VOLUME 1.
THE AMERICAN CITIZEN,
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REPLY OF
Messieurs Agenor de Gaspann, Edward
Laboulaye, Henri Martin, Augustin
Cochin, and other friends of America
in France
To the Loyal National League of New York.
GENTLEMEN : We would have thanked
vou much sooner but for the prolonged ab
sence of one of our number. It would
have been painful to us to have lost the
collective character of this reply; for the
blending of our four names is a proof of'
that great unity of sentiment upon all that
concerns the -cause of justice which by
God's favor manifests itself here below,
in spite of political and religious differen
ces.
Yet wc are careful not to overrate our
personal importance. Ihe League does
not address us as individuals ; it speaks to
France, who cherishes as a national tradi
tion, the friendship of the 1 nited States.
It speaks to European opinion, which will
rise up and declare itself more clearly as j
it recognizes that the struggle is between
Slavery and Liberty. .
You have comprehended, gtyitlemen.
that neither France nor Europe haVe been
free from misapprehensions. Light did |
not at first dawn upon the nature of the
salutary but painful crisis through which
you are passing; it was not plain to all, at |
the outset, that the work inaugurated by
the election of Mr. LINCOLN yielded noth
ing in grandeur to that which your fathers
accomplished with the aid of LAFAYETTE
and under the guidance of WASHINGTON.
Europe has had her errors, her hesita
tions. for which we are paying dearly to
day on both shoresofthe Atlantic. Vt hat
blood would have been spared to you, what
industrial suffering avoided by us, had
European opinion declared itself with that
force which you had the right to hope for! |
There is a protest of the universal con
science before which mankind necessarily
recoils; moral forces are, after all. the great
forces.
Tie revolted South, which needed our
aid, v.hich relied and perhaps still relies
upon us, would not have dared long to af-
S'n'-t the indignation of the civilized
world.
I. Why has this indignation been with
held ? Why has a sort of favor been
granted to the only insurrection which has
had neither motive or pretext—to the on
ly one which has dared to unfurl the ban
ner of Slavery ? What has been the mer
it of this insurrection ? By what charm
has it conciliated the sympathy of more
than one enlightened mind? This is a
question humiliating to put, but useful to
solve.
In the first place Europe doubted wheth
er Slavery was the real cause of the con
flict. Strange doubt, in truth! For many
years Slavery had been the great, the only
subject of strife in the United States.—
At the time of the election of Mr. Bu
chanan the only issue was slavery. The
electoral platforms prove this fact; the
manifestos of the South were unanimous
in this sense ; her party leaders, her Gov
ernors, her deliberative assemblies, her
press, spoke but of Slavery; the Yiee-
President of the insurgent Confederacy
had made haste to declare officially that
the mission of the new State was to pre
sent to the admiration of mankind a soci
ety founded 011 the " cnrner-ilime" of Sla
very. Lastly, it would seem to all reflect
ing minds the acts of Mr. Buchanan and
others Presidents named by the South were
proof enough of this truth. The South
thinks only of Slavery. In her eyes all
means are right to secure to Slavery its
triumphs and boundless conquests.
But, it is objected that Mr. Lincoln and
i.ij> friends were not Abolitionists. That
is certain: their programme went no far
ther than to stop the extension of Slavery
nnd shut it out from the Territories.—
Was this nothing? Was it not in fact
(everything? Who could have foreseen
that, on the appearance of such a pro
gramme, of a progress so unexpected, of
an attack so bold upon the policy which
was lowering and ruining the United
States, the friends pf liberty would not
have all hastened to applaud. Was not
this the time to cheer and strengthen those
who wore thus entering on the good path!
Was it not due to urge them on in their
liberal tendencies, so that, the first step
taken, they should take the second and so
x>n to the end ? Ought not that which
terrified and dismayed the champions of
Slavery to rejoice the hearts of its adver
saries?
AMERICAN CITIZEN.
