The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1866-08-14
REV. HENRY WARD BEECHER,S PO-
EEFEe'AE VIEWS.

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REV. IENRY WARD BEECHER'S PO.
ELEEE'AE VIEWS.
The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher has
written the following letter in reply to
the request from a special committee
that he would ofticiate rs chaplain of
the Soldiers and Sailors Convention,
to he held in Cleveland, Ohio, on the
18th inst:
PEEKsKILI., Aug. 30, 1866.
Cha3Ies g. Hu{DiHc, Breret BrigddieT
GeHerol; II. ". %ocun, MUor Ge,sa'-
NJ; Gor1on GruHga', Moj. General,
CoDlmWee:
GenHeme71--I am obliged to you for
the invitation WHICH you havemade to
me to act as chaplain to the Conven-
tion Of Soldiers and Sailors about to
convene at Cleveland. | canhot at
tend it, but / heartily wish it and all
other conventions, Of what party soev-
er, snccess, whose object is the restora-
ton Of all the States late in rebellion to
their Federal relations.
Our theory of Government has no
place for State except in the Union.
1t is justly taken for granted that the
duties and responsibilities Of State in
Federal relations tend to its political
health, and to that of the whole ma
ton. Even Territories are hastily
brOughtin, often before the prescribed
conditions are fulfilled, as if it were
dangerous to leave a community out
side Of the great body polite.
Had the loyal Senators and Repre-
sentatives of Tennessee been admitted
at once on the assembling of Congress,
and, in moderate succession, Arkansas,
Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina
and Virginia, the public mind Of the
South would have been far more heal
thy than it is, and those States which
fingered on probation to the last would
have been under a more salutary infiu-
ence to good conduct than if dozen
armies watched over them.
Every month that we delay this
healthful step compIic,rtes the case.
The excluded population, enough un-
settled before, grow more irritable; the
army becomes indispensable to local
government, and supersedes it; the
Government at Washington is called
to interfere in one and another difficult
ty, and this will be done inaptly, and
sometimes with great injustice-for
our Government, wisely adapted to its
own proper functions, is utterly de-
void of those habits, and unequipped
with the instruments which fit a cen
tralized government TO exercise author
ity in remote States over local affairs.
Every attempt to perform such duties
has resulted in mistakes which have
excited the nation. But whatever i'm
prudence there may be in the method,
the real criticism should be against the
reauisition of such duties of the Gener-
al Government.
The Federal Government is unfit to
exercise minor police and local govern
mcnt, and will inevitably blunder when
itattempts it. TO keep a half score OF
States under Federal authority, but
without national ties and responsible
ties: to oblige the central authority to
govern half the territory of the Union
by Federal civil officers and by the ar
my, is policy not only uncongenial tc
our ideas and principles, but pre-em-
inently dangerous to the spirit of Our
Government. However humane thf
ends sought and the motives, it is, in
| fact. a course of instruction, preparing
/ our Government to be despotic, and "a
miliarizing the people to a stretch OF
authority which can never be other
than dangerous to liberty.
/ + am aware that good men are with
/ held from advocating the prompt ano
successive admission of the eXileo
! States by the fear chiefly of its effect
upon parties and upon freedmen.
/ It is said that if admitted to Congress
the Southern Senatorsand Representa-
tives will coalesce with Northern Dem
ocrats and rule thecountry. Is thisna
ton. then, to remain dismembered tt
serve the ends OF parties? Have W.
learned no wisdom by the history o
the last ten years, in which just TIM
course of sacrificing the nation to th'
exigencies of parties plunged US int
rebellion and war?
Even admit that the power Woult
pass into the hands Of party made VI
of Southern men, and the hitherto dis
honored and misled Democracy OF tn
North, that power could not be use'
lust as they pleased. The war ha