The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1867-11-01
AN IMPORTANT DOCUMENT.

lltlllNtt III illlN lNitAtt AiHl 'l'th ltl's
We trust that its length, rendered nee
essary by the scope of the important
details of political history explained by
him, will deter no one from reading 1t
with the attention due to its clear and
exposition of public affairs.
When Mr.. Buckalew was chosen to the
Senate by the Legislature of Pennsyl-
vania, in 1868, high expectations were
formed of the standing he would attain
in that body, from his well-known abil-
ity and reputation. He has been an in
frequent speaker, however; and, per-
haps has judged wisely, in not wasting
his influence by cheating the air." but
preferred to bide his time. In Congress,
in fact, as with the majority of the peo-
pie, in the country, the most unanswer-
able appeals to reason and justice and
Constitutional principle, and to every
magnanimous and truly patriotic emo
tion, has seemed to fall as Intellectually
as a summons to life addressed to the
dull cold ear of death.
But the downward course Of things
has at length startled the people from
their torpor and blind reliance upon
unworthy of confidence; and the just
dread of fatal mischief to overtake our
republican institutions has created the
opportunity so earnestly longed for by
the friends of popular rights and liber-
ties. At this favorable cxigency, Mr..
Buckalew has been found equal to the
occasion, and in the most deliberate
and complete manner has brought to-
gether and set down on record that as
founding series of facts which consti-
tutes the legislative action of Congress,
for the professed restoration of the Tn.
ion, since the cessation ofarms between
the sections. The great value of the
speech, therefore, consists in its timely
delivery; in the weight due to whatev-
er statesman so able and so unassum-
ing has thought necessary to say and
in the fact, that the topics he discusses
are of the most pressing and immediate
interest to the present well-being and
future existence of the republic that
he has been himself so situated as to
know personally the exact nature of the
transactions developed and the motives
and causes leading to them that his
speech is perfectly ineligible by all
who choose to give it perusal that it
furnishes careful explanation of the
questions actually at issue between the
parties; and is, in reality, clear and
concise history of the rise and progress
of that monstrous scheme of legislation
by the Republican Congress, intended
TO promote confusion and division and
to postpone Union, and which has thus
far unhappily availed to effect that in
iquitous object. ...-....
However the better disposed among
the people may have observed and de-
plored the special instances of wrong
doing as they individually occurred,
few persons are in possession of the ac-
cumulated facts, or have had the means
of marshalling them, in all their defor-
nifty, for careful inspection and reflec-
tion, until Mr.. Buckalew thus oppor-
tunely set them forth for popular infor-
nation. In the view which we have
thus taken of it, the speech seems to
us positively Invaluable, both for pres
ent and future use. Yet in only one
;n,rnnl bo ,,a ,ra oao,, n n,;nta1. and va
have been, therefore, induced to give it
whatever currency it may have through
our columns. No fairer comment could
be furnished upon the justice of this ex-
posure ofthe revoluti nary scheme pur-
sued by the radical leaders for the de-
struction of our free institutions, than
by the following unqualified admission
of a journal so high in repute with no
inconsi derable section of the Republi-
can party-as the New York Times. 1t
says:
I'VE do not think that the great body
of the people, or of the Republican
party, are satisfied with the manner in
which this question Reconstruction
has been treated, They are not satisfied
that we have the right to force univer-
sal negro suffrage upon the people OF
the Southern States at the point of the
bayonet, and to exclude those States
from the Union until they accept it /;
nor that it would be good policy to ex-
ercise the right if we had it. Still less
are they satisfied that it is either Just,
or eXpedient, while thus admitting the
negroes to the ballot-boX, without quail
itications of any kind, to exclude the
great body of the whites,-thus hand
ing over the government of those States
to the absolute control of the negroes
within them. The practical result of
such a policy shocks the public sense of
justice. Every man, no matter how
strong his party feeling may be, shrinks
from a policy so entirely at war with
fair dealing. And while these acts of
the Republican party have excited dis
loose talk of many Of its most intluen-
tial members have done still more in
the same direction. The threat constant
ly held over the South that, If 1t does
not take this it shall be forced to take
something worse-the menaces of con-
fiscation-the bullying insolence which
such men as Wade, Chandler, Nye,
Ashley, and men Of their stamp mis-,
take for craftsmanship, and the coarse,
vulgar and offensive tone they habitally
ADOPT towords all who differ with them
in opinion-the evident purpose ol
leading political managers to perpetu-
ate their own power by excluding the
South from all share in the Presiden.
! tial election--the fulsome laudation and
servile sycophancy displayed, on every
| occasion and in every relation towards
the negro, and the open, undisguised
contempt with which the pretension,
of White men, even to an equality Of
faculties, privileges and rights, are
treated by some of the fanatics who
claim to be Republican leaders-thest
are among the things which have helped
to disgust thousands of the calmer ant
more considerate members ofthe party
and to hold them aloof from the politi
cal contests of the day. Boston C0au'
| Ter.