Yourletter, gentlemen, puts in
lief the reasons which hindered Mr. Lin
coln from adopting at the outside an Abo
lition policy. The President could disre
gard neither his oath of office nor the
Federal Constitution ; he had also to keep
in mind the opposition which a plan of
emancipation would encounter in the loyal
States. The head of a great Government
cannot act with the freedom of a philoso
pher in his study. In truth Mr. Lincoln
should be accused neither of timidity nor
indifference. Your letter recalls the meas
ures of his Presidency, abolition of Slave
ry in the Capitol and the District of Col
umbia, the proclaiming of freedom to fu
gitive slaves, the principle of compensa
ted emancipation submitfed to all the loy
al States, the death penalty actually inflic
ted on Captains of slavers, the treaty with
England admitting the right of search,
the establishment of diplomatic relations
with the black Republic of Liberia and
ITayti, the arming of free negroes, and at
last, when the length and gravity of the
war sanctioned an extreme exercise of
the powers of Commander-in-Chief, the
absolute and final suppression of Slavery
in all the revolted States.
We, gentlemen, are Abolitionists; and
we declare that we have never hoped nor
wished for a more steady, rapid, and reso
lute progress. We have understood the
difficultie?Trhich surrounded Mr. Lincoln.
We have honored his scruples of con
science with regard to the Constitution of
his country which stopped his path. We
have admired the courageous good sense
with which he moved straight on, the in
stant he could do so without danger to his
cause or violation of the law.
Wonder is expressed that Slavery is
abolished in the revolted States and yet
preserved in the loyal States ! In other
words there is wonder that he who is sworn
to obey the Constitution, should respect
it. Let 110 one take alarm at this. There
is no danger that the "domestic institu
tion" crushed in the Caroiinas and Louis
iana will long survive in Kentucky or Ma
ryland. Already as you have stated to us,
a sdlemn proposition has been made to all
the loyal States; already one of the most
important, Missouri, has set the example
of acceptance. To be thus uneasy about
the maintenance of Slavery in the North
argues to our minds quite too much ten
derness for the South. We look with sus
picion upon this pretended Abolitionism
whose unfriendly exactions were first put
forth on the very day illumined in Amer
ica by the dawn of abolition. We frank
ly say we could never have foreseen that
the election gf Mr. Lincoln and the seve
ral acts which we have just enumerated
would be an endless cause of complaint,
and distrust and unworthy denunciation
from so many men who plume themselves
in Europe upon their hatred of Slavery.
And since to destroy the North in pub
lic opinion it was not enough to accuse it
of too much favor for Slavery, another
grievance has been found. The North
oppressed the South ? The struggle was
for two nationalities ! The South had ris
en for independence !
Its independence! there were then sub
ject provinces in the heart of the L 7 nion?
Doubtless tli.'se provinces had no part in
the government of the country, the South
bad not the same rights as the North ?
Of course the South was held in this state
of inferiority and subjection by numerous
Federal garrisens? Not at all. All the
States enjoyed the same rights, took like
part in elections. If any section was fa
vored it was the South, to which a further
suffrage was granted in proportion to the
nunibe: of its skves. If any advantage
had been enjoyol it was by the South,
which had given the majority of Presi
dents and chief ofieers. Yet in this free
country, a country without an army, and
whose material meins as well as laws were
a sufficient barrier against oppression, in
such a country told of a province
claiming independence!
We are of your opinion, gentlemen,
that indej>enden< e aninatioita/ify are words
too noble to be übustd. In their abuse,
things are compromised, and the more no
ble and sacred these tiings, the more care
ful should we be not to confound them
with what is neither joble nor sacred—
a revolt in the name tf Slavery, a fratri
cidal revolt which woild destroy a free
Constitution and tear tsunder a common
country for fear lest th«rc might be inter
ference with the internal slave traffic*the
continued breeding in Virginia, the sale
and scperation of familcs, and lest per
chance some Territories 3iould be shut out
from the conquests of Silvery.
In vain we seek in tho United States
for a nationality striving .0 regain its in
dependence. Not only hal independence
been nowhere assailed, bit there is abso
lutely no trace of a seperaUnatiooality.—
Nowhere is there a more thorough na
tional homogeniety. North and South
" Let us have Faith that Right makes Might; and in that Faith let us, to the end,dare to do our duty as we understand it"—A. LINCOLN.
BUTLER, BUTLER COUNTY, PA., WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 1864.
and. we boldly add, interests are
all the Bame. All these States have strug
gled together, suffered together, triumph
ed together. Their glories, their defeats,
are common. Their Constitution sprung
from the free consent of all; all pledged
themselves alike to remain faithful to its
obligations.
