The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1867-03-08
EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE.

w WASHINGTON, d., req. 70.
DEAR GAZETTE "A sojourn of four
days in the Capital of "the nation" Il
say "nation," for as to the Republic
Hiam fuitD has convinced me that po-
litical quiet prevails here to much
greater extent than even in any part
of sedate old Pennsylvania. AS the
heart itself is only piece of dull flesh,
so the seat of government is compara-
lively lifeless as regards political agita-
ton; but, as the heart sends the blood
throbbing through all the veins, so the
legislation of the capital gives motion
and excitation to all thecurrents of pol
itics running and rushing throughout
the country. Sumner may growl his
most threatening gutterals, Boutwell,
may rage in the most approved Mas
sachusetts style, States may be abolish
ed, the President impeached, Liberty
itself subverted; no one here is dis
turbed in his equanimity by any thing
of the sort. Such things are regarded
here as matters of course. In the way
of revolution there can be nothing
new under the sun" to the people of
this city. But the doses which fail to
stimulate Washingtonians, excite to fe-
yer the people of the country. 1t is
well that this is true. 1t is well that
men are not all so callous as to be un
impressed by the subversion of the
government and the loss of liberty.
In the country there is much specula-
tion in regard to the proposed impeach-
ment of the President. Here it is
scarcely mentioned. Shrewd men,
when interrogated upon the subject,
say the President will be removed, yet
such men do not seem to think it prop
er to sound the alarm to the country.
A strange spell seems to be fastened
upon those who should exert every
nerve to save the government. But
the true-hearted yeomanry of the
North will not brook the deviltry which
robs them as we'll of liberty as of live
lihood, and their voice will one day
break the enchantment which is upon
those who should be sentinels on the
watch-towers of Freedom.
An election for municipal officers was
held in the city of Georgetown, on
Monday last. 1t was the first expert
ment under the rule of universal suf-
frage" established for this district by
Congress. The election passed off in
an orderly manner, as how could it do
otherwise, when no challenges of voters
were permitted, an armed force of one
hundred and forty men being on hand
to prevent any such challenges and
'to quell disturbances. By this
means, some hundreds of negroes from
Freedmen's Village, in Virginia, were
"voted" for the Radical candidate, and
the white men of Georgetown were
beaten by ninety-six majority in a vote
of two thousand. The city councils,
however, are conservative and the Rad
ical mayor will be powerless for mis-
chief. Georgetown and Washington
are filled with negroes who came to
these cities during the war, nine-tenths
of whom can neither read nor write,
and many of whom have no other than
their old plantation names of "Sam,"
and ''Bill" and "Joe," and are, there
fore, compelled to manufacture names
for themselves when they come to be
enrolled upon the poll-books. This el-
ement is strong enough to out-vote the
conservatives, and the two cities of the
District of Columbia are now, to all in
tents and purposes, politically speak
inc, in the hands of emancipated negro
slaves. This state of affairs, of course,
cannot last long. History solves the
problem as to the fate of the black
man when thrown into collision with
the Caucasian. Let those who pin their
politics to the skirts of emancipated
negro slaves learn the lesson of his
tory.
On Wednesday night last, there was
quite lively scene in the Senate. A
debate arose upon the question of the
payment of Assistant Assessors of In
{ ernal Revenue i'm the excluded States,
when Senators Sumner and Chandler
7oured out a torrent of abuse upon
Ir. McCnlloch, the Secretary of the
treasury. Mr.. Chandler declared that
The Secretary WIS 50 pauper" and to-