Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1865-03-10

TnE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT.
sPEEcm oF Los. a. 4. gIecL.URE.

| ment TO the Constitution We have rarely read q
more thorough, statesnanlike and unansweraBie
argument on this great question.
Il do not err on this vital issue However dis
guised BY professions of loyalty the teachings Of the
! gentleman from Northumberland Mr.. Purdyl and
his political associates aimed to paraIyze the
power Of the Government, and 10 strengthen the
hands of its deadly enemies We were told the waF
was fruitless that it could not be successful; and
faithful men were staggered by the earnest treless
mighty current of poison that flowed from the Dem
ocratic leaders to make the people their own and
their country's foes. I except, I have always
done, the masses of all parties from the terrible i'm
putaton of disloyalty to the Government They
have shown it in every stage Of this conflict They
have defed their political leaders in the darkest
hour OF the nations cause and rushed to its rescue
but they left behind them the quibbing, erayan
traitors who We're too base to defend their natona
ty, and too cowardly to assail it manfally.
Need inquire to whom we are indebted for the
turbulance that has bIotted our history the yari
Gus stages of this struggle for the national exsence
Whence came disorder, contempt of law, and riots
in our own free North2 Who taught the deluded
victims of Democratic leaders to inaugurate anarchy
in the chief city of the Union? Who taught them
that conscription but remorseless tyranny, and
prepared them by persistent, malignant hostility TO
the Government for the appalling scenes which were
witnessed there in 1868? And when they had
but obeyed the inevitable conviction of Democratic
teachings and ran riot in arson, murder, and
anarchy for days, who greeted them as friends
and begged for peace, not to vndicate the violated
laws, or to save an imperilled Government, but to
save themselves from the swift retrbution they saw
in the bitter cup they had prepared for others. The
leaders had not the manhood to declare in favor Of
slavery and treason, but, ike the gentleman from
Northumberland Mr.. Purdy), they poured steady
current of treason the deadly because il went
forth in the thin guise Of devotion to the Union.
Well did they obey the behests of slavery, and they
gave rich fruits wherewith to gladden. despairing
traitors
And who in our own State have taught lawless-
ness to defeat the Strengthening of our armies and
protract the was for fresh sacrifices Of blood and
treasure? Whence has come disorder here? Not
from Allegheny, OF Chester, or Lancaster. Phila
delphia, but from the sections where Democracy
could boast of its greatest supremacy. Whence
came this treason? Ii was not inherent With the
people. They are as loyal now as they were in
1851. Who, then, by tireIess arts and persuasion,
snd sf foes % the government aud aR? ?s saa
men. clad in their country's blue, march from the
border when the cannon of Early Numbered on the
Potomac-not to make the victory Of Sheridan more
decisive bat to enforce the laws and preserve order
in our own then threatened Commonwealth. While
treason aaunted It's bloody banner on the very bor
der of our State Democracy, It's faithful ally was
attempting revolution in the strongholds OF It's lead
ers to cheer the hearts and strengthen the arms OF
those who came to thrust the torch of the barbarian
and DIV the trade of the freebooter in our happy
homes and make our golden fields desolate By their
brutal tread These are but the currents whichtiow
from the deadly fountain of treason, and whererses
its pesferoes head to course its way to every ham
let in the land and leave fatal impress upon man
kindl Who gave thus fountain of treason life and
mower to threaten nations noblest struggle with
/ disaster? Behold the men who, at every stage OF
/ the war. have resisted every measure essential to
success. They declared treason to mighty Tor tle
Government to suppress. They appealed TO the
sordid to arrest staggering taxes and DEBT oy ae
manding peace, when we'll they knew that peace m
| yolyed dismemberment and death. they plead
their unholy cause to the fears Of the cowardy, and
impored them to avoid the peris of the field by re-
sisting conseription, and impair the power Of the
4 Government by laslesaness. They aroused the
preiudices of the humble by pointing to the degrada
ton of negro equality, and even men plnmed as
popular leaders seemed TO fear that they were 50
noorly endowed that the benighted African might
outstrip them in the race of ambition. They appeal
ed to every prejudice of the feeble the yenal the
athless to array them against the free institutions
whose benefeence gave them every social civil and
religious right. But the people, although at times
falterine as the dark shadows of disaster eRyeoped
the nation, were still faithful TO ther government.
Like the disturbed and oscllatng needle that evei
settles to the pole they would rise from the cloud
Of perdy that beset them and give their hearts ane
sacrifices to preserve the Republic Of our fathers.
One hope remained for Democracy and slavery
They turned to The court Of last resort of Penpsy
yania. and. in the name Of Democracy, demanded
that the only means by which our armies could o
filed and enabled to triumph shond be set aside a;
an infraction Of the sovereignty of the State,
/, therefore void They hoped that the people woulC
be glad grasp this pretex to turn upon themselves
1 their country, their children, and their God.
was the task of despair, but il was performed, ans
the right of this Government to defend It's life whei
treason was fastened upon il with deadly strire- a
! with hooks Of triple steel, was grayey denied BY tn
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Then did treason
the twinborn of slavery, triumph in our midst, an'
7 compassed the judiciary last refuge Of the peo
ple-in its Shiny embrace. But il aroused the peo
. pie 70 mighty struggle. Impelled by the despot
ism of treasou-which mocked them in their peril
+ Ito the moral heroism which ever strengthen
right in its midnight Of gloom, they reversed hei
court by the decision of the ballotbox, from whicl
there is no appeal, and thank a just and mercifu
God that the court, the State, aud the nation, lived
and lived loyalty [Applause
This record Of unningled wrong and treaehery
the history Of the party whose representatives tC
day will cast their votes against the ratification
the proposed amendment to the Constitution.