North Branch democrat. [volume] (Tunkhannock, Pa.) 1854-1867, 1864-04-13
VOL. 8, NO.. IS


Each one Of The twenty million of people
within the control Of the United States holds
his or her tenure to personal libsrty-ths
right to walk the green earth, to breathe the
air, and look at the sun-not by virtue Of .
free Constitution, but depend upon the elem.
ency and pleasure Of ond man. May I mot
be arrested to might2 May not you or any
one else tomorrow? Has it not been doue In
more than D thousand instances, and have
not the COURTS ane the laws been powsrlsss
to savel While am now speaking, may NOT
some minon who icks the hand Of power
and whom it would honor to call n slave, ke
preparing notes from which to testify against
me before a military commission7 Have no
in the West forgotten Burnside, and the in.
fanny of his reign in our mids2 Will the in.
habtants of the Western Circuit in Eng
| land ever forget the monster Jeffries and the
murder of Alice Lisle2 Will some Door
crawling, despised sycophant and tool of Rx.
ecutive despotism dare to say that shalt
| not pronounce the name of Failandigham2-
TIE scandal and stigma of his condemnation
and banishment have filed the civilized
world; and the Lethean and oblivious waves
Of a Thousand years will not wash away the
shame and the reproach of that miserable
scene from the American NAME. Some MEM
bcrs On the osher side Of this chamber have
attacked with fierce cfamor the great Ameri.
can statesmen and the Christian gentleman
who suffers his exile in the cause of liberty
ON foreign suil. So the basest cur that
ever kenneled may bay, at the bidding of
his master, the Gagged lion in the distance
Pr"tract this iniquty, this crime, as long 90
you Will, however, the Judgment of history
Will at last oyerwiIelm you with an unsuffers!
BILE odium, as certainly as the streams of
truth emanates from beneath the great white
throne of God. Establish justice 7" Obi
bitter mockery. Justice has been dethroued
and the blessings of liberty annihilated.--
There is not one square mile of tree soil i'm
the American Republic. 1t is slave terrir O.
ry from the AristOok to the Columbis,-
Every man IN all that vast expanse may bs
reduced in an instant to hopeless bondage
every home may be broken open and pilla-
ged, every dollars worth of property may Do
swept INTO that vawnng and bottomless gulf
the National Treasury; and all under the
sanction OF the principles and practices daily
e1empl'fed by the Administration which
now hurls us on to ruin.
But the domestic tranquility" has il been
insured? When the present party came in to
power the road to an honorable peace on
the basis Of the Union was still open. Be-
fore the Inauguration Of Mr.. Lincoln his;
friends and supporters held the issues Of
life and death, peace and war in their handa
in this capitol. The records Of the last ses.
sion of the 36th Ctngress are Immortal
They cannot Perish and as the woes and
calarn'ties of The people thicken and magnify
by the frghtful war in which we are eneae-
ed, they increase in value to gostefty more
rapidly than the leaves of the syblline book.
The bal=ful brood Of political dest fuctionists
who now unhappily possess the high seats Of
nationll authority did not then want public
tranquility. They invoked the storm which
has since rained blood upon the land. They
courted the whirlwind which has prostrated
the progress Of century in ruins. They
danced with hellish gee around the bub-
bling cauldron of civil war and welcomed
with ferocious joy every hurtful mischief
which fi!ckered in Its lurid and Internal
flames Compromise, which has it's origin
in the love and mercy of God; which made
peace and ratified the treaty on Calvary be-
tween Heaven and the revolted and rebell-
i"us earth; which is the fundamental basis Of
all human ass, citation, and by which all gov
ernments the world ever knew have becn
created and upheld compromise, which fools
pronounce a treas Jnab!e word, and skillful
knaves cover with reproach, because they are
enrichng themselves at the expense of the
national sorrow and blood, was discarded bv
the North and accepted by the South when
offered by Mr.. Criltenden. By it domestic
could have been ensured. But
an Interior and destructive spirit ruled the
hour and flooded the nation with misery
And since the breaking up of the fountains
of the great deep, who of this party have la-
bored to tranqullze our disordered affairs =
Who has endeavored. IN the name OF Christ
and by the omnipotent power of the princi-
plies which he left his fathers throne to pro.
claim and for which he drank the worm. wood
and the gall ON the cross, to expel the cruel
and feroclous demon of civil war that has,
huwled so fercely for the last three wears
among the tombs of our young and heroic
dead ? Not one, sir not one. Wise and
Christian measures looking to reconciliation
aud peace and union. have been repeatedly
spurned by the Executive and this legislative
department WI ich he holds in duress. At
no distant day, when the horror of this war
can NO longer be borne, the various PROPOSE
tonS which have been made and rejected in
behalf of enlightened negotiation and consti.
tutiona' restoration will be gathered up aud
hurled at those in power rs an accusation
more appalling, an Indictment more damninS
than was ever leveled against murderer up
on hi trial. Nor can they, in that hour Of
their fear and calamity, at which the right
eous world will laugh and mock hide their
guilty heads under the assertion that the
South will not treat for peace yes, peace
which shall restore the knion under the Con-
stItution as it was written by the fathers,
and as it has been interpreted by the So
preme judicial tribunals. Why came that
wasted figure, that gifted child of genius,
the pure and elevated Stephens, of Georgia,
from Richmond on his way to this Capitol
IN the midsummer of 1862 Was it tri-
fling cause that moved him 2 All the
world knows chat his Judgment and his heart
ciung fndly ard to the last TO the old Gov
erument, IN whose counsils he had wor 90
much honor. 1t is equally well kRowR that
he has never embraced the ,aicidal doctrine
Of State secession. The right Of revolution
is the ground upon which he stands. Tie
maligs lant portion OF the Southern press, too