North Branch democrat. [volume] (Tunkhannock, Pa.) 1854-1867, 1862-09-10

you does not know that Edgar Cowan was
but poor boy, and that, by the force of in
tellect and industry, he has attained success
and distinction. He has thus illustrated in
his career, the influence of free institutions,
upon the native powers and energies of the
mind. Il is natural, as we'll as just, that he
should defend against Infringement, Consti-
tuition to which he owes SO much.
" His speech against the Confscaton Act
was the effort of the lawyer and statesman.
His manly defense of Jesse d. Bright against
the most disgraceful persecution, was worthy
of Cato in his best days IN the Roman Senate
His resistance of the crazy project of Charles
Sumner to treat, by legislative enactment,
the States in rebellion as escheated or for
feited territory, is the more to be commend
ed for his declaration in that connection,
" that the only way that the Union should
be restored was that every part should enjoy
its rights" His opposition to the scheme of
substituting paper money, in the shape of the
legal tender, for gold and silver, was based
upon constitutional law, and, in the progress
of time all must agree, was as full of warning
as it was of wisdom.
=" In the general scramble for plunder which
has appalled, the nation, and covered all over
with blotches, some in Congress as well as in
the Cabinet, Mr.. Cowan, with his robes un-
sullied, walks abroad in the light of the sun.
and like Cesar's wife is above suspicion.
History is full OF examples of great men,
who, in the boiling cauldron of revolution,
and in the excitement of terrific pas sion have
suffered condemnation for having dared to do
right. In defense of great cause, talents,
integrity, and courage have ever to contend
with ignorance, envy, prejudice, passion, and
tyranny. These are the obstacles every
where to be encountered in the battle of life
in the struggles of nation to retain, as we'll
as TO acquire, the principles of free govern
ment; and in the purpose of Providence,
seem to be the destiny of mankind. Mr..
Cowan, then, in his able and manly effort in
defense of the Constitution, as it came from
the pens of Madison, Franklin, Hamilton,
and other compeers, and as it received the
approval of Washington, could scarcely ex.
pect to escape the censurc or notice of fac
ton. by whom this matchless instrument has
been pronounced covenant with death
and en- agreement with HE'LL" and in VIII use
regard nothing seems to be sacred or venera-
hia t,icpro Of ba por;I ofb
life, opposed all the powers of evil in Rome
in supprcsslng the conspiracy of Catalne.-
He did it to save his country and succeeded:
but 1t sent him into exile as soon as Caesar
and Clodius succeeded to the Consulate
Edmund Burke and the elder Pitt, in their
immortal speeches in the British Parliament,
defed the Crown, in doing justice to the
American Colonies. The great French law
yer and unblemished patriot, Malesherbes,
at every personal hazard, defended with una
vailing eloquence the unfortunate Louis the
XVI, against the clamors of blood. thirsty
mob, for such had the National Convention
now become. He failed, but his devotion
brought him to the scaffold.
Daniel Webster, in 1850, in defiance of
the heresies of Massachusetts,, stood out up
on the ramparts ofthe Constitution, and de-
Tended, with the zeal of the patriot, the no.
BILE charter of our institutions and the Union
of the States. In which of these instances
does not the clear dispassionate voice of his
tory, rise in ringing tones of appreciation of
the moral heroes who stood by the cause of
JUSTICE, and of TRUTH! If Mr. Cowan.
therefore, has incurred odium in resisting the
mad torrent of faction, in his noble efforts to
suppress this mad rebellion, under the broad
Egis of the Constitution, that will hereafter
constitute his best title to the gratitude of his
country"