The following letter, intended for publication before the October election, has not lost its interest for the November election:
BEFORE PETERSBURG VA.,
Sept. 17, 1864.
For the Bedford Inquirer:
Men of Pennsylvania, the issues are now before you for consideration and decision. You must abide the result as you establish it for good or evil. We ask you to support Abraham Lincoln because we believe his re-election will fully vindicate the authority of the National Government, and fully establish the fact that the freemen of the loyal States are able to sustain the existence of the Union and the Government against the hazard of opposition from abroad and at home. It needs no argument of our own to establish this position because our political opponents antagonize us to achieve entirely the opposite result. We have received the news of Little Mac’s nomination for the Presidency on the copperhead ticket. The rebels appear to hail his nomination with much joy. Straws show which way the wind blows. For my part I am done with McClellan now and forever. If he would refrain from associating with men like Fernando Wood, Long, and other notorious copperheads, he might possibly stand some chance for the occupation of the White House. God deliver him from conducting the affairs of this nation. It is time that the North should know that those who are trying to get their support are men who have debased themselves-men to whom we have looked for guidance in this hour of our peril, men to whom we have entrusted the reins of Government and who have proven themselves so unworthy of our trust. The men who will give them their support are no better. Sometimes I can hardly think it possible that men raised and educated under the auspices of the best government ever enjoyed by any people, can have so degenerated in the scale of morality and love of country, as to become objects of contempt rather than sympathy. I blush to think that men who but a short time before this war broke from their country[?] and her free institutions, are today, [?] [cow]ardice, cringing in the attitude of supplication to the shrine of the so-called Confederacy.
BENJ[AMIN]. HARRIS WALKER.
Co. A, 84th P[ennsylvania]. V[olunteers].
P.S.–Gen. McClellan is losing ground every day. His letter produced no effect on the soldiers. We think he keeps bad company.1
SOPO Editor’s Note: This article was transcribed by Roy Gustrowsky.
If you are interested in helping us transcribe newspaper articles like the one above, please CONTACT US.
Source/Notes:
- No title. The Bedford Inquirer (Bedford, PA), October 21, 1864, p.1, c.6. ↩