The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1866-01-26

Mr.. COwAN-Mr. President, ! am
not disposed to allow the speech of tho
II0nOr4oIe senator NOM massachusetts
(Mr. Sumner) to go to the country with
out very brief reply. If that speech
be true, and if it be a correct picture of
the South, then God help us; then this
Republic, this Union is at an end, then
the great war which we waged for the
Union was a folly; then all the blood
and treasure which we have expended
in that war i'm order to restore ourselves
to companionship with the people Of
the South have beeen equally follies.
But, Mr.. President, is it true? Or is
not this a series Of &c parte statements
made up by anonymous letter-writers,
people who are down there more than
likely stealing cotton, people who are
down there in the enjoyment OF place
and power, people who are interested
that the disturbed condition Of things
which exists there now shall always
continue because they make profit of
it? Is there any man who has had any
experience in the trial of causes, any
man who knows anything about the
nature of evidence, who does not know
that the honorable Senator could have
sent his emisSaries into any one county
in the lately rebellious States, and gath
cred the expressions Of knaves and fools
and discontented, single-idead people,
far more than he has given us in this
speech?
We are told here of the exceptional
instances or bad conduct ON the part of
the people of the South. Why, what
q large volume itwOuld take to hold ali
that! If a man were to 90 about any
where in the loyal States and hunt up
what he might suppose to be treasona-
BILE expressions, heretical expressions,
how many could ne find? And yet
we are treated to all this here as if it
| was the whole of the evidence in thecase.
One man out of ten thousand is brutal
to a negro, and this is paraded here as
atype of the whole people of theSOuth,
whereas nothing Is said of the other
nine thousand nine hundred and nine
ty-nine men who treat the negro well.
One man expresses a great deal of dis
satisfaction at the present state of af-
fairs, and that is paraded here, while
nothing is said of the other ten thou
sand men who are cOntented to accept
it and make the most of it.
What then are we to do? We are to
suppose that the people of the South
ern States lately in rebellion have COM
mon sense; and when their utterances
are in accordance with what is common
| sense and the dictate of their own i'll
terest, we have a right to presume it to
be true. But according to what we
! have just heard, everything that has
come from the people Of these States,
and from their public bodies, from the
! representatives of the people, is to be
taken as false; and why? Because
some cotton agent, some correspondent
OF radical newspaper in the North,
some office-hOlder who has been ma
king profit of the state of things
| there chooses to sayit is all false! The
! heresy Of State rights is not destroyed
| there, the honorable Senator says. Have
we not heard from almost all the pub
lie men Of the South that that question
was put to othearbitramento of the sword
that they have lost, and that they sub
nit? Have they not acquiesced in the
abolition of slavery-that thing Of all
others which was the last, in the opin-
| ion Of everybody, that they would sub
NIT to? But still further guarantees
are wanted; we are not told what they
are. What are they? What is want
| ed? Everybody admits that the ne
| gro ought to have his natural rights Sc
cured to him. ] believe all the mOder-
/ ate. conservative men of this Chamber
are fully agreed that every man should
have his natural rights secured-the
rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness; the protection of prop
erty, limbs and reputation; that he
should have the right to sue and be SUI
ed, and to testify in courts of justice.
The negro has not hitherto been allow
ed in the Southern States to testify in
courts Of justice, and why? Because
/ he was a slave, and if | had been a cit
! izen of the Southern States when sla-
very prevailed there, would have re-
sisted his right to testify in courts.
A witness, like voter, ought to be a
! free man, he should not belong to an
other man. What chance would a liti-
CANT have against the master of slaves,
if the slaves could testify? Would you
ask a negro to testify against his mas
ter, to go back tothat master and besub-
| iected to his i'll will because of his tes-
| timony? Would you allow him to tes-
| tify for the master as against a party
on the other side? Certainly not. But
now this state of things has passed a
way.-Now the people of the South
ern States themselves, so far as | under
stand them, are in favor of opening the
courts to all these classes of people,
And, sir, they must open them for their
own security. | am willing to leave
! that to themselves; their own interest