Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-08-20
1ancaster fntelllgemrer.
FRIDAY EVENING, AUG. 20, 1880.
Twenty Years Ago.

Twenty Years Ago.
The death of VIM. Bigler, full of years
and honors, at Clearfield, Pennsylvania, |
attracts less attention than it would |
have done few years ago. State Senator,
Governor, Senator in Congress, Mr.. Big
Ter, was not merely an example of the ir-
reproacllable character of our public
men in the better days of the republic,
he was much more. At every important
crisis during his public career he not
only accepted responsibilities, but sought
them. His administration at Harrisburg
was one most deserving of respect for its
moral tone, and at the close he preferred
an overwhelming popular defeat, rather
than yield a particle to the spirit of
Know-Nothingism. He made gallant
fight against the then mysterious and
powerful order, and although buried for
the time under al immense majority,
his bold campaign, together with Wise's
similar campaign in Virginia, was the be-
ginning of the end of that phenomenal
party. But with the momentary success
of Nothingism, came in the class
of men whose methods have made Penn
sylvania corruptions by-word through
the earth.
But Mr.. Bigler's demise recalls the
more important events of 1850 and '61.
He was then a senator and member of
the committee of thirteen, to whom was
referred the measure known as the Crit
tenden compromise. 1t is perhaps not too
much to say that that committee might
have had it in its power to preserve the
peace of the country. Every Southern
member was willing to accept the COM
promise, although they did not dare to
appear as eager As they really were, while
the Northern Democrats, Bigler,
Bright and Douglas, were earnestly
for it. But the Republicans were un-
yielding. The proposition afterwards
submitted by the Peace Congress met
with similar fate. There is much
reason to believe that Mr.. Lincoln
would have welcomed settlement upon
almost any honorable basis but he did
not come into office until it was too late,
and in the interval he was not disposed
to attempt to control the action of his
political friends. He held off rs Mr.. Til
den did in 1867, and from similar mo-
tives. But singular as it may seem now,
there was no talk of coercion in any
quarter. Up to that time no statesman
or publicist had ever thought that the
Union could, or ought to, be maintained
by force. The Tribune expressed a uni
versal sentiment when it conceded the
revolutionary mot the legal) right of the
Southern people to secede, and declared
unequivOcally against 8 i Union pinned
together with bayonets." While COM
promise, therefore, was refused, on the
high and just ground that the constitu-
tiOn itself was a compromise, and the
Southern agitators were entitled to nc
more than it gave them, military pre-
parations were wholly neglected. Con-
gress distinctly refused to re-enact the
force bill, under which President Jack
son had proceeded, to increase the regu'
lar army, or to give the president author
ity to call out the militia. War was
manilestly not in the contemplation OF
the dominant party, and Congress saw
no necessity for comforting extraordinary
powers either upon Mr.. Buchanan OF
Mr.. Lincoln. When finally the country
was fired 10y the aggression upon Sumter
and MIR. Lincoln was compelled to meet
force with force, he was driven to act
without statutory warrant and in the
face of the constitution. Had he been
less courageous or less certain of the sup
port of public opinion, the omission OF
that Republican Congress would have
insured the immediate and blOOdless sue
cess of the rebellion. Until then Mr.
Seward had secretly negotiated for the
peaceful surrender of the fort, and Gen
Scott had amused himself with specula
tions concerning the size and shape OF
the I" fragments :" into which the old
Union was about to break, and the loca
tiOn of their several capitals.