Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1866-03-29
VOLUME XVI.

q
ter they are dead, and are emphatcall,
dead though yet living announced thi
singular dogma, that secession was wrong
but if State did secede the Government
had no constitutional power to defend it
self against disruption. Here was an issue
!. To hesitate was ruin. To coincide will
the President was voluntary consent tC
our national destruction, while dissent
from his theory was an appeal to arms
Partisans took sides, but higglers and alb
stractionists were not allowed to settle
the question. They were not the power fol
the emergency. The great people, dis
cardlng theorists, controlled by common
sense and patriotic impulses, lifted them
selves up as flood and proclaimed to the
world their inherent right to defend the in
heritance left them by the fathers, against
all attacks, by whomsoever made, and by
whatever agencies were within their reach
the constitutionality of the agency being
determined solely by its efficiency. That
question was settled, the Government has
the right to defend itself with thunderbolts
/ If necess try.
Hard upon the heels of this determined
issue pressed another With the enemy
were millions Of slaves. They dug bitches
piled up Notifications, performed camp
drudgery and cultivated the lands at home
producing thus the necessary army sup
plies, while white gentlemen went forth to
hew down the pillars of the Government
What shall we do with the negro? Shall
he remain power and support in the hands
of the common foe Or shall we knock
from his limbs the shackles, and thus weak.
en- the enemy and strengthen ourselves
Here again was vital question. One
party shouted emancipate! Another ex.
/ claimed touch him not at your peril This
is delicate s.biect, you must respect con-
stitutional guarantees--dare not invade
the sacred rights of property-this is the
/ Anglo-SaxOns country.
In 1862 when Congress proposed eman-
! cipatiOn in this same District of Columbia,
| and a resolution was introduced in this
very chamber, requesting our members
and instructing our Senators to vote for
that measure, | remember most distinctly
what an eclipse of darkness settled down
upon the visages Of certain gentlemen up
on this floor They lifted their hands in
partisan horror, cried sacrilege and while
crying swooned into political Mysteries.
This question, too, has been settled The
District of Columbia has become free but
not this alone-the great Mississippi of
human events flowing onward has swept
the entire Institution of slavery from every
square mile of American soil. Over this
let the world rejoice. The people, by force
of public sentiment determined tis ques-
tion, and determined it, too, in favor of lib
erty.
But scarcely is this disposed of when
forth leaps another.
! We have manumitted the slave-disen-
thralled him acknowledged his humanity
! We need soldiers-we are hard pressed.
/ From every quarter comes up wailing cry
for help. Shall we clothe the freedmen in
the national blue, arm him with the nation.
al musket, put him in the national ranks,
and bid him fight for the national life
Nay ! nay trembled on pallid lips II
you arm the negro our soldiers will throw
down their guns in disgust the officers
Il tear the epaulettes from their shoul
ders this is white mans war.
Aye, verify, none but white men could
| be allowed to fight and starve and languish
and die in the direful struggle.
But, sir,
There's a divinity that shapes ends
! Rough hew them may )"
and the philosophy of the Almighty's deal
ings with nations was forcibly illustrated
in the history of Egypt, and with equal
clearness reduplicated in our own. When
nations go astray, God calls after them il
tones of mercy and appeal If they relent
tits we'll if not he touches them as with
the little finger of judgment, blistering
them slightly if this fail, He presses them
harder and still harder till the weight OF
his whole hand is upon them, when they
must bend or break. Thus has it been
with u.s. In our pride and haughtiness we
resisted the claims of justice and scorned
the appeals of mercy. But events pressed
us hard, circumstances crowded us to the
wall, draft followed draft, until the bony
hand of death was stretched over the whole
land, grasping the heartstrings of every
home Then folly yielded to reason and
prejudice to common sense. We said, lei
the colored man be man. We clothed
him in the nations uniform, armed him with
the musket stamped "U. S." and bid him
fight, and fight he did and that question
was settled.
Arbitrary arrests opened up long chap
ter of bitter invective and bold denuncia
ton Questions of finance taxed oul
sources of calculation with their problems
of loss and gain. Foreign intrigues, promp
ted by jealousy Of the country's greatness
and intensified by desire for its downfall
complicated our home difficulties and drew
heavily upon our powers of charitable for
bearance. Thus has it been for FIVE years
Scarcely has one question, like the moon
waned from the view, when another bursts
upon our vision. But | congratulate my
self, congratulate my country that al
those vital issues were settled so Justly anC
50 wisely No public man dare now say
they were not justly settled. Whatevel
side individuals may have taken hithereto
whoever now denounces coercion, emanci
patton, negro soldiers whoever denies the
right of the Government to imprison trai
tors at home, as we'll as to fight then
abroad whoever decries the fve-twentiei
> OF refuses legal tender greenbacks, woult
not only be pitied as a simpleton, bu
would be buried so deep beneath public
contempt that the convulsions of the resur
rection would scarcely disturb him in hi
slumbers. Well, sir after surmounting 81
many Difficult lies difficulties springine
from war at our own gates, from our pc
cular institutions, from the unique com