Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1859-01-06
Thursday Morning, January 6, 1859.
A NEW YEAR!

With this number of the REPORTER we enter
upon new year 1t is 1858 no longer, but
We have added another year to increase the
number of those irremediaby lost in the silent
past Inexorable time swiftly sweeps away
our hours. our days, our years, until We stand
upon the threshold of life and look back and
wonder how quickly they have passed. Let
the dead Past bury ifs dead" for we have 10
deal with the Living Future" And our
readers need not prepare themselves for a NOR
al or philosophical diSqusition for we intend
to take advantage of the occasion to advert to
some personal matters, which, as we are not in
the habit Of often intruding such upon our
readers, we hope we may be INDUCED in.
1t is now nearly nineteen gears since the first
number of the Reporter was issued. Since that
time it has steadily pursued the even tenor Of
its way, while it has chronicled some Of the
most mOmenOuS improvements and occurrences
of the present century. Since tie first appear
ance of this paper, the country has been linked
together by network of iron; the electric
telegraph has annihated space and time, and
Boston speaks to New Orleans, and the latter
responds, where formerly weeks were required
for message and response. The Old World
has been brought within few days distance,
by the steamship; and more, it has been de-
monStrated that in the fulness Of time the
electric cable shall unite the two continents
The world has, in that time, fairly leaped in
the progress made in the sciences, in the fine
arts, aud in those discoveries which contribute
to the necessities and pleasures of man. If
the next nineteen years shall witness a similar
progress, there will hardly be left subjects for
Investigation
In this time, the political world has known
some wonderful mutations A great, and at
that time, victorious party, has passed away.
Party elements have been disorganized, and
new combinations formed The Reporter finds
itself today in the ranks battling with many
of those who, nineteen years ago, were drawn
up in hostile array. We now stand upon a
| common platform, in the support of measures
to which we cordially agree, and fraternize in
forgetfulness of past differences The Demo
cratic party, to which we were once proud to
belong, has become sectionazed and debauch-
ed. 1t has become the mere adjunct and fa-
cile tool of the Slave power 1t has no exist
ence outside of the Slave States, except such
as is maintained by the vitality there is in
public plunder. The great questions which
were discussed in the first number of the Re
porter, vex the attention of the country no
longer. The attempts of the Slave Olgarchy
to strengthen, perpetuate and extend their
peculiar institution their dangerous inno-
vations upon the spirit of the Constitution
their prostitution of the several branches of
Government to their unhalIowed schemes
their dangerous mptons-their arrogance
and dctatorial spirt--has awakened the atten-
tion, and aroused the Indignation of the free
laborers of the North The question now
pressing upon the country for its solution is
whether Free or Slave labor shall be protected
and encouraged 1t is this state of political
affairs which has consolidated the freemen of
Bradford in one political organization
has made them forget past differences, and
unite in view of the future, for the support of
principles which have vitality, and have become
dear to them as their own hearth-stones
We take some pride in looking back over
the course pursued by this paper during the
in 10 &c A.
pericrty Of Free labor has been engaging the
attention of the country. Enrolled under the
banner of the Democratic party, educated in
the principles of JEFFERSON, we sought for
years to maintain that organization in its in
tegr;ty. But when it became apparent that
the Democratic party, deSpisng the injunctions
of its founders deriding the teachings of its
apostles, and disregarding the interests of the
people-was to be completely stultifed and
become the poor panderer to the schemes of
Slavery, we repudiated both the policy and the
organization, and adopted the measures best
adapted for carrying out the principles We de-
sired to advocate. Ia forming the Republican
party of Bradford, with its five thousand ma
jority, this paper had an active part We say
it in no spirit of vainglory, because in so doing
we were but following the lead of those princi-
piles we had zealously advocated for ten years.
The people were ready for such measure, and
the party sprung at its birth, into healthy and
full-formed activity. -... . ...
Since its establishment, the Reporter has had
the common experience of country newspapers
1t is not too much to say, that except in rare
instances, the labor and money expended in
printing country newspaper does not meet