fpsirtlaranw.
THE OBSTRUCTIVE PRESIDENT.
The President of the "United States ap
pears to be a man of small intellect and
strong passions. At present he is acting
like young chess-players playing a losing
game, who cannot deny themselves the
small temporary gratification of uselessly
checking their opponent, even though to do
so they throw away the little chance that is
left them of retrieving their battle., Noth
ing could be at once more cynical and more
silly than the policy Mr, Johnson has lately
been pursuing in his unequal struggle with
Congress,—cynical, because it inflicts the
most terrible sufferings in individual eases
without advancing, nay, at the expense of,
that cause of colour-caste in the South,
which Mr. Johnson has espoused;—silly,
because in several instances Mr. Johnson
has thwarted his opponents simply for the
pleasure of thwai’ting them, without, even
the power of overruling them, and without
the pretence of the legal pleas on which he
has generally professed to act. If the Com
mittee to inquire whether he has done any
thing worthy of impeachment—which the
Atlantic Telegraph tells us was carried in
the House of Representatives by the large
majority of 108 to 38 —should really pro
pose to impeach him, and should with
any success, the success will be entirely due
to the senseless obstinacy of his recent acts,
which assuredly render him an obstacle in
the path of the new poliey'which it is de
sirable to shovel out of the way, if it can
be done without any serious disruption of
the party of freedom. Our own view has
been, till within the last week, unfavourable
to so strong a measure as the impeachment
of the President, and would be so still, if
any milder remedy for preventing the com
plete waste of two most important years of
political action could be discovered. Mr.
Johnson is clearly not responsible in any
way for his own nai’row intellect, or proba
bly not now responsible for his own strong
passions. It is not in order to punish him
for being what he is, that any true friend
of freedom would wish to see the ordinary
course of events in the United States inter
rupted. But if the future is to be perma
nently imperilled because these two men
of mean intellect and poor character—Mr.
Johnson and Mr. Seward—stand in the way,
then it becomes the duty of those who know
what the war really meant, and how great
is the danger of letting society in the South
crystallize again on the old law, the law of
Slavery 7 , instead of the new, to sw T eep away
these obstinate misinterpreters of the dis
tinct will of a great nation. Hitherto, how
ever, we do not doubt that Mr. Johnson's
narrow passions have done good, and not
harm. As Louis Napoleon is said to have
apologized in 1859 for leaving Yenetia in the
hands of Austria, on the ground that Italy
would be consolidated far sooner with two
great external irritants, Home and Venice,
still to chafo the Italian nation into active
patriotism and absolute unity of feeling, so
Mr. Johnson, if he had the astuteness of the
French Emperor, might some day plead be
fore the bar of the American nation, that
his bitterness against the cause of freedom
was essential in the hour of victory to alarm
the too lenient spirit of the North, to secure
the coherence of the Free-Soil party and its
adherence to its resolve that the South
should never be trusted again till it bad
frankly obliterated the principle of social
tyranny on which the rebellion took its
stand. Mr. Johnson has hitherto prevented,
and perhaps only a President of such bitter
prejudices could have prevented, the North
from unguardedly, in the generosity of its
heart, making fatal concessions to the South.
But now that he has succeeded in making
them wake as one man to their danger, the
next thing should be to save two most im
portant years in dealing with it, and Mr.
Johnson seems determined to show the
North that this cannot be done without
brushing aside the unfortunate political acci
dent who professes to do their will.
The case against Mr. Johnson is this.
