Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1865-09-08
miscellaneous.
LETTING ALONE.

A familiar cry is heard from the unorgan-
lied States. 1t comes from orators and pa
pers which have been heard before. "Just
let US alone. That is all we want. As for
the negroes, we know them better than any
body else, and we must be permitted to
manage them.
Except for the seriousness of the situation
there would be something exquisitely hu-
ly 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, a firm and
vigorous protest was raised by sagacious cit
izens who did not mean to connive, under
any pretense whatever, at the national ruin.
Then came the answering shout from the
party of slavery Let us alone. 1t is oul
affair. We know the negroes and under
! stand how TO manage them. Let us alone. 5"
And many honest minds were deceived by
the appeal
Then came secession. The men who had
cried SO Justify, Let us alone, while they
were plotting, cried still more solemnly,
Let us alone, when they were ready to
consummate the crime. Their armed effort
has been abortive but bloody 1t is neces-
sary for them to recur again to arts and in
trigues, and so we hear the same old cry,s
Let us alone.
And who echo this cry2 Those who, in
1860, said that the Government had no right
to maintain itself by arms. Those who, in
1861, said that the war was really OCCASION
ed by the loyal States, and that the Govern
ment ought to compromise with treason and
conciliate rebellion Those who, In 1862.
said that our erring sisters should be allowed
to depart in peace. Those who, in 1868,
stimulated a counter revolution. Those
who, in 1864, went to Chicago and declared
the war failure Those who, at the end
of 1864, we're 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, secured
peace to the country. Yes, it secured peace
at the price of national honor, and by delay
ing struggle which delay embittered a
thousand fold. 1t secures peace as a man
secures solvency 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 succumbs
| to his kicks, And when the peace was bro
KEN who broke it2 When war began, who
began it? Who hoped and worked for
their SUGGEST Those who now tel 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 condition 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
seen. Enough is as good as feast
The late rebels say that they know the ne
groes great deal better than anybody else
How have they proved il? BY enslaving
them with unparalleled barbarity. By out
raging every human right and feeling. By
so treating them that when the war came,
every one of the people they knew so we'll
instinctively turned against them and hailed
the enemies Of their masters as, for that rea-
son, their own and 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 1t can treat
half of its members as brutes, without dan
ger to the general welfare, when its foolish
assumption has ended in its own blood and
ruin, might at least affect modesty OF opin-
ion, if it does not feel it. There was never
class in the world which knew so little Of
another as the slave holding class at the
South knows of the slaves. Its ignorance
has cost us civil war; but it has also fortu-
nately apErised rs that suck ignorance is a
mortal peril
And what are the late slayeholding class
now doing to show us how perfectly they un7
derstand the negroes? The Southern States
are paralyzed. They can be reinyigorated
only hy labor. The negroesare the Iaboring
population. They are native to the soil and
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 paid /; honest con
tracts made just measures adopted TO pro
vide education aud equal rights for the most