Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1864-06-15

ruined-fresides destroyed Father against
son-brother meeting brother in deadly
confct-hundreds of thousands of our
tellOw-citizens, the flower and pride Of the
land, killed and manned for life. This
country then so free, SO peaceful, so pros
porous and SO happy, now, intoxicated
with the blood of her own sors, staggers
and totters to her ruin. At home and
| abroad, everywhere, we hear the walls Of
| woe, we behold the habilaments of mourn
ing, our hearts sicken as we witness the
terrible grief of the mother left childless,
| the widow made desOlate, the orphan left
fatherless by this wicked, cruel, insane,
! inhuman struggle. What good has re
suited, what good can result from all this
misery Are our people more wealthy
| because billions of money have been cX-
pended; are they more prosperous because
hundreds of thousands OF our brave sol
| diers have bitten the dust, Or more happy
because hundreds of thousands of families
have been ruined! Surely, surely, not
Has the cause of human freedom gained
| anything from this bIoodshed and misery!
1t is said hundred thousand negro slaves
| have been freed. Grant it. Five hun
!
| been slaughtered in their behalf; and at
the end of three years the people are coolly
| told the war shall continue until ali the
| slaves are free. But, how stand the in
| stitutions OF our country? Without
cause and without reason, our fellow-cIti-
zens have been illegally arrested, denied a
fair trial by jury of their countrymen,
/ condemned by military tribunals, at the
/ dictation Of the Executive, to exile, or 10
/ bdstilcs and dungeons. from which, in the
! elegant and expressive language Of Secre-
! tary Seward, 9 no power on earth can re-
| lease them save that OF the President
/ The freedom of the press has been tram
| pied under foot, and newspapers have been
suspended and editors imprisoned, without
! trial, for no other cause than that they
| dared to criticise the corruption and tyran-
/ ny of the Administration. The sacred
| right Of asylum has been most grossly
| violated in the person Of Col. ArguelcS,
| who was arrested, and without a hearing,
/ by order Of the President was placed on
board a ship and sent 10 Cuba, there being
no cXtraditiOn treaty for the rendition of
| fu4itivcs from justice between this country
| and Spain, and III his case there was no
evidence that any crime had been com
mitted. The - Monroe Doctrine" which
our people had learned to regard as ear
dinal and vital principle, has been treated
with contempt and upon the ruins of our
sister Republic of Mexico 4 monarchy has
been established by foreign bayonets.
1t has been attempted to drag the white
man down to the degraded level Of the
negro; and the repulsivc doctrine OF ANAL
gamation, under the new and cuphonious
name OF miscegenation, has been publicly
and unblushingly advocated. And to
! crown ali, the operation of the great writ
of IIabcus C01puS has been suspended;
and any petty Provost Marshal, With
! cause or without cause, upon oath or
without oath, may arrest and consign to
IA bastile any citizen who may happen to
/ offend his official majesty. That great
/ writ of liberty never was intended to, and
! did not, screen the guilty, but was intcn-
ded for the protection OF, and did protect
the innocent. Under lis benign influences
no guilty culprit escaped-no innocent
victim could long suffer 1t is the en-
| bodiment of our iberties-the only pro-
lection of our rights; without it our Con-
stitution is cheat, our form of govern
ment a lie, our boasted freedom a bubble,
| a dream, wild fancy without substance
{ or reality. And all this is the conside-
ration we receive for the loss of our
! fathers. brothers and sons the destruction
OF, our liberties IS the price pad .to, our
! blood. This Government was made for
| the protection of human liberty for that
the hardships, privations and suffering of
seven long years of the Revolutionary
struggle were cheerfully endured; and
when that protection fails, when freedom
| has become a mere subject for a vulgar
| Presidents smutty jokc-l plaything in
the hands OF childish Secretary of State
"a football to be kicked round by
| Secretary of War, who is as tyrannical as
/ incompetent, it behooves all true patriots
! irrespective Of party, nationality, or reIi-
gion to rally as one man round the broken
and shattered columns of the Constitution,
gather up the fragments, re-erect the
grand old monument and cement it with
the blood of the patriot martyrs WHO have
died in its defense, that it may forever
stand as mighty bulwark between free
dom and slavery, the Oppressor and the
oppressed, the despot and the citizen
When that is done, then indeed may we
soon expect an honorable and lasting
peace.
Our foes are as cunning and willy as
they are unprincipled. To perpetuate the
despotism which they have inaugurated
no means, however dishonorable, viii be
spared. Many of them are held by secret
leagues and oath bound associations !;
money without stint will be used and
frauds without number will be attempted.
But let us to work, and at once. Orga-
! -,