The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1876-11-02
SHALL BYGOHEs Be BYG0NES?
An ELOQUENT APPEAL.

ing on Thursday evening, the 2Gth inst, Major
A. Wilson Norris, secretary of the Republican
State Committee, was one of the speakers.
After discussing the issues of the campaign, ar
ragning the Democratic party for its crimes of
the past and criminal intents in the future, he
closed with the following eloquent and brilliant
appeal TO the Republicans of Pennsylvania.
Seventy-flve rebel officers are now in the
United states Congress. Veterans, you of the
old Potomac army, you gallant sons of the Re
public, who followed Sherman to the sea, is it
not time to cry a halt If eleven years after
these traitors laid down their arms and begged
for mercy they arc to be given possession of the
Government, what is to become of your victor
les and your triumphs? Have the leaves of the
laurcls you won at Gettysburg and Atlanta
already faded OF what avail were your great
sacrifices, your chvalric deeds, your patient en-
durance through the long years of the war,
your heroic suffering in prison pens, if, while
the noise of the strife yet stuns your ears and
the poison of prison life is tainting your blood,
the men who were your jailcrs, and who
shotted and pointed the guns in that strife, are
to be raised over your heads and given the Gus
tody of your property and lives! Politicians
who, assassin-likc, stabbed the country in the
back when you had your faces to the foe, who
refused money to buy you bread when hunger
was gnawing at your very yitals in your long
and exhaustive campaign; who refused you
money to buy clothing when, almost naked, you
stood shiverng in the trenches; who refused
you money to buy bullets when your cartridge
boxes were empty, because the Government
commanded you to shoot Democrats with these
bullets; whose faces were covered with gloom
when you won, and roscatc with Joy when you
lost battle these politicians who are hanging
around the public crib, like the miller's dogs,
licking their lips, waiting till the bags arc un-
tied ; these birds of prey, whose every talon and
beak is sharpened for the feast these honest
these 81 frlOntiup thp
waited opportunity of reyenging themselves
upon you for your valor; of getting some re-
compense for the stripes you laid on the backs
of their brethren when they attempted to go out
of the Union without leave. When they remeu-
ber your heroism how it will delight them to
degrade and humiliate you. Don't you believe
it i: If not, let some soldier who was in one of
the prson-pens of the war whistle down the
past, and see how many memories will come
rooping up to answer his call every
one frcightcd with recollections of mean,
cowardly indignties and cruelics heaped upon
him when he was n helpless captive. What JOY
will be yours when you look on and these
politicians crown with honor the men who shot
down your comrades i'll arms Veil your faces,
my fellow-soldiers, that you may not see your
shame and witness the reward offered to trea-
son Put on sackcloth and ashes, for the men
Tho starved and murdered our brothers are to
invested with distinction Where is the
heritage of glory left us by our Meade, Thomas,
heynOluS, ScuHWlcK, ana McfnerSOn. tONcr
your scars; conceal your sabre cuts lest they
invite Insult and scorn; remove from your
blood-stained flags the golden letters that tell
of your brave deeds and the victories you won,
and keep from sight these shell-torn and bullet
pierced banners lest our repentant and return
ing brethren, who are coming back to rule us,
be offended at the spectacle EfTace from the
tombs OF your comrades the inscriptions they
bear lest the record stir up unpleasant memories,
and hail with blessings those of our brothers
who sleep in unknown graves, for the soil that
covers them will be sacred from the touch of
the Southern martyr. Take down the dear old
sabre and trusty musket that hang on your
walls, and which you hoped to show TO your
children, and tell them how their father bore it
in the fight, for even now you and your chill
dren are insulted by the outrage offered to your
valor. Men who fought you robbed you, i'm
prisoned you, starved you, are now to lc9islate
for you. Shades Of our fathers, must we ac-
ccpt the condition they will impose! My coun-
trymen, can you vote for these men whose
hands are red with the blood of your sons. Can
you vote for them with the pale, emaciated fea-
lures of your poor, starved boys staring You in
the face: The spectres of our dead soldiers
beckon us on in this fight, and their
shadowy fingers point the way for every
honest man and patriot. In their name,
in the name of the men who fell at
Gettysburg, of the thousands whose bones are
bleaching at Charlottesville and around Peters
burg, the myriads whose dust mngles with that
about Port Hudson, OF the hecatombs of the
starved who sleep in nameless graves at Andcr-
sonyille and under the shadows of Libby, in the
name Of the widow, the fatherlcss children, the
crippled soldier who begs for bread in Your
streets, III the name Of all that is noble, gcncr-
Gus, and brave, of justice and humanity, of re-
ligion and God, veg you to be true to the
principles that inspired these men to die that
our Republic might live Shall it be said that
your patriotism was lie shall il be said that
your belief in unsefshncss and valor was
trick, that your professed admiration for brave
men was snare to entrap them into fighting
for your country, and that after the fght)was
won you dcs)ised those who shed their
blood or gave their lives in such
cause Vengeance will be slow indeed If it
does not overtake us if we forget the blood
that reddens and the ghastly remains that
whtcn the soil Of the South. Do you believe
that the Almighty will perpetuate government
whose people are recreant to the memory of the
men who bled or died for its integrity! If brave
deeds are to go unrecognized in this land of
ours if patriotism is to become a crime and
treason virtue; if all that is great, good, and
manly in our nature is to give way to a senti-
mental and mistaken sympathy for rebels if
your workshops of their bone and sinew
and nerve, take away the strong arm that
directs the plough, Gull out the flower of your
youth, take from the mother her hearts jewel,
her beardless hoy. and from the aged father his
stawart son. the pride and support of his tot
tering age-takc all these and send them forth
to affirm the unity of the Government and vim
dicate the supremacy of law, and then sing
p9ans over the victory of their foe, then the
sOone, such country is rent into fragments
and made the prey of faction and tyranny the