Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1866-09-21

| uttered with whispering lips and beating
hearts, was "What viii the disunionists dc
| with US Z"
The press of the South, owned and con
| troed by leaders of armies, divisions,
brigades and regiments Of the rebel service,
and by the immediate political adherents o.
JEFF Davis, with significant and starJine
unanimity supported the Executive plan.
The ruling ideas and representative men Of
the loyal nation were attacked with renewed
revolutionary violence the American Con
| gress denounced as rumps, acting without
! authority The policy Of the President
| backed by his great patronage and increased
! power, assured them In the hope Of being
placed IN absolute power in their States and
restored ultimately to their Wonted infu-
ence n the national legislature. Those who
had remained faithful in their allegiance
were denounced as traitors and as unworthy
| the confidence or respect Of the county
| and those who did not endorse the EXccu-
| tive policy were prosecuted In the name Of
the President with the added malice Of un-
successful revolution.
The executive, legislative and judicial Off
GERS of the States filled with ex-rebel officers
of high position aud rank, elevated in con
| sideration of services rendered and sacrif-
! ces for the Coniederacy, burning under the
effect Of recent defeat, produced ina great
measure by the loyalists Of the South,
launched at them every shaft of persecution
and intolerance. Almost every Union man,
who by appointment or otherwise, held
| Office or place has been summarily removed
! to give place TO men who had distinguished
! themselves in the Confederate service, and
so anxious and determined were they in re-
moving every element of power from Union
men that forms of law in many cases were
| disregarded. State officers in Louisiona,
| for instance, upon the most himsy pretense,
We're superseded by illegal appointment and
/ elected by force, without trial or the forms
Of law.
The Legislatures vent their indignation
| on the colored people by the enactment OF
| what are kindly termed labor laws, which as
absolutely maintain slavery, with the excep-
| ton of buying and selling the people, as
! the previous eDactments for that purpose.
| As an instance, the laws passed by some Of
| our Legislatures provide that. all persons
| engaged in agricultural pursuits as laborers
| shall be required, during the first ten days
| of the month Of January in each year, to
make contracts for the ensuing year, and in
| case Of failure such laborer shall be arrested
! by the civil authorities and hired out, and
| however much the laborer may be dissatis-
| fed he dare not leave, under the penalty of
| apprehension and of being forced to labor
upon the pnblic works without compensa-
| ton, until he will consent to return to his
employer. 1t is punished with fine and i'm
prisonment to entice or persuade away, feed
harbor or secrete any such laborer In this
way, compelled to contract within a limit OF
ten days, punished by legal enslavemeut for
violating a simple contract, and prevented
from obtaining shelter, food or employment
/ by the severest penalties, he is made a seTf
in the uame of freedom, and suffers all Of
the evils Of the institution Of slavery, with
| out receiving that care which the master
| from a sense Of his own interest, would give
| to the bondshan.
BY the act of some Of our Legislatures it
| is made atrcspass for any man to enter upon
the plantation of another without the consent
| Of the owner or agent and punishable with
fine and Imprisonment The object of this
| law is evidently to prevent laborers from
! leaving the plantations upon which they are
compelled to engage. 1t is also made law
| ful for theemployer to fine and punish his
employee for failing to labor to suit the en-
ployer, or disobey any orders.
| The Interpretation of laws and decisions
/ by the courts have been characterized by the
same unWhoesOme and intolerant spirit.
The laws passed in the days of slavery for
| It's protection are enforced with the same
| exactness to-day as ten years ago. Citizens
| have been arrested on the charge Of having
told negroes that they were TightfUlly enti-
! tied to vote, thrown into rrison, retained
| for months, tried by judge without jury,
/ refused time to send for witnesses or counsel,
convicted and sentenced to punishment IN
! the penitentialy.
| - 1f an or-Ipv nc
! atrocities perpetrated upon Union men or
deserters from the rebel armies during the
war. 1t is even unnecessary to plead spe-
/ cial orders from q Confederate officer, for it
| is said that all citizens BELONGED By law to
| the militia, and as both the State aud Con
| federate governments had repeatedly order
/ ed the militia to apprehend deserters at any
! time or place, it is held that the acts passed
to screen Confederate officers and soldiers
| from the consequences Of acts committed in
! obedience to orders covers all acts committed
/ against deserteTs or cOnScuptS III the at
| tempt Of apprehension.
As against Union men, however, the law
/ is strictly construed by the courts the
! slightest infraction of conscript In flying
| to our lines, or by deserter starving in his
cave is sure to meet with speedy retributIon.
| Did a man resist a conscript officer to the
! death, it is murder. Did a c0nscript officer
arrest women and children and keep them
| forty hours in fierce storm, without food,
and subjected to the grossest indignities and
violence, producing the death of some
and periIing the lives Of others, 1t is done
1 in obedience to military authority and the
! rebel goes unpublished, In short In all
| actions whose cause occurred during the
war, there is plenty of law against the I'm
| ion man, but there is none for him. In eau
scs occurring at the present time the fierce
! hatred Of the men who were right whilst
| disuniOnists were wrong, Is sufficient to pre-
vent them passing the triple guard with
which treason has surrounded her temples
of injustice viz disloyal magistrates, disloy-
al grand juries and disloyal petit iuries, to
say nothing of the disloyal agencies Of the
| Government.
Union men are ostracised aud prescribed
socially in most parts of the South. Sol
| diers of the Union armies are compelled in
many places, to discard the blue which they
| have worn with honor, in order to protect
! themselves from insult and violence. Min
| listers Of the Gospel are silenced and cxcom-
municated from the churches on account OF
their ancestral and steadfast loyalty to the
| Republic Disloyal men have military asso-
Citations, which are known in Virginia as
the Legion of Honor, and in South Carolina
and Louisiana as relief societies, all Of them
composed of Confederate soldiers, and pre-
sided over and controlled by their former
leaders and chieftains, and used fer the pur-
pose of fostering the animus Of resistance
TO our Government and keeping alive the