VOLUME 1.
THE AMERICAN CITIZEN,
IS published rvery Wednesday In the borough of Butler,
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Speech of Hon. Thomas Williams
ON THK ENROLLMENT BILL.
Mr Chairman, if this had been a new
question I should have felt greatly embar
rassed as to the policy or propriety of
commuting military service for money.—
This is a war measure, and not a revenue
measure. The Government wants men
and not money. The latter has been fur
nished by the people with unstinted and
ungrudging liberality; nay, with a prod
igality which has surprised ourselves, and
at which the world stands amazed. Ido
not know how to value the stout heart or
the strong arm of the American freeman
in the current money of the merchant. —
I do not like the traffic in men and money
and sinew, whether it be white or black.
Looking to the experience of other re
publics, I should greatly deprecate the
conversion of the soldier of ours into a
mercenary. Between men of American
growth and training and the richest of
the metals I know no common standard of
comparison. With me they are quanti
ties incommensurable. A\ hen the Repub
lic demands the services of her children,
I know no answer they can make except
that of Isaac, that they arc ready for the
sacrifice. It is the answer which their
unealculating instincts prompted when
the echoes of the guns in Charleston har
bor thrilled along their nerves, and half
a miilion of them sprang to their arms at
the first summons of the President, to
avenge the insult to our flag; when the
very yearnings of maternity were hashed,
and the American, like the Spartan moth
er. arryyed her youngest born as though it
had been for the bridal, put the musket
in his hands, and sent him out with the
invocation of God's blessing upon his er
rand, and the injunction to do his duty
and come back upon his shield, if such
were the fortunes of war, but not without
it. It is the answer they would still make
if their ardor were not chilled by the fa
tal and inglorious inaction, the wearisome
delays, (he inadequate results, and the
want of earnestness'which have distinguish
ed so many of our commanders; or, what
is worse still, if their love of country was
not overlaid and smothered by the devi
lish suggestions of wicked counselors who
liavc squatted at their ears and distilled
into them the subtle venom of party.
They have ceased, however, to wake
that answer. Enthusiasm was too weak
to survive rebuffs and disappointments,
while treason at home was but too ready
to make them the occasion for denuncia
tions against the 'Government and ques
tions as to the rightfulness and the suc
cessful results of the war. It has become,
of course, a necessity to remind the back
ward of their duty, and to insist that it
shall be performed. These arguments
have prevailed, however, with many of
the people who had been accustomed to
take counsel from the malcontents. They
have held back accordingly until it has
become indispensable to awaken them to
a sense of the obligations which they owe
lo their country. Their advisors do not
'however, deny the duty ; so far as lip-ser
vice is concerned, there is an abundance
of it. lint they insist that the perform
ance shall be a voluntary one, or, in other
words, that it shall rest in their own dis
cretion. Like Falstaff, they would do
.nothing on compulsion. To compel a
Democrat to fight would be anti-republi
■r;tn, or if there is to be compulsion it must
be, upon the authority of a great casuist
of the Roman church, who has not read
Bellanuine in vain and knows how to turn
a corner as adroitly as the original and in
imitable .Jack himself, a voluntary one,
a sort of compulsion iu the Pickwickian
sense. To compel him in any other way
would be a violation of his prerogative as
a freeman. A perfect liberty is the right
of doing what we please, but never any
thing on compulsion.
And now u word or two in sober earn
est on the objoction taken seriously bore,
and urged throughout the couutry, in re
lation to the legitimacy of the draft. I
need not apologize for speaking on that
point. It is always important to satisfy
the people not only that a thing is law but
that it is right. It is always well to add
• the sanctions of conscience and the sense
of duty to the luaudtttos of the law-giver.
Without this laws are practically impotent.
The " sic volo, sic jubeo, stet pro ratione
voluntas" of an imperial rescript is not
the argument for an American citizen.—
He wants more than it, and he wants it
here because immense pains have becu ta-
AMERICAN CITIZEN.
ken to cloud his perceptions and pervert
his moral sense by representing the com
pulsory performance of the highest of his
duties as a violation of his liberties. The
oracles of the Opposition have proclaimed
—their highest legal authorities in Penn
sylvania. in the exercise of a jurisdistion
heretofore unknown, have decided—that
the act of the hist session was unconstitu
tional. Men equally trusted by them
here have insisted that its principle was
anti-republican. It is important, there
fore, to enquire whether these things are
so—whether there is anything here to au
thorize these imputations or to excuse even
a reluctant submission to a measure which
is essential to the safety of the nation and
has been made necessary by the counsels
of the very men who now complain of it.
