The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1856-08-08
HIGHLY IMPORTANT
Letter from VIII. 3. REED, ESQ.
pun.Drtpp1, lnIv og,b ts5e


PnlLADgLrAiA, July 26th, 1856.
GENTLEMEN-,Absolute inability TO speak in the o
pen air will prevent from uniting in Your Mas
Meeting on the 9TH of August, for / am very sur,
you will not be able to compress within any room
built by hands all who will be with YOU in doing hon
or to Mr.. Buchanan. Franklin County, If ! mistak,
not, was his birth place. Thence he started to wii
his way in le and those, aud the children of those
amongst whom he was born. will gladly and resolute
ly come forward 10 sustain him now. The intelll
gent, thrifty men OF your County descendants of the
robust Scotch, Irish and German pioneers of the Cum
befand Valley, will be wanting al a crisis wher
clVl and religious liberty and the nion oi the States
are endangered. TO the multitude which will be
sure to assemble there, could not speak-much as
wish it-but my written words of sympathy and en-
couragement-of earnest anxiety for the success OF
the Democratic ticket at both the approaching cleo
tons, cone scarcely less important than the other
| cannot Withhold. shall have my abundant re-
ward II they influence a single reader. Take them,
! | beg you, tor what they are worth. They are al
least sincere and dIsinterested.
have some associations with franklin County
which are peculiar. have had friends there. in
public and private life who. contemporaries were
Gear to me, and "a my seniors honored me by their
counsel. Many OF them have passed awav-thoush h
some are still surviving ! was in the Legislature,
on the same side OF politics o,-ior am not asha-
med Of my antecedents. and yon would despise ne
were TO deny them-wiih David Fullerton and
Thomas McCullok-ard ] am very snre if they
| ihgs nor AhoIionists ] served long with Thomas
Carson, OF Mercersburg, honest and independent
Haan,-and II there be any one whose private worth
and d1snhed public integrity, have been taught es-
p~ciaW 10 respect, IL is he ho sill lives honored
and esteemed among you-George Chambers. These
are the personal associations which affect me. Nav
I | Alt ude 10 some Others
remember years ago, on a bright summers ai-
ternoon. ioilins up The turnpike road on the Cove
Mountain, IN your county, and when | reached the
summit, turning to gaze beautiful scene as ever
giaddcned my eye-the valley of peaceful beauty
which stretches oti to Maryland and towards the Po-
touae. 1t IS a familiar scene 10 most OF you. To
me il new, and its impression ha> never faded
from my mind. A far the eve could reach, there
was leTtity-the signs OF tranquil industry all was
beautiinl-all was peaceful-it looked, as il was,
like the abode o. happy aad united people. The
political line separating Pennsylvania from Mary
land, traced by those old fashioned surveyors Charles
Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, was visible TO no eve.
lhe frees on whirh they marked it had long been
feiled or disappeared. Many farm was sepa4ated
by it but except in the eye of the Jaw no one knew
lt or cared about il. / have o.ten--lor painful
thoughts thrustng themselves upon fe-recall-
ef that scene&pf actual beauty and united interest
and realised What it would be-w what your condition
VIII be-what must be the condition OF every coun-
~ OF this Commonwealth living on the MARYLAND
lines Chester, Lancaster, York, Adams. Franklin.
Fulton, Bedford Somerset, Fayc1tc and Greene if
dlsnnon be forced on Us, and the fracture be, il
would be, between what are popularity but falsely
called the free ard the slave States betmeen ae amt
Margkana. wish every man could be made 10 un-
drrstand hat frontier IS even that OF civilized
life. Its daily, hourly vexatious and daugrrs-its
line ot custou-hOuses 10 keep the ~unugger in and
out-tbe crowds II iugtives from justice and labor,
Intestng every avenue and concrar in every thick
ei-ihe murderer striking down his vicilm to-day
and flying with the fresh blood on his hand 10 Jgr-
eig71 territory to-morrow--ihe bckeripg the STRIFE
the hot blood OF coutfrmiuous di-pute-a this,
would be the daily doom Of every Southern county of
this STATE; and across the beautiful valley have
spoken OF would be dstGeSsinaly visible. the actual
broad, perhaps bloody line which dsunon must
trace. This is true, though hard TO conceive
Penb>y 'ania aud you, citizens oi Franklin county
have 50 long reposed in the very centre OF the L.
Mon, that YOU cannot understand how Won can be-
come frontier aud how you VIII suffer when YOU do
There was time, before the Union framed
unless my reading Of history much misleads me-
when thrsr lanced dangers were realities. Let the
Union be broken and they will be realities again.
read IN tie history of your county (and it ap-
plies 10 every border county, words which it is well
10 think OF, for they may become truth again to-
morrow
alt surpassed - says a writer, she powers Of the
settlers 10 curb the Wild and lawless spirit OF the
traders and tToHti"rs The Conoc ochcaque set
Elements infested with bands OF desperate ma
randers and countereijers. who hade defiance to all
laws. They had organized line through the Cum
berland Valley INTO Virginia. They drove brisk
trade by stealing horses and cattle After the Brit
ish retired they carried an extensive trade a.
mongSt themselves, by stealing horses at the South
passing them along the line the North where they
could not be recognised, and exchanging them for
others stolen at the North. The long narrow val
lsys and secluded coves of the Blue Mountain. aor-
ded convenient route and secure hiding places.
These were no shabby villains they the finest
dresses, sported the best horses and could display
guneas and iewelry than any others in the
Elements, and though the of their sudden
wealth was suspected, dared TO prove it a.
them, When hey
re>orted TO counterteiting Continental money, and
saunterlng round the towns passed il travellers.
If any one resisted threatened 10 bring them to
justice, his barn crops destroyed by fire."
This is history and why may it not be history again?
IL Is the Union and the Constitution alone which
prevent lt-and You asked 20 put them at risk.
This Is 10 rhetorical exaggeration 1t is the sure
forecast of inevitable truth-and | exaggeTate
little when say, that never until now, have felt
the danger of disuuion 10 be imminent. | trembe, I
IN no imaginary panic, bat sober conviction, when
think how il may be--how III event
1t must be. Let me in temperate and guarded Ian
gnage say why think there is danger and how Mr..
8uchanan's election alone ayert it.
There lies before me as | write. few words
OF prophetic wisdnm written long before the present
division OF parties arose, which very trklng.
They the words of John c. Fremont's father-in
law: ''The snbsttution. says Mr.. Benton in the
early pages OF his Thirty Years., Of geographical
parties dise'1nHuafed 6y tie Stare line would, OF
conrse destroy the just and proper action of the fed
eral government and lead eventually to separation
of the States" "lf'' wrote Mr.. Madison nearly /
forty years ago, when the danger very far OF,
a state OF parties should arise founded geograph-
lca boundaries, what is TO control these great rePul-
slve masses from awful shocks against each other =!
Now 1t these be words OF wisdom, If such are 10 be
the probable consequences of geographical parties
strictly drawn, may not the trial OF the Union be al