo too late. To sup
pose that the pro-slavery religionists of this
land can enter heaven in their present sla'.j
would be a libel upon God.
Yours for humanity,
M. B.
To Editors of the Bugle.
A correspondent in your paper of tho 19th
ult., asks whether Comeouterisin compro
henils "coming out from the support of slav
ry by using its products." I will not at
tempt to define " Comeouterisni." Duty, I
believe requires that we should come out so
far as is possible from tho support of slavery
in every particular. If, then, by using the
products of slave labor, we do in reality up
hold tho system of slavery, it certainly is the
duty of abolitionists to ubstain, so far as is
practicable, from the use of these products.
To the second question of our friend, as to
whether it is consistent for an Ohio abolition,
ist to use or tn.ffic in the products of slave
labor, different answers will doubtless be
given, as different opinions relative to this
matter are held by tho friends of the slave.
For my own part I am of opinion that aoo
litionists may uso slavo grown productions
without acting inconsistently with their prin
ciples. I am well awaro that those who d if
ft;r from me upon this subject, oifer reasons-
for their views having a strong appearaneo
at least, of plausibility. They tell us, that
as the master can have but the robber3 rights
to me i;uus oi tno slave s toil, and having
only this can of course transfer no belter,
we, in receiving these ill-gotten gains, are,
at best, but the receivers of stolen goods; and
are as bad as the thief. To this it may be replied
that he who receives stolen goods is not al
ways a3 bad as the thief; as it will not be as
sorted by any one, that the individual who
takes stolen property into his possession with
a view of restoring it to its rightful owner i
chargeablo with guilt; or that he who receives
such property under circumstances which
forbid of its being returned directly to its
owners, yet recognizes the owner's claim up
on it, and uses it wholly for his benefit, can
be rightfully charged with injustice towards
tho owner, or with a violation in any sense
of moral principle. When tho true friend of
the slave takes into his possession the pro
ducts of the slave's labor, and uses it, recog
nizing the real owners claim upon him, and
devoting himself to the redemption of the
bondman he does not it seems to me commit
any wrong so far as this matter is concerned.
It may fairly bo presumed that wo have the
slave's consent thus to use his property; for
if ho understands our object he cannot but
consent and thank us for our course; and o
ven if he knows nothing of our intention or
existence, we are still justifiable so long as
we use his property wholly for his benefit.
To this it may perhaps bo replied, that those
who uso tho proceeds of the slave's labor, do
so rather with a view to their own benefit,
than his. Such, 1 reply again, are not true ab
olitionists. If they were so they would la
bor to the extent of their ability, for tho
slave's redemption, and use what they re
ceive of his, us well as whatever other means
they have, to advance tho Ci.uso of freedom.
The fault of such is not that they use tho pro
ducts of the slave's labor, but that they use
them for their own benefit, while they dis
regard his cries for deliverance. Their fault
is not that they aro i:i:onjislent ubolitionists
but that (hey are not a'lolitiunuts at all.
Such of course, are not included in our
friend's questions.
If, then, there be inconsistency on the part
of Abolitionists, in using tho fruits of the
laves toil, it does notarise from tha fact that
those products belong to the slave, but from
some other cause.
It is argued, sometimes, that in purchasing
the proceeds of slavs labor, wo uphold tho
slaveholder in his guilt. How do we up
hold him? We do not, of course, receivo
them as belonging to the master, but as be
longing to tho slave. Every true abolition
ist will rcako the slaveholder and his apolo
gist understand that ho does not acknowl
edge his claim to the slave's person or his
labor. One reason, perhaps in favor of re
ceiving those products is that they are the
fruits of robbery, and that it is our duty to
return them to their owner, to use them for
his good. If then we support tho slavehold
er in any sense, it must be by giving nun tno
means of supplying his natural wants and
thus enabling him to continue his course of
robbery and outrage. This might be incon
sistent if it wcro not that humanity requires
that wc shall feed ourenemy when he ishun-
irr and that when he is thirsty we shall give
him water to drink. As to the adoption of
the plan of abstinence from the proceeds of
slave labor, as a mere measure of expediency,
for the promotion of the Anti-Slavery cause,
I will only say here, that if theso proccsJs
can be used without guilt by abolitionists, no
permanent good as I believe would result,
olther to the oppressor or the oppressed, fiwrn
our refusing to do so.