I do not propose to enter into objections
of detail arising out of the peculiar fea
tures of the law, or to argue the question
upon merely technical or professional
grounds. These arc for the courts. This
is a higher forum, and the objection made
to the principle—radical as it is—an ap
peal from the lawyer to the publicist, from
the courts to the people. It is the states
man who must decide it.and not the judge.
Is it true, then, that a compulsory levy
of troops—a conscription, if you please—
in the extremity of a State is nuti-rcpub
lican in principle, or, in other words, at
war with the spirit of our institutions and
the gonitis and character of this Govern
ment '! It has been so announced on this
door, on authority supposed to be conclu
sive, and has gone to the country without
contradiction. It was a challenge of the
law from a higher point than the Consti
tution. It was not the assertion in terms
that the law was in variance with the Con
stitution, but in effect that the Constitu
tion itself was not republican, did not con
form to the fundamental idea on which it
rested. Tt was the proclamation of a high
er law which the authority " to raise and
support armies" had ifnpigned upon.
Well. I am no higher-law man, except
so far as the consideration of the public
safety or the nation's life may make me
so. ]am not ashamed or afraid to recog
nize publicly the maxim of the safttx p"p
uli xnema* ler. * * * *
For the sake of grcator clearness, I
quote the passage itself, translated by me
from the French version in default of an
English one. of the " Treatise on the Re
public," by Macliiavelli:
" This part of the Constitution of Rome
deserves to be remarked, and ranked in
the number of those which contribute the
greatness of its empire. Without an in
stitution of this nature, a State cannot es
cape but with great difficulty from extra
ordinary convulsions." •
* # * * * *
" It follows from this that all republics j
must have in their Constitutions a like es
tablishment. When it is wanting it be- j
comes necessary, by ordinary j
track, to see the constitution perish, or |
rather to depart from it for the purpose of J
Miring it. But in a State well constituted
no event must happen for which there j
shall be occasion to resort to extraordinary
ways J for if extraordinary means do good ,
for the moment, their example constitutes J
a real evil. The habit of violating the i
constitution to do good afterwards author- j
izes its violation to cover evil. A repub
lic, therefore, is ncvor perfect if its lawjy
have not provided for everything, lidfl
the remedies always in readiness, am H
furnished the means of employing jfefialr,
And I conclude by saying that the
lies which in imminent dangers j
recourse either to a dictator <; j
magistrates must inevitably pej^flPfcre-
Thc war power of our Coiaffiition is j
the equivalent of the RomanjMßitorship.
It is, however, here as the
extreme medicine of the Cdjjffitution, and j
not its daily broad. The of a re
public is peace ; war is a state of violence, j
To conduct an anny updti the principles
of republican equality would be fatal to
all subordination and discipline. For such |
an exigency as this the normal condition !
of a republic will not serve. Its very or
ganization would forbid it. War is anti-!
republicin in its effects, and can only be j
successfully waged on anti-republican prin
ciples. While it prevails the lav itself
must almost necessarily be silent. Its
code of laws is necessarily anti-republi
can. With such a Government therefore,
it is an unnatural condition, and the thirst
for territorial aggrandizement through the
the agency of the sword does violence to
its nature and its life. But while wars of
conquest are anti-rcpublican, a war of self
defence to preserve the nations life is a
legitimate because it is a necessary one.
