The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1866-09-04

the storm, not to save, but to destroy the
Union. .-..
SO notorious was this, that when the
Provisional Congress met at Montgomery,
reports, coming from Mr.. Stephens, were
circulated over the incipient Confederacy,
seriously impugnipg the dis-loyalty of Mr.
Davis, and which created a doubt of his
fitness for the position to which the Con
gress proposed to call him.
The Office of President Of the Southern
Confederacy was almost within Mr.. Ste
phens's grasp, but the astuteness of Mr..
Davis outwitted him, and from the day the
latter was inauguarted Mr.. Stephens was
his most bitter and relentless enemy. If
Stephens was such Union man, why did
he take Office and place with them he
hated? He SAYS to direct the storm to-
wards reconciliation. Even his vanity
would be startled to think that one man
would be able to control the hurricane that
he was powerless to resist at Its inception,
or that he could navigate ship when he
was forbidden to touch the helm.
There was one Union man in Georgia
quite as prominent as 4. H. Stephens, who
held to his principles thro'out the tempest
Joshua Hill. Was Stephenss UDionism
better or worse than Mr.. Hills. The result
has already answered.
But [ wished now to take exception to
the manner of Mr. Montgomery Blan's let
ter-to its style-to its impudence. It
argues no little self-confdence in any man
to stigmatise gentlemen as ''recreant' who
refused to become trators-it is impudence
to do It in the face Of the loyal North, and
it is personally offensive, for which the WI
ter may yet have TO answer. Has it come
to this. that the handful of patriots who
stood Fl m in a hurricane that made mil
lions bend, 'sLalI-poB be-stigmatised, while
rebels are marked as elevated souls? We
have enough OF this at home, at-the South
in the name Of deceney, let us be saved
from the reproach while we are among
those whom we thought our friends.
Iconfess that vel mean the Ioya'ists
of the South-haye committed a political
blunder; we fo6iishly thought that We. were
right in sustaining the Constitution Of the
United States and setting our faces against
treason. We have lived to see our error;
and although, for one, not repeming nor
acknowledging that we were led into it "bv
artful, intriguing, ambitious men," as Mr.
Blair does for Stephaps We recognise the
mistake that We made, when we hoped for
encouragement and moral support from
those who styled themselves the Union
party of the North. 1t did not require the
stone that Mr.. Blair has thrown at us from
a safe distance to remind us that positions
have changed, aud what was "odiQus'
once IS now only the error Of elevated
souls" -~
Does Mr.. Blair notice the quandary in
which he has placed his hero, when he de-
grades him from the high rank to which
he elevated him to the equal of those who
fell into error from honorable motives al
though these motives have been instiIIed
into the community by artful, intriguing,
ambitious men, for selfish ends, at war with
the public good!" Where was \. H. Ste
phens while these "motiyes" We're being in
stiiled? Was he a leader, or an humble
follower? If Mr.. Blair does not know,
probably the forthcoming work of his hero
will inform him; at least be ought not 70
set up his idol and then take his audience
behind the image to show them how well
stuffed he is with-disloyaIty. IfStephens
can be made out Union man, now or at
any period for the last fifteen years l con-
fess that | know nothing Of Georgia poll
tics. This much | do know-he was cursed
as a double traitor by bis secession friends
during the war-a traitor to the Union
and a traitor to the Confederacv. I think
he was both, only little more 50 of the
former than the latter. 49,. -
Mr Blair wishes to impress the peoplei
of the South with the idea that Stephens
is as loyal as any man here. He is either
ignorant of the principles that Alexander
II. Stephens now holds or he speciously
hides them under a style peculiarly his own
I happen to know what one Of his cardinal
opinions is, and as it is as. good a test Of
loyalty and Unionism as can he given, it is
not out of place to repeat it here. 1t has
been supposed that the ordinances of the
state conventions of the South, called under
the proclamation Of the President through
the Provisional Governors, were binding as
the acts of the respective conmonwealths
We, who had not been "artfully led" were
under this impression, and | take it upon
me to say the masses 50 thought
Mr.. Alexander H. Stephens, Of Georgia,
denies the efficacy and binding power Of
the convention Of his state, on the ground
that the assembling Of that body was, in
Its nature, compulsory; that, for the pur
poseof getting Georgia back into the Union,
the President Of the United States, then
exercising war powers, instructed his pro-