L.
BRISTOL. December 1st., 1845.
Dear Friexds:
I am sensible that wo owe you
an apology for not obtaining subscribers to
the Bugle. Some wero too poor, somo pre
ferred a political paper, somo could pay the
Warren printer in produce, some took one pa
per and could not take another, some did not
like the sentiments; like the man in the gos
pel they made various excuses. One or two
individuals gave us somo encouragement.
The causo in which you aro engaged is
ono ol great importance. I rejoico that fe
males can be found, who are willing to sac
rifice themselves on the altar of humanity,
and go forth as the champions of universal
rights. I marvel not that the Lords of Cre
ation, consider woman out of her appropriate
sphere, when she leaves the kitchen or parlor
to go forth on her mission of mercy and love.
Their opposition arises from a convicted
conscience, or a jealouB spirit, but I am sur
prised and grieved to hear so many, of my
own sex declaiming .against women speak
ing in public; and yet the same females
would have no repugnance to attending a cir.
eus, or they could witnoss a public execution
without awaking their morbid sensitiveness.
When I think of those of my fellow beings
who are groaning beneath the lash, or pin
ing in the rice swamps of the south, victims
of oppression, tyranny and licentiousness,
stripped of the rights we hold most dear, lia
ble to be torn away any moment, from those
whom they most love, my heart sinks within
me, and I am rsady to exclaim how long, O,
Lord ! how long! But patience my soul, a
brighter day, will yet dawn, " the car is roll
ing onward," sooner or later Freedom's trum
pet will blow its shrill blast, and a Jubilee
will be proclaimed throughout the United
States of America. Were slavery stripped
of all its concomitants, and presented in its
mildest form, the making merchandise of
our fellow boings would be an evil of great
magnitude, a foul blot on our nation's glory,
one for which we must expect the judgment
of God. What has the North to do with sla
very ? is frequently asked by those who ad
hero to a union cemented with blood. The
old adage says the partaker is as bad as the
thief, tho accessary as guilty as the principal.
For myself I do not wish to bo partaker of
other people's sins.
I am engaged this winter in teaching
school in a new settled part of Bristol, the
town west of Mecca. I brought over Fred
erick Douglass to tell his own story, and the
little volume has been read with interest by
those who do not wish to be called abolition
ists. I have perused Archy Mooro and am
sensible that it contains more truth than fic
tion, but Douglass is a living witness.
We would be glad to see you, or any of
our Anti-slavery friends at our place of resi
dence, Mecca, wo want tho subject agitated
H. E. SMITH.
A SUGGESTION.
It is duo to the Slae, that there be regular
established papers to plead his cause. And
it is duo to such papers that we each pay
speedily whatev er we promise, to sustain
them. Therefore whoever remains in debt
to the Bugle, is in debt to tho Slave.
Friends soon wont you?
V. NICHOLSON.
Ics. The Ice manufactures are doing
large buisness at the North. It is the trade
the most thriving just now, and will pay the
largest dividend. Tho Yankees say tho ice
crop thi3 year is worth more than the tobacco
crop of the country.
AN TI-3LAVERY BUG L E .
"I love agitation when there is cause for it
the alarm bell which startles the inhabi
tants of n city, saves them from being burn
ed in their beds." Edmund Burke.
07Persons having business connected
with the paper, will please call on James
Barnaby, corner of Main and Chesnut sts.
"THE EVANGELICAL UNION."
j
a
The 7th No. of this work contains an ai
ticle under the caption of " The Communittst
and Anti-Slavery Bugle," all of which that
relates to tho Bugle wo place upon our first
page. When we say that it is just such an
articlo as we should expect from that priestly
libeller, Elisha Bates, our readers will under
stand in what appreciation wo hold it.