Tins pledge is no empty word with which
caprice may idly sport. Among the in
ventions of our epoch there is none more
extraordinary than the right of secession.
Those who discovered it will no doubt
teach us where it should stop. If each
section has the right of secession from the
Country as a whole, why not each State
a right of secession from such section ?
Why not each County a right of secession
from the State ? Why not each town a
right of secession from the County ?
Why not each citizen aright of secession
from the town ?
The truth is that, but for Slavery, the
South would not talk of its suppressed in
dependence, nor of the right of secession.
Slavery has brought the two sections to
strife. The extinction of Slavery will re
store Unity. The North and the South
will some day wonder that they could have
failed to appreciate the most complete and
homogeneous of nationalities.
A last resort remains. That we may
not here see the great struggle on the sub
ject of Slavery, an attempt is made to pre
sent tlie struggle as one for domination.
But this latter struggle is the very life
of free countries. It is not surprising
that the North and the South strove active
ly, energetically, noisily, for the triumph
of their candidate and policy. But when
one of them, losing the battle of the bal
ot, plunges without hesitation into'anoth
ther kind of battle; when it resists, arms
in band, the result of a regular election;
when on the very day that it ceases to rule
it tears into fragments the common coun
ltrv, it is guilty of a crime for which it is
difficult to imagine an excuse.
11. You will crush the revolt, gentle
men. You wi .l succeed—such is our be
lief—in reestablishing the Union. It will
emerge from the bloody trial stronger,
more free, more worthy of tlie noble des
tinvy to which God summons it.
It lias been demonstrated to lis, it is
true,that the re-establishment of the Union
was impossible ; but was it not also dem
onstrated to us, and by irrefutable argu
ment, that you would be always and of
necessity defeated ; that you would nev
er know how to handle a musket; that re
cruiting would become impracticable;
that your finances would be exhausted;
that your loans would not be taken ; that
you would become bankrupt; that riots
would ravage your cities; that your Gov
ernment would be overthrown., You have
given to all these oracles the simplest and
best answer. You will reply in the same
manner to those who assert that the rccs
tablishment of the T'tiion is impossible.
What seems really impossible is not to
restore the Union. Where draw the line
between North and South ? How main
tain between them a state of Peace, or
even of truce ? llow shall Slavery and
Liberty live side by side ? llow, more
over, restrian the South from European
protectorates, and by what means arrest
the frightful consequences of such pro
tectorates ? Geographically, morally, po
litically, seperation would create an un
natural situatioi; a situation violent and
hazardous where each would live, arms in
hand, waiting for the hour of conflict.
We have full faith, gentlemen, that
such a trial will be spared you. It is not
that we overlook the difficulties which
still remain for you to overcome; they are
great, greater perhaps than we imagine.
War has its vicissitudes, and you fnay per
haps be called UJKIII to pass through peri
ods of ill-fortune. Yet one fact always
remains, and shows on which side the fi
nal triumph will be found, supposing that
there be no foreign intervention. The
flag of the Union has now, for two years,
never paused in its advance. It floats to
day over the soil of every revolted State
without exception. TheSouth has had its
victories; it has never gained an inch of
ground. The North has had its defeats;
it has never fallen back. 'laster to-day
of the entire course of the Mississippi,
master of the Border States and of Lou
isiana, all that remains is to stifle the re
volt in the narrow territory where it first
burst forth and back which it has been
driven. We believe that you will suc
ceed in this ; the only hope of the South,
seems now little disposed to give her aid.
Concluded next week.
IgigL»The brain of a hasty man is
like a sooty chimney; it is constantly
i?i danger of .taking fire from the
flames beneath. The brain of a well
ordered and quiet citizen is like a
chimney newly swept; the sparks of
passion pass through it, and escape
without danger into the cooler regions
of thought and reflection.
DID YOU EVER.
BY ELLIN BIMMOX9.
Did you ever hav»« a friend,
When wealth did you surround,
That if suddenly left poor,
That friend could e're be found?
Did you ever see a swell.
Strutting about the city,
(As if he was worth ten thousand pounds,)
But he should have your pity ?
