Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1866-11-09
---A LoCAL AND GENERAI. NEWsPAPER. DE

VIII give US no rest Is ptcCAoelY WLal LAC
South, If We leave the work Of reconstruc-
toni their hands, viii make is impossible
fof as to do: and yet it must be done ere
America can penetrate the Southern States.
It's for this reason and not with any desire
'of establishing standing garrison OF four
hundred thousand loyal voters in the South
that we insist on the absolute necessity Of
Justice to the black man. Not that we have
not perfect right to demand the reception
of such a garrison, but we wish the South to
govern itself and this twill never be able to
de- SO il viii be governed as heretofore By
its circumstances, if We allow It to replace
slavery by the observation-disclosures of color,
and to make an Ireland out Of what should
be the most productive, populous, and hap.
py part of the Union. We emay cvade this
manifest duty of ours from Incidence or
indifference or selfish haste bus ifthere is
one truth truer than another, it is that no
man or nation ever neglected duty that
was not sooner or later laid upon them in a
heavier form, to be done at a dearer rate.
This Is something that altogether trans
cends any partisan politics 1t is Of conn
paratiyely little consequence to US whether
Congress or the President carry the day,
provided only that America triumph. That
is, after all, the real question On which
side IS the future Of the country, fu-
ture that we cannot escape if we would, but
which our action may embarrass and retard?
If we had looked upon the war as a mere
trial of physical strength between two rival
sections Of the country, we should have been
the first to oppose IL as wicked waste of
treasure and blood But it was something
much deeper than this and so the people 1f
the North instinctivcly recognized it to lie
from the first; instinctively we say, and net
edellbeTately at first, but before it was over
their understandings had grasDed itshue
meaning as an effort of the ideal America.
which was to them half dream and half a
reality, TO cast off an alien element 1t was
thls ideal something not the less strongly
felt because vaguely defined that made
them eager, as only what Is above sOrdid
motives can, to sacrifice all shat they had
and all that they were rather than fail in its
attainment And it is to men not yet cool
cd from the white heat of this passionate
mood that Mr.. johnson comes with his pal
Try oiier Of my policy, in exc hange for the
logical consequences Of all this devotion and
this sacrifice. What is any one man S policy
and especially any one weak man policy,
against the settled drift of nation S convic-
ton, conscience, and instinct The Ameri-
can people had made up not only their
minds but their hearts, and no man who
knows anything ofhuman nature could doubt
what their decision would be- They wanted
only sufficient obstacle to awaken them to
q full consciousness Of what was at stake,
aud chat obstacle the obstinate vanity Of the
President and the blindness or resentment
Of bis prime minister have supplied They
are fally resolved to have the great stake
they played for and won. and that stake was
the Americanization of all America, nothing
more aud nothing less. Mr. johnson told
Us iD New York, with 50 profound a mis-
conception Of the feeling Of the Northern
States as was only possible to a vulgar mind
and that mind Southern one, that the
South had set up slavery as It's stake and
lost, and that now the North was in danger
Of losing the stake it had fisked on recon
struction IN the national debt. Dir. John
son is still, it would seem, under that della
sion which led the South into the war,
namely, thati it was that section Of the c0un-
try which was the chiefelement in its wealth
and greatn ess. But no Northern man, who
so long as he lives, VIII be obliged to pay
his fine Of taxes for the abolition of slavery
which was forced upoa US By the South is
likely to think it very hard that the South
should be compelled TO furnish It's share to-
ward the common burden, or viii be afraid
that the loyal States, whose urgent demands
compelled timid Congress at last to impose
direct taxes, will be enable TO meet their OBJ.
legations in the future as in the past