The Waynesburg Republican. [volume] (Waynesburg, Pa.) 1867-18??, 1867-11-27

COMRADES Our country is again
threatened by the same political power
that counscled treason and plunged
the nation into bloody civil war.
The hand Of the assassin has un-
masked the reasonable spirit that
shrank from open conflict in the field,
and licensed new hopes for the accom-
plishment by the ballot of that which
the armed hosts of rebellion failed to
secure by the bullet.
The apathy of Union men in sever
al Of the loyal States has been seized
upon by the enemies of the Govern
ment as a reaction in their favor, and
the passions and pr2judices of a por-
ton Of the people are appealed to to
overthrow the Legislative branches of
the Government.
The men who Gostered and defended
the Constitution and fag of our coun-
try are charged by those who fostcrcd
and defended rebellion as being the
enemies of that same Constitution and
the laws made in pursuance thereof.
We are told that the war has closed,
and that treason should be rewarded
and not punished as crime; that by
the force of arms we have made our
enemies in the field the same loyal
citizens as though no war had been
waged that without guarantee or
pledge rebels are entitled to the same
exercise of political privileges which
they enjoyed before the war; that we
have no right to legislatc safeguards
for those whom we legslate to be free
that Senators and Representatives of
even the rebel Congress shall be ad-
mitted to seats in our National Legis-
lature that the men whom you fought
in the field and who were driven bv
your bayonets into the "last ditch,'
and who surrendered only when their
powers of resistance failed, are fit to
sit in an American Congress to vote or
withhold the mites that now comfort
the widows and orphans of the heroic
dead that our victory was not a tri-
umph of principles, but physical
power alone, and that loyalty is no test
of citizenship, but an unmeaning and
despotic phrase; that the debt incurred
by the war, in great part for your
services, pay, bountics, pensions, de-,
should be repudiated !; that no further
bounties orpcnsions should be granted
to sustain the disabled living, and that
the fruits of victory that cost so much
blood and treasure shall be transferred
from the conquerors to the conquered.
lea BY the war the enemy deprived
themselves of certain rights and privi-
leges and sundered or impaired their
their constitutional relations with the
Government. They failed to succeed
in Withdrawing their territory from the
Z Union, but, as far as constitutional law
and Federal authority was concerned,
they defeated its exercises until the
force Of arms compelled their surren-
der. They virtually overthrew the
Constitution for nearly five years, and
for that time successfully resisted the
exercise Of all authority unknown to
the Government they assumed to have
established. ~ And it matters not
whether they were in the Union or
out Of the Union, so long as they alien
nted themselves from the Government
'and resisted its authority, committed
treason against its laws, its flag, and
it's soil, they disfranchised themselves
Of all claims to its protection.
rY They are conquered public enemies,
and have no right to participate in
State or National legislation without
first obtaining the consent of Con-
gress.
They have incurred disabilities. |
which must be removed before thew
can enjoy the rights Of citizenship and
the political privileges growing out of
those rights, aud have no moral or