Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1865-08-11
Letting Alone.


Letting Alone.
A familiar cry is heard from the unor-
ganlzed States 1t comes from oratore aud
papers which have been heard before,
Just let US alone That is all we want. As
for the negroes, we know them better than
anybody else, and we must be permitted to
manage them.
Except for the seriousness of the situation
there would be something exquisitely hui
morous in this grave wasssrtlna 1t il ex.
actly what we have heard for the last twenty
years When it was perfectly evident that
the spirit and policy of slavery were endan-
gering the welfare of the country, firm and
vigorous protest was raised by sagaciovS citi-
zens who did not mean to connFe, under any
pretense whatever, at the national ruin,
Then came the answering shout from the
party Of slavery Let us alone. Ii is our
affair. We know the negroes and under
stand how to manage them. Let US alone.
And many honest minds were deceived by
the appeal.
Then came secession. Themen who had
cried so Justify, Let us alone, while they
were plotting, cried still more solamnly,
Let US alone,, when they were ready to
| consummate the crime Their armed effort
has been aboTtiye but bloody 1t is neces-
sary for them to reeur again to arts and in
trigues, and so we hear the same old cry,
Let us alone Let us alone. And who
echo this cry? Those who, in 1860. said
that the Government had no right to main
tain itself by arms. Those who, in 1861,
said that the war was really occasioned by
the loyal States, and that the Government
ought to compromise with treason and CON
ciliate rebellion. Those who, in 1862, said
that our erring sisters should be allowed to
depart In peace Those who, In 1863, stinl-
Mated a counterrevolntion, Those who, in
1864, went to Chicago and declared the war
failure. Those who, at the end of 1864,
were politically annihilated BY the American
people at the polls.
What is the object of the cry? The over
throw of the Administration and the policy
which directed the war, and the return to
power of that alliance of Southern leaders
and Northern followers which brought on
the war That alliance, we are told, seclIr-
ed peace to the country Yes, il secured
peace at the price Of national honor, aud by
delaying a struggle which delay embittered
a thousand-fold. 1t secured peace as man
secures solyency by paying fifty per cent, a
day for the money he borrows 1t secured
peace as he does who puts his nose into the
fingers Of bully and obsequiously succumhs
to his kicks. And when the peace was bro
ken, who broke it? When war began, who
began it2 Who justified those who began
iR Who hoped and worked for their success
Those who now tell US that while they had
the power they kept the peace Those who,
we know, when they lost the power broke
the peace. They gave the country peace as
| highwayman gives his victim life, on con
dition of obedience. Just give us power
again, fellow-citizens, they cry, and YOU
will see how we will keep the peace Their
| fellow-citizens have already seem Enough
is as good as feast.
The late rebels say that they know the
negroes a great deal better than anybody
else. How have they proved it2 BY en-
| slaying them with unparalled barbarity
| BY outraging every human right and feel
| ing. by so treating them that, when the
war came, every one of the people they
knew so well instinctively tprned against
/ them, and hailed the enemies of their mas
/ ters as, for that reason, their own best
| friends. A society which is so ignorant of
human nature, of history, of divine justice,
and OF the laws of political economy, as to
| suppose it can treat half of its members as
brutes, without danger to the general welfare
when It's foolish assumption has ended in its
/ ONil blNp0 anu lMtig GulEIt db IGttSb dtittl
modesty Of opinion, if il does not feel it.
There was never class in the world which
| knew so little of arother as the slaveholdinr
class at the South knows of the slaves. Its
! Ignorance has cost US a civil war; but it has
also fortunately apprised US that such igno-
rance is mortal peril
! And what are the late slavehelding class
now doing to show US how perfectly they
understand the negroes? The Southern
States are paralyzed They can be reinvigo-
rated only by labor The negroes are the
laboring population. They are native to the
soil and the climate, and they are free
Common sense indicates the only policy.
| The inevitable facts of the case should be
| cordially accepted. Liberal wages should
be paidi honest contracts made; Just meas
ures adopted TO provide education and equal
rights for the lu0st substantial part Of the
population. La word, the public pros
/ perlty should be secured and public peril
avoided by the simplest and most obvious
/ equity But, instead of this. farmers are
| offering hye dollars a month to feemen who,
as slaves, could hire themselves and make
| htteen dollars month White people are
| gravely enactlng that colored people shall
not testify shall not control then own chill
dren; shall not bear arms: shall not vote;
and are surrounding them with disabilities
for which there would seem to be no legal
redress. And all the while, the class at the
South which has made educating slaves a
crime, protests against the fearful ignorance
OF the colored people; and those who have
disgraeed labor and degraded the laborcr,
and have themselves never lifted finger to
work, now complain that the negro is a
dreadfully lazy fellow, and will work only
upon compulsion.
In truth, the classwhich wished to be s'let
alone" in its assault upon the Union and
Government, unchanged aud unsubdned,
now wishes to be let alone to reorganizc
itself upon its obsolete, inhuman and dan
gerous prejudices and passions. 1t hates
| the Union: III hates frne lnhnr and frna 50.