The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1864-09-09
man should be able to misunderstood them, un-

1 niah pnouiu DC aolS TO InlSunQefS[anQ them, un
less wilfuIly.
once for all, ther, the great end and object {
the Democratic party, in this struggle, is thu
yindlcatlon of the rights and liberties of on
own people, and the re-establishment of repub
llcan institutions among ourselves, under con
stitutonal government and honest rulers t
| this great ccnsummation all other things tend
and everything else is merely tributary. Th
system OF government which oar fathers gave
US, lad for its chief, great end, the liberty o
the citizen. All the constitutional forms whieE
1t provided were but auxiliary to this. Th
Union itself was devised but as a means of for
tltyihg individual freedoR, by building aronnC
1t the bulwarks of national independence anc
power. The freedom and security, then, of tht
citizen, are what the Democratic party is now
fighting for Without law and Constitution
neither freedom nor security can exist, and the
Democratic party, therefore, is fighting for Con.
stitution and law. The corrupt and bloody dy-
nasty which it is laboring to overturn, has tram
pied down the laws and laughed the Constitu-
| tidn to scorn The Democratic party. there.
lore, rs the sworn enemy of the profigate usur-
pers at v ashington, and, In the name of repub-
llcan liberty, has summoned the people to cast
them out.
1le question, then, in the canvass which is
opening, is not merely between peace and war,
but between military despotism and constitution
al right The Democratic party is the herald
and champion of peace-not because it sympa-
thlses with rebellion, but because il is on the
side OF its own birthright. 1t is against the
further prosecution of an iniquitous and bloody
War--not merely because it leans to humanity
and dYiilzation; not merely because 1t sees, in
the mad policy Of State coercion, violation of
the spirit and faith of the compact and a wick
ed tntaify and crime; but because it feels and
knows that a military organization which can
crush the South, will be too strong for the free
dom Of the North II has already felt the iron
hand Of military despotism. Its presses have
been silenced by armed force. Its best citizens
have been dragged from dungeon to dungeon,
or eXlled from home and country, for no crime
but their opinions. The ballot box has been
leheed around by bayonets, and the right of suf-
lfage has been made soldiers mockery State
legislatures have been suppressed, and State
rights turned INTO jest To combine and organ
lze as party, under the shield of the law and
the guarantees of the Constitution, is to "con-
sPlre TO purchase arms for self protection, to
speech has become sdsloyalty'- thought
is ''moral treason" Military commissions have
superseded trial by jury, and military arrogance
has set Judicial process at defiance. The Pres
ident's mere order has been made, by act of
Congress, a fiat bar TO prosecution for every
crime, and to all civil remedy for every outrage
committed under it. There is no home sacred,
no sex secure, 80 age respected, no right invlo-
late. Aggressions multiply, every day, with IN
creasing insolence and aggravation. While the
war lasts, they will go on multiplying, for the
necessities Of war are their sole pretext. Peace,
then, is their only cure, and our only salvation
It is for this that the Democracy covet peace,
and will spare no honorable or manly effort 10
secure it. They are not willing TO become en-
slaved themselves, in the vain and iniquitous
attempt to compel ''the abandonment of slave
ry," elsewhere. They will not consent that the
red hand of conscription shall be on their throat
under pretense of throttling the rebels. They
will not surrender their own liberties for the
unholy purpose of subiugating or exterminating
people, but yesterday their brethren.
These, then, are the issues To the South
the Administration proposes that its people shall
live with us on our terms, or die. To the peo-
pie Of the North, it declares that they shall a.
banaon their own freedom, TO trampe the South
into submission or annlhiatiOn. The Demo
cratic party will submit to neither alternative
1t will be neither savage nor serf. Its policy
towards the South will be guided by justice and
humanity, and will be developed in due time
but lis present concern is the salvation of the
North. Its present battle is one of selfpreser-
vation Peace and war, slavery and emanci-
PATTON victories and defeats, all matters of pol
icy and detail it holds as nothing, beside the
great fundamental and absorbing question of
public and private liberty. There it has taken
its stand. and around it, if there be manhood
and virtue left in the people, virtue and man
hood viii rally unto victory,-Age.
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