Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1865-05-25
gradford geporter.
Towanda, Thursday, May 25, 1865
THE LESSON AND THE DUTY OF THE HOUR.


THE LESSON AND THE DUTY THE HOUR.
1t is the part of wisdom to learn from
experience, and the duty Of all to bow sub
missively to the infections of Providence.
These appear generally to be designed for
our good and often, in the midst of tears
we are allowed to see whereby affiiction
profteth us, making joy of our sorrow.
Accepting therefore, the terrible death of
our beloved, and lamented President as
designed for the nations good, we propose
to make an application. As we understand
the nations condition, and necessities, any
man in it could have been better spared
than ABRAHAM LINCOLN, ane this seems to
be the judgment of the whole people and
if it had been asked, at any time since the
4th Of March last, whose sudden death
would cause the greatest alarm, and the
deepest lamentation in the land, the undi-
vided answer would have been, ABRAHAM
LINCOLN yet, with all this unanimity of
sentiment on this head, it is meet that he
should go hence 1t will hardly be conten-
ded that his own fame required his death,
for He "who doeth all things WE'LL" could
as easily have preserved the one as the
other and it is equally out of the range
of probability, that either his life or his
fame were paramount to the interests of
this whole nation But the most reason
able suppOsition is, that the cause of free
dom required this great sacrifice, as it re-
quired many others
A retrospective glance at some of the
more prominent events of the first years of
the war, may be instructive, and may throw
light on our present peculiar surroundings.
The first battle of Bull RIM was a fear
full blow to the Northern States All then
saw that disaster to our arms must prOlong
the war year, if not for years and, as a
sequence, the national heart was filled with
gloomy forbodings But in the renewed eff
forts called forth to prepare further for the
| contest, new hope sprang up, and our first
discontinue was measurably forgotten in
the promise we had in the future Great
preparations were made, and unbounded
hopes were excited by McClellan's vast as
surances of certain triumph. He declared
that such an army as he had the South
could not resist, and we all believed him.
What else could we do He was our Cen
eral, and therefore, it was presumed he
knew and he was said to be a second Ma
poleon Then how could we help believing
him? Besides too, we wanted it to be as
he said-poor blind mortals-an additional
motive for trust.
But this great army, and greater general,
and all the accompanying bright hopes,
came to naught. Crippled and broken, we
were driven from before Richmond, and the
second humiliation was greater than the
first Then followed close on its heels the
second Bull Run defeat, more disgraceful,
and more discouraging than all the rest,
because brought about by the treachery OF
some of our generals Besides these, We
had, as intermediate comforts, as CHASTITY
interludes to our depressed spirits, and be-
wildered vision, such massacres of our
poor soldiers as took place at Great Bethel,
at Balls Bluff, and Boedleis Mill &c, to
reflect over When all these things came
upon us, as they did during the two first
years of the war, our hearts nearly sank
within u.s. All was gloom and dispondency:
and whilst these disasters, in a measure,
discouraged us, they did not defeat US, nor
was this their design. We were to be
schooled by them for greater duty, and
much greater reaizations than the most
sangune amongst us had dreamed of But
this was not their only purpose, and per-
haps the least part of them. 1t now seems
manifest that the success of the rebels in
the early part of the struggle, were ne
cessary to lead them into the full, and dis
tinctive exhaustion, which has since fol-
lowed, and without this exhapstion, our vic
tories would not have been so complete,
and Gods purpose not so we'll worked out
For who does not see, that if we had been
successful at Bull Run, on the James Pc
ninsula, at fredericksburg, and Chancellor
vile, that the rebels would have had to
succumb and if they had yielded then,
their darling institution would have been
saved, and they could now be back again
in the Union with all their insolence, quar-
relsomness and bravado-perhaps been in
power again to-day. Then our work would
not only have been unfinished, but our i'm
mense losses, our sons, our brGthera, our
fathers, and our load of debt, would have
been an entire sacrifice. No grin could be
counted on our side. Now, however, it is
different, we have great losses, but also
great gains and this is owing to our de-
feats, and to rebel successes in the beginn-
ming. 1t now appears, what was not so
clear at first, that by this rebellion the Al
mighty designed to free the blacks, to rid
this nation of the curse of slavery, the
darkest, the foulest blot that ever stained
the escutcheon of any Nation. All the
signs we see point in this direction. All
the visible indications have been bearing,
Il.