Did you ever see a girl,
Frenh from a boarding school,
With flashing eyes and waving curls,
Who had lived up to a rule!
Did you ever see a mother.
With a baby young and fair,
Who thought there ever was another
That could with it compare?
Did you e're a husband know,
Whose wifi> wa« pretty and bright.
But was afraid ahe'd have a beau,
If he was out of sight ? •
Did you ever hear of a school-boy
(Catching flies,) exclaim, 4- Now for it;"
Ami lastly, did you ever read a tale,
Like Dickens' " Little Dorrit?"
IV IT A> i> w isnou.
Tin: worst bad English is profane swear
ing.
A child, like a letter, often goes astray
through being badly directed.
No cloud can overshadow the Chris
tian, but his faith will discern a rainbow
in it.
ALWAYS fight till you die—after doing
it five or six times, it is just as easy as
anything else.
A miser is but a human version of the
turnspit dog that toiled every day to roast
meat for other person's eating.
WHEN a young lady offers to hem a
cambric handkerchief for a rich bachelor,
she means to sow in order to reap.
WHICH is the left side W a plum pud
ding? That which is not eaten after you
and I have been to dinner.
WHY is an Ohio railway contractor like
a German emigrant? Because he makes
tracks for the West.
IF you wish to know how many of your
neighbors want " a little loan of ten dol
lars," get nominated for Congress.
PRAISE, when judiciously bestowed
tends t) encourage the pursuit of excel
lence.
A man who is furnished with arguments
from the mint, will convince his antago
nist much sooner than one who draws
them from readbn and philosophy.
WHY is a dram drinker like -the hay
crop? Because the hotter the weather
the sooner he gets " cocked."
" Do you drink hail in America?" ask
ed a cockney. " Hail, no—we drink
thunder and lightning."
COOL —for a lady of 20 to ask her hus
band who lias passed the " three score and
ten," if he would prefer a plain or orna
mental tomb-stone !
A Western paper says that an Arkan
sas rebel cavalry colonel mounts men by
the following order: " Prepare fer tc git
onter yer ereeters." Second order—"Git."
" Xi M ROD. can you tell me who was the
first man ?" " Adam somebody. His
father was'nt nobody, and he never had a
mother on account of the scarcity of wo
men and the pressure of the times."
A PHBIEND pheeling phunnily phigu
rative phurnishes the phollowing : —" 4ty
■itunate 4esters 4tuitously 4tifying 41orn
4tresseß, 4cibly 4bade 4ty 4midablc 4eign
ers 4ming 4aging 4ces."
AT a Spiritual Meeting, a short time
since, Balaam was called up and asked if
there were any Jackasses in his sphere?
" No," replied he indignantly; " they are
all on earth."
A witness in court, being interrogated
as to his knowledge of the defendant in
the case, said he knew him intimately
well. He had " supped with hiin, sailed
with him and horsewhipped him.
A waggish spendthrift said—" Five
years ago I was nyt worth a cent in the
world; now see where lam through my
own exertions." " Well, where are you?"
" Why I owe more than three thousand
dollars."
WLIAT heading shall I put to this ac
count of u man cutting off his toes with
an ax ?" asked a young paragrapher past
er of his superior, in a certain newspaper
office. "What heading, sir; why mel
ancholy nx-ident, to be sure."
•JOHN Reeves was accosted on the Ken
nington road by an elderly female, with a
small bottle of gin in her hand :
" Pray, sir, I beg your pardon—is tjiis
the way to the work house ?"
John gave her a look of clerical digni
ty, and pointing to the bottle, gravely
said—
" No, madam, but that is."
" MR. Brads, you say you know the de
fendant —what is his character?''
" For what, sir—spreeingor integrity ?"
" For integrity, sir."
" Well, all I can say about Jones is,
that if he's honest, he's got a queer way
of showing it, that's all!"
" What do you mean by that ?"
"Just this—that the night before he
dines on turkey, somebody's poultry coop
is always broken open."
:l That will do, Mr. Bradr."
Somebody's Son.
