The daily gazette., 1880-07-02
LET FORNEY BE HEARD.
HIS FRIENDSHIP FOR HANcocK-PHIL-
ADELPHrA AN OFFENSIVE RoosT.

From Forney's:Progress.
It is only seventeen years since, and
1t was day of such sharp agony and
such universal terror, and the victory
was such an unspeakable relief, that
even the children now grown to men
and women think of it as gratefully as
the middle-aged and the grandmothers
and grandfathers. It was the single
instance in which the fiery blast of
war came close to a great Northern
metropolis. The Confederates advan-
ced in tremendous force. Led by their
beloved General Lee and by his chosen
lieutenants, they seemed resolved to
make last stand in the rich valleys
of Franklin and Adams, choosing, as
if by instinct, the regions called after
two of the most precious names in
American history. Grant was engag-
ed at the same moment winding his
fatal coils around the Southern city of
Vicksburg; but the point most vital to
all at that supreme moment was the
field of Gettysburg.
What Philadelphian can ever forget
the suspense of those July days? ?
There was not a household that did
not throb and thrill between hope and
fear. There were over one hundred
thousand men, thousands of them
from Philadelphia and the neighbor-
ing towns, and there was not a family
that did not tremble for its loved ones
engaged in that fatal strife, or that did
not shudder at the advance of the foe
who seemed SO near, or that did not
fancy in that advance the loss of the
holy cause of the Union.
. On the morning of the 4th of July,
1858, / was at the Union League, then
on Chestnut street near Eleventh,
Philadelphia, in the massive building
now occupied by the family of the be-
loved Matthew Baldwin. The rooms
and gardens of the lovely mansion
were filed to overfowing with pale,
anxious men; the streets were full Of
a silen. waiting crowd; the sidewalks
and windows were crowded with wo-
men; even the children were awed in
to silence as their elders discussed in
whispers the possibilities of the dread.
full fight in the green valleys of the
Cumberland. Reynolds had been kill
cd on the I'd of July, along with thou
sands of OTHERS, and his brother, James
L., came from Lancaster, in this State,
bowed down with terror at the sacri-
fice, and humble women were sobbing
over the dispatches already recording
their losses. 1t was day of tears and
despair. had been present at Other
scenes of sorrow, but nothing like this
Foutth of July, 1868. The command
ant Of this department was General j.
A. J. Dana, and his office was in Cir
ard street, near Twelfth, and held a
position as a consulting member OF
his staff. About noon that Saturday
saw his tall form crossing Chestnut
street to the League, and when his
eye caught mine / saw he was in tears.
He handed me despatch from Gener-
al Meade, just received. Iopened and
tried to read it, but could not. saw
enough to feel that we were saved
And soon the good news became uni
versal. Then all hearts exploded with
joy over the deliverance. 1t was a
wonderful sight, that sudden change
from grief to gratitude. Some shed
tears, some shouted in joy, old foes be-
came friends, and even infidels joined
in the spontaneous prayers of the
preachers. Robert Browning's thrill
ling poem describing the man who car
ried the "good news to Ghent, (which
broke the siege and filled the souls OF
the Flemish with a deep Thanksgiving
to God might have been paraphrased
in honor..of the messenger who brought
such happiness to oppressed and terri
fed and despairing Philadelphia.
Who won that great fight? Who saved
Philadelphia from fire and spoil1 Who
drove back the enemy and saved us from
a fate of which the burning Of Cham
bersburg and Carlisle and the forced
contributions upon York were intended
to be grim preparationsp A brave army
of patriotic citizens, led by three Pennsyl-
vania generals-George Gordon Meade
of Philadelphia, John Fulton Reynolds
of Lancaster, and Winfield Scott Han
cock of Montgomery. Meade and Rey-
nolds are both gone. Meade died on
the 9th of November, 1872, in the house
presented to his wife by the people of
Philadelphia, afterward supplemented
by a contribution of 100000 from the
same source. Reynolds was killed in
battle on the I'd of July, and is buried
at Lancaster, Hancock is to-day the
Democratic candidate for president Of
the United States.
l do not stop to debate the other con-
siderations that enter into this vital
issue; the grave. considerations that de-
mapd the release of my dear native
State from the desperate men who, in
the last ten years have coldly crushed
out the pride of our people, and placed
under the iron heel of brutal inferiority
the hopes of our youth and manhood,
making of this fair Commonwealth a
vast political Goigotha, and Of our proud
city Of Philadelphia an offensive roost
for the most desperate and vulgar mel
cenaries since the black davs OF Tweed
and Tammany in New York. do not
stop to debate these consideration now.
Il Is not the time. But this is the time
Is open to the common mind our pied
ged word to the last of the great soldiers
who placed us under an obligation that
we hastened to avow, and repeated over
and over again. My own pledge binds
me as my note of hand. In law If 1t had
been signed to the promise to pay
money debt could be held by 1t, and
INV estate if I failed to pay il. In
morals 1t is as solemn as if had gone
before magistrate and sworn to abide
by 1t. And what is true of myself is
equally binding upon others.
Whst my fixed judgment, private and
public, Is of the men who saved the
American Republic, l have not con-
oealed. 1t is q passion that grows stron-
hau val Inc Qf w hat has