Press enter after choosing selection

Letter From S. B. Noble

Letter From S. B. Noble image
Parent Issue
Day
3
Month
April
Year
1847
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

For the Signal of Liberty:

Mr. Foster : - wish to raake tlic Signal the medium of nekiressing a few wores lo members of the Liberty party. Having iden lifieJ myself with the party at its orgnnzaiion, [ claim ihe privilege of saying ïhnt I alwnys have and do still feil n (ioeji interest ín itssuccess. 1 have i-pjoiced at the inercase óf its hn'mbers, nnd by its influence, the dissetninaft.ion of our jirinoiplcs thro'ighout the entire mais oC enninutiiiy causeda general acknowledgment of thei r correct ne-s, nmJ nt the same time, an unxvillingncss to reduce them to pr.ictjce. Lhe two great politica] partios have wafched our movementá wïtli a jealous cve, have brgfin to fcel our powerind court our favor. Bul I am free to confcss that lo me the prospectó of the [in.ity do not appear as fiattering as in fori i c r vears. That we havo come to a sl'jnd as lar os the increasc of huniBers is conuerncd, ís a fact thal cannot he disguised, and this too, for reasons that to nfítiny apnear obvloüs. The history of ihe party shows tliat the accessions to t have been f rom that c'.asof our eiti.ons who were decidedly antislavery in sentiment. Waiving ol] minor uqestions, they undertook tho cause of the slave because the thing was riglit in ilclf. Uaving, after severa] years stroggle, found that tlie Church was so inlerwoven wilh slavery and in part dependent on it for support, tliát by mere moral sausion theru was no hope of success - for instead of rcceivjpg any assistancc from even the majority of the Northern churches, in many instantes insurniountable barriers were raised ngaihst the anlislavery enierprise,there was tlierefore no other nlternutive only a resort to the ballot box. As corrupt as I believe the two grent politica] partios to be, 1 am of opinión that there. aros thosestill among thèrh, who are honest and conscientious men, who are anlislavery in sentiment, and think there are other things thal should claim ihe attention of the pnrty, and have called on us to define our bosiiion on other ouestions ofal policy, and as we have refused to obey tlie cali, they refuse to indentify ttiernselves with us. lt is trae there are questions of nalional policy ín tlic successo!' nhich ve do and ought to fccl n deeo interest, and as long as ve rnaintain our preent position we cannot reasonably ex[ect accessionato our numbers from tliat clnss of persons. Were slavery abolished this day, it would take ycars to redress tlië wrongá and correct the evils of the sy.-tem. Another and a prominent reason I assi"-n lor the present conditiuii of our party is, that there are amongst us o. Jarge class of profesing Christians who still adhere to proslavery churclics, who sil mder a proslavery ministry, -and hail slaveholders as brelhren beloved, and excuse Üipmscl ves by saying ihat thcir infiucnee over their proslavery brelhren is cn-nniorthan il would be if they shouldwiihdraw ihemselves from such church organizalions. If they would npply the same argument to politica! organizations, they would now have been in a proslovery party. I do nol impugn the motives of such persons, butit really shows to the world that they value the purity of n political party more ttian they do that of o Christian church. Let such antislavery men renounce bil church organizations which sanction, tolérale, and sustain slavery, as tliey have political pa nies, which do the same things, and the Liberty party has assumed a standard it never has attainel I atn willing lo grant all lhat is claimed as benefits resultingfrom our cfTorts, but cannot think thai tney are what tliey mighthavc been, had we two or thrce years ago rnade addilions to our political creed, and drawn nto our ranks thoüsands who now stand aloof and look on and pity our f'olly. We musí háve Wen al this üme what wc sliould be, the grcat reform party of the Union. There are serious objections to giving our votes for candidatos of the two greai political parties, althougli they, may avow our sentiments and promise to adopt our measures; for, in doing so, we looseour identity as a party, and in ninc times out of ten surh men wíj] betray our interests; lor they are still Whigs or Democrats, and when any g'eat party measure to be ndoplcd ihey go wiih thcir party, alliough Ihey may have pledged tliemselves to the contrary. We have no doubt lost time by our delay, but I do not think it too late to relrieve our cause. I am awme of the diificuliy therc will be of agreeing on other measures to adopt, but yel there may be a Union on asufiïpient number to ensurc a final and triuinphant success oí our cause. The great question of Bank and Táríff, may be cast aside if need be. What nre dollars and cents compared with the liberly of thrce mili ons of our fellows in hopeless bondago ? What. compared with ihe hordes of foreign paupers and felons landcd upon our shores, a largo porlion of whotn are in allegiance to a foreign prince ? - What! compared with the abuses in the Iadmini-slralion of our national and Slate government ? And unlesa someentcourse isadopted by the Liberty yarty, I shall pursue th;it one, whioK to me appears ihc bes! cnlculated to pïocure for all, tluil oqualify af right to which thoy are enttil'eti. At soma future timo, if ihink besito cl) so, l wil] give my views ns to nveasuivs the navty ought tondopt.

Article

Subjects
Signal of Liberty
Old News