Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1863-06-24

tnat IL was the act or hlghwayman,
and not of the honest Christian, patri-
otto man.
Let me bring this matter home to your
minds by means of simple illustration.
Three of my neighbors buy a piece of
land costing each of them hundred dol
lars. They go to work to improve the
place and prepare it for cultivation.
They clear away the timber, build fences,
and erect buildings upon the land, and
after three or four years have been en-
ployed in this way, two of the men begin
to find fault with the third say they do
not like the kind of hands he employs to
work on the farm, and they will take the
whole thing entirely out of his hands and
manage it themselves What then could
happen! This third man, who has thus
been summarily and unlawfully dispos-
sessed of his rights, would come into the
temple of justice, and would there make
his plea to a jury composed of twelve of
you, honest men, and he would say to you:
60 helped to clear that farm-I helped
to build the fences and roll the logs and
to prepare the land for cultivation y and
if you twelve jurors did not bring in
verdict restoring that man his just and
lawful rights, you would 60 out of that
courthouse twelve perjured damned souls.
Now, gentlemen, if that is your YER
dict in a case like that, why, upon the
highest principle of honor and concience,
would it not be the same in regard to the
rights of the thirty-four great States Of
this Republic, all equal and sovereign?
You know it would. i do not believe,
therefore, in the justice of that law
which prohibits any portion of the people
from going into the Territories and taking
their property along with them. But
waving all that after that law is passed,
how in the name of reason and common
sense does that help to put down the re-
bellion? We, as Democrats, are willing
to be tried by the standard the Republi
cans have set up, but we wish to put
them to the same test and see if every
thing that they have done has helped "to
put down the rebellion"
The plain truth is that these uni just
laws of which 1 have been speaking, this
one-sided policy of the Administration,
has helped to strengthen the rebellion.
Mr.. Lincoln, in his regular message to
Congress, said that, in his opinion, in all
the Southren States except South Carolina
there was Union majority. Now, if
that was so, was it not plainly the duty
of the Administration to endeavor to
strengthen the hands of the Union men in
| the South, and thus enable them to bring
the erring States back into the Union
again7 The Administration, however,
in its wisdom, saw fit to adopt contrary
line of policy, and what has been the re-
suit? Two years ago, if the Union man
| of the South and the hot-blooded secess-
ionist had happened to meet, they would
i'm all probability have had a lively dis
pute if not serious controversy on the sub
ject of the Union, and the Union man
would have had the chances of success
largely in his favor.
But now let the same argument come
up between the same two men, and the
weapon in the hands of the secessionlsts
would be, d" why, don't you see that this
Administration has done all it possibly
could do take away our rights of prop
erty ?" Two years ago, at the call OF
the President, five hundred thousand men
leapcd up as suddenly as did the clad
warriors on the Scottish hills, rs sung
by the immortal poet; and taking their
lives in their hands, went to the South to
fight, as they supposed, under the Crit
tenden resolution At that time Jeffer-
son Davis commanded an army not ex-
ceedine, at the utmost, three hundred
thousand men, and he had done his best.
Our army went onward toward the South.
and penetrated to the very centre of some
of the cotton States, and how were they
received7 They, themselves, tell us thai
at almost every other house they were
met by a friend and treated in the kind
est possible manner. Why was this
, 1t was because at that time almost every
other man in the South was a Uniol
man. Now all Is changed. The Ad
ministration adopted policy that unite'
the South And, to-day, instead of al
, army of three hundred thousand, at ever,
step we take we are confronted by JEFF
Davis. with an army of more than 81,
hundred thousand men. What do yo'
E think of this policy7 L do not like ii
:. find fault with it because it weakens tn
E arm of my Government
: Now if there is any man in this assem-
> bly who thinks the Democratic party
not right, he should not 60 with tha
!, party: but if there is any man wh
!. thinks that the policy of the Democrac
= y is the best adapted to restore the Unior
then we say it is his duty, as an Amer