Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1865-05-26
THESE -FOUR YEARS.

&. =. : 3 > 5 : 4
Itswould bewell to look back over these
last four years, and review what we have
learned in the terrible school through which
we have passed.
I. We have Learned lesson of trust in
God; 1t was hard work to believe that we
could do and bear all we have and ire We
knew that God was just, our sins were great
and punishment our desert. Why should
hefspafe us, aad sustain us, and save us
from our enemies, and bring rs out into a
great and wide place In our distressoe,
reyerses, divisions and embarrassments, il
has sometimes appeared as if we were for.
sakeh Of God and were going on the rocks.
What awful disasters have attended our
arms? How many times has rebellion wax
ed vain-glorious and confident? ? But in the
darkest hours God has been with us in inf
mite mercy, holding us up when we were
ready to fall, and at last bringing our enc
mics to layidown the weapons of their re-
bellion and submit to the Government they
sought to destroy Unless God had been
on our side, the cause would have been lost,
He was with us because right was with US.
God is Right We viii always try to be
right and then always trust God.
2. We have learned our own strength. 1t
is a great thing to know that we are able to
carry on war, under the most trying and
dangerous circumstances, for four years to
put million of men into the field to sus-
tain them and pay them to pursue all the
ordinary and many extraordinary branches
Of business with success; to'enioy unexam-
pied pecuniary, moral and intellectual pros
perity, and finally to pass through civil
war pfagigantic proportions and come out Of
it with all cur energies unimpaired; our
public and private, religious and education
al institutions fourishing5 and all this in,
through and after four years of unparalleled
draft upon our resources. 6eE
8. We have learned that this is to be one
qati9a5 one people, one government, one
Union, now and forever. The men of the
East, or che West, or the Middle, OF the
North, or the South, may go wild on the
theory of selfgoyernment, and imagine that
our original principle of independence teach
es the rightof revolution whenevera state
or section chooses to set up for itself, but
we have fought that radical doctrine down,
We have spent 1000, 100000 dollars and
sacrificed half million of human lives to
settle the principle that sey-goUeament
means the right of the majority Of the A
merican people to elect their owR rulers,
and the duty of the whole to submit to the
government and laws. That radical and
disorganizing doctrine which has often been
taught on the floor of Congress and in
Fourth of July orations,. that any portion
of a people may throw off their allegiance
to the existing government, and set up an
other whenever they are able and disposed
has been trampled into the dust by the heels
of a million American soldiers in arms. Il
is dead and buried, we pray God it may
have no resurrection.
4. The same lesson is the eternal repudi
alton Of the doctrine of notification ant
secession. That is only another name fol
revolution or rebellion. Webster was sup
posed to have annihilated this heresy.-
jackson thought he had slain the monste
by his Proclamation But it lived. Tht
evil was scotched, not killed. We have ju
| dicially put it to death now We brough
it to trial. We gave it a fair chance for it
life. We arraigned, tried, convicted, senten
ced, and executed it. Itwas abloody work
We fattened the worn out lands of tn
South with the blood of secession w
buried the monster deep in the earth
When Lee and Johnston surrendered an,
Davis fed, the last grasp. of secession wa
given. Ithas beenoa long, fearful, awfu
argument But conclusive Secession j
Idead. 6t
5. So is slavery. We all knew that sla
livery was a. great evil and a fearful curse
the incubus of the South and the reproacl
| Of the land. We formed the Union wit
it, an existing evil, and we Of the Nortl
stood blythe compact, andintended to stan
| BY it. We had sworn to our hurt, but W
would not go back But the ways of GO
are past finding out The Shareholders re
belled, and the rebellion was the knell {
slavery It was the worst possible way {
| putting an end to slavery, but God permit
| ted the wrath Of men to work out thi
grand exodus, and then he. restrained tn
| remainder. We have learned that foq
i yearsa0f war could do what forty years ac
| argument failed do, and when men woul
| not do the right thing in the right way, b
| organized machinery, that has suddenl
| revolutionized the whole system Of South
| eru laber, and given to four millions (
] slaves the station Of freemen.
y Other lessons we have learned, and v
moan to read them, together with the da1
that result. A wide field of research is b
fore us-N. Y, Observer.
n WHEN Prince Charles made his oscar
! after his fathers execution, he assumed
, disguise, but it was that Of a man. Whe