North Branch democrat. [volume] (Tunkhannock, Pa.) 1854-1867, 1863-07-15
TUNKHANNOCK, PA, WEDNESDAY, JULY 15 1863

ing cities of the Union. Oh, that,such a
chango should have come over our country
in day, as it were-as if all men in every
state of the Unol, North and South, East
and West, were suddenly smitten with hom-
;cidai madness, and "the custom of tell deeds -
rendered as familiar as if it were part OF
our Unborn nature as fan avenging angel
had been suffered by Providenc, to wave a
sword of flaming fire above our heads, to
convert SO many million of good men, living
togethr in brotherly love; into insenate be-
ings, savagely bent on the destruction Of
themselves and of each othor, and leaving
Of blood in the place of our once blessed Un-
ion. endeavor sometimes TO close my ears
to the sounds, and my eyes 10 the sight of
Woe, and To ask myself whether all this can
be-to inquire which is true, whether the
past happiness and prosperity of my cpun-
try are but the tlattering vision of a happy
sleep, or its present. misery and dessolauon
hapW'y the deIu>i III Of sume disturbed dreau.
One or the other sees incredible and impossi
ble but ala, the stern truth cannot thus
be dispeled from our minds. Can you for
get, ought es peciaIIy to be expected to for
get, those nol notc days in the history of
our country, when It's greatness and glory
shed in II ft ction at least Of their rays up
ON all our lives, and thus enabled US to read
It e IL al,
Constitution in the light of their principles
and Il cir deeds ? Then war was conducted
only against the foreign enemy, and not in
the spirit and purpose of prosecuting non
cumbatant populations nor of burning unde
tended towns or private dwellings, and was
ing the litlds of the hus5andmen, Of the
workshops Of the artisan, but of subduing
armed hosts in the field. Then the Congress
Of the UIitcd States was the great coun
ell o The whole Union and all its parts.
Then The executive administration looked
with i'm "a .tlll eye over the whole domain
over the Tn ICn, ANXIOUS 10 Cmute the in
tereStS ani consult the hOn or AMI Just pride
# all the s'ates, seeing no power beyond
he law. and dcvUutIy obedIent to the de
,naud5 # the Constitution. How is all this
chan ecd And why ? Have we not been
told, in this very place, not two weeks 90,
by the voice of al authoritative eX pnstor
d. we not all know that the eau Of our ca
ltmites Is the vicious intcrmeddieng Of too
many Of the citizens of the Northern States
with the constitutional rights of the South
ern States. CO operating with the dlScon-
tent OF the people states d" We not know
that the dl1re 5ar Of the Constitution and Of
the security it affords to the rights Of states
and of individuals, has been the claSe Of the
CALAMITY which our con ntry is called TO un
lerrn and nov, war war, in It's direst
>hane-war such as it makes the blood run
cid to read of in the history of0ther nations
and Of uthe" timeS-war, on the scale Of
million of men in armS-war, horrld as that
If barbaric ages RACES in several Of the states
If the Union, as It's mere immediate field
"A casts the lurid shadow of its death and,
lamentatiun athwart the whole eXpanse, and
,nro every nook and corner Of our vast do
main. Nor is that all for in those of the
states which are exempt from the actual raw
ages Of war, in which the roar OF the cannon,
and the rattle of the musIetry, and the
IRONS of the dying, are heard but as faint
rclo of teri ,r from other lands, even here IN
the loyal states, the mllel hand OF military
~, L tho lihnrtipS nj tIc
people, and its foot trampes on desecrated
Constitution. Aye, in this land of free
thought, free speech and free wrting-in
this republic of free suffrage, with liberty
IF thought and expression as til, very es
,ence of republican institutIons-even here,
in these free states it it is made criminal for
citizen soldier, like gallant Edgerly of New
Hampshire, 10 vote according to his con-
science, or, like that noble martyr of free
speech, Mr.. Vallaadingham, to discuss pub
lie affairs in OHIO, aye, even here, the tenn
transitory administrators Of the government
tell ls that in time Of war the mere arbitrary
will of the President takes the place Of the
Constitution, and the President himself an
ounces to us that it is treasnable to speak or
to write otherwise than as he may prescribe:
nay, that it Is tr asonabIe even to be silent,
though we be struck dumb by the shock of
the calamities with which evil counsels, in
competency and corruption have overwhelmed
our country will not say this without re-
frrring to the authority upon which | rely.
| n his letter Of June - 1868, adressed to
E.astus Corning and other citizens of the
State Of New-york, the President makes use
oi the following extraordinary language: In
deed, arrests by process of courts and arrests
in cases of rebellion do not proceed atogeth-
er upon the same basis, the former is direct
ed at the small percentage of ordinary and
con tinuous preparation of crime, while the
latter is directed at sudden and extensive
| ha w hiah n