The doctrine of non-resistance would be
fatal to any government. When there is
no mode left fbr supporting the Constitu
tion, except by suspending the enjoyment
of an individual right, that right must
yield to the occasion. It is not the Con
stitution that authorizes the suspension of
the haleai corpus. lieeognizing, as its
framers did, the necessity-of putting the
highest privilege of the citizen ir obey
ance, they do not grant but only q .alify
or abridge its exercise, by provir ig that
" 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, FEBRUARY 17, 1864.
it shall not be suspended except in the
cases indicated. Every attribute of sov
ereignty which pertains to any Govern
ment that is supreme may be exeercised
when necessary, unless it is expressly for
bidden. Thus the right of eminent do
main. as it is called by the publicists, or
that which authorizes the seizure or de
struction of private property for public
uses, and the kindred power of taxation
which seizes it without other equivalent
than the protection which Government af
fords, are not the subjects of special grant
but only of special limitation. Establish
a Government that is independent and
sovereign, and they belong to it of course,
because they are essential attributes, in
seperable from the very being. If a Gov
ernment can, however, take private prop
erty, which is the product of labor, with
out compensation, for a public use, it is
but a step further, and an easy one, to
take the producer himself, as it does when
it compels him to work on the highway,
on the grounds of public necessity.
It is not disputed, os I understand, by
anybody here, that the Government is en
titled to the military services of all its cit
izens when they are needed for its defense.
The objection is only that a compulsory
levy is anti-republican. If this be true,
then the idea of such a thing as a repub
lican government is the wildest of chime
ras. Admitting the dutj-, the right to en
force it is a corollary, a necessary conse
quence, in this case as all others. The
notion of any government presupposes su
premacy, subordination, and constraint.—
No government ever did or ever can rest
upon the mere voluntary principle. All
the duties of the citizen, except those
merely moral ones that are said to be of
imperfect obligation—-all that arc political
at least—rest upon the idea of coercion.
That is the principle of ever}* law. That
is the import of the whole judicial ma
chinery with which we arc surrounded.— ■
The potse comitatus itself is nothing more
nor less than a compulsory levy, an army
improvised to execute the laws. When
the time arrives'—which will not be until
the millennium foreshadowed by the proph
et, and several years after the modern De
mocracy shall have died out like the ex
tinct monsters of the earlier geological
epochs—when men shall perform their
duties voluntarily, there will be no further
occasion for either government or laws.—
. The notion that the mob of New York,
and the unnatural sympathizers with the
rebellion everywhere, shall not be compell
ed to defend the government that protects
them in all their rights and endows them
with the unwonted privilege of governing
other people, is but the extension of the
argument of the late Attorney General of
the United States, anil now reporter of its
Supreme Court, that there could be no
' coercion of States, and that this great
I Government was without even power of
[ self-defense, was entirely helpless against
i the parricide, and must uncover its bosom,
j or wrap its robes around it and submit to
1 death without a struggle whenever the
I murderous blow was aimed by the hands
lof its.own children. That was according
|to programme. Both have the same pur
pose and meaning. That would have
Browned the work of the traitors with im-
Hfcdiate success. This is a slower poison,
K'hieli would leave the defense of the na
tion to the loyal Untwist in the field, and
I transfer the direction of the government
to the hands of the auxiliaries of the re
bellion, who choose " to kiss my lady peace
|at home who know that they can serve
| the cause they love with more effect and
greater safety here by affecting loyalty,
j misrepresenting the designs of the govcrn-
I ment, discouraging volunteering, and de
; nouncing compulsory levies of men, than
j by taking their places openly in the armies
of the confederacy. Ido not know a man
j of them who is not now an " uncondition
; al Unionist," provided he c!ln have " the
Union as it was," which he knows to be
| impossible, whether we succeed or fail, or
j treat, as he desires us to do, and hopes to
! bring about by cherishing the disease, pre
serving the cause of the disunion, and
I declining to employ the most necessary
j effeetivo weapon which Providence has
I placed in our hands for compelling the
, eventual restoration of the Union itself.
Thank God! the instincts of the people,
the loyal army at home, have revolted at
the special plea of the attorney, and even
converted him at the late elections into
the "Boisiest of patriots and the professed
advocate of the vigorous prosecution of
the war; that is to say, on peaco princi
ples, and provided you will refuse to allow
the willing negro or compel the reluctant
and recalcitrant Democrat to fight. The
fear is, in view of the well-known Army
sentiment, that it would chango the very
nature of the latter by showing him the
realities of war. and making him a radi
cal, or, in other words, an earnest man.
We have the authority of one of the
apostles of the new Democracy now hold
ing a seat on this floor, if the newspapers
have not misrepresented him, for the opin
ion publicly expressed in the great peace
convention at New York, that a war Dem
ocrat is an impossible thing; and that
any man here who wonld draw a sword in
such a quarrel—l mean on this side of it
—is no better than a Black Republican.