It opens with an assumption of clerical im
portance which is truly laughable. Tho Ed
itor seems to think that every one must know
that he, the Rev. Eli iha Dates, edits and pub
lishes The Evangelical Union at Mt. Pleas
ant, Ohio, and accuses us of a want of odito
rial courtesy becauso wc did not furnish him
with a copy of the Bugle containing our
strictures upon his Springboro' sermon. The
fict is, when wo penned tho article in ques
tion, we were not aware, however stran.j.1 it
may seem, that The Evangelical Union glad
dened this world of ourj; and whut wo cid
of tho editor, was said of him, not as an edi
tor, but as a priest guilty of the grossest mis
representations, and whoso residence we
knew not.
Tiie compari3Dn which he draws between
tho article in tho Bugle and that in the Com
uinniUst he design? to bo favorable to tho lat
ter paper. Ho will however bear in mind,
that the d inference between them is attribut
able to tho philosophy of tho conductors of
that pnper who hold that Elisha Bates is a
priest because he cannot help being one, that
he is a dtfimcr because of an unavoidable
necessity, and that he is not accountable for
any of his actions however wicked they may
be. If he can find in this fact nuy thing to
gratify his vanity, or to manufacture compli
ments to the Communitis!, he is welcome so
to do.
lie finds fault with our report of his
Springboro sermon, in the first place, because
forsooth! in what purports to be a mors
sketch we do not give every sentence and
word that ho uttered: and secondly, because
we not only leave out what was said, but in
sert that which was not. This may pimibly
be so, but he does not condescend to inform
his readers in what particular that report is
incorrect. Many who have read it, say it i3
tho same stereotyped sermon whith he preach
ed at New Lisbon, Salem, and various other
places within the last six months. The ed
itor's assertion wc place no confidence in, for
the pages of tho Union abundantly testify,
that like the unjust judge spoken of in the lii
ble,he neither fears God nor regards man. Wc
should have been bettor pleased had ho given
to his readers our review of his sermon, tho'
this doubtless would not have suited his pur
pose, inasmuch as it wa3 not his design to
have them know what coul.1 be said against
priestly arrogance and clerical assurance.
In reference to the position of tho Ameri
can A. S. Society, his logic is simply this
That society advocates the dissolution of tho
American Union, and the overthrow of what
he calls the christian churches, but which aro
truly synagogues of Satin, and as the over
throw of the churches and the dismember
ment of tho Union mint be effected before
the right of private property can be destroy
ed, the maniago relation abrogated, govern
ment annihilated, and domestic relations en
tirely broken up; therefore so at least con
cludes this second Daniel the American A.
S. Society is an anti-private property, a no
marriage, a no government, and a no domes
tic relation society. This logic seems to us
as clear as stupidity can make it, and re
minds us of an argument of which it was said,
if the premises had the small pox there
would be no danger of the conclusion catch
ing it.
His sneers at "feminine delicacy" and
" female travelling agents" are just what we
might expect from a priest, for it is a part of
their calling to crush the common people un
der foot, and especially to fetter and degrado
woman. Priestcraft can't enduro that com
mon people, mere laymen, should assume to
be equal to Divines, and least of all can
endure the tcaenings of women. It is vastly
I delicate and christiau-like for Elisha Bates to
recognize as a brother in the Lord, the man
who strips his female slavo and flogs her on
the bare back until tho blood stands in pud
dles at her feet, but it is very indelicate for
a woman to speak of such outrage in terms
of righteous indignation and scorching re
buke; and if she denounces the church as
anti-christian which baptizes the act in the
name of Christianity, and the government
which legalizes it as unjust and tyrannical.the
priests call it "drawing earicaturee of the
it
church and government." The church and
government of this country are essentially a
liko in their character, both are pro-slavery,
both approve of war, and so intimately con
nected are they, that even Henry Clay, blind
as he is to the perception of moral principles,
can see that a disruption in the church would
be but the precursor of a division in the stato,
and as certainly would a division in tho
church closely follow a dissolution of tho A
merican Union. Therefore it becomes tha
interest of tho brawling politician to magnify
the church, while in reality he values it as
much as did Esau his birth-right. In or
der to give it consequence, as a kind of semi
religious official, ho recommends the appoint
ment of feast-days and fast-days; ami that
the priests may have their share of picking
from tho public crib, they are made chaplains
of the army and chaplains of the navy, so
government fires none but sanctified cannon
balls, and uses no swords or bayonets but
t!io3! which the American church has prayod
over. And the priests aro anxious to sustain
the government as an institution approvingly
ordained of God, and they teach tho poo
plo that if they resist the powers that
be, they resist unto damnation. They de
fend tho ordiuanros of government as tho
ordin,.nce3 of God; and among them and
throwing its dark shadow over all others
is the infcru.'.l gallows-trae which tha church
so loves. The priest and the politician do
not caricature tho church and government, but
on the other hand they conceal their defects,
and attribute to them virtues which neither
possess. It may be that some of these have
so long spoken boastiugly of their beloved iu
stitutions, have so often repeated sclf-glory-fying
lies, that thnir falsehoods seem to them
as truth.
