The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1867-06-14
BEDFORD, PA, FRIDAY MORNING. JUNE A. 1867.
king ; our Revolutionary fathers for lib
erty and we are taught that

| erty ana we are taught that
| freedoms battle once begun,
! Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son,
| Though bafhed oft, is ever won"
You are familiar with the result-the
capitulation of the entire English army,
which led to the recognition by France,
Spain and Holland, ofthe independent
United States of America as power
among the nations.
TO speculate on this victory would be
! the province of the historian, but we
cannot pass it over without a reflection
which necessarily belongs to the time,
the place and the contest. Civilization
had taught mankind many lessons from
Marathon till then. 1t had fixed the
state of mans relation to the State; it
had taught other sciences than war it
had given to other powers than force of
arms influences and consequences it
had raised political rights to the equal
ity of the victOr's glOries f; it had tried
the experiment on the American cOnti-
nent of the government Of the people
| against the government of the crown.
Here it was, comrades, at Saratoga, the
decisive battle was fought which made
this system Ofgovernmenta living fact,
beacon to light all mankind. No
greater surrender than that of BurgOyne
was ever made. 1t was the surrender
of Monarchy to Representative Govern
ment. From this surrender the flag Of
the Stars and Stripes was stamped as
the symbol of a nation. This flag has
grown to be the representative of great
truthS-a written constitution equal
political rights representation and tax
alton to be coequal and coincident; the
right to bear arms; the right to vote.
These rights involve sacred duty-to
maintain the honor of that flag and the
nationality of which it is the symbol
and the sign.
We recrOss to the continent ofFurope,
to find republican France crossing
swords against banded mOnarchs on the
field of Valmy. Alison writes, "From
the field of Valmy may be dated the
course of victory which carried the
French arms to Vienna and the Krem-
lin." The French, commanded by the
elder Kellerman, won a great victory,
and the battle monument on this field,
shows the spot where rests the heart Of
this grand old soldier, whose dying re-
quest was thatit should b. buried among
the remains of his old companions in
arms. Goethe the scholar and poet of
Germany, who was present at this en-
gagement, in speaking of it to some
Prussan officers, said: "From this place,
and from this day forth, commences d
new era in the worlds history, and you
can all say you were presentatitSb birth" J"
The Republic of France, from the
characteristics of the people, passed, by
natural transition, into the Empire.
1t was the love Of glory, the sounds of
| victory, the excitement of arms, the
ever SO tempting hope of conquest, for
conquest's sake, which took them to
Moscow They lusted for battle, but
cared not who led, Emperor, King or
| Convention. On the 18th Of June, 1915,
a portion of those mOnarchs who rule
by the grace of God and the custom of
nations. confronted, on the field of Wa
terloo, the "Little Corporal" whose
power was the result of his own genius,
| who ruled as absolute mon arch in the
| hearts of his heroic veterans, upon
whose bayOnets he founded, and by
which he battled to maintain his dy-
nasty. The legitimacy of monarchy
said, this COrSican must be crushed he
| interfereS with the balance of power /;
the BOurbOns must be replaced upon the
throne of France. Victor Hugo, that
versatile French writer, declares that
Waterloo was not only great battle,
but, to use a quasi military phrase, it
was a change of front of the universe.
| 1t was a chapter of accidents against
| the skill and power of Napoleon. The
rain in the morning, delaying the at
| tack; the failure of Grouchy to follow
up the Prussians; the fortunate arrival
of Blucher; the French cavalry SWal-
| lowed up in the sunken road of Ohain !;
the charge of the "Old Guard;" the
counter charge of WellingtOn's guards;
the Celt and the Gaul closed in the death
struggle the reply of CambrOnne when
| asked to Surrender-'The Guard dies,
but never rsurrenderS w-these are incl
dents amid such scenes that fix the
stamina an power of nation. These
battles of the world which [ have re-
ferreu to, whilst they show the condi-
ton of the mere science ofarnls at their
several epOchs, and also the power of
nations, yet, they prove that merephys-
ical power had but little to do with the
greatness of the State. 1t is to be OBJ
served, that the men who fought in all
these armies were trained, either by
custom, by law, by the rude condition
of social organization, by the necessities
of class, by other or like physical caus-
es, to deeds of arms, and yet they little
understood why they fought. They
were people, in every sense except that
sense in which we use the term-ele-
ments of political organization. They
had but little, if any part in the con-
duct of public affairs; they were not ed
ucated and trained to govern in peace.
Even the Greek and Roman Republics
failed to express the elemental power
of the people during times of peace.
Both looked to organized power in arm
les and what it could accomplish. Civ
ilization and Christianity have added
that one thing needful to make a ma
ton of men the sovereigns in free
representative government. Time Will
not permit me to make those philosoph-
! ic deductions which properly belong to
the relations and effects of these ba, ties
to nations and on peoples. L have re-
| ferred to them now only to show that
there are pivotal points in the history
of every country, on which turns its
destiny.
| In our own late contest for political
unity, history, judging by republics that
had gone before, prepared to write self
government failure on the American
,ntinent, and upon the tombstone OF
this nation, as she has on all Others OF
like form, with scarce an exception,
place the substance of this: "In mem
oriam-A. D., 1861, United States of
America, fallen, like all republics that
have gone before, upon their own sword,
leaving the closing page oft their history
blackened by the horrors of a suicides