North Branch democrat. [volume] (Tunkhannock, Pa.) 1854-1867, 1867-05-29
his SUBSEQUENT RECEPTION BY THE LOYAL

L i
most appalling calamity, the murder Of
President Lincoln, which seemed in in
slant TO curdle all the milk of human kind
ness in twenty millions of American breasts.
At once, insidious effosts were set on foot
1 TO turn the fury thus engendered against
me, because of of my pertinacious advoca-
cy of mercy to the vanquished. CHANGING
to enter the clubhouse the next Saturday
evening, | received full broadside ofyour
scowls, ere we listened to to clerical ha-
rangue intended to prove that Mr.. Lincoln
had been providentially removed because
of his notorious leanings toward clemency,
in order to make way for a successor who
would give the rebels a full measure of
stern justice. I was soon made to compre-
hend that I had no sympathizers-or none
who dared seem such-ln yeur crowded
assemblage, ..... .s
THE CLUB REFUSES TO RECEIVE HIS PoR-
| TRAIT.
| And some maladroit admirer having, a
few days afterward, made the club pres
of my portrait, its bare reception was re-
sisted in a speech from the chair by your
then president-a speech whose vigorous
invective was justified solely by my plead
ings for lenity to the rebels.
HIS OPINION OF MINOR RADICAL EDITORS.
At once a concerted howl of denuncia-
ton and rage was sent up from every side
against me by the little creatures whom
God, for some inscrutable purpose, permits
| to edit majority of our minor journals -
echoed by yell of stop my paper!" from
thousands of imperfectly instructed readers
of the Tribune. One impudent puppy
wrote me to answer categorically whether
| was or was not in favor of hanging jeff.
Davis. adding that l must stop Lis paper if
| | were not
THE VULGAR. CONCEPTION OF THE EDITORIAL
VOCATION.
Scores volunteered assurances that was
defying public opinion that most of my
readers were against meas if / could be
induced to write what they wished said
rather than what they needed to be told
| never before realized so vividly the base
ness of the editorial vocation according to
the vulgar conception of it. The din raised
about my ears now IS nothing to that |
then endured and Gespised. am humilia-
ted by the reflection that it is (or was) in
the power Of such insects to annoy me,even
by pretending to discover with surprise
something that have for years been pub
licly, emphatically proclaiming.
HOW HE LOST THE sENATORsHIP.
Upon the Republicans having, by des-
perate effort, handsomely carried our State
against a formidable-looking combination
of recent and venomous apostates with our
natural adversaries, cry arose from sev-
eral quarters that | ought to be chosen
United States Senator. At once kind, dis
Greet friends swarmed about me, whisper
inc "Oaly keep still about Uniyersol Am-
nssty, and your election is certain. Just
be quiet few weeks, and you can say
what you please thereafter. You have no
occasion to speak now." | slept on the
weIl-meant suggestion, and deliberately
concluded that could not, injustice to my
self, defer to it. l could not purchase Office
by even passive, negative dissimution.-
No man should be enabled to say to me, in
truth, "If had supposed you would per-
persist in your rejected, condemned Am
nesty hobby, would not have given you
my vote So | wrote and published, on
the 27th of :hat month, my manifesto en-
titled "The True Basis of Reconstruction" )"
wherein, repe ling the idea that proposed
a dicker with the ex rebels, l explicitly
said .s.. "a
/ - am for universal smnesty-so far immunity
from fear Of punishment conhscation is concerned
a-even though impartial suffrage should, for the
present. he defeated / DID think it desirable that
| Jefferson Davis should be arranged and tried for
| treason 4; and it still seems to that this might
! properly have been done many months ago. But
| il was not done then and now believe it would
result in far more ell than good. 1t would re-
ki1dle passions that have nearly burned out or been
| hushed to sleep; 1t would fearfully convuse and
agtate the South it would arrest the progress of
| reconciliation and kindly feeling there it would
cost large sum directly and fal larger sum ind-
rectly aul-unless the jury were scandalously
| packed-it would result in management or no
verdict. / can imagine no good end to be subserved
! by such trial and-holding Davis neither bet
| ter nor worse than several others-weuld have him
treated as they are,
HE CALLS G. G. BLUNT, PROSPER NJ. WET
MORE, JOHN A. KENNEDY AND THIRTY
OTHERS" NARROW MINDED BLOCK
| BEADS"
Gentlemen, shall not attend your
meeting this evening, have an engage
ment out oftown, and shall keep it. do
not recognize you as capable of Judging or
even fully apprehcnding me. You evident
| ly regard me as weak sentimentalist misled
by maudlin philosophy. arraign you
as narrow-mInded bIockheads, who would
like to be useful to great and good cause.
| hut don't know how Yonr attomnt to
base great, enduring party on the hate
and wrath necessarially engendered by a
bloody civil war, is as though you should
plant colony on an iceburg which had
somehow drifted into tropical ocean. I
tell you here that. out of a life earnestly
devoted to the good of human kind, your
children will select my going to Richmond
and signing that bal-bond as the wisest
act and will feel that it did more for free