Congress has passed, —and passed as the net
moral result of the war, without the com
plete and sincere acceptance of which the
war would be over only in name, —and the
requisite majority of the States of the Union
have ratified, the Constitutional Amend
ment finally abolishing slavery, except as a
criminal punishment, and giving Congress
power to enforce this new provision of the
Constitution by appropriate legislation. So
far the President and the late rebellious
States professed to go with Congress. But
this change was only nominal so long as the
States latety in rebellion continued to hold
to all their old legal and social customs con
structed on the ideas of the system they pro
fessed to surrender; so long as whites who
shoot negroes are acquitted of all guilt, and
negroes who lift a finger against whites are
shot dead; so long as white men may travel
where they please, and negro travellers are
called vagrants and condemned to slavery
for terms of years; so long as white evidence
hangs any number of negroes, and negro
evidence is not even accepted against a
white; so long as negroes are taxed for the
schools ‘which white children alone may at
tend, and white men burn down the schools
for negroes w T ith absolute impunity; so long
as deliberate massacres of the negroes go ab
solutely unpunished; so long as Southern
Courts laugh at the Constitutional Amend
ment, and declare it unconstitutional. Let
slavery be declared abolished, and yet all
these things of which we have spoken goon
without interference on the part of Congress
or the Executive, and it is clear that the re
sults of the war are cast to the winds.
Yet this is precisely what Mr. Johnson has
moved heaven and earth to effect. Congress
passed a Freedman’s Bureau Bill last session
to protect the negroes in the South. Mr.
Johnson vetoed it. Congress passed a Civil
Bights Bill declaring all native negroes citi
zens of the United States, and entitled to all
the civil rights of whites born under the
THE AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1867.
same circumstances. Mr. Johnson vetoed it.
During the long vacation a most bloody and
malignant plot was laid by the citizens of
New Orleans against the Free-Soil party of
that State, and a massacre organized which
in part took effect, which actually cost the
lives of more than a score of loyalists, and
but for the United States troops would have
been a second St. Bartholomew. Mr. John
son did his best at the time, and has done
his best ever since, to palliate the guilt of
that deliberate massacre and to throw the
blame upon the victims. All this has long
been known.
But now Mr. Johnson is playing more and’
more boldly the same disgraceful part. This
session Congress, which is the only legisla
ture of the District of Columbia, in which
Washington lies, has passed by two-thirds
majorities in both Houses a Bill giving the
suffrage to negroes in that district. Mr.
Johnson has vetoed it, although his power
only extends to delaying it for a day or two,
when the same majorities given after his
veto will pass it into law. Still worse, the
only power by which the evil passion of the
South against its freedmen was mitigated
was the military power. Till lately it was
known that if negroes were murdered and
the State Courts refused to take cognizance
of the crimes, or acquitted the criminals, the
military authorities "would interfere. In
Georgia in the last year there have been
three hundred such murders of which only
three, or 1 per cent., were punished, and
these under the influence of fear of the mili
tary authorities, who would have had far
more influence but for the known bias of the
President against the negroes. Mr. John
son has just withdrawn this one feeble offset
against the malignant negro-hatred of the
South. The Supreme Court has decided
that in Indiana—a State where there never
was any rebellion—the military tribunals
had no authority except over soldiers, and
has set aside a sentence on a civilian passed
by a military Court. Mr. Johnson with in
decent haste has used this decision to further
his purpose of giving each of the Southern
States full freedom to slay or torture its own
negroes, without danger of interference from
the Central Government. He has revoked
as unconstitutional the military order direct
ing the Federal officers to interfere in cases
of any flagrant repudiation by the Southern
Courts of the plain civil rights of the negroes,
and has himself dissolved the Commission
sitting to try a self-confessed murderer at
Richmond. Dr. James L. Watson, who had
been acquitted by the local Court, in spite of
his own boastful confession of the murder,
simply and solely on the ground that negro
murder is not murder. In this case a negro
coachman, called Echols, had driven his mis
tress’ carriage against Dr. Watson’s. Dr.
Watson, the next day, proceeded to cowhide
Echols, and on Echols running away called
him back, under pain of death, to undergo
more cowhiding, and shot him for not re
turning. Of this the murderer Watson
boasted, and the County Court acquitted
him as guiltless of murder. The Military
Commission which was sitting to try him is
dissolved by Mr. Johnson, on the ground
that the Supreme Court had declared trials
by military commission in the Northern
States, —where there never was any rebel
lion or need of military authority,—uncon
stitutional. And Dr. Watson may murder
a fresh negro each day of the new year with
absolute certainty of impunity, if not of
fame.
