1 Bucks County Intelligencer, A Soldier’s
Views on the Election October 21, 1862 Page 3
Col. 1 1
A Soldier’s Views on the Election.—An officer of the
104th Regiment, of strong Democratic antecedents, having
been born and bred a member of that party, gives ex-
pression to the following noble and patriotic sentiments
in a private letter written to a friend in Bucks county,
dated on the 10th of October:
“ I am sorry to see so much partisanship in the elec-
tions at home, and would feel rejoiced to see the Demo-
cratic ticket defeated. To look over the list of men who
were active in forming the ticket, and the seal with which
those of more than doubtful loyalty urge its success, it
ought to stink in the nostrils of every decent man. The
blind bigotry of Party has brought this nation to the verge
of ruin, and we are now receiving the chastisement of a
just God. Must we continue to merit them ? I almost
fear at times that the idea of self government is a mag-
nificent delusion. Yet I have faith, in the omnipotent
law of progress, and that good in the end will come out of
all our inequities. God rules the world in love, and his
purposes are not to be thwarted by the blind bigotry of
rebellious men. Nay, the very evil they may be consum-
mating, is so much work on the side of progress. I hope
to see slavery die on this continent. It is a question of
towering magnitude to abolish it, and colonize the Afri-
cans, but deride the idea as we may, there is an irrepressi-
ble conflict, between Slavery and Freedom. If we cannot
grapple with the question now, will we not be less able to
do it some years hence ? “