The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1863-01-30
Letter from a Judge of the United States
Sunpamn Gnurt.

Some time In the latter part of last summer,
President Lincoln appointed Daniel +. Miller
Judge of the Supreme court of the United
States. We remember distinctly that, when
the appointment was announced the question
was asked by almost everybody, 'who is Dam
iel f. MlllierP Hewas man unknown to fame,
and the general impression was that the honest
Abe had elevated to the highest legal tribunal
OF the nation an old crony of his with whom he
had been accustomed to crack jokes during the
court term in the western districts. At length
we learn something of the man from himself.
Ii we cannot ascertain Who he is, we are at
least informed schat he is-and the information
is satisfactory to us. If Judge Miller is as
su s9alq fs i wyere ~ credit for Having made one one
good appointment.
The Judge, in letter dated "Keokuk, Iowa
Noy. IL, 1862" declining ON account of his
professional engagements to attend "grand ju-
bilee of the friends of Constitutional liberty and
of the Union," thus declares his sentiments:
The recent elections have gladdened my
heart more than can find language to express,
for 1 feel that by the success of the Democracy
we shall have speedy restoration of the Union
and Constitutional liberty.
am an old Clay Wing, as you all know,
and when that party went down, I united with
the Republicans, in the hope and BELIEF that it
would succeed to all the loyal and national vr
tues of the Wing party, and that we would
have Wing principles and policy prevail under
another name. But I got more tbaa I 6a,ytqaed
for. 1t was not in the covenant that we shotld
have civil war as q consequence of Republican
success; that the public treasury was to be plum
dered by wholesale; that Stree soil' in loyal
States should be covered with martial law; that
''free speech" should be chained in the dungeons
of the bastile; that free homes should be sack
ed TO desolation, and that freedom should be con-
fined in its practical application to the negroes
of the South, and the Abolition wing of tho
Republican party at the North. No! We old
Wings, in uniting with the Republican party,
did not consent TO be patty to any such vio-
lations Of Constitutional liberty.
Had the counsels of Gen. Scott. llilard Fill
more, John j. Crittenden, Stephen ~ Doug
las and indeed Of all the wise and good men of
our nation been needed, we would not now be
afflicted with the civil war that is upon US
They could have prevented South Carolina
iioAii Si iCNOlutlOil.
den proposition would have saved all the rest
of the Southern States, and long before this, at
trliling expense of money, and at a small loss
of life, the rebellious States would have been
humbed before the flag of the Union.
But how did the phrenzy of the Abolition
leaders meet that propositions They said a.
way with it, away with it, and cruelty all who
administer it. They farther said, leave the
slave States go! We can do without them, and
we will speedily reap the. advantages of sep
aration. When the conservative element of
the nation proclaimed itself for the Union, then
the Abolitionlsts assumed that they were the
war party, and denounced all others as rebel
sympathizers.
That the Abolitionists are in favor of prose-
cutting the war for their love of the Union, am
sure is not the case. Their object is to abolish
slavery only, and if that should fail, they will
again speedily raise the old cry of set tie Union
Shde"
Gentlemen, it is the mission of the Demo-
cratic party to save the Union.
1t has always been loyal and national par
ty it has ever upheld Constitutional law as the
only safeguard Of freedom. 1t was the party
that hurled from power the authors of the ali-
en- and sedition laws, sixty years ago, and
for all that period they guided our ship of
State successfully and glorionsly through the
waves of civil commotion and the dangers of
foreign wars.
l regard the Clay Wing party, and the Doug
las Democracy, as genuine branches of the old
Democratic party of 1898.
When see Gen. Scott and Millard Fillmore,
and Crittendcn, and Ketchum, and Hunt, and
all the old prominent Wings of twenty-five
years ago, now united at the polls with the De-
mocracy, can have no doubt that if the i'm
mortal sage of Ashland, that purest of patri-