The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1862-08-01
COMMISSIONER,
ANDREW CRISA1AN, Napier tp.
POOR DIRECTOR,
SOLOMON REIGHARD, S. Spring tp.
Gov. Ourtin's Speech at Pittsburg.
AUDITOR,
JOHN H. BARTON, e. Prov. tp.

Gov. Uurtins Speech at Plttsburg.
We learn from the Pittsburg papers that his
Excellency, Gov. Curtin, was present at and
delivered an address before war meeting held
in that city on the oath ult. During the course
of his remarks, we are informed the governor
made use of the following language:
ssThe President has at last learned that we
are actually engaged in war; Without charg-
ing that mistakes have been made, it is enough
to say that after long months of schooling, the
war is now to be prosecuted with vigor. War
means violence, and intime of war man relapses
into barbarism. The property, nay, even the
life Of an enemy, and everything that he has,
we must take to use against him.
In the absurdity of civilization our arms have
left guard at every house, and left our enc
mics behind them to hunt and destroy This
is not war! The crops in the valley of the
Shenandoah belong to us. That horse, that
man, be he white Or black, if claimed by our
enemy belongs to u.s."
So it seems that the President did not know
until lately that ''we are actually engaged in a
war!" Thousands of millions of money spent,
hundreds Of thousands Of soldiers raised, equip
ped and marched against the enemy, our coun-
try for nearly eighteen mongths deluged in
ss--7, sase cha A. Of the
orphan, the wall of the bereaved and the bro
ken-hearted saddening the land, and the Presi-
dent all this while ignorant of the fact that "we
are actually engaged in a war;" And yet we
were assured, from time to time, by the organs
Of the federal administration, that the meas
.ures taken for the suppression of the rebellion
were most ample and effectual and could not
possibly prove unsuccessful. We were told
that the sgrand army of the Potomac" eclipsed
anything of the kind the world had ever seen;
that before it the secession hordes would melt
away like wax before furnace; that the reb-
81 capital would inevitably fall into its posses
sion whenever it would take up its line of
march and that before its victorious tread the
banners of secession would 60 down like grain
before the reaper. We were told, too, of VIC
tories bought with the blood Of thousands-of
victories at Somerset, Henry, Donelson, Pea
Ridge, Shiloh, Yorktown, Williamsburg, Fair
oaks, and the brilliant series in the ensanguined
swamps of the Chickahominy. And notwith-
standing all this lesson printed indelibly upon
The hearts Of the American people, written in
blood upon every hearthstone in the land, the
President had yet to learn that "we are actual
ly engagedin awar." Strange, passing strange,
this slowness of comprehension on the part of
the President! Wonderful, singularly won
derful, that Governor Curtin should have fur
nished over one hundred Thousand soldiers for
the service Of an executive who did not know
that they were intended to be employed by
him in the prosecution of war! What may
We not be told next year, next mouth, next
week or Tomorrow? Nous re,ronsi
The Governor, in the remarks above quoted,
lakes occasion (although drawing but general
outline) to give a picture of the times from
which the pen of the historian may draw in
spiration when it comes to the mournfnl task of
recording the story of our national troubles.
''1n time Of war;" says His Excellency, 'man
relapses into barbarism!' Farther OH he speaks
of the "absurdities of civilization" We had
thought that this war, on the part of the 10y
al states, was, professedly, TO maintain and pre-
serve that form Of Government under which
man emerges from the darkness of barbarism
into the sunlight of civilized life, by which the
worlds to be regenerated, cisilly speaking, and
through Whose influence the last vesrige of the
barbanic ages shall be wiped from the face Of
the earth. We had thought that there was
such thing as civilized warfare, that inva.
aions in which booty, rapine and murder play
ed their part, had passed away with the reced.
ing footstep of the painted savage, that even
generosity and magnanimity had come to form
Al essential ingrediens in the character of the