The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1863-08-07
From the Clambersburg SPIRIT & Times.
Woodward and the Foreigners.


The Franklin Repository, in its first is
sue, 'shoped in its next issue to be able to
do justice to both the platform and candi-
dates of the Democratic party" When the
second number appeared we were sorry to
learu that ''the review of the Democratic
State Convention, its candidates and plat
FORM" had been unavoidably postponed. -
We were anxious to know what the editors
peculiar sense Of justice would prompt him
to say. The long expected article appear
ed in last weeks issue, and as fair sam
pie Of this desperate attempt at justice, we
quote from it the following exploded libel up
on Judge Woodward, which, after being sue
cessfully refuted on several previous occa-
sions, has been again trumped up by the
Repository, for use during the present cam
paign. Its charge against Judge Woodward
is in the following language:
"Judge Woodward is man of conceded abil-
ity, and as subtle and dangerous as he is able.
His official career commenced by his election
as Delegate to the Constitutional Convention
in 1887, in which body he was one OF the young
est members. He took considerable part in
the able debates which characterized its proceed
ings, and made his mark in his earnest efforts
to disfranchise all foreigners in Pennsylvania.
He made one of his ablest speeches in favor of
incorporating the denial of suffrage to foreign
ers with our organic law, but he failed,-so
that the Irish and Germans who vote for him
in October, can do so with the satisfactory as
surance that if Woodward had succeeded in his
efforts to amend our Constitution, they would
now be without even the right to vote at all"
It appears from the published proceed
ings Of the 'sReform Convention, which as
sembled at Harrisburg, in May, 1887, that
Mr.. Woodward, then a young man Of twen-
ty-eight, was delegate to that Convention
from Wayne county. In the course of the
deliberations of that body, a resolution was
introduced by Mr.. Thomas and seconded by
Mr.. Konigmacher, both Wing Delegates, di-
recting ''that committee be appointed to
enquire into the expediency Of so amending
the Constitution of Pennsylvania, as to pro-
hibit the future immigration into this State
OF foreigners, free persons of color, and fu-
gitive slaves, from other States or Terrific
RES" This resolution was sustained by a
large number of Wings ia the Convention,
anu prpDupiy wudId nlye passes,, sss.-, : -
Mr.. Woodward, with view, as he himself
has since stated, to bring out the true char
actef of the measure, and at the same time
defeat it if possible, proposed an amend
ment, which compelled the withdrawal of
the original motion, and thus saved the for
eigners from disfranchisement by their pre-
tended friends, the Wings. The remarks
imputed to Mr.. Woodward, in support of
his amendment, were not taken down by
the regular secretaries of the Convention,
who recorded the facts we have just given /;
but bya stenographer, who gave him no OPP
portunity for their revision, but incorporated
them, garbled and perverted, into the ''pub-
lishcd debates" His true position on thi.
question may be learned from his reply to
Mr.. Earl, in the same Convention, on the
10th Of the ensuing January, when he made
use of these words:
81 NEVER DID PROPOSE TO EXCLUDE THE FOR
EIGNERs NOW IN THE COUNTRY, FROM POLITICAL
|
TIME HEREAFTER COME TO TIE COUNTRY.
My amendment was to a proposition made by
the gentleman from Chester, (Mr. Thomas, sug-
gesting an inquiry into the expediency of exclu-
ding foreigners altogether from our soil, and the
amount Of it was, to give the proposed inquiry
a different direction from that proposed by the
gentleman from Chester"
And it may still further be gathered from
the following letter written by him to the
Wayne county Herald, in 1851, in which
he said:
81 am not going to profess any newborn zeal
for foreigners nor to fatter their passions or pre-
judices. / am going to treat them as | have
always treated them--as American Citizens,
entitled to equal rights with myself, but no more
entitled to make war on me for sentiments i'm
puted to me by political opponents, and on and
according to which / have never acted, than |
have to make war on them, am no Native A
merican, and l never was, either in sentiment
or action. Ihave no hostility to foreigners, and
1 never had. They and have always lived in
peace. l have many warm friends amongst them
whom value above all price, and no intriguing
politicians or INSCRIPTIONS editors are to be per-
mitted to array us in hostile attitude
Again, in 1916, Judge Woodward was
promised the vote of the Native American
delegation of Philadelphia to secure his e.
lection to the United States Senate, in case
he would pledge himself to support the 21
years. naturalization law. He spurned the
offer, and in consequence thereof was de-
feated by those same votes. Did this in
dicate hostility to foreigners2 Notonly this
during the existence Of the Know-Nothing
party, Judge Woodward was open and ex-
plicit in his denunciations of its principles
and designs; and in numbers of private let
ters, and in all his public course, he has re-
peatedly condemned the proscriptive spirit
\ which would deprive man of his political