The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1867-07-19

VOL. 61.--WH0LE No. 5,401.
have been cursed with sectional jeal-
ousies, civil commotion, or internecine
war. But alas! history will record
that those grand models of patriotism
and craftsmanship, were soon forgotten;
that sectional animosities drove them
from their place in the American heart;
that in spite of the noble example of
tho who founded the government, in
spite of the solemn warning of Wash
ington himself, political discord, parti-
zan hate, and finally civil war, with
all it's untold horrors, became the lot of
the American people. Oh! that we
could blot the hateful stain from the
historians record! Oh! that pitying
Heaven would sink the volume which
records it, beneath the waters of eternal
Lethe! But the stigma is incffaceable
and its blackness can only be softened
by future of peace and complete
restoration of friendship between those
who were at enmity. Let, us then,
leave to the historian the unhappy
strife which so lately ragged in our land.
Let him tell of the causes which opera
ted to produce it; let him trace the red
track of the gigantic struggle; let him
record the triumph of that banner
which sthe symbol of the Constitution;
let him celebrate the deeds of those
who, on many bloody field, bore the
orifamme of victory and let him not
forget to write, as the redeeming char
acteristic of fratricidal war, that the
earth never drank the blood of braver
men than those who fell in this sad
and ensanguined conflict.
GAS rolls the river into ocean,
In sable torrent wildly streaming,
As the sea-tide's opposing motion,
In azure column proudly cleaning,
Beats back the current many rood,
In curling foam and mingling food,
While eddying whirl, and breaking wave,
Reused by the blast of winter, rave;
Through sparkling spray, in thunder crash
The lightningso of the waters q tsh,
In awful whiteness ON the shore,
Thus-as the stream and ocean greet,
With waves that madden as they meet
Thus joined the bands, whom mutual wrong,
And fate and fury drove along"
Let it be for us this day to rejoice that
we have seen the end of our first (may
Heaven vouchsafe it to be our last) CIV
il war. To-day four years ago, the
cannon of Meade doomed from the
heights of Gettysburg and the legions
of Lee galloped to the charge in thun-
dering squadrons. To- day four years
ago, we sang carmen b'iatnaphaIe, for we
knew that the soil of Pennsylvania was
once more free from the foot of the
invader. But to-day there is no sound
of deep p-mouthed cannon; to-day we
sing no song of triumph but we stretch
our hands in the magnanimity of true
men, saying, to the vanquished, Come
back with us beneath the shelter of the
old banner, come back and let us bury
out of sight the fostering corse of the
dead past, come back and let us restore
that Union which has given US national
greatness and without which we can
have neither internal peace, nor exter-
nal safety!
Two years ago the flag of the South
was furled forever. 1t went down
amid the smoke of battle never to float
again. But the States whose people
revolted against the Federal authority,
remain unrestored to their Constitution
al relations to the government. There
are to-day but twenty seven of the
thirty seven States, represented in Con-
gress. This condition of practical dis
Union, is, at present, our greatest
danger. Billions of debt, an inflated
currency, and the other inevi able
results of a prolonged and bloody
war, however crushing they appear,
may be borne, but dis-Union, never
We need public confidence in the
financial soundness of the country, as
well as that soundnesS itself. Weneed
and social intercourse with
the people of the vast agricultural
South. We need the splendid revenues
which that section, if once permitted
to enjoy political quiet, will be sure to
bring to the national treasury. But,
above all, we need the speedy settle
ment, in accordance with the Co2stitu
+;on of tho yayed oueStiOnS which have