The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1862-09-12
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JEFFERSON IN i797--i3Gi.

info the distinctive features OF ille aullnalS-
.tration, the more liberal spnit and enilghten-
ed views of the great Republican could form
no association. Thro' all the dark storms
If federal hate and malice, which, spider
like, were directed against La 6etSe Flapce,
whose noblest and richest blood, but sixteen
years before, had been SO copiously shed in
the work Of baptizing new nation in the
smoking trenches of Yorktown; through all
the hurricanes Of fapaticism, engendered by
atllirst for arstocratical power, and which
were finally assuming shape and form in
those Alien and Sedition acts which We're
subsequently destined to dig political graves
for their blinded authors; he alone, unawed
by the then almost crushing influence of
the government, remained true TO the inter
ests of the people; the only custodian of
the common veal, in that dark hour Of the
young republic, when liberty had well nigh
fallen stillborn, who was weighed in the
balance and not found wanting" Despis-
iag from the depths Of his noble soul, the
petty tendencies to aristocracy which char
acterizcd the administration Of Adams, he
took no pains to conceal his righteous con-
tempt Of the tinseled adiuncts Of monarchi-
al power, now seeking to gain by insidious
approaches a foothold on the floor OF the
Presidential mansion; but that the match
less power of his sarcasm, attacked without
mercy those vanities and emblems of con-
centrated power, which he conceived but
lily comported with that simplicity which
should ever characterize the dispcnsation Of
authority, in a government deriving its SOW
ercign powers Immediately from the body
of the people a,sea
y5a Whilst resisting those claims of France
(which were manifestly unjust, hea as prompt
lyopposed the unnecessary haste with which
the dominant party was erdeavoring, with
all the energy of demoniac rage and fend-
'ish hate, to array in hostile opposition the
allies Of former glorious war, and to cause
the joint conquerors Of lordly born Corn
wallis to imbrue their hands in each others
blood The titled snobs of naughty En-
gland, who for centuries had rioted in secu-
rity upon the sweets which their iron heels
hadremorselessly wrung from the poorman's
blood and sweat, had bcheld with constcr-
nation the sudden downfall of the French
nobility in that terrible conflict, which a
similar course Of grinding oppression at the
hands of the blotted and naughty Bourbons
had at length forced upon trodden people,
had at their behest, their Tory synpathl-
zers, who had survived our own revolution
airy struggle, and who formed so great an
element Of the federal party, now combined
with the administration, in decreeing eter-
nal hatred and unfnching war against the
land which deserved the reverence and sym
pathy Of every true American heart. And
now commenced those intolerant proscrip-
tions and relentless prosecutions which, un-
til our own day have never found their par
allel. The press was shackled, trial by jul
-ry denied personal liberty restricted, and
all the most sacred rights of freemen scat
tered to the four winds of heaven by the
arbitrary hand of usurped power; whilst in
every breeze huttered those black cockadcs
the badge Of the peace party, - which ta-
ken in connection with The prevalent excite
ment, only needed the addition of deaths
head and raw bones, to have convinced a
disinterested observer that America was a.
bout 10 cngagein a scheme of undistinguish-
ed piratical piunder.
But THROUGH all the blinded frenzy of the
war excitement, and all the heated ebulli-
tions Of public feeling g-consequent upon the
passage Of the Alien and Sedition acts
which succeeded it, the Vice President un-
mindful Of the deep-mouthed bayings OF
the hounds of the Administration, pursued
that conservative course, which his con-
science and knowledge Of his Constitu-
tional obligations alike dictated, and assum-
ed that position, which viewed at this dis
tance of time, appears as the only green spot
IN the black desert of fanaticism with which
he was surrounded. He who, unterried
by the shadow of British scaffold, dared
calmly announce the ''inalienabe right" Of
man to an entire. world, was not deferred
from sounding the alarm 10 bis own fellow
citizens, when he beheld those ''rights3' at
tackled by the insidious hands of those who
had sworn to support them; he who had
seen the best blood of the land poured out
like water, in the hallowed work of conse-
Grating temple sacred forever to Freedom,
could not behold its fair proportions marred
without attempting to stay the desecratng
hand which impiously sought its overthrow;
he who had done so much to procure sep
araton from the mother country, could not
silently behold a people whom he loved,
sinking beneath the social position OF the
down trodden white slaves of Europe; but
it was then that he, together with those no
bic spirits whom his warning words and burn
ing eloquehce rallied round himself, laid the