The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1869-03-19

South, and the servants Of the people
IN high places have boldly betrayed
their trust, broken their oaths of obe-
! dance to the Constitution, and under
/ mined the very foundations of liberty,
Justice, and good government. When
the rebellion was being suppressed by
the volunteered services of patriot sol
dierS, amid the dangers of the battle
I field, these men crept, without ques-
ton, into place and power in the na-
| tional councils. After all danger had
passed, when no armed foe remained
when penitent people bowed their
! heads to the flag, and renewed their
| allegiance to the Government of the
United States, then it was the pretend
Ell patriots appeared before the nation
and began to prate about the thousands
of lives and millions of treasure sacri-
| decd III the suppression of the rebellion.
Ihey have since persistently sought to
intlame the prejudices engendered be-
tween the sections, to reiard the res
torati0n of peace and harmony, and by
every means 10 keep open and exposed
to the poisonous breath of party pass
ion the terrible wonders of four years
war. They have prevented the return
Of peace and the restoration Of the
Unions in every way rendered delu
SlVe the purposes, promises, and pledg
es by which the army was marshalled,
treason rebuked, and rebellion crush
ed ; and made the liberties of the peo-
pie, and the rights and powers Of
The President, subjects of constant at
tack. They have wrested from the
President his Constitutional power of
supreme command of the army and
navy; they have destroyed thestrength
and efficiency of the Executive Depart
ment by making subordinate officers
| independent OF and able to defy their
chief: they have attempted to place
the PresidenC under the powers OF a
bold, defiant, and treacherous Cabinet
officer; they have robbed the EXecu-
tive OF the prerOgative of pardon, rem
deTed null and void acts of clemency
! granted TO thousands of persons under
! the provisions Of the Constitution, and
committed gross usurpatiOn by legis-
latiVe attem pts to exercise this power
in favor OF party adherents. They
! have conspired to change the system
| of our government by preferring
| charges against the President in the
! form Of articles of impeachment, and
| contemplating before hearing or trial
that he should be placed in arrest,
/ held in duranCe, and when it became
| their pleasure TO pronounce his SEN
| tence, driven from place and power in
/ disgrace. They have, in time Of peace,
/ increased the national debt by a reck-
| less expenditure of the public moneys,
| and thus added to the burdens which
already weigh upon the people. They
! have permitted the nation to satfer the
| evils ofa deranged currency to the en-
/ hancement in price of all the necessa-
! rites of life. They have maintained a
large standing army for the enforce
/ ment OF their measure OF oppression.
| They have engaged in class legislation,
! and built up aud encouraged m0nopo-
/ lies, that the few might be enriched at
/ the expense of the many. They have
failed to act upon important treaties,
! thereby endangering our present peace
/ ful relations with foreign powers
/ Their course of usurpation has not been
! limited to inrOads upon the Executive
! Department. BY unconstitutional and
/ oppressive enactments the people of ten
! States of the Union have been reduced
to condition more intOleTable than
that from which the patriots Of the
| revolution rebelled. Millions of A
| meriean citizens can now say of their
Oppressors with more truth than our
! fathers did of British tyrants, shat they
| have forbidden the governments to
/ pass laws of immediate and pressing
! inn Ortance unless suspended until
/ their assent should be obtained :" that
| they have refused to pass other laws
| for heacC0mmOdatiOn of large districts
! of people unless those people would
relinquish the right Of representation
| in the Legislature" a right inesti-
/ mable to them and formidable to ty-
rants only; that they have "made
| judges dependent upon their will alone
| for the tenure Of their offices, and
| the amount and payment of their sal
| aries )" that they have erected null
| titude of new offices that sent hither
! sWarms of officers to harrass our people
and eat out their substance. That
| they have affected to render the mill
tary independent and superior to the
! civil power; combined with others to
subject Us to jurisdiction foreign to
our Constitution and unacknOWledged
by our laws quartered large bodies cf
armed troops among us; protected
them by a mock trial from punish
ment for any murders which they
SiiONlt NOBIAlliAl Oll lilC litlIG4bt tttiit7 SE
these states imposed taxes upon Us
without our consent; deprived us in
many cases OF the benefit of trial by
jury; taken away our charters; melted
domestic inSurrectiOn amongst us:
abolished our most valuable laws; al
tered fundamentally the form Of our
government; suspended our own iegi5-
latures and declared themselves invest
ed with power to legislate for us in all
cases whatsoever.
This catalogue Of crime, long as it is,
is not yet complete. The Constitu-
ton vests the judicial power of the
United States in one Supreme Court,
whose jurisdiction shall extend to all
cases arising under the Constitution
and the laws of the United States
Encouraged by this promise of a refuge
from tyranny, a citizen of the United
States, who by the order of q military
commander, given under the sanction
of cruel and deliberate edict of Con
gress, had been denied the Constitu-
tiOnal rights of liberty of conscience,
freedom of the press, and Of speech,
personal freedom from military arrest,
of being held to answer for crime only
upon presentment of an indictment, of
trial by jury, of the writ of habeas cor
pus, and the protection of a civil and
constitutional governmental citizen
thus deeply wronged, appeals 10 the
Supreme Court for the protection guar
anteed him by the organic law Of the
land. At once a fierce and excited
majority, by the ruthless hand of logis-
lative power, stripped the ermine from
the judges, transferred the sword of
Justice to the General, and remanded
the oppressed citizen to degradation
and bondage worse than death.
1t will also be recorded as one of the
| marvels Of the Zines that party
claiming for itself monopoly of con