The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1864-06-24
BEDFORD, Pa, FRIDAY MORNING, JUNE "a, 1864

country, and when the idea OF disruption OF
the Union was secuted alike by the Northern
and the Southern leaders of that long dominant
party, he did not hesitate to proclaim that sep
aration was preferable to the continuance of
slavery. Long after the outbreak of the war
he confessed that for nineteen years he had been
a disunionist and a Secessionist. His sole gov
erning idea has been the scandal, the wrong,
the horror, the iniquity Of slavery, for the des-
truction of which he would cheerfully have sac
riticed the integrity of the Republic, and con-
sented to split the country into heptarchy.
Yet as soon as his party came into power
he-so cool, so steadfast, and SO Gberal-was
carried away by the madness OF his countrymen
clamored for the restoration Of the Union which
he had denounced and despised as rotten and
unnatural, and spoke and acted as if the pres
crvation of the freedom of the North were not
worth 4 thought Events, however, have
wrought change in his mind.-The preacher
of war has suddenly becomethe apostle of peace
The philanthropy in which he was nurtured
has reasserted It's power to govern his conscience
He has gone back to his first love he has re-
membered, 1t win not DO to say he has discov-
cred, that the liberty of the white man is worth
something, not only to the white man himself,
but to the cause Of civilization He has recau-
ted his errors and has become as nearly states
man as Festus was Christian. In a speech
delivered on Tuesday last at the Church of the
Puritans, on occasion Of the lst annil ersary
Of the American Anti-Slavery Society, he a.
vowed opinions which place him in the same
rank with Mr.. Fallandigham, Mr.. Fernando
Wood, Benjamin Wood, AIr. Long and Mr.
Harris, and every other man in the country
who believes that the war can neither restore
the Union nor preserve liberty, and in full sym
pathy with the impartial public opinion of Eng
land and France, and of all Europe, which saw
from the first what he only sees in this day of
awful conflict. He mournfully confessed that
the youngest American would not live to see
restoration Of the Republic Of his torefathers; /;
that if peace came, OF which he saw no pros
pect, what ever Grant might do, 100000 men
would be thrown upon the community, untitled
for the ordinary avocations of life, and there
fore standing menace and danger to the pub
lie liberty that for half century no one but
a soldier would have a chance of the Presiden-
cy ; that the right arm of every man in the
country, and of every male child that was here
after to be born into it, was and would be mort
gagged TO pay the interest on the debt.
Mr.. Phillips confessed his shame and humii-
alton at the thought that twenty millions of
white people in the North had gone down on
their knees and implored the assistance of black
men and slaves for the work of conquering halt
the number of white men in the South Ii
might be thought that Mr.. Philips, entertaining
such sentiments as these, is ready to do now
what NIessrs. Lincoln, Seward, Greeley, Ever
EFT, and others, were ready TO do in 1860-et
the South depart, without further hindrance,
recognize It's independence, and advise his coun.
| trymen to do the same. But no word to that
effect is to be found in his remarkable speech
He compared North and South to an eagle and
fish chained to each other. The eagle could
not live in the water; nor the fish in the air
and one OF the two had to die in order that the
other might live But why, it might be asked
should either die? Cannot each return to It's
own element by the severance of the chain thai
connects them? Mr.. Philips meant as much
but seems to have lacked the courage to say so
But, having gone 50 far he will some day OF
other be obliged to 60 further. 1t is well thai
he should feel shame and humiliation.
1t will be better that he feel repentance He
the inciter Of mems passions he, the trumpetel
of discord he, the preacher Of philanthropy
of which the means are blood and misery, and
carnage Of horror to which history offers few
parallels, though the end, far off, may once
have seemed to his mind to Justify them ALL
owes it not only to his conscience, but to the
multitudes of men whom his teachings have
goadcd into war, to declare his error, and to
lend his fluent tongue and his clear brain to that
blessed cause Of peace which in this evil hour
needs every voice to pray for it, and most of ALL
the voices Of those to whom God has given :he
power to sway the convictions Of others. Mr..
Philips may affect to think even now that ii
were better that the whole Southern people
should be extermnated than that slavery should
not be destroyed or the Union not re-establish-
ed but such merciless logic cannot really gov
| ern his conduct, if sanity be left to him. His
speech was for peace, as far as it went; and,
coming from Il man of his character, it was a
| sign OF the times. Reason has long been silent
in the councils of the North. 1t is of good
augury that It's voice begins to be heard above
the din even of this awful week, and that the
men of thought are learning to take counsel OF
their conscience, instead of their passions, and
daring once again to tell the people unpalatable
truths.