The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1868-01-24
VOL. 62.-WHOLE No. 5.427.

ion of lawful tribunal.n TApplause.
81 will pay this fine myself. 1t be.
comes me to suffer whatever has been
inflicted, rightfully or wrongfully.
And now," said he, 81 am square with
the law, even as Judge Hall has expon-
ded it."
Now, if Genral Jackson had syste-
matized robbery and murder by means
of military commissions, Applause,
and cried of Good y if, instead of us
ing his army to fight the common
enemy, he had scattered his soldiers
over the country, hundreds of miles
away from his post, to kidnap his po-
litical opponents for expressing their
honest convictions if he had ordered
an upright and conscientious judge to
be dragged from the bench by ruffians,
beaten upon the head with the butt
ends of their pistols, and carried away
to prison, because he had administered
justice according to law; and if, finally,
he had established a military despot-
ism upon the ruins of free govern
ment, then | admit that he would have
been fair authority, and they might
have quoted him as an example of
their misdeeds. But in truth and in
fact, General Jackson was one of the
ablest and best defenders of the con-
stitution and the laws that the United
States ever had. Their never lived a
man within the limits of this country
who would go further to defend them,
or more cheerfully shed his blood to
save them from violation. Applause.
There are some persons here, think,
who not only know the character of
General Jackson, but who have been
intimately acquainted with him. |
ask ofsuch what they suppose General
Jackson would have thought of our
"BaTedu Of Military Jtstice," if such
a bloody machine as that had been set
up in his time. Great applause and
laughter. / do not know; can only
conjecture; | think he would have
shattered it into a thousand atoms with
one blow of his ponderous hand, lap
plause; and the first impulse of his
noble and generous nature would have
been to take that lawless crew by the
throat and pitch them into the PATIO
mac. Applause. / do not say he
would have done it any more then
our honored chief magistrate would.
Tremendous applause and three cheers
for the President. Let me tell you
the reason why think he would not
have done it. He a0as q perfectly laa0-
abiding man. He would have waited
his time. He would have curbed his
fiery temper; he would have chasten-
cd down, tes he always did. in prop
er way, his impetuous passions. But,
sooner or later, he would have done
what will be done yet. Great ap-
plause. He would have made those
miscreants feel the majesty of legal
justice.
The Spaniards have a proverb that
the mill of God grinds slowly, but it
grinds dreadfully fine. Laughter. i
And now, don't you think the people
of this country are about to let the wa
ter on? Great laughter.
| said that | had no eulogy or de-
fense to make of General Jackson; but
/ do say now, in conclusion, that if
the people of this country will appreci-
ate his character truly, and remember
well the lessons that his acts and his
precepts have furnished them, they
will have such a government as that
which he described in his protest to
the Senate-not despotism surround
ed by the pride, pomp and circum-
stance of military show, but quiet
government, which will protect their
liberties and their rights-a govern
ment distributing its blessings like
the deWs of Heaven, unseen and un-
felt, save in the beauty and freshness
they contribute to produce. AS long
as we keep our eyes upon his history,
as the pole star by which we are to be
guided, we will be wise and whenev-
er we quit it we will be other'cise.-
[Great applause.