In Maryland the judges, aware that Mr.
Johnson vetoed the Civil Rights Bill, tvhieh
was passed over his veto, and will do nothing
to enforce it, are setting it at naught in the
most flagrant manner, and on Saturday, 22d
December, four negroes were sold for a term
of years at Annapolis for some slight offence,
—we believe under the vagrant laws, —one
of them being actually permitted to buy him
self in, which he certainly would not have
been if the offence had been more than nomi
nal. The other three were sold to farmers
for a term of years, Judge Magruder declar
ing the Civil Rights Bill passed by Congress,
which refuses to admit any distinction in
the civil laws founded on colour, as uncon
stitutional and inconsistent with the law of
Maryland. All over the South the same
absolute contempt for the civil rights of the
negro is Bhown, under the fostering care of
Mr. Johnson’s justice. North Carolina pa
pers declare that State ready for a new re
bellion on the basis of Mr. Johnson’s princi
ples. South Carolina rejects the new Con
stitutional Amendment, which incorporates
the Civil Bights Bill, by 95 to 1. In Mem
phis, Tennessee, organizations to prevent by
terror commercial dealings with loyal shop
keepers are formed. In Missouri the burn
ing down of freedmen’s schools is a popular
amusement. And everywhere the Presi
dent’s cry is to 1 let be,’ unless the very peo
ple who conspire to do these things interfere
by their own Courts or militia to prevent
them:
These are not iniquities merely requiring
a strong-handed remedy, but mockeries of
the whole policy of the war. If this be con
stitutional —as our “Yankee” correspondent,
in his blind ardour for legalities, boasts, —it
was far more constitutional to permit seces
sion at first, than for the nation now, after
paying hundreds of millions sterling to pre
vent secession, to foster all the springs of se
cession into a new and still more threaten
ing activity. "Whatever price must be paid
to reap the full fruits of the greatest and
most successful of human struggles clearly
must be paid. And if so insignificant a
President as Mr. Johnson must be thrown
overboard to prevent the wreck of the ship
in the very sight of port, why no one will
regret him, though many may regret the ne
cessity of having to-do anything that looks
revolutionary for the sake of clearing away
so trivial an impediment, which by an unfor
tunate accident of position is yet a formida
ble drag on the movement of a great na
tion.—London Spectator, Jan. 12
The Spirit of love to Christ can alone
regulato the use and expenditure of earthly
goods. —-Lange on Matt., 26: 6.
Ucuirtiilc.
[From Mr. Birkinbine's last Report.]
THE PERKIOMEN PROJECT.
It is not surprising that the project has
not met with favor from the public generally.
A little reflection will show that such has
been the fate of all new projects of a public
character; witness, the Fairmount Water
Works, the introduction, of gas, street rail
roads, &e. If there be merit in it, and the
source of supply be, in any degree, as valua
ble as indicated by the Eeport I had the
honor to present one year ago, careful sur
veys and estimates would enable you to
judge more intelligently of it, and to form a
correct decision on reliable data. The prin
cipal objections which have been raised are:
Ist. The belief that there is not a suf
ficient volume of water in the stream to
warrant the expense of bringing it into the
City. It has been proved by Denys Papin,
who printed a work on the origin of foun
tains, in 1674, that the rain and snow-water
were sufficient to make the fountains and
rivers run perpetually. Subsequent investi
gations have corroborated this fact. The
old idea that fountains have their origin in
a mysterious Bubterrannean, arterial system
fed by the sea, is now abandoned. The pre
cipitation of vapor by rain, snow and dew,
is now known to be the only source from
which all the water flowing in streams is
supplied. This being the case, if the amount
of rain-fall and the surface drained by a
stream be known, its entire water capacity
may be ascertained.
