Columbia Democrat and Bloomsburg general advertiser. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1850-1866, 1863-01-31
VOLUM e 26

lhaue up inc opposltlon was 1t enthusi-
asm 3-lt was fanatical, There has been
nothing like it it since tho Crusades. Was
1t confidence Sir the faith of the people
exceeded that of the patriarch. They
gave up Constitution, law, right liberty,
all at your demand for arbilary power
that tho rebellion might, as you promised,
oe crushed out in three months and the
Union restored Was credit needed 2--
You took control Of country, young, viz
orous, and inexhaustible in wealth and
resources, and of a Government almost
free from public debt, and whose good faith
had never been tarnished Your great
national loan bubble faiod miserably, as
it deserved to fail but the bankers and
merchants Of Philadelphia, New York, and
Boston lent you more than their entire
banking capital. Aud when tha. failed
too, you forced credit by declaring your
paper promises to pay legal tender for
all debts. Was money wanted ? You
had all the revenues of the United States,
diminished indeed but still in gold. The
whole wealth of the country, to tho last
dollar, lay at your feet. Private indivd-
ualS, municipal corporations, the State
governments, AL in their frenzy rave you
money or mean, with reckless prodigality.
The great eastern cities lent you $3.50 900.
600. Congress voted first, $3.50 900 900,
and next 5000 900, 900 more in loans and
then, FIRST, $50, 000 900, then $40 900 600
next S90cOo,Oo0, and, in July last $3.50
coo 900 in Treasury notes and the Sec&
retary has issued also paper "postage
currency in sums as low as five cents,
limited in amount only by his discretion.
Nay, more: already since the 4th of july
1861, this House has appropriated S2,O17-
964 600, almost every dollar without
debate, and without a recorded vote. A
thousand millions have been expended
since the 18th of April, 1861; and a
public debt or liability of 81 100000 900
already incurred. And to support all
this stupendous outlay and Indebtedness,
system Of taxation, direct and indirect.
has been inaugurated, the most onerous
and unjust ever imposed upon any but q
conquered people,
Money and credit, then, you have had
in prodigal profusion. And we're men
wanted! More than million rushed to
arms! Seventy five thousand first, (aud
the country stood aghast at the multitude
then eighty three thousand more were
demanded F.; and three hundred and ten
thousand responded to the call. The
President next asked for four hundred
thousand, and, Congress, in its generous
confidence, gave him five hundred thou
sand ; and, not to be outdone, he took six
hundred and thirty seven thousand Half
OF these melted away in their iii campaign;
and the President demanded three hun.
dred Thousand more for the war, and then
drafted yet another three hundred thou
sand for nine months. The tabled hosts
of Xerxes have been outnumbered. And
yet victory strangely follows the standards
of the foe. From Great Bethel to Vicks.
burg, the battle has not been to the strong.
Yet every disaster, except the last, has
been followed by a call for more troops,
and every time so far they have been
promptly furnished. From the beginning
the war has been conducted like a political
campaign, and it hes been the folly of the.
party in power that they have assumed
that numbers alone would win the field in
contest not with ballots but with musket
and sword. But numbers you have had
almost without number-the largest, best
appointed, best armed, fed, and clad host
of brave men, well organized and well
disciplined, ever marshaled. A NAVY, too.
not the most formidable perhaps, but the
most numerous and gallant, and the costi.
est in the world and agains. foe almost
without navy at all. Thus with twenty
millions of people, and every element of
strength and force at command-power
patronage influence, unanimity, enihusi-
asm, confidence, credit, money, men, an
Army and Navy the largest and the
noblest ever set in the field or ahoat upon
the sea with the support, almost scrvle,
of every State, county, and municipality ia
the North and West; with a Congress
swift to do the bidding of the Executive:
without opposition anywhere at home, and
with an arbitrary p wer which neither tho
Gar of Russia nor the Emperor of Austria
dare exercise; yet after neatly two years
or more vigorous prosocutoin of the war
than ever recorded in history after more
skirmishes, combat, and battles than Alex-
ander, Caesar, or the first Napoleon ever
fought in any five years of their military
career, you have utterly, Signaly, disas.
trously-I will not say gnominou "
failed to subdue ten millions of "rebels"
whom you had taught the people of tho
North and West not only to hate but to
despise. Rebels, did say! Yes, your
fathers were rebels, or your grandfathers.
He who now before me on canvas looks
down so sadly upon US, the false, aegener-
ate, and imbecile guardians of the great
Republic which he founded, was E rebel.
And yet We, Graded ourselves in rebellion
and who have fostercd and fraternized
with every insurrecton in the nincteenth
century every where throug the globe,
would now, forscoth, make the word
"rebel' ceproach. Rebels certainly
they ares but all the persistent and stu.
pendous efforts ofthe most gigantic warfare