Columbia democrat and star of the north. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1867, 1866-08-22
Extract of a Letter from John
FORSYTH.

conspirators he felt poignancy in its wound
surprising those of ali the eleven, and the
deathiess and pathetic reproach burst from
his lips-et tn, Brute? And now it has
come to pass in these late days that the
NEWS, which has adhered SO unhinchingly
to the late Southern cause, defying danger
and, more heroic, breasting storm of
public opinion-turns upon the Southern
delegates to the Philadelphia Convention,
with words of reproach, almost amounting
to scorn, of their trickling subserviency.
AS Southern man, aswellas delegate,
feel impelled to take my pen to vindieate
my colleagues and the epeople they represen-
ted against charge so unjustand unfound-
ed.
That in body so large there should be
found individuals amenable to your reproach
would not be strange. But one swallow does
not make a summer, and it is not fair to con-
denim in the aggregate for the sins of units
Ii there were Southern members in that
convention who SO far forgot the dignity of
the suffering and misfortune which they rep
resented as to betray their high trust, and
to drag down the pride of reticence and en-
durance to the level of humiliation, and you
choose to single them out for odious notori-
ETY. and bad eminence," it is not | who
would object. Let slip your dogs and lay
on the lash to your hearts content But |
insist that and the body of my colleagues
shall be excepted both from the crime and
the punishment Reflect on our position in
that convention. We were strange, though
politely-bidden guests in that grand council.
We came there with no country, no flag, for
we are not permitted by Radicalism to have
either. The Government is only allowed to
recognize us when the tax-gatherer comes
along, or our enemies require the form and
farce or our State action to fix a constitu-
tional amendment to the prejudice of our
rights and interests. The inspiration of the
national music, the rustic of the national flag
so sure to fiutter and thrill the breasts of
true men who can call it their own-none of
these are for US for we have no vote or voice
In the GOvernmentwhose power is emblemed
by the flag, and whose glorious memories
are breathed in the national airs.
Retlcence and dignity were the role for
men so situated. Not to make noisy COM
plants and frothy speeches, or to wrangle
about platforms ; but simply to say, as the
Narragansett chief when summoned before
the British Colonial Council: ''You have
sent for me, and | have come u 1t is most
true that we have received with cordial
greeting by the patriotic gentlemen who
were our political hosts. They listened to
us with thdeepinterestand respect. Old Dem
Ocrats met us oftenwith moist eyes and tremb-
ling grasps of the hand. But at last we were
voiceless and powerless in the struggle that
was to determine the destinies of the country
the battle ground and the combatants were
all in the North, and all the dispositions for
the contest were necessarily to be conform
ed to that fact It's not necessary to say
that, as Il simple declaration Of feelings,
wishes and principles, the platform and ad-
dress would have been different, had they
been left exclusively to our writing, so had
the Westpenned them, the East would have
found something to change, and rice UerSd-
but constructed as they were for the aChOIa,
on that basis of compromise which must
ever be vital element of union between
States so remote geographically and so di-
verse in pursuits and interests, it IS difficult
to see how either resolutions or address could
have been better. Happily, the convention
escaped, through the magnanimity Of sever
al delegates, the greatest danger to its integ-
rity and harmony. The withdrawal of Messrs.
Vallandingham and Wood assured the sue
cess of the convention in this respect.
L take the occasion to deny, with empha-
SIS, the statement in this morning Herald,
that Mr.. Valandingham was notified by the
Southern delegations that if he did not qui-
city withdraw they would vote him out 1t
is impossible to conceive more Odious and
damaging imputation upon Southern delega-
tiOns than this. What turn upon man
who had suffered Imprisonment, persecution
and exile for sympathizing with our suffer-
ings and trials If there was one wretch so
heartless from the South, am happy to say
L did not and never wish to know him. My
own views and sense of duty were very clear
and L believe they were those ofevery South
ern gentleman in the convention. 1t was,
that we could not, in personal honor or con-
science OF our constituents, vote to unseat a
gentleman whose right to a seat was patent
ed to him by the gallant Democracy of Ohio,
was as good as our own, and whose only disa-
bilIty was that he was our friend in trouble
Under the call for the convention he had a
clear right, for Its theory was amnesty for
the past and fidelity to common patriotic
object in the future. 1t was upon this the
ory that we of the South were there, and it
was foreign to the objects and fatal to the
effects expected to be produced, to begin the
work ofpeace and harmony by prosecuting
would not, and could not have remained an
instant in that convention if any Northern
delegate like Messrs. Vallandingham or Wood
properly accredited, had been unseated by
vote. 1t was not the bouquet to which we
were invited, and we should have gone home
with the reflection that the North is not vet
ready for peace and restoration. But hap
PLY and nobly on their part, these gentlemen
saw the rock and removed it out of the path
of harmonious action. The convention be-
came great success, and Northern gentle
man tell me it is doing great good and work
ing well for the cause ofreunion.
RGr A radical journal thus speaks of Gen.
Dix:
He is a miserable demagogue, who can
only live in the shadow of greater and worse
men. He is nothing in himself A lie is
as good as the truth for him to stand on -
1t would be interesting to contrast such
language as this with the panegyrics be-
slowed by the whole Republican press upon
General Dix during the past five years.