Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1865-01-06
Che geafurd gnqnirer.
BEDFORD. Pa FRIDAY. JAN. s, 1855.
Ise4--Is65.


pendent
'The Old Year goes, the New Year comes now
as ever since the birth ofTime. What hopes are
justified by the promise of the opening year2
Butfrst let US reverently thank God for all His 1
mercies, and specially for those which History viii
identify with 1864 Prominent among these, let
American patriots be grateful
I. For the fortitude and patient courage eyinced
by our people in view of the reverses and losses
with which this year was ushered in, particularly
in the South West, where it had been reasonably
and confidently expected that the Rebellion would
be thoroughly and finally crushed by the combined
operations of Gems. Banks, Steele, and others =
Ample means, it was believed, were provided;
they should have been so welded as to restore to
loyalty all Of our country that hes Westward of
the Mississippi The campaign failed Gen. Banks
was, defeated and driven back with heavy loss yet
the the Loyal Millions, though sorey disappointed,
were not disheartened So also of their expecta-
tion that Lee would be routed and Richmond ta-
ken by Gen. Grant resolute and sanguinary Of
fensiYe operations in Eastern Virginia. The heart
of the Nation beat time to hisadyancng footsteps,
but did not faint nor sink when he was stopped by
the enemy deadly fire from behind impregnable
intrenchments.
IL For the ability vouchsafed to our people TO
maintain the peeuniary solvency of their Govern
ment under every phase of Encouragement and
depression. The bankruptcy of the Treasury
must have been swiftly followed by an ign omini-
Gus end of the War through the proclaimed ina
bility of our Government to persist in it. Yet IN
IL, lo-I- - II,
them have been re1y dark-our National promises
to pay have retained their value and currency and
the ability of our Government to borrow, though
weakened has never been suspended.
III For the wisdom as web as humanity where
with we have been enabled to resist every tempta-
tien to inaugurate-or, rather, to accept-a gener-
al massacre of prisoners as necessary incident of
our struggle against slayeholding treason. 1t has
been the manifest intent of the more malignant
anddesperate Rebels to foreeon us this direaserna
tive. Their massacres of disarmed, pleading, and
even wounded men at Fort Pillow and elsewhere
can have had no other motive. Yet. though in
humanity butchered by the traitors, our soldiers
have not retaliated, and our Government has ney-
er been driven to disregard the more merciful die
tates of the laws of War. We have long held
large excess of Rebel prisoners many of them are
natives and citizens of States incontestably loyal
nearly all their field officers have sworn allegiance
to our Government and been educated at its cost
yet none of these have suffered death at our hands,
save by wounds received in fair conflict May it
so continue to the end
". For the Christian temper and spirit in
which the struggle has on our side been prosecuted
Though the Rebels hate us, we do not hate them
They seek to do us evil; we wish to do them
good. They would gladly give our cities to the
flames and our fields to desolation; we would cast
out the devil that rends them, and see them sitting
clothed and in their right mind. They seek 70
humble and abase us; we lavish our blood and our
substance to make the South the garden for which
Nature evidently designed it, but which Slavery
has hitherto forbidden it to become. Thelunatics
whom we are constrained to bind win yet thank
us for their earthly salvation
V. For the strong delusion which led the OPP
position, by their Representatives convened at
Chicago, to proclaim SO unmistakably their SYM
pathy with the Rebels and their wish for Peace
which should give those Rebels a complete tri-
umph Their speeches might have been brushed
aside as mere ebullitons of individual feeling, but
their Platform was an authenticexpositio of their
real designs. And that Platform was so clearly
unpatriotic that they are constrained to ignore
and evade it from the moment wherein Victory
first unmistakably itradiated the flag of the u
Mon.
VI For the tide Of successes which, commen-
cling with the easy capture of Atlanta, rolled ma
jestically down through the brilliant exploits of
IL,
idan in the Shenandoah Valley, to the grand march
of Sherman through Georgia, and the utter dis
comftures of Hood in Tennessee, leaving the
Unionists masters of every field, with the pros
pect of further triumphs as decisive, at no distant
day.
VII. For the glorious accord of People and Ar
my, citizens and soldiers, evinced in our Presden-
tial Elections; the former giving majority of
Three Hundred Thousand, the latter over One
Hundred Thousand, for Mr.. Lincoln reelection;
the men who are in the field, Drawing every hard
ship and courting death for their countrys sake,
spurning the lures of easy fighting and early peace
made contingent on McClellans success, and vo-
ting three or four to one, for Lincoln and the
War.
Such are some Of the auspices which 1864 has
given to 1865, and which justify our feryent hopes
that the year now opening viii see our country
honorably rescued from the perils which environ
ner, or leave her still nobly confronting them with
dauntless courage and unshrinking purpose. We
ardently hope for an early Peace based on the In
tegrity of our country and the Freedom of all her
People; but if that be still distant, then we hope
for vigorous and resolute prosecution Of the War.
Why More Men are Needed.
The New York Post says: THE question at is