Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1864-08-26
The Road to Lasting Peace.


The most hopeful sign of the time IS the strong
devotion Of the people Of the loyal States to the
preservation ahdrestoration Of the American Union
Whatever may be said on other subjects, onj this
there is extraordinary harmony That there are
party leaders who would purchase peace by separa-
ton, no one can successfully deny but even they
must now perceive that the cheapest way to close
the war is to restore the old condition of things.
with the exception of re-enslayng the people made
forever free by Congress and by two three Of the
Southern States And this last fact is patent and
clear that the rebels themselves must sooner or later
confess and surrender before it. We think there is
not a statesman in the Southern States from Jefer-
son Davis down. who does not realize the utter i'm
possibility Of the South existing as a common Con-
federacy at the end of the war assuming peace upon
the basis of separation be among the possibilities
That the North, with its antislayery element, and
its increasing intelligence and It's ten thousand argu-
ments for unity. would hold together, seems TO our
minds as indisputable as that the day follows the
night and the night the day But in the South there
can hereafter be rest and no peace save in the
generous and forgiving bosom of the Union. God
in His providence seems to have ordained that which
is to end the war, and to give endless peace IS
the profound loge Of our people Of the Union, and
the manifest inpossibility of establishing any other
Government on this part Of the American continent,
bat one that is based upon the principles that com
prise our existing system. Assuming it, therefore,
as a fact admitted that there can be no dissolution
of the American Union, either as q condition or Incl
dent of peace, aedy then, shall not hare peace7-
Andit is this inquiry that we propose to meet
Everybody is anxious, nay, eager, that this war
should cease. The only question is, how to begin
the consideration of this momentous problem. The
frst if not the only obstacles is that Of Slavery
And here we meet the sternest opposition of the reb-
els, but not the Southern people. They have long
ago realized that but for slavery there would have
been no war, and that the slave once made free can
never again be put in chains. More than this
They are finally brought to contemplate the supen-
doas truth that the coored man viii work better, if
paid by his employer, than if whipped or indulged
BY his These are propositions still contested
and doubted, but so clear of solution that very few
years win fix and fasten them among the facts Of
history. But the question remains, what is to be
done with slavery or what's left Of slavery? for it
must not be forgotten that many Of our very best pa
triots sturdily contend that Mr. Lincoln procama-
ton Of emancipation has not set free all the slaves
Of the South. twas Congress that did the great
work here in the District and the people did II in
West Virginia, Missouri and Maryland. It was the
army, ints conquering advance that did il in other
quarters, By attracting to its support or being forced
to maintain thousands of human beings deserted by
their fTing masters and il was the further policy