And so it is, that while all the Democracy
of Butler and Burnside and Hooker and
other fighting generals of that stamp, who
have proved that they were in earnest, has
failed to shelter them from the denuncia
tions of the rebel papers in Richmond or
New York, the non-combatant qualities of
the grave-digger of the Chickahominy
and the loiterer at Bull Run have made
him the idol of the Democracy iu both
those capitals. If the gentleman from
Kentucky, who was taxed a few days ago
by his colleagues with infidelity to his
pledges to vote for a war Democrat, had
adverted to the sentiment to which I have
just referred, he might have answered
that a war Democrat was a myth—a per
sonage even more apocryphal than Prester
John or the man with the iron mask.
If it be true, however, that a compulso
ry levy of men for the protection of the
government or the enforcement of its laws
is anti-republican, then I say again that
republican government is just as impossi
ble a thing as a war Democrat. The nation
which cannot command the military ser
vices of its people has no guarantee of
life, and must inevitably perish in its first
formidable convulsion. To presume that
they will all rush to its standard at the
first summons, and that they will adhere
to it alike through good and ill fcirtutie,
alikethrough sunshine and through storm,
is to suppose in the face of our present
experience that it contains no bold traitors
who will lift their hands against it in bat
tle, no cowardly miscreants who, with pro
fessions of loyalty on their lips, will adopt
the safer policy of sneaking from its de
fense, oraidingandencouraging those who
are attempting to overthrow it. The time
was when this service was a privilege of
rank or fortune; when the soldier served
without wages, although he derives his
name from the idea of pay, and when the
craven who refused to respond to the sum
mous of his country was visited with the
dire anathemawhichisso well paraphrased
by the genius of the immortal Scott, and
finds its climacteric iu the imprecation,
" Woe to the traitor, woo !" A greater
than he has remarked that " the ago of
chivalry has gone, and the age of sopliis
tcrs and economists has succeeded." It
was not so at the commencement of this
rebellion.
I happened to be at tlic scat of govern
ment of Pennsylvania when the news of
tho bombardment of Sumter came over
the electric wires, and shook its capital as
with an earthquake throe, then sped on its
fiery errand along tho Susquehanna, and
the Delaware, and the limpid Allegheny,
uutil it reached the distant shore of the
great lake which bathes her northwestern
confines. The fiery cross that passed from
hand to hand and gathered the clansmen
of the hills around the banner of their
chief never travelled, never lighted such
a conflagration as was kindled by that
message. Before the setting of another
sun a hundred thousand Pennsylvania
men were begging for the privilege of
laying down their lives in the defense of
the insulted flag of their fathers. The
political managers of the Democratic par
ty who had bargained against coercion and
pledged themselves that Pennsylvania
woyld take side with the rebellious States
were appalled by the demonstration, and
slunk away from the public gaze which
would havo blasted them. It was only
when reverses overtook our arms—revers
es which were the consequences of the
unsuccessful effort to propitiate themselves
by taking counsel with and employing
men of the same type of thought—that
they ventured to reappear, and managed
to seduce the loyal men of the Democrat
ic party into the belief that a Republican
Administration wa3 unfit to conduct the
war, which they reinforced by the argu
ment that it waMipbliged to borrow its
generals almost exclusively, from the Dem
ocratic party. If a draft was made nec
essary after such a demonstration it was
through their agency. If it has proved
ineffective or unpopular, it is because they
have endeavored to make it so.
