Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1865-09-22
rnE snLnIERs, VOTE.

THE SOLDIERS VOTE.
Some Of our friends are annoyed when
they occasionally meet a returned soldier who
wiIlnot vote the Republican ticket his own
ticket--but clings in spite of reason to his
old political associates. We cannot expect
the votes of all the soldiers. That would be
requiring too much of poor, weak human ma
ture. Philanthropists and philosophers who
have zealously hbored for the emancipation
,pf their race, are not so sanguine as to i'm
agine that man will leap at one bound from
slavery into the very front rank of intelligent
freemen; nor need we expect that all sol
ders merely by wearing the badge of the
Union viii be transformed from negro hating
democrats into genuine Republicans. 1t
would require longer time, and mightier
war than the last to uproot the prejudices
that have been implanted in the hearts of
men by modern democracy. A man does not
always change his opinions because he wears
the insignia that are supposed to indicate
revolution Of sentiment Prejudice and
servility to party are not so easily overcome
| The tyranny which false democracy SO
long exercised over the minds of the multi
tude, making failure to vote ''the ticket,
the whole ticket and nothing but the ticket,
high crime and misdemeanor, which rarely
failed of its punishment, has not entire y
lost Its sway. There are many yet so COM
| pletely under the thraldom of party that
they would consider themselves guilty of an
objectionable sin if they did not vote the
ticket labeled democratic The Demo-
cratic party was for many years an inexora-
! bic despotism over the minds and conscien-
ces of men, accepting nothing short of a
blind, implicit obedience to It's dictates; until
at last, the people in their Indignation,
hurled it from power. To its discipline and
drill it owed its great success; and to its
despotic spirit is due that intolerant fanati-
cism which has SO long signalized our poIiti-
cal conflicts, employing against the man who
dared act and think for himself all the en-
gines of private and party persecution. 1t
is no cause for wonder then, that there are
yet many who yield unthinking obedience to
its behests
What shall we say of these soldiers who
tamely and submissively, under the orders
of party drill sergeants, march up to the
polls and vote for the very men who sought
to disfranchisc them? Why, only this, that
they do not value the right of suffrage, the
dearest that an American citizen owns, high
enough to resent the fagrant insult, or that
they wished in their hearts the suecessof the
| Copperhead party ,at the very time that party
| denounced, as disgraeeful failure, the war
in which they were imperiliDg their lives
While they were battling for country, up
holding her sacred cause on the very point of
their bayonets, the Copperheads were plot
ting at home to degrade them, and yet from
mere force of habit, or for the causes we
have mentioned, there are some soldiers who
will continue to vote for those who sought
TO infiiet upon them this gross outrage
| That soldier must have hide as thick as
that of the elephant Hannibal who would
not have eagerly resented this political out
rage had it been eonsummated. Those who
1 bOl Su easily Dc pcTUilL-
ted 10 escape the consequence of their acts
the refusal on the part of every soldier to
have any political association with them.
But as we said already, we cannot expect
the vote of all the soldiers. We have heard
of some who wore the collar so meekly that
they went to the polls ana voted to disfran-
chise themselves Party obedience could.go
no further
While there are very few soldiers who
win vote with this Coppcrhead party, we are
rejoiced to know that the great majority of
them are right. The Democratic leaders
know it, and are very industrious just now
in looking up the small number of these who
have returned from the army still calling
themselves Democrats, and who will gra-
ciously and condescendingly consent, out of
pity for cid associates in distress to act as
Vice Presidents and Secretaries of Cop
perhead meeting.