The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1865-08-18
Still They Come!
Another Soldier Gives His Opinion
The Boys in Blue
To their race are true

der whose suferings for the cause in which be
enlisted entitle him to at least respectful hear
ing We will let him tell bis own stoY.
EAST PROVIDENCE TP,
Bedford Co., Pa, Aug. II, 1868. }
EDITOR BEDFORD GAZETTE
/ do not feel like inruding myself upon you,
OF your readers, bat find that unlessl use the
medium of the press, | can accomplish but lit
tie toward bringing about what Is my hearts
first desire, and for which my comrades and
myself took up arms in the war just ended, the
restoration of our country TO peace and perfect
union. | know that my opinions are not enti-
lied to any greater respect than those Of other
citizens, but, if three years service in the army,
during which / was IN twenty one battles,
wounded three different times (Once in the alb
domen so that my bowels gushed out, and
was given up for dead) and twice captured and
thrown into AndersOnyille prison-lf these
things constitute a claim to & patient consider
ton of what intend here to present, then
feel that / am not intrQdiag. am manned for
life, by shot from a sharp shooters rife, and
feel that can no longer fight for nay country,
with sword and musket, and, therefore, / hope
to be excused il / undertake to do it with the
pen.
The war is over--oh how glad the thought
The war is over. The people in arms against
the government have thrown down their wcap-
ons and are asking for pardon of tAeir offence.
They haye failed in their effolts To set up an
independent government, and now they want
again to live with US in peace and harmony
They are wiling to return to the Union and
to give up the idea of Secession forever. Now,
this is what always thought the army Of the
Union was fighting for, and this being accom-
nlished, why should the people ot the South be
treated Ike slaves refused the rights Of citizens
and robbed of their property as well as Of their
political rights Is it right that we should now
try to keep them out Of tie URloH, because they
don't believe that their negroes are intelligent
nough to vote We fought to force them 5ack
INTO the Uai0a and now after we have whipped
them back, some men here in the North refuse
to receive them unless they confess that they
are no better than the negroes who were lately
their slaves. | am convinced that such a course
will operate against the return Of friendly feel
| ing between the people of the North and the
South. If persisted in, ii will so embitter the
/ Southern people that their late rebellion will,
| in time be repeated, just as the rehollions in
/ Poland and Ireland, countries more efectually
conquered than the South, have been repeated.
/ We have had enough of civil dis-ensiou, enough
| OF civil war, sprlnging from the negro qoe6tion.
For Gods and oar countFy's sake, let US have
/ no more of it. For my own part. | am salts
fled that the negro race is utterly unfit for self
government. / have seen enough Of it to con-
vince nae on this score. Besides, don't believe
the Creator intended the white and black races
/ iu.Yia ND
IN social equality, which means u,~~taarriage
HnI .L---.fzeeUTrv- uIOod. IT God had inteuCl-
ed this, why did He create the races separate
and distinct from each other and why III He NOT
at once produce the copper color which the e.
! quaization of the Iaces must inevitably bring
forth? But, | think | know, why some people
want to keep the Southern states out Of the H.
Mon, till the white people there will agree to
give the negroes the right to vote, II is because
they ear fdat htey w,H lose political PoWer, If
! The negroes can't U0te TO, them. Now. is the
country to be turned Owe. to the ignorance and
degradation of four millions Of thrifless, uniu-
| telgent, vagabond negroes lust in order to keep
| up a political party For shame, no Never,
| Never But there are some men who will do
anything for political purposes, and these men
are worse enemies of their country than rcbols
| in arms. For instance when l. was lying on my
back in Hospital at Clarysville, Nd, suffering
| from a wound which was supposed to be fatal,
one of the officers of the Hospital came round
to my cot and asked me whether | desired to
vote. / said did, and would like to vote the
| Mcclellan ticket. The officer said could not
do that, and handed me paper to sign, which
| did under constraint. The officer placed
this paper and Republican ticket in an enve-
l., q 70
him to vete the ticket for me- A man who would
take such an advantage of a soldier supposed
to be on his death-bed, is capable of dong any
thing that is evil and dishonorable. Now, it
becomes us soldiers to rebuke the men that thus
imposed upon US while we were in their power.
Thank God1 we are free men, now, and can
vote our sentiments once more. We must get
back to the good old rule under which we pros
pered so long. We must get back to the con-
servative doctrines of Clay and Webster, of
Cass and Polk and Fillmore. Radicasm and
fanaticism on the negro question, North and
South, once brought civil war upon US, and thev
will do it again, if persisted in. Ihave written
this much, because first, desire the good of
my countryi secondly, because it has been her.
aided abroad by some persons that am an Alb
oltionist. also wish thus publicly to notify
the publishers of the Bedford Inquirer that
desire them to stop sending their paper to my
address, as I never subscribed for it, and don t
care about receiving paper that calls returned
veterans, crippled in battle, ''deserters" and
"bounty jumpers" Yours truly,
LEWIS RITCHEY,
late of Co D, 54th Z. w.
We call attention to the advertisement Of the