The country knows how the question
was dealt with by the Democratic authori
ties of New York. It knows, too, the
process by which the Democratic judges
of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
undertook, with indecent precipitancy,
and in the exercise of a jurisdiction en
tirely new, to restrain the execution of
the law which authorised it. And we are
reminded here from day today that there
are men among us who apparently do not
intend that the country shall find soldiers,
either white or black, if they can prevent
it; who insist that we shall not enlist the
negro because it is a privilege which be-
longs only to the white man ; who say to
the white man that he ought not to vol
unteer because it is an abolition war; and
that the conscription is unlawful and
very unnecessary because we ought
to depend on volunteers ; and who, after
doing everything iu their power to render
the law ineffective, come here and, with a
coolness that would be absolutely refresh
ing if the times were not so much out of
joint, demand its repeal on the grounds
that they have succeeded ! I have heard
it stated that the district of the gentleman
from New York who is most importunate
on this point has yielded —under his pat
riotic auspices, no doubt —about three
hundred and fifty soldiers, leaving his vo
ters of course, most comfortably intact,
and in a condition to govern the nation
at least, if they will not fight for it. If
he fajors the war however, as he says he
does, why does he not endeavor to amend
the law ? If the commutation clause is
the difficulty with his constituents, and
he thinks that a poor man can pay 81,000
for a substitute more easily than he can
8300, why does he not move to strike it
out?
I fear it cannot be made to suit gentle
men of that cast of mind and heart, un
less it can be so framed as to defeat, the
object entirely. Their constitutional scru
ples will not allow them to do anything
for the salvation of this nation. They have
found no difficulty heretofore iu discover
ing in that instrument every power that
was required fo further the interests of
the divine institution. They had no dif
ficulty in regard to the Louisiana or Flor
ida purchases; none as to the annexation
of Texas; none as to the assumption of its
debts ; none as to the purchase or seizure,
at the expense of another war like the
Mexican if necessary, of the gem of the
Antilles. When the attempt is made,
however, to extract anytliingvaluable from
that instrument for the interests of human
ity or the preservation of the nation's life,
it is no better than a caput mortum—
without vitality, full of obstructions, im
potent for good, but alive all over, in all
its members, and actively omnipotent, too,
for mischief. These constitutional ex
pounders who strain at a gnat make no ac
count of taking in a camel at a breakfast.
I should despair of making anything out
of them by a constitutional argument.
GARRETT DAVIS IN THE SENATE.—
That Garrett Davis, who is permitted to
pollute the Senate of the United States
with his presence, is practically a rebel, no
one can doubt who has watched his course
for the last two sessions. Recently he of
fered a series of resolutions, seventeen in
number, in nearly all of which he denoun
ced the Government in his usual billings
gate style, and in one of which he calls
upon the people, if his views are not car
ried out, to revolt against the Government
and destroy it. For this, Senator Wilson
offered a resolution for his expulsion from
the Sonate. When it came up for consider
ation, Davis, in his reply to Wilson, con
firmed all that he was charged with. He
threatened, if expelled, togo home and
raise the cry of opposition, tyranny, usur
pation and revolution against the faithless
who have charge of the Government.—
This is treason, if anything orally spoken
can be. Jesse D. Bright used similar lan
guage, and he was sent home, but his
threats were as impotent as Davis' will be
and sunk into the merited oblivion which
Davis will find among the loyal, brave and
intelligent people of Kentucky.
The President, during the term of his
office, is the visible head of the Govern
ment; there cannot be two Presidents at
the same time, and there cannot bo a di
vided power or two kinds of loyalty. Men
holding this high office may be changed
by the power of the ballot-box, and with
them public measures may be altered, but
the President, must be supported in the
execution of laws. All counsels to the
contrary arc simply disloyal and treasona
ble, and should be so treated. The Sen
ate owes to itself, it owes it to the Presi
dent, whom it advises, and it owes it to
the brave soldiers fighting against the re
bellion, and it owes it to the loyal people
of tho land to expel Garrett Davis from
the Senate of the United States of Amer
ica, that all the world may learn to respect
and esteem the purity and the patriotism
of that most august and powerful body of
legislators in tho world.— Exchange.
«■ y ■»
A GOOD REASON. —A Grand Jury
at the South ignored a bill against a
huge negroe for stealing chickens
and before discharging him from cus
tody, the Judge bid him stand repri
manded—lie concluded as follows:
"You can now go, John, but (shaking
his finger at him) let me warn you
never to appear here again."
John with delight beaming from his
big white eyes, and with a broad grin,
displaying a row of ivory, replied—
"l wouldn't bin dis time, Judge,
only the constable fotched me."
From the WaTerly Msgnrhie.
THE PATRIOT BOY.
Hark! dear mother, hear the clamor!
Brave Columbia's traitor sons
Madly rise against the banner
Under which has been their homes I
Sec! like wolves thej seek to rend it,
Shame! oh shame ! they trample o'er I
But her true sons will defend it
Though the earth reek with their gore.
