Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1867-06-28
A FLANK FROM the COPPERHEAD
PLATFORM.

The Copperhead Convention which nomi
mated Judge Sharswood for the Su
preme Court, also adopted a platform
which the Judge endorses, and on which h'
proposes to 60 before the people and asl
their votes. The seventh section OF tha
platform reads as follows:
Resolued That the Radical majority il
Congress, and those who sustain them, hav,
overthrown the Constitution, dismembereC
the Federal Union, and subgerted republican
government by long series Of usurpations
This is as cool piece of arrogant,
unWarrantable and false assertion in the
face of established facts, as ever was perpe-
trated by deliberative body, making pre-
tensions to common honesty and truthful
ness. That, the very men, who plotted and
schemed for five long years, in connection
with armed rebels for the overthrow of our
government, should, before the blood of our
murdered soldiers has had time to dry upon
their hands, and before those Of their num-
Der who fed from their country's service
had all returned from their disgraceful ex-
lie, have the hardihood to insult the public
sentiment of the country, and charge the
brave soldiers and gallant Generals, by
whose bayonets and ballots the nation was
preserved from anarchy and our liberties
from destruction, with 'overthrowing the
Constitution and dismembering the Federal
Union, almost surpasses belief and could
only emanate from a body from which all
sense of honor and regard for truth had de-
parted. Only a convention representing
these who had been false to their country
in the hour of her peril, and who had trai-
torously joined hands with her sworn enc
mics, could be guilty of such falsehood and
hypocrisy. The hopeless condition of their
cause seems to have driven them to desper-
alton, and caused them to forget or disre-
gard the dictates of common prudence.
Their old cunning seems to have deserted
them in their extremity II is well for the
country, however, that their platform should
exhibit, as it does, The determination of the
party to uphold and cherish to the latest
possible moment the spirit of rebellion, and
to throw every obstacle in the way of recon
struction, unless the policy of reconstruction
is so modified as to place the government
of the country in the hands of those who
have done their utmost to subvert it. Such
is the platform on which Judge SharsWood
consents to go before the people of Pennsyl-
vania. A platform which declares that ey-
cry soldier who bore arms in defence Of his
country's liberties, every loyal man who
lifted up his voice or contributed of his
means to the prosecution of the war, in
Short every one who was not a sympathizer
with rebellion, was laboring for the over
throw OF Constitutional Republican govern
ment. Such platform would make every
Union General a traitor and exalt Robert
Il. Lee and JEFF. Davis to the highest hon
ors of the land. Such is Copperheadism,
such its candidates, and such its principles.
Lost to every patriotic instinct, to every
principle OF honor or honesty, and devoted
alone to the hopeless effort, to uphold the
defunct institutions of by-gone age, a semi
barbarous feudalism, and with them doomed
10 ,rovr1ka lIo loa4ry,ot.or