Kirkpatrick’s reports of the rain fall upon
this city, give an average of 45.436 inches
per annum/distributed in the seasons about
as follows; Spring, 13 inches; Summer, 12
inches; Autumn, 11 inches; Winter, 10
inches. The mean of several observations
recorded in Bludget’s Climatology, gives a
lower average of rain-fall upon the entire
city; This average is affected by the differ
ence in altitude of the various observers.
From the character of the country drained
by the Perkiomen, the actual amount of pre-.
cipitation will be found greater than that
upon the city. Kirkpatrick’s observations
are, however, taken as a basis for these cal
culations. Bain-gaugCs were placed, and
observations commenced in the Perkiomen
district, near the site of the proposed lake,
at the upper end of the basin, and at its east
ern and western extremities, but as no'ap
propriation was made, they were abandoned.
The area drained by the Perkiomen is about
two hundred and twenty square miles. This
would give an anriual downfall of water of
23,220,476,928 cubic feet, a daily average of
63,617,745 cubic feet. A portion of this wa
ter is evaporated; another portion is ab
sorbed by vegetation. From the geological
formation of the country, probably none es
capes by infiltration through subterranean
channels to other drainage areas. It is dif
ficult to ascertain the precise amount of loss
from the above causes.
In Humphrey’s Physics and Hydraulics of
the Mississippi river, the drainage of the
small tributaries is given as ninety per cent,
of the downfall, and from data collected in
a table, page 280, the flow of small streams
is given at .8 to .9 of the'raiii-fall.
By careful measurements taken for the
supply of Belfast, Ireland, with water, it
it was ascertained that sixty-four and one
third per cent, of the rain-fall could be util
ized.
In the project for supplying London with
water from the Cumberland lakes, it is esti
mated that eighty-two and a half per cent,
can be utilized. In another plan for supply
ing that city from the Severn, eighty per
cent, is estimated as available.
In the plan for supplying Dublin from the
Dodder, sixty-six per cent, of the rain-fall is
estimated as available.
In the case of twelve towns in England
supplied from limited drainage areas, given
in my last Eeport, it was found that the
average amount of the rain-fall utilized was
.509, the amount varying in proportion to
the capacity of the store reservoirs to im
pound the storm-water, some of them utiliz
ing over sixty per cent, of the rain falling
upon the surface drained.
In my estimate, only fifty per cent, is
taken as the amount that can be utilized.
This would make the available capacity of
the Perkiomen an average of 238,566,540
gallons per day. The lowest recorded an
nual rain-fall in this City was in IS4B, only
thirty-five inches. This may be taken as the
minimum. If fifty percent, be utilized, it will
give an available water supply from this
source of 183,997,438 gallons per day. We
may, therefore, safely estimate on a daily
average of 150,000,000 gallons as procura
ble from the Perkiomen drainage, above the
proposed dam.
2d. It is objected to this stream, that it
is subject to frequent freshets, and also to
being greatly reduced in volume in seasons
of drought; which is true of this as of all
streams flowing through hilly or mountain
ous country. This, instead of being detri
mental, is an advantage, for the water is of
better quality than if it lingered in swamps
or flowed sluggishly, and the oscillations in
the amount of water discharged can be con
trolled by constructing impounding reser
voirs, as it is proposed to do.
3d. It is thought that the water in the
store reservoirs will become stagnant and
unfit for use. As this store reservoir will be
a lake of 1500 acres, sixty-five feet in the
deepest part, and not a shallow pond, this
apprehension is groundless. On the contra
ry, the quality of water will be improved by
being impounded in a body of such magni
tude. This will also insure limpid water at
all times, as all sediment will have abundant
time to deposit.
The project may be stated simply, as sup
plying the city with water by gravitation,
from a lake fed by pure mountain streams.