Now to save my bleeding country,
Duty calls me—l must go.
lie, who ever haa watched o'er theo
Mother, He'll protect thee now,
One sweet kiss, my dearest mother,
Fold me to thy heart once more;
I'll return to thee and sister
" When this cruel war it o'er/*
By the great God who now rulea o'er us
By that name we hold so dear,
Freedom's banner floating o'er us,
We will conquer—never fear!
Like the worm that fading dies,
But to change to brigher form,
So our starry flag shall riae,
Radiant from rebellious storm.
Where the muskets sharply rattle-
Where the cannon's loud death-knell—
Tell the scene of hottest battle,
Foremost In the ranks he fell.
And, as solemnly they laid him
On the field so dearly won,
His bravo soul arose to heaven,
Hanked with that of Washington.
J. n. 8.
WIT AND WISDOM.
A MORAL INSTRUMENT.—An upright
piano.
THE beautiful tresses of youyg ladies
are beau-strings.
THE highest premium for meanness has
been awarded to the anonymous letter.
PUNCH teaches book-keeping in three
words—" Never lend them."
PRIDE breakfasted with Plenty, dined
with Poverty, and supped with Infamy.
PROSPERITY is no just scale; adversity
is the only balance to weigh friends.
SAM, why am de hogs the most intelli
gent folks in de world ? Because dey
nose eberyting.
To prevent the kitchen door from creak
ing get a servant girl whose beau comes
to the house to see her.
" THE eyes of your beloved, after she
has been crying," Punch calls "ornamen
tal fret-work."
A KISS, says an ingenious authority, is
like the creation, because it is made of
nothing, and is very good.
THE ancient Greeks buried their dead
in jars. Hence the orgin of the expres
sion—He's gone to pot."
" No pains will be spared," as the quack
said when sawing off a poor fellow's leg to
cure him of the rheumatism.
WHY is a child a year old like a sugar
bowl'! Give it up ? Because it's a teeth
ing (tea-thing.)
YOUNG MEN who stand around church
doors to watch young ladies as the con
gregation is going out, are called " the
Devil's picket?.'*
" How many deaths ?" asked the hos
pital physician. "Nine." "Why, I or
dered medicine for ten." Yes, but one
would not take it."
" I THINK our church will last a good
many years yet," said a waggish deacon
to his minister; " I see the sleepers arc
very sound."
ALL personal antagonists arc infernal.
Hence ho who cherishes hatred against
his fellow-man shows that he himself is a
bad man.
A FRENCH wit said of a man who was
exceedingly fat, that nature only made
him to show how the human skin would
stretch without breaking.
ONE of Walker's men, who had a Cos
ta Kican bayonet at his breast, refused to
ask for mercy because an American can't
take Spanish quarters now.
'MRS. PARTINGTON says that because
dancing girls arc stars, it is no reason why
they should be regarded as heavenly bo
dies.
REMEMBER that every person, howev
er low, has rights and feelings. In all
contentions let peace be rather your ob
jegt than triumph. Value triumph only
as the means of peace.
THE following question is now before
the Sand Lake Debating Society:
" Which is a bad man least fitted for—
to live or die ?"
We shall issue the verdict in an extra.
A I.ADT said to a servant the other day
at dinner, " go down cellar and bring up
the bread that lies on the shelf there.
" It won't do no good, ma'am," was the
reply, " for the bread on that shelf down
cellcr is up here in this cupboard, ma'am."
A COUNTRYMAN walking along the
streets of New York, found his progress
stopped by a barricade of lumber.
" What is that for T" said he to a per
son in the street.
" Oh, that's to Btop the yellow fever."
" Aye, I have often heard of the board
of health, but I never saw one before."
A BOSTON correspondent tells us of a
homestiek conscript on the Kapidan. A
lieutenant found him solitary and alone,
weeping like a big booby boy.
" What's the matter t"
Oh, I wish I was in my father's barn."
" And what would you do there ?"
" I would go into the house plaguy
quick 1" said the poor fellow, boo-hoomg
again at the rate of 2:40 a minute.