BY REV. THEO. L CUTLER
A runaway horse was one day seen dash
ing through the streets of New Haven at
a terrific rate, dragging a wagon that con
tained a small lad who wassereamingwitli
fright. The wagon brought up against
the sidewalk with fearful crash. A crowd
hurried to the spot. One old lady, with
cap-string 3 flying, rushed out into the
street, although her dauglitel exclaimed,
'Mother, mother, don'tget into thecrowd;
you can't do any good.' Seeing her agi
tation, a lady who was passing by kindly
inquired, 'ls he your son ? 'Oh, no!"
replied the true-hearted matron, 'but he
is somebody's son.'
The good mother was ready enough to
lend a hand to save somebody's boy; but
we fear there is many a matron and many
a daughter who, during the approaching
holiday festivities, will lend a hand to lead
somebody's sou right toward destruction.
They are already planning a Christmas par
ty or a New Year's entertainment; and in
their liberal bill of fare will be included a
full supply of champagne and sherry, per
haps. too, of hot punch and brandy. These
are days of fast living; money conies easy;
who cares ? Good Friends! there are ma
nv of us who care for our children if we do
not for our purses; and bafore 3011 set
forth those attractive poisons, suffer me to
make an honest appeal in behalf of one
hundred thousand tempted young men.
1. Let me say to you that true hospital
ity does not require intoxicating liquors
on such occasions—nor any occasion. We
honor the kindly spirit which, on the birth
day of the year, prepares a liberal enter
tainment. Wehonorthe hospitality which
flings the door to all who wish to come in
and enjoy it. But the well finished mar
kets and groceries of every town have an
ample store of 'creature-comforts' without
drawing upon the liquor-cellars and the
wine-vaults. There are many drinks both
palatcablc and proper that may never cause
redness of the eyes, or thickness of speech,
or delirium of the brain. Under their in
fluence young men do not reel 011 theside
walks, or mistake the door-plates of their
friends, or venture on silly impertinence
toward the ladies who entertain them.—
Under their influence nobody's son is car
ried home drunk—to shame and rend a
parent's heart. But the pernicious cus
tom of wine-giving and punch-brewing on
New Year's day produces many a sad
scene of excess and inebriation. On all
festive occasions temptation grows strong
and self-restraint grows weak. On every
New Year's day, hospitable dwellings arc
turned intodrinking-houscs. Youngmcn
enter them with flushed faces, and with
tongues quite too rapid for propriety.—
Many a merchant's clerk has whetted an
evil appetite that has cost him a valuable
situation. A returned officer who went
out last New Year's day to receive the
congratulations of his friends, found the
decanters more fatal than the rebel shells,
and when he reeled home, his shame strick
en familv would rather have received him
wounded and bleeding from the battle
field. He was somebody's son —and some
body's husband, too. Friends! you have
no moral right to tamper thus with other
people's appetites, or to rob other house
holds of their hopes and their happiness.
' Woe unto him that putteth the bottle to
his neighbor!'
11. As a second reason against offering
strong drinks on holidays of at any social
entertainment, we would urge that many
persons are confirmed by them in habits of
intoxication. Social drinking, yea and
drunkedncss, were never wore prevalent
than now. There nr» members of my own
church, probably, too, of most other oh urch
es, who are already sliding insensibly over
that 'i/lass railroad' whose smooth track
leads downward to perdition. Thousands
of young men are facing an enemy more
deadly than ever frowned from the heights
of Fredericksburg. With such young men
a contest is now waging between conscience
and appetite. They see their danger.—
They realize in their calm Moments, that
they will soon lose their self-control, and
are periling their places, their health, their
lives, and their undying souls. Those
young men enter your dwellings yith a
sharp conflict going on between theirsense
of right and their appetite on their regard
for fashion. If no intoxicating cup is held
out to them, they are comparatively safe.
They will not seek the drink, unless the
drink seeks them. But one glass may ruin
them. On the summit of a hill in a West
em State is a Courthouse so situated that
the rain-drops that fall on one side of the
roof descend into Lake Erie, and thence
through the St. Lawrence into the Atlan
tic; the drops on the other side trickle
down from rivulet to river until they reach
the Ohio and the Mississippi and enter the
ocean by the Gulf of Mexico. A faint
breadth of wind determines the destina
tion of these rain-drops for three thousand
miles. So a tingle act determines some
times a human destiny for all time and
eternity ! A fashionable young man par-"
tially reformed from drinkinghabits came
home to his father's house, rejoicing in his
emancipation. His gay, light-hearted sis
ter thoughtlessly proposed a glassof wine
'to drink his safe return.' He was excit
ed and o'fF his guard ; he yielded, and the
single glass rekindled a thirst that carried
him back again into drunkedness. The
hand that should have sustained him laid
him low. If all the ruined men who have
first received the fatal glass from woman's
hand could utter their testimony, how ma
ny a drunkard's grave would become vo
cal with terrible upbraidings? Surely one
would think that woman had already suf
fered enough from the poison ofthis adder
to nuke her refuse to touch the cup that
conceals his serpent fang.
