Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1867-03-07

sary to protect the liberties of ouI
people and to make their rights Sc
cure.
understand civil liberty, under
our form of government, to be some
thing more than what Coleridge de.
fined painting to be: Painting, "said
he, ''is something between a thought
and thing" Our civil liberty is not
thus circumscribed. 1t is both a
thought and a thing. 1t rests, not in
the mind alone, but reaches out its
numerous tendrils and clasps as with
hooks of steel, the substantial reali.
ties of mans existence AS mind and
matter are united in man, so are
thought and thing in civil liberty
Liberty is insecure, it is of no value,
until it becomes right not merely
asserted as an abstract right, but af.
firmed as positive, practical, and liv-
ing right. 1t must be Incorporated
into law which will protect and en-
force it.
L am free to confess, that the con-
stitutional amendments now pending
before the States do not give all the
protection and security which l think
due to the loyal people of both the
north and the South. Unable last
session to get all the securities | de-
sired, | accepted and voted for them.
In my Judgment the general senti-
ment of the North during the recent
elections was, that if the rebel States
would adopt these amendments in
good faith, and send loyal men, they
ought to have a restored representa-
ton in Congress. So believing, and
desiring to assist in carrying out the
peoples viii, have stood ready to
thus vote. Instead, however, of adop-
ting them instead of giving their
assent to the correctness of the prin-
ciples therein enunciated, they have
rejected them with scorn. If now,
with all their anxiety to have a rep
resentation upon the floors of Con-
gress, they will not subscribe to those
principles for the purpose of gaining
admission, is any man so insane as to
believe they would adopt them after
they were admitted Certainly not.
If majority of the representa-
tive men Of the South, who enjoy the
elective franchise, are determined to
continue to stand in opposition to our
Government; if they continue to
manifest no sympathy with the genius
of our institutions if they can SO
control and direct the maiorities of
those to whom they give the right of
suffrage as to exclude from official
position all loyal men of the South,
then indeed they are still in rebellion.
They have changed their weapons,
but their object is the same. That
object, that purpose is to undermine
the very foundation upon which this
Government rests. They not only
ignore the doctrine that our Govern
ment derives its just powers from
the consent of the governed-not of
the few only, but of the many-but
they seek to prevent its powers and
make it an engine of wrong and of
The numerous murders
of colored men, the frequent assas-
sinations of loyal white men, attest
the bitter and disloyal sentiment
which still rankles in the heart of
the unreconstructed rebels. Kind
ness and executive pardons have
failed to subdue their hostile senti-
ments. Loyal white men are driven
from their homes by social and po-
litical ostracism, as well as through
fear of injury to their persons and
their property.
Every loyal citizen is entitled to
protection by his Government. We
cannot afford to deny it to ours. The
golden opportunity is now presented
of bringing back our Government to
those grand truths proclaimed in the
Declaration of independence not
them as "glittering generali-
ties" but as principles imbedded in
the hearts of our people so that we
may have in fact, what we have
had in name, a free Gov
ernment. If we now suffer this oc-
casion to pass unimproved, a century
may roll around before so favorable
a one is again presented.
We are told, however, by gentle
men in the Opposition, that there is
no constitutional power to deny to
any rebel State representation in
Congress. lt.recalls to my mind the
declaration so often made at the in
ception of the rebellion a declara-
tion made not only by the head of
the Democratic party, but running
down through all grades to its most
ignorant member. 1t was, "There is
no power in the Government to co
cree a State"
The loyal, Union-loving people of
the nation answered that assertion.
They said we will coerce all persons
who are in rebellion in any State,
even if they include its entire popi-
lafion, That word was made good.
So now the loyal people have said,
we can and will deny to rebel States
a representation in Congress until
they come with constitutions and
laws in harmony with our amended
Constitution. Unless Congress- is
recreant to its trust that word will
also be made good.
AS the Sabbath was made for man
and not man for the Sabbath, so civil
government was created for the ben
eft of mankind, and not mankind
for the benefit of government. Con-
stitutions and laws are but the in
struments which the people have
formed, to be used in securing their
rights and in protecting them in the
enjoyment thereof. AS the habits
anI roooc,&,o, oF ~ rooxlo -