The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1863-08-14
Freedom Of Thought and Opinion.
BEDFORD. Pa. FRIDAY MORNING, AUGUST ID, 1868. ).

l. Z SAieio1oO oti AioDfS PieAtAOAii hift
in style, admirable IN sentiment. You pre-
sent the true issue, and commit yourselves
to the great mission Just now of the Demo-
cratic party-to restore and make sure FIRST
the rights and liberties declared yours by
your constitution, and dishonored and pol
luted by repeated and most aggravated ex-
actions of tyrannic power. It is base in
yourselves, and reasonable to your poster
ity, to surrender these liberties and rights
to the creatures whom your own breath Gre
ated and can destroy. Shall there be free
speech, free press, peaceable assemblages
OF the< people, and free ballot any longer
in Ohio? Shall the people hereafter, as hith-
erto have the right to discuss and condemn
the principles and policy of the party-thc
ministry-the men who, for the time, con-
duet the Governmental demand of their
pubheF servants a reckoning of their stew
ardship, and to place other men and another
party in power at their supreme will and
pleasure. Shall Order Thirty-eight Or the
Constitution be the supreme law Of the land
And shall the citizen any more be arrested
by all armed soldiery at midnight, dragged
from his wife and child and home to a mill
tary prison; thence to mock military trial:
there condemned, and then banished as a
felon for the exercise of his rights This is
the issue, and nobly have you met it. 1t
is the very question of free, popular govern
ment itself. 1t is the whole question; up
on the one side liberty, on the other despo-
tism. The President as the recognized head
of his party, accepts the issue. Whatever
he wills, that is law. Constitutions, State
and Federal, are nothing; acts of legisla-
tion nothing; the Judiciary less than moth
ing. In time of war, there is but one will
supreme--his will ?-but one law--military
necessity, and he the sole Judge Military
orders supercede the Constitution, and mil
itarY commissions usurp the place of the
erdilary courts of justice in the land. Nor
are these mere idle claims. For two years
and more, by arms, they have been enforc-
ed. It was the mission of the weak but
presspnptuous Burnside name infamous
forever in the ears of all lovers of consitu-
tionA liberty-to try the experiment in O.
hio,kided by a Judge whom name not, be-
'cata { Ne has brought foul dishonor upon
tie Judiciary of my country. Inyour hands
now, men of Ohio, is the final issue of the
experiment. The party of the Admins
tration have accepted it. BY ypledging sup
port to the President, they have justified
his outrages upon liberty and the Constitu-
ton; and whoever gives his vote to the can
didate of that party, commits himself to
every act Of violence and wrong on the part
of the Administration which he upholds
and thus, by the law of retaliation, which
is law of might, would forfeit his own right
to liberty, personal and political, whensoev-
er other men and another party shall hold
the power. Much more do the candidates
themselves. Suffer them not Tentreat you,
to evade the issue; and by the Judgment of
the people we will abide. ,t.,,,
And now, finally, let me ask what is the
pEetext for all the monstrous acts and claims
of arbitrary power which you have so no.
bly, denounced2 Military necessity" But
if indeed, all these be demanded by militia
ry necessity, then believe me your liberties
are gone, and tyranny is perpetual. For if
this civil war is to terminate only by sub
.iugation or submission of the South to force
and arms, the infant of to-day will not live
to see the end of it. No, in another way
only can it be brought to a close. Travel
ing a thousand miles OF more, through near
ly one-half of the Confederate States, and
so)ourning for time at widely different
points, met not one man, woman or child
who was not resolved to perish rather than
yield to the pressure of arms even in the
most desperate extremity. And whatever
may and must be the varying fortune of the
war, in all which [ recognize the hand of
Providence pointing visibly to the ultimate
issue of this great trial of the States and
people of America, they are better prepar-
ed now every way to make good their in
eXorable purpose than at any period since
the beginning of the struggle. These may
indeed be unwelcome truths, but they arc |
addressed only to candid and honest men.
Neither, however, let me add, did meet
any, whatever his opinions or his station,
political or private, who did not declare his
readiness, aohen the aoar shall haze ceased
Czaa6 57avaC2sng armies been ag;the2raaon, to |
consider and discuss the question Of reun-
ion. And who shall doubt the issue of the |
| return, therefore, with my o.
pinions and convictions as to war Or peace,
and my faith as to final results from sound !
policy and wise craftsmanship, not only un-
changed, but confirmed and strengthened.
And may the God of heaven and earth so
rule the hearts and minds of Americans ev-
that with Constitution main
tained, Union restored, and liberty hence
forth made secure, agrander and nobler des-
tiny shall yet be ours than that even which
blessed our fathers in the first two ages of