Columbia Democrat and Bloomsburg general advertiser. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1850-1866, 1865-09-16

burn the buildings ol them luaJ were
drafted and them that resisted--no oppo-
sition was made or resistance offered to
the soldiers when they came up.
Heard the report as 10 the objects
of the soldiers day or three or four be.
fore this | Rantzl mceting-I heard after
wards that the object was because they
heard the soldiers were going TO burn and
destroy and this was after the soldiers
came up"
Edward MclIonry, also witness for
the administration swears -
II heard some talking at the Rantz
meetingl that the soldiers were going to
burn buildings, destroying women and
children"
That is the testimony of the admins.
tration, and it explains why the Rantz
meeting was held. Aud when the soldiers
came up, no citizen of the county harmed
or threatened to harm one of them. No
resistance was offered to them, nor to any
person in the discharge Of his proper du-
ties. The people fed them with cakes
and pies, and gave them good whiskcy TO
drink and yet these same mcn tore down
their fences, burned and used up their
boards and lumber, cut down their sugar
trees, dug up their potatoes, stripped of
their roasting ears, fed up their hay, eat
up their chickens, and killed their sheep,
and refused to pay-Thoy did more
They caught young lad in Jackson
township, took him to barn, and hung
him by the neck several times, because he
could not or would not tell where his fa-
ther was. | honor the young man for it.
He would have been recre to his duty
as a son il he had consented to betray
his father. He was finally let off before
life was extinct; but is since dead, as is
believed, from the effects of that hanging
by the soldiers Of he "army Of the Fish
ing Creek"
Such was the treatment the people of
Columbia County received aud the pigs
chickens and sheep were about the only
desertcrs the soldiers caught.
But there was another reason which the
aboltlonists subsequently hunted up to
account for the presence Of those one thous,
an d soldiers. 1t was, that there had been
a lot of Democratic meetings in the county
some time before. 1t was pretended that
they were secret and therefore objections
able and that in the face Of "Know
Nothing Lodgcs,' and Loyal League
Rooms" which the opposition lad been
constantly running Tor years,
On the point Of secrcsy Nathan J. Hess
a witness for the administration, swears
that he attended one that was secret, bu
hat he was not member. Of course i
must have been VCrp secret, when mai
not member could attend and that h,
attendt but one, and that at the hou SC o
Peter kase. He also swears that 1t wal
in June 1868 and all the evidence given
proves the meetings to have ceased ,
year or sixteen months before the arrests
August 81, 1864. And yet every thin.
else failing, g,thcsc little meetings OF twenty
five or thirty persons, assembled in Schoo
1ouses and which, for more than yual
had ceased to be held and which larg
mass OF testimony shows 10 have been en-
tlrely innocent in character, are given al
a reason why thousand armed mel
should invade Columbia County.
Fellow Citizens, no amount Of spccia
pleading can weaken the force of tacs
facts. The statements | have made 10 you
are substantiated by sworn testimony
And the conclusion is irresistible, that tht
military raid into Columbia County wa
for political purpose, aud had DO othe
object whatever. Let US examine th,
facts bearing upon this point little NOR,
fully.
Tho State election was rapidly drawinl
near--lruc, Forty four Democratic voter.
were securely locked up i'll Fort Miflliu--
Gen. Cadwalader had retired from tn,
held after his campaign on the Fishin,
Greek to his quarters in Philadelphia
with all his blushing houors thick upol
him, and some still more plant tool mus
be found to flush up the work, A Colo
mel (now GeneraD Albright was deai G,
10 hunt up something that would be a goot
enough Morgan till after the election.
And then came hard swearing, aud 80
cret meetings, and midnight conferences
and starchamber examinations the
disappointed political aspirants could safe
y wreak their vengeance against Demo
cratic voters, and indulge in those person
al grudges which political partizanshi
had engendered or embittered. Man
days were spent in this unhnllowed wor
all the willing testimony that oflerc
itself was taken in secret citizens wei
arrested and brought into camp, and d,