Juniata sentinel. [volume] (Mifflintown, Pa.) 1846-1873, 1872-08-21
The Lesson Of 1861.

which drove our commerce from the
ocean and huddled our ships in ports,
both at home and abroad, to rot with in
action The business interests will not
cast away a certainty for an uncertainty.
and they are manifesting an unmistak-
able determination to sustain the men
who sustained the Government in its
soress trials. Business journels are
coming out in favor Of Hartranft and
Grant with a ringing sound that cannot
be misinterpreted. Such articles as the
following, from the North American. tell
plainly how uneasy the business interests
of great city become under the mere
shadow of possibility of the Govern
ments of the States and Nation falling
into the control of such men as Bucka-
lew and G, eeley and their friends:
Suppose Charles r. Buckalew had
been Governor of Pennsylvania when
Abraham Lincoln called for seventy five
thousand volunteers to quell the slave
holders insurrection, does any man
doubt that he would have clused this
good old Commonwealth to make very
different history for herself than that she
caused to be recorded under the admin
istration of Andrew g. Curtin That
appeal, remember, was made to the
States as States. 1t so happened that
nearly every free State was officered by
Republicans. We all remember how
nobly the free States responded. II
was, and continues yet to be, cause OF
pride and graduation that the action Of
the Governor of Pennsylvania WAS so
prompt and sagac;ous that the reaction
of Bull Ran was stayed thereby. Does
any man believe that the famous Penn
sylvania Resrve Corps would have had
an existence had Charles r. Buckalew
been the governor to whom the Pres
dents appeal was made.
We have only to regard the responses
to that appeal made by Democratic gov
ernors in the border and southwestern
States, and we are sufficiently answered.
The militia of Virginia will not be fur
nished to the powers at Washington,
replied Governor Letcher Il can be no
party to this wicked violation of the laws
of the country" replied Governor Ellis,
of North Carolina Tennessee will not
furnish a single man for coercion. but
fifty thousand, if necessary, for the de
fence of our rights and those of our
brethren" replied Governor lsham G
Harris. Il say emphatical!y that Ken
lucky will furnish no troops for the
wicked purpose of subduing her sister
southern States,' replied Governor Ma
goffin. The Presidents call is illegal
unconstitutional, revolutionary inhuman
diabolcal, and cannot be complied with
replied Governor Jackson of Missouri
The laws of the State do no. confer
upon the Executive any authority al
lowing him to comply with such requi
sition," replied Governor Burton, of
Delaware. Il will suffer my right arm
to be torn from my body before l will
raise it to strike sister State.' said the
Governor of Maryland. Is it necessary
to go further in these quotations, to
show the action of nearly every State un-
der Democratic control in that hour of
great peril :
To know what Mr.. Buckalew would
have done had he been G overnor of
Pennsylvania in that emergency. we have
only to note what he did do as citizen
and as Senator Neither as citizen
nor as Senator did he attempt to
strengthen the hands of the State or
Federal government during the four
years of war for national life He was
the apologist for the southern wing of the
Democratic party in arms against the
Union. and the willing defender of men
who strove to embarrass the government
by discouraging enlistments and resist
ing the crafts Had he been in a posi-
tion to split hairs touching the right of
armed regiments from other States to
pass through Pennsylvania to the de
fence of the capital, who can say that he
would not have submitted elk columns of
protest to the invasion Of Pennsylvania
He was in perfect political accord with
such Democrats as Mayor Brown aud
Marshal Kane, of Baltimore. So late as
1861 he was in secret communication
with rebel emissaries, though at the time
a Senator of the United States.
No man who was against US, or who
occupied doubtful position during the
rebellion, can be trusted to State affairs.
Nor is this harsh judgment. The tories
were never admitted to positions of trust
and honor after the Revolution Morally
and practically Mr. Buckalew's attitude
toward the government from 1861 to
1863 did not differ essentially from that
of the tories toward the confederation. II
it be said that no emergency like that of
1861 will again arise in national affairs,
we reply that no man can forereach time
and decide that. No such emergency
was believed likely to arise when in
1860 Andrew Curtin was elected Gov
esnor. And so the people of this COM
wrought wiser than they
J Al