Columbia Democrat and Bloomsburg general advertiser. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1850-1866, 1862-09-27

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the public, as part of the proceeding:
PHILADELPHIA, 18th Sept. 1862,
John G. Freeze, Esq, Chairman Of the
Democratic Stanaans COMMITTEE Of COL
umbia county, Bloomsbury, RMn'a.
DEAR SIR:-
Iregret most sincerely, that am una
Bile to comply with the call you make on
me by your late letter in which you inform
me that you are instructed by your Com
mittee to honor me with an invitation to
address mass meeting ofmy fellow citi-
zens of Columbia County, to be held the
18th inst. the anniversary of the day when
Washington and associates placed their il.
lustrious names to the Constitution of the
United States, and under which we lived
free prosperous and happy, until infatuated
with success or struck with popular blind
ness we in an evil hour, changed our di-
rection, and now, after few rapid years
of downward progress, have fallen so low
IudJ Nlr. LluColu anu HS HssOClateS nave
reduced it to doubt whether wo have Ell
ther Constitution or country left u.s.
Whilst we were distrated with the anti.
slavery excitement, when there were al.
ready, by the divisions among the people
three Presidential candidates in the field,
two by the unhappy split in the Democrat
ic ranks, and one who represented the old
whig party, the abolitionists carrying with
thep many we'll meaning, but most delu-
ded citizens, met at Chicago, laid down
platform Of principles in bold defiance of
the Constitution and laws, nominated, to
support it, the weakest man who ever held
power, unless by the accident of birth ,and
then by minority of net much more than
a third of the voting population of the
Union, elevated him to supreme authori.
, ty.
Coming into place at a political crisis
which might have disturbed the clearest
, head aud shaker the steadiest hand, nei-
the; able to cope with an emer gcncy, nor
to choose others to do it for him, nor even
to adhere to course of policy, his gov.
ernment has proved a failure more depIor-
able than could have been asked or hoped
or imagined by the worst enemies of free
institutions. The time is now approach.
ing at which we are to pass judgment at
the polls on himself, his measures, and
f his men. 1t may be that we are too late,
but let us not despair of the republic, and
cinging to the hope that it is possible to
save it from final destruction, 60 forward,
and through the Democratic ticket do all
that is at this time practicable, be it little
or much, ultimately available or not, to-.
t wards the refrigeration of our unhappy
, country.
n You allude in your letter to the subject
of the recent discharge of prisoner in
due course of law from arbitrary execu-
tive arrest, after special order had is
sued from Washington for his conveyance
D to military prison in the Capitol. CA
y military prison in the Capito!D 1t was a
e triumph of the law, effected by the deter
a mined attitude of the Judge who held fast
to principle, and did not finch and from
an open conflict with whose judicial man.
{ date the usurpers of authority did finch
r rhe arrest and the offence committed hav.
n ing been officially made known at Wash
n ington, the order was given to take the
r prisoner thither, and that order and the
n Judges direction to produce bis body il
4 court, were in the Marshals hands at the
d same moment.
. The inevitablenoss of the conflict be-
D tween the military and the judicial orders
=. being obvious and the consequences o
the conflict not easy to be reckoned, the
Secretary of War gave way; and thus was
achieved by the determine ton of an uu.
n armed magistrate the defeat and disgrace
4 of system of barbarous and brutal vio
:, lence which when the history of this ad-
ministration comes to be written, will stand
r high on its catalogue of useless crimes.
g Let those who would justify the men
who have plunged Mr.. Lincoln into these
4 depths of preposterous error, show pre-
cedent for it in the whole history of the
d States. Do you remember one recorded
y case of arbitrary arrest in the course OF
J our revolutionary contest; from the out
break of our difficulties to the peace witt
TIE mother country. In the bitteres
straits of the war OF 1912 when there real
ly were those "traitors in our midst" who
exist now only iu lively imaginatons or oil
fippant tongues, was it ever heard tha