The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1866-01-16
PENNsYLvANIA LEGISLATURES.

week. The Senate organized BY electiUg
Hon. David Fleming of Dauphin, speaker
and Geo. W. Hammersly, of Philadelphia
Clerk. Hon. James R. Kelly, of Wash.
ington county was elected Speaker Of the
House, and A. W. Benedict, Clerk Upon
taking his seat Speaker Fleming delivered
he following address:
CATER expressing thanks for the honor
conferred requesting indulgence for er-
Tors desiring the exercise of courtesy and
propriety 10 conducting debate ; and con-
graduating the people upon Lees surren-
der, the Speaker said: Then swift upon
the heels of this glorious news came the
sad tidlDcs Of the assassination ofthe great
and good Lincoln It was the last and
Growing act in the drama of hell born
rebellion. Joy for time was turned into
mourning. All over the land men sat in
mute astonishmen,, almost paralyzed and
sad as if some dear one had been snatcEed
from their own hearth stones. Tile peo-
ple anouraed. These halls were draped
in black, and here, as we'll as all along the
route of the funeral cortege, thousands of
patriotic hearts focked todo honor to their
martyred President, ,and drop atear beside
his honored corse.
"But lis acork was done-aDd we'll done.
He has gone to his rest aud his reward
and his name is immortal.
"Egents followed events In such rapid
succession that the retrospect seems like
the bewilderment Of dream But now
the noise of battle is hushed the tread of
martial hosts mastering for the field of
strife is no more heard in the land. The
call for volunteers to fill demanded quotas
under impending drafts,w trust has ceas-
ed for ever. Peace is restored. The rebel
chiefs, so lately defiant, are either fugl-
tives in foreign cimes, or prisoners of four
Government, or or parole, suing on bend
ed knee for clemency at the hand of that
Government which they SO lately deied
and attempted to destroy. Tue command
ers of those rebel hordes are now asking
mercy from that government, thousands
of whose brave soldiers, by their cOnniv-
ance, were tortured or starved to death in
horrible dungeons 1t is gr0ce question
whether these suppliants, even if their re-
peDtance be sincere, are entitled to any
thing at the hands of our rulers but to
perish with the sword, which they have
taken. Justice, humanity, and the future
&c fha 70
demand, in the language of our worthy
Chief Magistrate, that "treaSon be made
odious" in the person of at least some of
these chief traitors. Certainly none should
be set free who do not manifest some signs
of honest repentance and adesire to return
to true allegiance. But the defiant tones
of many who presume upon Executive
clemency, are such as to show most indu-
bilitably that they are only sorry for their
defeat, and that they are still brim full Of
treason. Their repentance is not as real
ss that of Judas; for few, if any of them
have yet gone and hanged themselves. l
do not say it should be done TOR them, but
that the question is eminently worthy
of consideration by the authorities of the
nation. Certainly none such should ever
he allowed to take any part in the govern
ment of the nation.
"But let US turn from this, for mo.
ment, to contemplate the result of the
war. 1t was commenced by traitors to
sever the Union in order to save and per-
petuate slavery, which was to be its corner
stone. For more than year President
Lincoln and the government held out to
the rebels the olive branch Of peace, oa
condition that they would lay down their
arms and return to the Union, promising
them full enjoyment and even new guar
autces for their "pecuiar institution. -
Tut they spurned the offer mistaking the
n.agnanimity of the Government for weak
nes-thus verifying the heathen proverb'
that "Whom the Gods wish to destroy,
they first make mad" So anxious were
tho Government and people Of the United
States to preserve the Union and save the
efusion of blood. that Congress sclemnly
declared by resolution, and the President
proclaimed under the great seal of the
nation, that if the rebels would lay down
their arms, slavery should not be disturbed
But God, who rules among she nations of
the earth, would not ratify this unholy
compact. but so left our enemies to follow
their own evil coDnscls, and to glory in
iheir shame even unto madness ; and so
inspired our rulers with wisdom, and our
brave soldiers with courage, that greater
Things have been done by US, and for US
than the most sanguine dared to expect
at the commencement of the struggle
-And now, not only is the Union restored,
ani the ordinance of secession repealed,
but slavery, that source of all our woes,is
forever abolished not only by the procla-