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To The 2,700 Practical Liberty Men In Michigan: For The Sign...

To The 2,700 Practical Liberty Men In Michigan: For The Sign... image
Parent Issue
Day
25
Month
December
Year
1843
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Jacksox, Dec. 17th 1843.Brethren: - In the great struggle for the rights of man, permit a fellow soldier in this moral and political warfare against every form of oppression ond tyranny, who, in common with many of you, has been privileged to see some service for the last eight years, to confer with you relative to our mutual interests, and mutual duties to the slave and our country, preparatory to the coming campaign of 1844. No campaign which our country has yet witnessed, was ever so big with events as the one forthcoming. The marshalled hosts for slavery, and the Spartan band for righteous freedom will be in battle array in every part of the land. This Spartan band will have right, and truth, and God on their side! If, then, all these be for us, who shall dare be against us, and presume they cari ultimately prevail? - It is true they may, for wise reasons, but inscrutable to mortals, be permitted for a time to succeed. But as the Lord liveth their triumphing will be short, for "He WILL HAVE THEM IN DERISION." Yea. verily, will it be so, for if we prove true to our cause, and to our God, the time draweth nigh, when "he that rulelh over men must be JUST, ruling in HIS fear." They shall surely not be slaveholders, nor oppresors, nor gamblers, nor duellists, nor any such as work deceit or abomination, (northem men with SLAVERY principies.) Do not the signs of the times plainly indicate that the command of Jehovah shall soon be feared and obeyed, when :the people shall make them judgesand officers in all their Gates which their God giveth them, who shall rule them with JUST , JUDGMENT, and execute judgment in the morning" (early, without delay or gradualism) and delivet the spoiled outof the hand of the oppressed, loose th bands of wickedness, "break every yoke and let the oppressed go free." "Is no this to know ME, saith the Lord"! It i then upon the immutable declarations o the ALMIGHTY that our faith is predi cated, in our arduous struggle to purify o overturn the wicked and oppressive political and ecclesiastical "powersthat be.' They sustain SLA VER Y (with all its at tendant abominations) with an iron hand But says one impudent-faced pro-slavery to ABOLITION, I will help you talk slavery down, if you will help me VOTE IT UP ! ï ! Who shall dare say say that "more are not for us than against us?" Let Athe istic "expediency" pride and arrogance sneer or rage at the TRUTH, God wil certainly continue "to overturn, and over turn, üntil the remainder he will restrain.' But, Dear Brethren, do we not all know that more sympathetíc sentimental ism, or professed faith without adequate corresponding works, will never accomplish the great object we all so muchdesire. The God of the oppressed will never permit us to look supinely on, and work a miracle in our behalf. His people are not merely permitted, butREQUiRED to be co-workers with HIM in works of mercy, humanity and love. And who of us can not testify that to those who have a heart to work, or to give, the reward is in doing as well as for doing. Let those (if any) who do not believe it, try it. While we say we confide in the Omnipotence of Jehovah to break the yoke of the oppressor, let us remember that this professed confidence is vain, unless we be found in the constant and faithful use of appropriate and practicable means, adapted to accomplish the end we seek. It is only in the faithful use óf these means, that we can afford any reasonable evidence to ourselves or to others that we ïave confidence in the righteousness of our cause, or in the blessing of Ileaven o succeed it. The comfortable do-nothng pro-slavery doctrine to abolish slavery is to "wait Gocfs time." Easy sport this truly, to the pro-slavery man, but death to the poor siave! Without unvavering faith, accompanied by corresponjhng works, we shall be "unstable and doublé minded in all our ways," andamid unkind, unreasonable, and overwhelming opposition, our hearts will fail us, and we shall be disposed to say, "who will show us any good"? What more encouragement can we ask for, than we have, to press onward with renewed zeal and vigor? Have not the humble labors of all our hands been blessed the past four years in this State, even beyond all reasondble expectations, not but that our ause would have advanced much faster, ïad we labored and sacrificed more. Atainments which cost nothing aie worth nothing. Shall we not recognize the ïand of God in the gradual, deep, broad, nd majestic movement of our enterprize! et us then hold up our heads, and take ourage from the noble example just aforded us by our New York and Eastern jrethren in the persevering and faithful use of their appropriate means. I allude o their tract, lecturing, and organizing ystem, in co-operation with their faithful jiberty presses. In this way, they have ie passed year doubled, trebled, and in ome places, quadrupled their numbers nd their votes. We can most certainly o the same with the use of the same means.This winter is emphatically the Liberty seed time for the Liberty horvest of 844. He who would fain see the harest increased, two, three, or FOUR 7OLD, must not withhold his hand from cattering the Liberty seed in every praccable way, i:broad cast" over the land. 'Áberty seed is peculiar, possessing such enial warmth and vitality, that its touch ften dissolvesin mid winter,frozen pro-slaery earth, thus causing itself healthfully nd vigorously to vegetate. O how precious to the dearest interests of humanity is the time of the present winter. And shall not the motto of the Liberty men of 1844, instead of "procrastination," be liimmedialeism" Will not the true Liberty men in every town, in this State, be they many, or few commence immediately to hold their nightly Liberty meetings as in N. Y., and keep them up through the winter, changing them alternately from school district to school district? Will they not also, as in New York,make their town nominations by the 25th of January, and then do all they can to sustain them by LIBERALLY supporting the trad and lecturing system, and by visiting much from house to house, conversing kindly with their neighbors. O how desirable "that there should be an unusual turn out to attend the Liberty and Temperance Anniversaries at Adrian on the 9th of January, to devise ways and means, not only to abolish the slavery of intemperance in our State, but to raise the steam many degrees to propel the Liberty Car, and increase its freight or passengere many fold. Liberty men are all Temperance men, and would to God it were ':vice versa." But hold! - have patience, it will, I doubt not, be even so. The germine Christian Temperance man has indeed taken the initiatory step in the great labor of love of abolishing every form of SLAVERY both moraland physical. Genuine Abolition in its best sense, is truly broad and progressive - aiming to abolish every evil and in its place implant every good. May this soon by the blessing of Heaven be its happies resul t. Finally, should not the Liberty men every where fully prepare themselves to give an ampie demonstraron in 1844 tó all their fellow travellers that the Liberty car will soon be the safest, speediest, anc cheapest vehicle in wliich to take passage to the goal of JUSTICE, HONOR PEACE and prosperity, individual or NATIONAL. Your fellow laborar,S. - I much regret that arrange ments had not been entered into previous to the close of the Lake navigation for getting on frorn the East Liberty tracts enough, to supply every family in our State with a new one, once a month through the winter. There should, .] think, be a tract depository established at Detroit, Ann Arbor, Jackson, Adrián Jonesville, Union City, Marshall, anc Kalamazoo for the accommodation oi our Liberty friends in every part of the State. I have sent East for 10,000 Liberty Tracts to be sent on immediately to make a commencement in this Congressional District, and to ascertain how the STATE can be supplied with 1 or 2,00,000 oC their ablestand most efficiënt kind.

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Subjects
Signal of Liberty
Old News