Mothers! fathers! It is not only some
hotly's son who is in danger. There is a
boy nearer home who is watchingyourex
amplc. The darling who nestled in your
own arms may be the victim of the glass
you offer to others. And how dare you
warn your own children against dissipation
when they see the decanter on your own
side-board, and are confronted by the tem
pter 011 your own tables? You may re
member the anecdote which Dr. Lyman
Beeeher loved to tell of the London cler
gyman, who, while walking the street, saw
a loaded dray coming on rapidly toward a
school-girl who was just crossing the way.
The foremost horse was almost upon her.
Forgetting self he rushed into the street—
cought the child in his arms—bore her
safely to the sidewalk, and, as her bonnet
fell aside and she looked up with per pale
face too see her deliver, the good man look
ed down into the face of his own little
daughter! In attempting to save somebo
dy's child he saved his own. Banish then
the wine-cup from your house, and you
may preserve not only somebody's son from
temptation, but also the lad whom your
dear wife taught to say his prayers 011 her
knee.
SHOEMAKINO IIY MACHINERY.—A
shocmaking machine is now in successful
operation, says the Patterson, New Jer
sey, Guardian, which is one of the great
est wonders of industry, mechanism and
genius. This is in reality a sewing
machine, but altogether different in prin
ciple from all the ordinary kinds of those
implements. It is a small affair, costing
perhaps not morethan S3O or SSO to build,
and which after the shoo is arranged to
gether, travels inside and sews through the
thickest sole with a wax end of any thick
ness. This little machine or traveler goes
all around the edge and way down into the
toes, like a thing of magic, and does the
hardest work of the shoemaker with the
greatest ease and rapidity. It will sew 300
pair per day, and keep fifty men employ
ed in finishing up the work, all the sewing
of which has been done by machinery,
from the finest stitching to the heaviest
waxed ending of the thickest boot soles.
The work is better than hand work, will
out-wcar anything ever before put togeth
er, and is destined'to supercede all other
kinds of shoemaker's work. In fact all
the shoemaker's will be needed on tho ma
chines to do the more agreeable finishing
up part of the work. These little machines
sell readily to manufacturers for 8500,
and afterwards a stamp tax of one cent per
shoe lias to.be paid the inventor. All
manufacturerswill bo driven into the pur
chase of these shocmaking machines, which
are creating a perfect revolution in the
shoe business in our large towns, and which
will in a year or two drive all nailed, peg
ged, or hand-sewed shoes and boots out of
the market. We have seen manufactur
ers who have the instruments in use, and
who say they are worth SIOOO to all who
use them.
FROM NORTH CAROLINA. —An officer
of tho Government, just returned from
Newborn, N. C., reports that our scheme
for the occupation of abandoned planta
tions works admirably, the rental already
producing quite a revenue, beside reliev
ingGovernmentof the support of thousands
of poor people, both white and colored.
The principles of free labor, and the dig
nity of self-support, are being inculcated,
and arrangements are making for the per
fection and extension of"the system. The
President's Amnesty Proclamation is gen
erally approved there, and could the pro
tection guaranteed be given,there is but
little doubt that loyal men could be found
to return North Carolina to her allegiance.
Gen. Butler's call for negro cavalry crea
ted much enthusiasm, and tho second regi
ment. now forming, was receiving over ono
hundred recruits a week.
' Esas"' Did you say, sir, that you consid
ered Mr. Jones insane ?' asked a lawyer
of a witness in a criminal case.
' Yes, sir, I did.'
' Upon what grounds do you base that
inference ?' 9
' Why, I lent him a silk umbrella and
five dollars iu cash, and he returned them
both '
* NUMBER G.
The Amnesty Proclamation.