It is somewhat amusing to no! how lar
Uhly Elisha bestows his sympathies upon
the priesthood and church of France when it
suits his purpose so to do. He holds up the
Jacobins as among the most criminal and do
testable of men becauso they strove to over
throw tint church and destroy that priesthood.
What was the church of France? Tho
church of Koine, and her priests were Cath
olic prirt,t. If wa believe what Elisha snys
of tho Roman Catholic Church, it is ono of
the most inniduous and d ingsrous disuisB3
which Infidelity puts en, and therefore mors
(3 be dreaded than the open teachings of Vol
tiiro and Paine. If this be a true position,
and the Dev. Editor avers that it is, instead
of holding up the Jacobins to the destestation
of tha world, he should rejoico to know that
they overthrew in Franco that church which
in America ho denounces as anti-ehrist and is
endeavoring to destroy. Priest like, l.o docs
just what best answers his ends. He ono
minute denounces the Roman Catholic church
as anti-christian and infidel, and iu the next
opens his artillery upon the Jacobins of Franco
for destroying its power in that country. Ho
seems to us to bo as unstable in this farticu1
lar, as a ccrUia persons je of whom it wn
said,
" When the Dsvil was tick, ths Devil a monk
would he,
When the devil was well, tho Devil a monk
was he."
His idea of inferences is a singular on.
Speaking of tho editors of this paper he says,
'The clurgo which they nndo against ms
of uttering a 4 foul-mouthed slander' upon
G irrison, i9 drawn from inferencci." Indeed!
He says that Garrison's doctrines are thoso
of tho French Revolution which drenched
Europe with blood and filled her with crime,
that he holds to tho abrogation of tho mar
riage relation, denies the right cf privito prop
erty and is opposed to all human governments,
and we knowing what aro the sentiments of
Win, L. Garrison, "infer" that Elisha Bates
is a clerical libeller, that he '-boars false wit
ness against his neighbor." A ram stands
up and paints in the blackest colors ths char
acter' of cne whom 1 know to be a just and
honest man, and I toll l.i.n he utters a foul
mouthed slaudar. A'l, says Eiishi, your
charge is based upon inferences! True, and
when a man lies, I infer he is dishonest.
Tho charges which ho brings against Garri
son aro based upon inferences, and infjron
ces too as far from fact as error is from truth.
Win. Lloyd Garrison, although he doubtless
regards Robert Owen as an honest, sinccrs
man who has spout much time and money in
order to benefit tho race, Ins never endorsed
his philosophy, but his declared that he con
sideied it sadly defective, and tho letter from
a correspondent of the Liberator, whioh the
editor of tho Union referred to in his sermon,
and re-refers to in the article which lies be'
foro us, contains nothing which could bo de
cently tortured into a proof that the views of
Owen and Garrison at all harmo nize; nor is
thoro any thing to bo found in Garrison's edi
torials from which such an inference can be
drawn, and it requires ths utmost stretch o1"
charity to believe that he is unknow ing to
these facts.
The story ol "raw head and bloody-bones"
which he dishes up to his readers, Is rather
out of date, and is understood to rowan Both-