Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1861-08-30

national demain has stretched away ID the Pa
cifc and that constellation which announced
our birth as people bas expanded from thir
teen to thirty four stars, all, until recently,
moving, undistnrbed aud undimmed in their
orbs of light aud grandeur The rights of
no State have been invaded; no mans property
has been despoied, no mans liberty abridged,
no mans life oppressively jgopardized by toe
action of this Government. Under it, benign
influences the riils OF public aud private pros
perIty have swolled into rvuets, and from riv-
ulets into rivers ever briDming in their fulness,
aud verywhere, aud at all periods of its his.
tory, its minstrations have fallen as gently on
the people of The United States as do the dews
of summers night ou the fJwers and grass
Of the gardens Of tue fields.
Whence, then, this revolutionary outbreak?
Wbence the secret apr;ng of this gigantic coz
spiracy, which like some huge boa, had com
pietely coiIed itself around the limbs and body
Of the Republic, before single hand was lift
ed to resist it2 Strange aud sadeed startling
as the announcement must appear when it
falls upon the ears of the next generation, he
national tragedy in whose shadows We stand
/ tonight, has come upon US because, 10 Nos
vember last, John q. Breckaridge was not
elected President of the United States, aud
! Abraham Lincoln was. This is the whole sto-
v ry. And would pray now to know on what
was John e. Breckenridge fed that he has
| grown 50 great, that republic founded by
4 Washington aud cemeaied by the best blood
that has ever coursed IN human veins, is to be
overthruWn because torsoeth be caunot be IT'S
| President! Had he beea chosen, we well know
that we should nos have heard OF lais re5Hl-
lion, for the lever with which it is being moved
would have been wanting to the hands of toe
! conSpirators. Even after his defeat, could 1t
have been guaranteed, beyond all preadven-
ture, that Jefferson Davis OF some other kin
dred spirit would be the successor Of Mc Liu-
coin, | presume we hazard nothing in assum.
! ing that this atrcclous movement against the
/ Government would not have beet set Oh foot.
( So much for the principle involved ia 1t. THIS
! great crime, then. with which we are craps
/ ping, sprang from that ''sin by which the an
giles fell''-aa unmastered and prUhigate am
biuon- an ambition thst sswould rather reign
In bell than serve in beaven"-that would
rather rule supremely over q shattered frag-
meut of the Republic than rnu lhe chance of
I sharing with others 10 the honors of the whole.
The c0nspirators of the South read iu tue
( election of Mr. Lincoln a declaration that tho
/ Democratic party had been Frustrated, if not
finally destroyed, by the selfish intrigues and
corruptions of Its leaders; they read, too, that
the vicious, emaciated aud spawned bobby OF
the slavery agitation, on which they had so
often rode into power, could no Logger carry
beyond given geographical line of our tel
ritofy, aud that IL trutd this faetiou5 and trea-
sonable agi,aticn, on which SO many of them
had grown great by ieba uchiog and donation.
alizing the mind of The people naturally gen.
erous aud patriotic, had run its scourse, aud
hence, that from the national disgust Tor this
demagogueing and from ths inexorable law Of
population, that tue time had come when all
those who hai no other political capital than
this would have 70 prepare for retirement TO
private life, so far at least as the highest off
ees of the country were conesrDed. Under
the influence OF these grim discourag agements
they resolved to consummate a, oDce-what
our political history shows to have been with
them long cherished purpose the dismem-
berment of the Government. They said TO
themselves. aSiBce we ean no longer monop-
olize the great offices of the Republic as we
have been accustomed to do, We will destroy
il aud build upon its ruins an empire that shall
be all our own, and whose spoils neither the
North nor the East nor the West shall share
with us" Deplorable and humilating as this
certainly is, it is but rehearsal of the sad
sad story of the past. We bad, indeed, sup.
posed that under our Christian civilizatiu
we bad reached point in human progress, when
a republic could exist without having its life
sought by its own offspring, but the Catslines
Of the South have proved that we were mista-
ken. Let 40 man imagine that because this
rebellion has been made by men renowned Ia
our civil and military history, that it Is there
fore the less guilty or the less courageously to
be resisted. Il IS presisely this class of msu
lRho have subverted the best governments that
have ever existed. The purest spirits that
have lived ia che tide OF times, the nobest
institutions that have arisen to bless our race,
have found those In whom they had most con-
6dedand whom they had most honored, meu
wicked enough, either secretly to betray them
8 unto death, or openly to seek their overthrow
by lawless Violence, The Republi1 of Ed-
glaud had its Mouk; the republic Of France
had its Bonaparte; the republic Of R9ma had
it's Caesar and its Catalns, and the Saviour of
the world had His Judas Iscariot. II canDol
be necessary that l should declaEe TO you, for
YOU know them well, who they are whose par
ricidal swords are DOW unsheathed against the
RepubIic Of the United States. Their names
are inscribed upon scroll Of infamy thai car
never perish. Tue most distinguished of then
were educated by the charity of the Govern
ment on which they are now making war
For long years they were fed from its table
and clothed from lts wardrOte, and lad their
bIows RaFlanded by its honors. Ihey are the
unoratefGl sons of a fond mother who dAailed
them upon her knee, who laVished upan them
the gasbing love of her uOble and devoted GA
ture. and who nuEtlIeI them from che very
bosom of her life; aud now, 10 the frenzie {
, excesses of licentious AMI b4fied ambition,
they are stabbiug at that bosom with tue fero-