A Washington letter Bays :
The President lias liat'» several thousand
copies of his proclamation of December
Bth, declaring an amnesty to all rebels of
the rank of Colonel and under, providing
they take a prescribed oath, printed in
the shape of a handbill, and at the end of
the proclamation is the following:
" The book wherein to record the taking
of the above oath by such persons as may
apply, is in the custody of at ,
who is authorized to administer the said
oath to such persons of that vicinity, and
is required to give every person requesting
it a certificate in form below, until some
other mode of proof shall be authorita
tively provided, sufficient evidence of tho
facts certified to entitle the holder to the
benefits as provided in said proclamation.
"CERTIFICATE.—I dohereby certify that
on day of 186-, at , the
oath presented by the President of the
United States in his proclamation Decem
ber eighth, eighteen hundred and sixty
three, was duly taken, subscribed and
made matter of record, by
This handbill is to be posted through all
the rebel territory occupied by us, audit
is expected that thousands of secesh will
avail themselves of it; that Tennessee,
Texas and Louisiana will be the first to
return as States to their allegiance.
lloci-OailAl'llv.—The following arlicle
went the rounds of the papers a few years' 1
ago, but we reprint it for the information
of those who never l jad it:
Francis Pigg has strayed off from In
dianapolis, leaving Mrs. Pigg and the
little piggt to hunt their own i'eed hereaf
ter. Wc'll do our share towards pen- ning
them.
Since reading the above, we are happy
to learn that Piggjeft a small sti-penned
for his interesting™amily. By the last
advises we are informed that this young
boy Barkis, was swillin',
Mrs. Pigg, though she always profess
ed to consider her husband a great bore, has
consented to accept this stipend as a sus
pension of hostilities, though she is ap
prehensive that he has another stye in big
eyo We can comfort her with the as
surance that he will be cured one of these
days as many a rashrr one has been. lie
is at present probably hanging about some
of tho sfo/>-shops of tho city.
We believe that Mr. P. is resolved togo
to the root of this matter or die; but it
must be remembered that there are two
sides to a quarrel like this, and however
brink it may bo kept up, each one must
shoulder a part of tho responsibility. We
anticipate a prime mess as the consequence.
THE FORCE IMAGINATION.—Peo
pIe of strong nervous temperament are
great slaves to the whims and capri
ces of their imagination, and hence
people of good metal, but of very or
dinary physical acquirements, are the
most subject to this tyranny of mind
over matter. Occaionally, a very or
dinary sort of person—that is, an in
dividual of considerable mind, but
whose mtmtal capacities are unsustain
ed, and*> partially undeveloped—
suffers from this peculiar fact in a
most distressing degree. No doubt
(says the best physical authority) one
half the ills that flesh is heir to aro
superinduced by the fancy of the "
sufferer alone. Hundreds nave died
by mere symtoms of cholera, yellow
fever, and plague, induced by sheer
dread and fear of those fearful mala
dies.
A case is recorded, wherein a felon
condemned to death by phlebotomy
had his arm laid bare to the shoulder,
and thrust through a hole in a parti
tion, while he was fast bound to tho
opposite side; the hidden executioner,
upon the other side applied the lancet
to his arm with a click: the poor cul
prit heard the niu'My stream outpour
ing, and soon growing weaker and
fainter, he fell into a swoon, he died;
when the fact was, not a drop of blood
had been shed—a surgeon having
merely snapped his lancet upon tho
arm, and continued to pour a small
stream of water over the limb and into
a basin.
Another case in "pint" was that of
a Philapelphia amateur butcher, who,
in placing nis meat upon a hook, slip
ped, and hung himself, instead of the
beef, upon the barbed point. Ilis ag
ony was intense; he was quickly taken
down and carried to a physician's of
fice, and so groat was his pain (in
imagination) that he cried piteously
upon every motion made by the doc>
tor in cutting the coat and shirt-sleeve
from about the wounded arm! When
at last, the arm was bared, not a
scratch was there!. The hook point
had merely grazed along the skin;
and torn the shirt-sleeve.
JUsf The object of conversation is to
entertain and amuse. To be agreea
ble, you must learn to be a good list
ener. A man who monopolizes a con
versation is a great bore, no matter
how great his knowledge.