NUMBER 10.
from the fenns. School Jotiroal
Educational Halters in other States,
MAINE.—The Editor of the Maine
Teacher, undet tlr« licftd of " a Raid up
on our Exch&ngetj," has commenced the
publication of Selections from the Edu
cational Periodicals of the Union—a prac
tice first regularly introduced, if We mis
take not, by this Journal, ft is a good
thing and brings the school men of the
various States together in tbougM and
action, as well as in a common purpose.
VERMONT.—An intelligent correspond
ent of the School Journal, pronounces
the Academic System of that State, with
few exceptions, a failure. The same may
be said of Pennsylvania. The Acade
mies endowed by the State in the early
part of the present century, are nearly all
defunct, except where large accumulated
funds keep a few in operation. Among
those since established by private enter
priie, very many have failed. A few and
those only cases of eminent profession*?
and administrative ability in the Princi
pals, have proved cither profitable to their
proprietors, or beneficial to the publio.
The recent Annual School Report of
Vermont shows a considerable diminution
in the practice of " Boarding round," by
Teachers, —" a consummation most de"
voutly" to be thankful for. In other re
spects, also, the report is encouraging.—
County Institutes are strongly commend
ed and urged. The consolidation of the'
Colleges of the State and the remodeling
of the Common School System are re
commended, so as to profit by the econo
my and efficiency of a thorough classifi
cation of all the educational institutions
RHODE TSI,AND.—At a Inte meeting of
the State Institute, at Westerly, the ques
tion " How far shoufd teachers assist
their pupils" in study, was vory freely
discussed. Of course the opinions were
as various as the speakers and their pecu
liarities of temper and early training
their idiosyncrasies. Consequently no con
clusion was arrived at. Yet this a great
educational question, and orte which each
teacher must disenss and settlo for him
self, on the ground not merely of tem
perament and habit, bat of the latfs of
mind and its development. A just me
dium must bo adopted; the truth proba
bly being, that as much of evil resultrt
from too much as from too little assist
ance.
OHIO. —At the quarterly meeting 6f
the north-western Ohio Teachers' Asso
ciation, at Sandusky, November 21, 1 K6.1,
a noble" plea for the unfortunate and va
grant children of Ohio" by R. TV. Ste
venson, Superintendent of Norwnlk pub
lic schools, was made in the opening ad
dress. This is a most proper subject fot
the consideration of all teacherf, and
seems to have been handled in ti frrarfiner
suited to its importance. How diffferftnt
from the efforts of some teachers \vftos6
desire is the expulsion of these uriforttf
nates from school, when occasion-ally bto't
within their care, instead of coveting tfr6
opportunity to reform and save.
INDIANA. —There is a good editorial
article in the December number of the
School Journal on " some of tht> Unem
ployed educational forces,', tbr the ad
vancement of education iri the State.—
One is embraced in the adage—"keep it
before the people"—or Agitation ; arid as
promotive of this, the full publicity of all
educational events and proceedings. An
other is the adoption of special mcahs for
the diffusion of educational intelligence ;
to effect which educational columns id the
newspapers are properly recommfendfed.—
A third force of means is, " interest in
elections to educational positions," by all
who wish the success of the cause—Hot
only in the election of Trustees, Directors,
Examiners, County Superintettdettts, arid
State Superintendent, but of Legislators
who are to make, amend or spoil school
laws. This is all good and to the poiilt,
and hits the point, elsewhere, as well as
in Indiana.
KENTUCKY. —We were recently applied
to by a gentleman of Louisville, for infor
mation relative to Normal Schools—the
Legislature being about to act on that
foundation part of a good Comtnod School
system. This is glorious news, and sounds
like the beginning of true peace.
A PLAIN SPOKEN WITNESS. —"Facta
are stubborn things," said a lawyer to a fe
male witness under examination. The
lady replied: "Yes, sir-ee : and so are
women, and if you get anything out of
me, just let me know it." " You'll be
committed for contempt." Very well I'll
suffer justly, for I feel the utmost contempt
for every lawyer present."
'■»> ,m
A©"*■ We are acquainted with A
printer who is so enthusiastic in his
business that he never flita down to
dinner without insisting on seeing a
proof of the pudding. We know one
who think* proof occupies too much
time, and irbeec heata down ta table,
he says: " Come in eatables."