4th. It is objected that $10,000,000 is too
great a sum for the city to pay for a water
supply. This appears to be a large sum of
money, but the works contemplated will be
of such magnitude as to furnish five times
the amount of water now supplied to the
city, and the first cost will be the only ex
pense. It has been shown by the former Re
port, that there is no means by which so
large a supply of water can be furnished at so
low a price. If the aqueduct furnish but one
half the amount —75,000,000 gallons per day
—it.will be at a saving of §218,000 a year
over any other means by which the city can
secure that amount of water. And if it fur
nish but 50,000,000 gallons per day, an
amount which, will be required by the time
such Works can be constructed, by no other
means can the city procure even this amount
of water at a cheaper rate, than by con
structing the aqueduct, even at cost of §lO,
000,000:
It has also been asserted that the Works will
cost much more than this sum. Without ac
tual surveys, plans and estimates, this can
not be proved to be erroneous. A little re
flection, however, will satisfy any one ac
quainted with the nature of the country,
and the value of'work of this kind, that the
sum named will b.e sufficient to do what is
proposed; viz.:—to construct the dam, §5OO,
000; land damages, §500,000; aqueduct,
twenty-four miles, at §250,000 per mile, §6,
000,000; store reserveir, §1,000,000 ; connect
ing mains, §1,000,000; contingencies, §l,OOO,
000. This need not be a matter of supposi
tion. Actual and reliable estimates can be
readily furnished for your information.
These works if substituted for those now in
existence, would not be a burden to tax
payers at the present time; for if the cost
of pumping be deducted from the expenses
of this year, and if the interest on the value
of real estate and machinery that could be
disposed of, were added to the income from
water, the entire interest of the cost of the
Perkiomen Works would be met, without
increasing the water rents, or in any way
taxing property owners.
sth. It has been objected that the water
would be impaired by manufactories placed
upon the stream above the dam.. There is
no probability of this. From the nature of
the country drained, there is nothing to in
duce the location of industrial establish
ments. The water power is now fully oc
cupied by mills, which produce no objec
tionable offal, and legislation can- be readily
secured to prevent the location of establish
ments that would injuriously affect the
water.
To those acquainted with the Perkiomen
project, as presented with my last Annual
Report, the following statement of its ge
neral features may be of interest:
To suppply the city with water from the
Perkiomen by constructing a lake or store re
servoir between Swenksville and Zieglers
ville, in Montgomery county, a distance of
twenty-six and a half miles from Broad and
Market streets. The water in this reservoir
to be sixty-five feet deep, and to cover ah
area of 1500 acres. The lake to have an
available storage capacity of over 5,000,000,
000 gallons. At.this point, the estimated
average daily flow of the Perkiomen is 240,
000,000 gallons. Of this it is proposed to
take 150,000,000 gallons, and convey it by
an aqueduct delivering the water into a re
servoir in the northern part of the city, ca
pable of storing 1,000,000,000 gallons. The
surface of the water in the proposed reser
voir to be seventy-five feet higher than that
in the reservoirs at Fairmount. The water
to be conveyed from this reservoir to the sev
eral centres of distribution in the City by
large iron mains. The permanent.part of
the Works to be constructed with a capacity
of 150,000,000 gallons per day. The distri
buting mains and such parts of the Works
as can be readily duplicated and enlarged,
to have a capacity of 75,000,000 gallons per
day, at first, and to be enlarged as the de
mands of the city increase.
This is a personal in
vitation to the reader to
examine our new styles
of Fine Clothing, Cas
simere Suits for $l6,
and Black Suits fors22.
Finer Suits, all prices
up to $75.
Wanamaker & Brown,
Oak Hall,
Southeast corner of
Sixth & Market Sts.
THOMPSON BLACK & SON,
BROAD AND CHESTNUT STREETS
DEALERS IN
FINE TE3AS,
AND EVERY VARIETY OF
caoics 'F&si&r
Goods delivered in any part of the City, or packed securely for the Country.
