The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1862-07-04

that lie would be guided by the circumstances
which surrounded him entirely. The reason
that this conversation occurred so frequently
was that was thrown much in his company,
in my capacity as paymaster, and privately.
| Wien he first came here / went to see him, hav-
ing known him before, and l was invited by
him to come and see him frequently, as l was
well acquainted in the west and had been con-
nected with the organization of the home guards,
in this city, from the beginning. In regard to
the official business which / had to transact
with him several instances occurred in which
orders for payments had been issued to Col.
! Andrews, paymaster general, and these orders
transferred to me, and not being considered by
me legal, called on him in regard to them,
and he told me fiat he Intended 10 do what he
considered best for The service without ference
to kaw Or regulations; that he Intended to cut
red tape and ar7aue at the end w,fhout reference
10 order or system, and direct me TO pay these
oders."
| The statements of these wtnesscs-oficers
of unimpeachable integrity and intelligence
| will, we are sure, be heard by the Government
with equal ustonislment and sorrow. General
Fremont proclaims, on assuming his command
that 'there were no longer any civil rights;
/ that there was no government except that OUT
side of the Constitution, which had been sus-
pended; that it was his determination to adj
minister his department without reference to
! law or regulations; that the people of the Uni
ted States We're in the field, and that he was at
their head, and that he meant to carry out such
measures as they, the people, expected him to
carry out, without regard to the red tape OF
the Washington peope''-that is the President
and Congress. 1t is singular how perfectly
these sentiments harnionize with those held by,
the usurpers, who in this and other ages OF the
world have sought and established absolute
power upon the ruins of public liberty Some
of these usurpcrs, taking yet higher ground than
that assumed in the interview with Colonel An
drews, have claimed for themselves a mission
to 'carry out" the win of God, but none of
them have sunk their pretensions belowa special
mission to .'carrv OUT the will of the peo-
pie Caesar, when he stood upon the banks of
the Rubicon and waved to his veterans to adj
vance, did not make bolder declaration against
his country than this The words, SO earnestly
and so often spoken, announced revolution
conceived, but which, happily for the country,
the parent ild not the strength to bring forth.
No man has lived in the tide of time wise and
pure enough to be intrusted with such a power
as is here claimed Military chieftains who cut
red tape always do it with their swords, and
history proves that the throat of their country
suffers quite as much as does the tape in the
operation. As free institutions have their foun-
dations in law, and in the obedience of the
people and their representatives, civil and milf
tary to it, this expression Of a purpose to east
aside all political and constitutional restraints,
made in the halls of Legislation even, would a.
larm, but when made in the field by a chieftan,
! at the head of great army, it chills and awes
the patriots heart by its parricidal spirit. 1t
reveals an INSCRIPTIONS ambition, which awaits
but the prestige and power of victory to sweep
the Government itself, as cobweb, from its
path.
This sad page in the history of the late com
mander of this department gathers deep shad-
ow from the circumstances under which these
declarations were made. Gen. Fremont had n
few weeks before, taken and subscribed the fol-
lowing military oath: II. John G. Fremont, do
solemnly swear that will bear true fdth and
aileqa,,ce to Me United States, and Mat I tcil
serre tem doaest!y and Faithfully against their en-
emies or opposegs whomsoever; ad that aeW
observe and obey the orders Of President Of the
United States, and the orders Of the officers orer
me- according to the rules and articles Of ,rar,"
and thus, in the sight of God and his country,
had dpliglted faith to Government that he would
bear TO it 'strue allegiance" and he stood pledg-
ed bv the most solemn of human sanctions to
support that Constitution which, when 'the
people took the field" placed at "their head"
the President of the United States, and not any
general holding a commission under him. With
u confiding fondness he had been summoned
from the obscurity of private life, and, prefer
ed above the veterans and whole army OF pa
triots, he was made a major general. Scarce
ly has he girded on his sword, to whose honor
the best interests of the nation had been COM
mitted when he SAYS to his subofdinates and
followers that he draws it, not in the name of
law or of the Government, but i'll the defiance
of both, to enforce such measures as, in his
Judgment, ''the people expected him to carry
out" These wQrA were spoken, rs it We're,
by the undertaken while the patient was yet
struggling for life. They were uttered against
the government of q country, not then tram
quill and strong and able to battle with all as
sailants, but of a country distracted and hum
bled, and bleeding under the stabs OF traitors.
They came from no flush of excitement SPRING |
ing from triumph Of arms, but were the SOL
cmn and oft-repeated entinciations of general
Just entering the field of his future operations,
and serving for the first time the strength OF his
gathering army. They were addressed to Off
GERS of high rank in the service, and were in
tended to impress them with obedience to his
revolutionary programme. Gen. Fremont al
ready held his sword, and it was most impor-
tant for his purpose that Col. Andrews, the
head of. the pay department here, and Major
johnson, paymaster under him, should no. In
terfere with his free use of the national purse.
In respecting his own official oata and the law