Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1861-03-15

whom you had wounded without provocation, re-
peatedly and humbly exhorted you to pause in your
| career In vain. You seemed TO have become
the incarnation Of Absolutism. The bloody fields
OF Kansas, the perishing industry Of Pennsylvania,
the arguments of the good, the thunder tones of
the ballotbox, produced no more impression upon
you than upon the Ralls of the building in which
you sat, cold and heartless as those walls them
selves.
/ Not content with doing wrong yourself, you in
sisted that all others over whose interests you ex
ercised the slightest control should likewise do
wrong Hesitation or refusal on their part to yield
/ 10 your commands was punished with instant ex-
cluslon from place. remorSeleess social osracism.
No one was too high to be reached by the shafts
] OF your anger; one too low TO be ground under
the heel OF you prescription. You raked the Off
/ cial kennels for victims. Whether an honest man
objected to your conduct who held position under
you in foreign land, or in youT own State,
the Presidential mansion, he was recalled or re-
moved without an opportunity OF defence. And
IN proportion as you prosecuted the good you COM
/ pensated the bad Thus, your own example be-
came grand premium to all who were ready to
accept place at the loss of character.
when the money Of the people used to de-
baach the people-when the Chief Magistrate con-
sentdd to degrade himself for the purpose of grati
! tying his revtHge--the reckless men around your
person accepted your own conduct a license to
them, Bent alike upon plundering the treasury and
breaking up the Union, they organized system of
pecalation and fraud unequalled in any civilized
Goyernment, and, with your aid, enlisted in the
york of destroying the Democratic party You
pretend At this day that you were ignorant of their
practices IN the first, but you deny that you
istImuiated aud encouraged them in the second
The disruI of the Democratic party at Charles
ton and Baltimore was plotted in the White
House and when il was accomplished, although
admonished that it must lead to the dislocation of
tthe Union itself, you refused to throw yourself
into the breach, and to accept the regular nomna-
/ ton OF the party. Once more you employed the
patronage Of your Administration in order TO
crafty your worst passions. You never forgave
Stephen A. Douglas because he Indignantly refused
70 endorse your detection Of 1857 and when you
coatrasted the popular verdict which gratefully ap-
proved bis course with the popular expression which
condemned your own, you resolve that he should
DO defeated, even at the hazard of the ami ihaton
I 0t tie Union. You saw the Democratic party
staggeriag under the double burden of being held
responsible for the en0rmities Of your Adminis-
tgaton and of being g-identied with the cause Of
lisunlon. Again you We're admonishsd that per-
severance in these proceedings must lead TO the
most direfu consequences and again yDtta$efnsed
q listen 10 the voice OF reason. Indeed through
your organs and your friends, you circulated the
doctrine that 1t far bettsr that the general op
Ponents Of the Democracy should trIumpS than
that the regular candidate of the party shouid be
elected; and when this portion of your programme
tulfied, when by means of your patronage.
and with the aid of your merceneries, you assisted
! to elect Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency, You gave
currency ana credit that fatal theory winch mas
hurried our free institutions to the very precipice
OF Disunion. Preparations for armed resistance to
the laws as consequence of Mr.. Lncoln's election
made under your eyes, partici pat ed in by
your Own Cabinet Ministers, advocated by your
own newspaper exponent, and so far approved by
those who held position under you in the diie rent
States North and South, as at last to assume the
air of d virtuous revolution. In that hour, when,
for moment, you seemed TO comprehend the
magnitude OF your crimes, did yOu step forward to
execute your high trust, by anticipating the machie
nations or the Southern conspiratorS, by crushing
Secession in the bud, and by making an example
of every who held commission your hands
who dared to approve their proceedings Alas
no. In your last annual message TO Congress,
whilst arguing against the right of State to with
draw from the Union, you offered immunity TO the
enemies of the Union by declaring that you had no
authority TO punish them. Your Cabinet explod ed
in the midst of your own complications and your
country'S distre sSes, and then disclosed
picture OF crime, moral and political, such as no
nation has ever been called upon to witness
Compelled to SUNNI on to your side other coun
sellors, animated by different sentiments, and re-
so Yed SO far as they could to rescue the Union,
you embarrassed their action by your timidty, va
ciation, and weakness. AT this moment, while
you are preparing to assist in the inauguration of
your successor, il is doubtful whether you have
lett him even fragment of Government to adj
minister. Your enemies migh; congratulate them
selves upon the entire fuflment of their predic-
ti0ns, ii they were not called upon to mourn over
the decay and downfall of the Union itself.
1t may be said, these are harsh words to address
to an old man. Your countrymen have been told
that you approach the close of your official term
you manifest some regret at the past, and within
short time it has been given out that the weight of
years aud cares has fearfully oppressed Jour spir
its but, Mr.. Buchanan, the very last acts of your
Administration have shown that still in their ashes
live the wonted fires of your malignity and revenge.
Many of your recent appointments have sho cSed
the country. Even now, the name of one OF the
chief agents ia all those proceedings which have
contributed to rush the Republic upon tine verge
Of ruin is pending before the United States Senate
for high judicial position, and Others who have
been equally prominent in the prescriptions and
treacheIies Of the four years gone by, have been
honored with the most distinguished marks Of your
confidence. 1t will, therefore, be seen that you
return TO private life, just as you are approaching
the Psalmist's age, without feeling single emotion
of remorse for the wrongs you have inflicted upon
q patient and suffering people do not envy you
your reflections in the winter of your years. but
like that Frenchman, when called upon to vote
whether he would doom the tyrant Of bis country
to the death be 50 richly merited, conclude this
epistle in his ewn words II eongiserGte The poor,
and the needy, and the oppressed, but hare no pity
for the opprsssor Of my coaatTy."