Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1880-07-08
THE PRESIDENTIAL CANVASS.
important Items of Political Gossip.

ImpOTthut lttUlS Il UuSSIDs
COL. FoRNEY's REASONS FOR SUPPORTING THE
HERO OF GETTYsBURG-J. W. JEROME
AND J. S. BLACKS LETTERS.
From Progress, last week.
There are many deathless days in the
American memory among them the
attack upon the American flag in
Charleston harbor on the 10Th of April,
1861: the battle of Gettysburg on the
1st, I'd and Sd days of July, 1868; the
fall of Richmond on the 9th day of
April 1865, and the assassination of
Abraham Lincoln on the 18th day of
April. 1865. No days in human history
ever aroused more agonizing solicitude
or closed upon more gigantic transac.
tions or opened wider vista of human
probabilities. Each of these events had
n strange and almost providential mean
ing. Each possessed the peculiar quail.
ty of conauering in an instant millions
Of preiudices. The ball fired at the old
Aag from Charleston consolidated the
north and struck down human slavery.
The victory of Gettysburg saved the
second great city OF the Union from
the flames. The fall of Richmond was
the certain rise of the Republic, and
the death of Lincoln consecrated his
great mission of forgiveness to all.
When we come to notice the annals OF
our civil war, these four events, with
the emancipation of the slaves on the
lst of January, 1868, will be to the his.
torian like so many planets shedding
light on all other objects and marshal.
ing the way to the final lesson and duty
of the patriot. Each was a revolution
in itself, affecting the remotest interests
and leaving all men in a new condition
of thought and self.examination.
But none of these tragedies wrought
n deeper sensation or gave birth to a
more lasting gratitude than the battle
of Gettysburg, in 1868. Here at least is
one of those occurrences that cannot
easily be forgotten. The human race is
prone to forget. One philosopher says
that ingratitude is the badge of all our
tribe; but like all maxims it is best
proved by the exceptions. In this in
stance we cannot if we would, and,
thank God, would not if we could, blot
out what that defeat of the Confeder.
ates did for the city of Philadelphia.
Happily it is not so long ago as to have
faded out of our minds. 1t is only sew.
enteen Skars since, and it was day OF
such sharp agony and such universal
terror, and the victory was such an un.
speakable 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. 1t
was the single instance in which the
fiery blast OF war came close to great
northern metropolis. The confederates
advanced in tremendous force. Led
by their beloved General Lee and by his
chosen lieutenants, they seemed resolv.
ed to make last stand in the rich val
leys of Franklin and Adams, choosing,
as if by instinct, the regions called after
two of the most precious names in Am
erican history. Grant was engaged at
the same moment winding his fatal
coils around the southern city of Vicks.
burg: 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 days2 There
was not a household that did not throb
and thrill between hope and fear.
There were 100000 men, thousands of
them from Philadelphia and the neigh.
boring towns, and there was not fam
lily 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,
1863, was at the Union League, then
on Chestnut street near Eleventh, Phil.
adalphia, in the massive building now
occupied by the family of the beloved
Matthew Baldwin. The rooms and gar.
dens of the lovely mansion were filed
TO overHowing with pale, anxious men !;
the streets were full of q silent, waiting
crowd; the sidewalks and windows were
crowded with women even the chill.
dren were awed into silence as their
elders discussed in whispers the posi-.
bilities Of the dreadful fight in the
valleys of the Cumberland. Reynolds
had been killed on the I'd of July, along
with thousands Of others, and his
brother James L., came from Lancaster,
in this State, bowed down with terror
at the sacrifice, and humble women were
sobbing over the dispatches already re.
cofding their losses. It was day of
tears and despair. / had been present
at other scenes Of sorrow, but nothing