Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1867-08-02
THE TRUE ISSUE.


Hon. George SharswoOd and Hon. I'll. w.
Williams stand as opposing candidates on
the tickets of the respective parties in the
coming political contest. The contest is not
between them as individuals, but as the
representatives Of fixed and well defined
principles. Williams is a sound lawyer and
an acceptable Judge; Sharswood is the
same, and in these respects many persons
might be disposed to say that it is of small
consequence which is elected. Not so,
however, the principles which they repre-
sent are directly antagouistie, diametrically
opposed. Judge Sharswood represents the
principles of the party that precipitated the
country into the bloodiest civil war ever re-
corded in the pages of ancient or modern
history; and although overwhelmed and de-
feated, its adherents are now assiduously
striving to obtain by legislative enactments
and judicial decisions the triumph which
they sought in vain on the bloody field OF
battle. The election of Judge SharswoOd
would be regarded by the men who sought
our national destruction as a step toward
reversing the verdict of the people rendered
at the point of million bayonets, and at
the cost of hundreds of thousands of most
valuable lives, and thousands of millions of
hard earned treasure. 1t would once more
check the work of reconstruction in the
lately rebellious States. and in every part of
~, the
Union and true republican liberty with fresh
hopes of final triumph. In short the
election Of Judge Sharswood to the eSupreme
bench, at the present time, would be scarce
ly less than national calamity His whole
life and all his public acts and professions
have been thoroughly identified with the
party of slavery, notification, State rights,
secession and rebellion, and to-day he is its
candidate, and as such the representative
and exponent of its political faith.
On the other hand Judge Williams is the
representative Of progressive Republican
ism, and the exponent of its principles. He
is the standard-bearer Of the party whose
whole history has been continual strug-
gle for the upholding and carrying out of
the great principles laid down in the Decla-
ration of Independence, the right Of all
men, to life, liberty and the pursuit of hap
piness. With this as Its guiding star it has
never swerved from the faith for which our
revolutionary fathers fought and bled, and
to-day after having preserved the nation
from the parricidal hands of its own rebel
hous people, still stands forth as the cham
pion of the largest liberty consistent with
the safety and unity of free and intelli-
gent people 1t is on such broad and
comprehensive platform, that Judge Viii
Eams stands as the candidate of the Repub-
lican party, and the representative of the
only true principles on which to found and
preserve free institutions The issue then
as we have already said is not between the
two men as individuals, but as the repre-
sentatives and exponents of great princi-
pies. On the one hand stands Sharswood,
the representative of party and principles
that for half century has vainly striYen to
check the wheels of progress, turn back the
tide of human civilization, and convert
continent dedicated to freedom, by the
blood of our revolutionary martyrs, into a
slave mart for the buying and selling of hu-
man beings, and which in its last desperate
effort has deluged our fair heritage with the
blood of our fathers, husbands, sons and
brothers, and darkened the pages of our
country's history, with the records of An
dersonville, Belle Isle and Libby prisons.
On the other hand is Judge Williams, the
candidate and representative of party and
principles, that aim to elevate the human
race to the highest attainable intelligence
and iberty-to dedicate our whole country
to untrammelled freedom-to give homes
to the poor, security to the rich, and hap
pineSs to ALTO raise the fallen, educate
the ignorant, and enable all to use to the
best advantage, for their own personal well
fare, all the powers Of mind and body with
which an all-wise Providence has endowed
them-to secure to every man, woman and
child in the nation, life, liberty and the
pursuit Of happiness, as far as not inconsis
tent With the rights Of their fellow men. In
such a contest none need be mistaken. The
issue is clear and unmistakable, and none
but the wilfully blind can err. The men
who fought and bled for united country,
they who gave up their best beloved that
our liberties might be preserved, none who
stood by the country in the hour of her
greatest peril, will now be found betraying
her into the hands Of her enemies.
In THE Surratt trial, the evidence closed