The weekly Butte record., 1862-04-19
Resignation of Col. Biddle-Ring of thu
True Metal.

True Metal.
Our readers will remember. says 4 Pennsyl-
vania paper. that Charles j. Biddle was elected
to Congress 10 the % District, at the special
election held in June last that being then in
the three months service, he remained in the
field, and did not take his seat in Congress
that upon the organization of the Pennsylvania
Reserve Corps, he was appointed TO the COM
maDd of the First (BucktaiD regiment, in which
capacity he has served up to this time
Col. Biddle was on visit to Philadelphia,
the other day, when he was honored with the
tender of public dinner, but which honor he
declined in the following patriotic letter.
To The Honorable George u. Dallas. Charles
J. IngersoH, Peter Mccall, John Cadralader
George Shnrswood, 4. y Parsons, F. Fra
ley, Fl. ". Phelps EsqureS, and Others
GENTLEMEN Il have had the pleasure to
receive, to-day, your communication, and beg
you TO accept my thanks for the tiattering
terms in which you have expressed your views
upon what has been, TO me, subject of anx-
ious reflection.
| 1t has been my earnest d, sire, at this great
| juncture in our national affairs 10 give my hum
/ BILE services where they may be most useful to
my country. With this purpose | took the
field and holding, during the entire period of
the Extra Session, a separate and important
/ command T 1;1 pot fol Of :.
take the seat in Congress to which you had in
my absence. elected me.
| have come, for a day or two, from the
great camp in front of Washington, where
commanded regiment that has been TO me a
source of the highest pride and satisfaction,
and | will leave it with feelings of regret which
| shall not attempt to express here But, !
yield TO the representations of the wishes of
my constituents, conveyed to me in your letter
and in other forms | SHALL therefore. tender
through the proper authorities. the resignation
of my military commission from the State.
and as your representative, return to Wash
ington.
1t is true that, according to high authorities
| might at once hold The two positions but
it is plain that could not perform the duties
of both, and, waving the bare legal question, it
seems to me to be incompatible with the char
acter of representative and legislator to be
paid officer subject TO the order of the FIX
ecuiive, and present in his place only by the
revocable leave of a military superior. nave
therefore. come 10 the conclusion that Your
representative must not now be thus trammeed;
yet, should the tide of war, indeed. roll around
the National Capital, hope that my brethren
in arms will find room in their ranks for one
soldier more
My political opinions are what they have
always been. am Democrat-never more
one than at this hour. | rejoice that it was
with my name upon your banners that you
overthrow the Republican party in this city.
When say that am Democrat, do not
mean that delong TO any knot of politicians
When say am Democrat, mean that |
have ever maintained those national principles
which, under God, made and preserved US a
nation those great national principles of jus
tce and equality for all the States which, so
long as they were practice0, made various
institutions and interchangeab bic commodities
bonds of strength and union rather than grounds
for strife.
This, al least we may say for the Democrat
,ol - &
iastlc theories, the wbimsies, the sms" the
questions of mere phraseology, that men, cal
ling themselves statesmen, have preferred TO
peace. to union, to the gradual progress and
development Of each section, and all races IN
due relations to natural causes. This, too we
may say for the Democratic party-while it
maintained its sway, Secession" was little
bafled clique as the Republican party rose,
4 Secession" became an army with banners. -
Nor was the foresight of the Republican
party leaders any wider than their patriotism
The false prophets of their party promised
| their followers that three months should see the
end OF the trouble and when the war came
upon them, even then they wanted only three
months volunteers to end it. They created
and fosered that intoxicating self-confdence
that was the cause OF our earlier reverses.-
They had so persisteutly abused that part of
the American people. that lived across a geo.
graphical line, that they had come at last TO
nuderrate and despise them, and Republican
nraiory summoned its hearers not TO stern en-
counters. but only to pays and pilage-
When the national flag was struck down at
Charleston. and the national capital was threat
med by secession. the North rose like one man.
| The world saw with astouisbment the great