FANCY JOB P
Fine Work— Original Styles.
PLAIN AND
SANSOM STREET
Classical School^
19. 33. Corner of
THIRTEENTH I LOCUST STREETS.
PHILADELPHIA,
B. KENDALL, A. M.,
Principal.
COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE
s
' TO K
YOUNG LADIES,
North-West Corner of Chestnut &
* Eighteenth Streets.
REV. CHARLES A. SMITH, D.D.,
PRINCIPAL.
Circulars maybe obtained of S. P. Moore ft Co., 1304 Chestnut
Street, and at the Presbyterian Book Store, 1334 Chestnut Street.
WYERS’ BOARDING SCHOOL
FOR YOUNG HEN AND SOYS,
FOBMEBLY A. BOLHAR'S, ~
AT WEST CHESTER, PA.
A Classical, English, Mathematical and Commercial School, de
signed to fit its pupilb thoroughly for College or Business.
The Corps of Instructors is large, able and experienced; the course
of Instruction systematic, thorough and extensive. M .dern Lan
guages—German, French and Spanish, taught by native resident
teachers. Instrumental and Vocal Music, Drawing and Painting.
The scholastic year of ten months begins ou 'YYedntsday, the
sth of September next.
Circulars can be obtained at the office of this paper, or by appli
cation to
WILLIAM F. WYERS, A. M.,
Principal and Propriet
ENGLISH AND CLASSICAL SCHOOL,
FOR BOARDING AND DAY SCHOLARS,
FORTIETH STREET AND BALTIMORE
AVENUE,
WEST PHILADELPHIA.
REV. S. H. McMULLIN,
TJtIA’CJOPAX..
Pupils Received at any time and Pitted for
Business Life or for College.
References:
B. A; Knight, Esq.; Rev. J. W. Mears; Rev. Jonathan
jjdwards, D. D.; Rev. James M. Crowell, D. D.; Hon.
jjichard H. Bayard; Samuel Sloan, Esq.
Presbyterian House.
SMYTH & ADAIR,
MANUFACTURERS OF
SILVER-PLATED WARE,
GOLD AND SILVEB PLATENS,
KTo. 1334 CHESTNUT ST..
OPPOSITE U. S. MINT,
SECOND FLOOR.
PACTORT-RO. 35 SOUTH THIRD STREET,
.PniuankLemi. 106-t It
W. G. BEDFORD,
CONVEYANCER AND REAL ESTATE AGENT,
JNTo. 03 NT. TontU Street,
PHILADELPHIA.
My central location and the many means of communication with
the suburbs enable me to take the Agency for sale and care of Real
Estate, the Collection of Interests, ground and house rents in every
part of the city. References will be furnished, when desired.
M. P. SIMONS would call Attention to bis
SIZE PHOTOGRAPHS. Those living at a distance can
have Daguerreotypes, Photographs, Ac., copied any size,
and colored any style, by mailing the picture and de
scription of complexion, hair, Ac. All pictures are warranted
to give full satisfaction.
M. P. SIMONS,
1320 Chestnut street, Philadelphia, Pa.
S T E A m;
Dyeing and Sconring Establishment.
MRS. E. W. SMITH,
No. 28 N. Fifth St., below Arch, Phila.
Ladies’ Dresses, Cloaks, Shawls, Ribbons, Ac., dyed in
any color, and finished equal to new.
Gentlemen’s Coats, Pants and Vests cleaned, dyed and
repaired.
J. H. BUBDSALL’S
OONPBOTION 33 R. Y,
ICE CREAM & DINING SALOONS,
Jo. 1122 Chestnut St., Girard Mow,
PHILADELPHIA.
Parties supplied -with Ice Creams, Water Ices, Roman Punch
Charlotte Russes, Jellies, Blanc Mange, Fancy and Wedding Cakes
Candy Ornaments, Fruits, Ac., Ac; 1070-6 t
RINTE R,
HALL.