The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1868-01-10

| been subjected to the scrutiny of
secret star chamber, an inquisitiOn un
paralleled in its character in the annal
of civilization.
a drag net has been put to catch eve
ry malicious whisper throughout tn
land, and all the vile vermin, who ha(
gossip or SANDER to retail, hearsay o.
otherwise, have been permitted to ap
pear and place it upon record for thu
delectation ofmankind. Spies have beer
sent over the land to hear something
which might blacken the name and
character of the Chief Magistrate of our
country. Unwhipped knaves have
given Information of fabulous letters
and documents, that, like the ignis
fatuus, eternally elude the grasp of
their pursuers and the chase ever result
ted only in aiding the depletion OF the
public Treasury.
That most notorious character, ,Gener-
Lafayette G.. Baker, Chief of the Detec-
tive force, even had the effrontery to
insult the American people by placing
his spies within the very walls of the
executive mansion. The privacy of
the Presidents home, his private life
and most secret thoughts, have not
been deemed sacred or exempt from in
VaSiOn.
The members of his household have
been examined, and the chief prose-
ecutor has not hesitated to dive into
loathsome dungeons and consort with
convicted felOnS for the purpose of ac-
cOmplishing the object of arrraigning
the President on a charge of Infamous
crimes.
When we consider all these facts and
that the investigation has been a secret
and e.r pdTte one; that it has been so
persistent and untiring and carried on
at time of most unparalleled party eX-
citement, when the masses of the DOM
inant party were lashed into wild
frenzy and led to believe that the Pres
ident was guilty of treason, when thou
sands all over the land really thought
that it would be righteous act to get
him out of the way, by any means, fair
or foul, and when he has been hunted
down by partisan malice as no man
was ever hunted and bounded down
before, it is really wonderful that SO
little has been elected that tends in the
slightest degree to tarnish the fair fame
of the President. The American peo-
pie ought to congratulate themselves,
for the sake Of the reputation of their
country, that the failure has been so
emphatic and complete.
In what we have said of the charac-
ter of the evidence taken before us and
the means used to procure it, we must
not be understood as rejecting upon
the action of the committee or any
member thereof. Such an interpreta-
tion of our remarks would do great in
Justice to us and to them. Whether
such latitude should have been given in
the examination of witnesses, we will
not now inquire.
In an investigation before the COM
mittee, it would be difficult, and per-
haps, impossible to confne the evil
dence to such as would be deemed ad-
missible before court of justice.
Indeed, it may be questioned whether
it would be proper so to restrict it; and
it is, perhaps, better for the President
that those who were managing the
prosecution from outside, were permit
ted to present anything that they
might call or consider evidence, as
the world can thus the better compre-
hend how utterly destitute of founda-
ton is all this clamOr that has been
raised against him.
eraI LAFAYETTE c. Baker, late Chief of
the Detective Police, and although ex-
amined on oath, time and again and on
various occasions, it is doubtful Wheth-
er he has in any one thing told the
truth, even by accident. In every i'm
portant statement he is contradicted
by witnesses of unquestioned credibili-
ty, and there can be no doubt, that to
many previous outrages, emitting him
to an unenviable immortality, he has
added that of wilful and deliberate per-
Jury. We are glad to know that no
one member of the committee deemed
any statement made by him as worthy
of the slightest credit. What a blush
of shame will tingle the cheeks of the
American student in future ages, when
he reads how this miserable wretch, for
years, held, as it were, in the hollow
of his hand, the liberties of the Amerl-
can people that clothed with power by
a reckless administration, and with
his hordes of unprincipled tools and
spies penetrating the land everywhere,
with uncounted thousands of the peo-
ple's money placed in his hands for his
vile purposes, that creature not only
had the power to arrest without oath
or writ, and imprison without limit,
any citizen of the Republic, but that
he actually did so arrest thousands all
over this land, and filled the prisons all
over the country with the victims OF
his malice or that of his master.
This whole system, such an outrage
upon the Constitution and every prin-
a;.>Io - 6 f.oo crovarppoapt anti mQri-
can and anti-republican, has, with It's
originators and supporters, thank God,
been damned to eternal lntamy; ana
it is pleasant to reflect that not only the
system, but its INSCRIPTIONS agent, Will
90 down to posterity loaded with in
fanny and followed by the curses OF mil
lions.
1t sometimes happens that the adj
ministration Of the most dangerous u
surpation is placed in the hands OF men
so respectable for character and talent
as to disarm suspicion, and conclliate
even those whose liberties are endan-
gered. We have reason to be thankful
to an ever kind and merciful Providence
that this despotism, when the attempt
was made, in an unhappy hour, to trans
plant it to our free American soil, was
placed, for its administration, in the
hands of class of men so destitute OF
manhood and character as to arouse the
undying scorn of the entire people; and
as these infamous Outrages were not
sanctioned by any precedent in our
own country, it is hoped and believed
that they will never, throughout all
time he deemed worthy of imitation.
1t is not our purpose now to attempt
an analysis or discussion of the evidence
taken before us or to point out the