VOLUME 4.
<9ri]>inal s)oetrtt.
For tho Citizen
LINES
Suggested by seeing young men outside theCh«reh dur
tog ierrice.
At we to-day In the Church did meet,
We marked, oh many a vacant seat—
And sadly thought of the painful truth—
That the companion* of our youth,—
The pride of man v a parent's heart,
Could thus with the scoflor bear a part,
And letting the precious momeats glide
Bo thoughtlessly, thus remain outeTde.
We saw with pride that a few there were
Whoee brews were not marked by age or care,
Who waited to hear the word today,
Nor did with the thonghtlen* members «tay.
And we felt their lives would lengthened be,
And happier far their eternity,
Than theirs, though the doors be open wide,
Who still will choose to remain outside.
But oh, young men, when your youth hat fled,
And its firlKhteHt hopes ar») withored and dead,
Wh*n *ge has diawn ita lines on vol|r brow,
And your limbs are no longer art ire as now 1
Will the thought of the hours now idled away
Brighton the hours of declining day 112
And will you recall with pleasant pride,
The hours when you chose to reniaiu outside?
And when death has stilled your n-w beating heart
And from all you luve on earth jou nius part.
And yon, at .the Bar of the Joat, must appear,
To render an account for tho yeari spent here 1
And when you gaze on tbe land ot blest.
Ami *ee them enter into tho place of rent,
An-I see the pearly gat es tut they open wider-
Will you then be cont «nt to reui-ia outsido ?
II.
.'Jttißcellancous.
ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.
What he thinks of the Rebellion.
"Mack" prints in tbe Cincinnati Com-!
mercial an entertaining account of a visit to
the home of Alexander 11. Stephens, the
principal part of which we give below :
" Returning from the farm, Mr. Stephens
talked freely ot the late war. The South,
be believed, made two fearful mistakes:
First, ingoing to war at all. and secondly,
in the object for which they went to war.
It was a groat absurdity to think that there ]
could be such a thing as permanent separa
tion of the two sections, lie was opposed
to secession in the first place; but when he
could not resist that—when Georgia went
out, and be, as a State's rights man, felt
bound togo with Georgia, then he wanted
to fight only on terms "of reconstruction,
such as would cement tbe country on a bet
ter basis than it ever stood. Jeff. Davis
and the fire eaters fought for Southern in
dependence, and ruined tbe South in doing
so. I called his attention to reports in
•Southern newspapers during the war, that
be, Stephens, had declared his opposition to
reconstruction upon any terms. They were
all false, he said, and he was sorry to see
in Pollard's Lost Cause, which he consider
ed a wretchodly bad history of the war,
what pretended to be an extract from a
speeoh made by him at Charlotte, North
Carolina, after bis unsuccessful attempt to
confer with Lincoln at Fortress Monroe
(before tbe Hampton Roads conference,) in
which be is represented as saying that under
no circumstances would he co n sent to recon-
Htruction. He never said nny such thing,
lie was a reconstructionUt, he said, from
tho first day of the war till the last. Re
ferring to politics in the North during the
war, ho expressed his regret that the peace
party had not been successful in 1804. lie
thought tbe Democrats made a mistake in
nominating a war man. If a straight-out
■peace man had been nominated he might
have been elected, and the reconstruc
structionists of the South would then have
made terms of peace and reunion with them.
"But," said I, "'in the North the people
could not be persuaded that the peace party
was not a secession party." " There's
where you made a great mistake," said Mr.
Stephens. "Jeff. Davis wanted Lincoln
elected ; he told me so. The reconetruc
tionists of the South wan tody or of the North
to elect a peaco man, and we would then
have overthrown tho Davis war party of the |
South, and made terms of reunion without
nny difficulty." I replied that I thought if
the people of tbe North bad bad any assur
ance that the election of a Peaco Democrat
would have restored the Union on honorable
terms they would have elected one. But
the Democratic party of tbe North had made
itself obnoxious as a secession party ; its
leaders bad been to a great degree instru
mental in bringing the war about by assur
ing the Southern fire eaters of a fire in the
rear party, and while they might prefer
Union to secession they certainly preferred
secession to war—while the Republican par- 1
ty preferred Union to any thing else, and
were willing to kee pup tbe war ten years to
secure it. Besides, if there were so many re
constructionists in the South, why did they
not make their influence felt—why not
make overtures to the Republican party of
the North T" Mr. Stephens replied, ''there
were a great many of us, but we could'nt
get tbe helm. One man at the helm of a
ship has more power than five hundred
amidsbip. But, if the first desire fur peace
bad come from the North we would have
been strengthened so that we could have
broken down tho permanent separation par
ty. All we wanted was for you of tbeJNorth
to show that you wantA peace and reunion;
and then we could have responded. Take
the State of Geurgia, for instanoe. While
there was an immense majority in favor of
keeping up the war as long as the Federal
army was in the field against us, there was
a great majority in favor of reconstruction,
but they wanted tbe first indications to come
from the North,"
Speaking of the]conduot of the war on the
part of the South, Mr. Stephens criticised it
as extremely unwise. It ought never to
have been an offensive war, and if the re
sources of the South had been properly
economised, instead of being wasted in ftg-
AMERICAN CITIZEN.
gressive battles, the North would certainly
have been worried into giving up tbe con
test. Then in a few years the South would
have gone back to the Union without a
doubt, for the dream of a separate nation
ality would soon hare been dispelled. Tbe
great error of the North, he thought, was in
adopting tbe policy of coercion. If South
Carolina had been permitted togo, and a
few other States with her, secession would
soon have been at an end. The Bouth was
getting very sick of it when the call for
75,000 troops came out. A tariff of twenty
per cent, on every thing produced in the
country had been levied by the Montgomery
Congress, and it had caused a rise in prices
and great discontent. One thing after an
other had occurred to persuade the people
that secession was a foolish undertaking,
hut when troops were called for to invade
the South the tide immediately tinned the
other way, and the separntionists triumphed
every where. lie regarded Jeff. Davis as a
man of kind heart, who meant well in what
I he did, but was not fitted fot the bead of a
I nation in a time like that of the late war.
I He would listen to no advice, and heed no
warning. Because he wanted to succeed,
he thought therefore he must, and be had no
idea of giving up the contest until Lee tel
egraphed him that his lines were broken,
and that he must evacuato Richmond. The
capture of Jeff. Davis, Mr. Stephens thought
agreat faux pas for the North ; better a good
deal have let him go wherever he wanted to
go I asked where Davis was going when
he was captured. Mr. Stephens said he
did'nt know—tie doubted if Davis knew
himself. He seemed to hiin to be running
about like a gad-fly in a stuble, after tbe
boys had tn*en bis eyes out—bobbing up
and down, running against everything and
bitting everything, utterly unconscious of
what he was doing or where he was going
He believed the government would release
Davis without any trial. The Supreme
Court decision in the injunction cases would
have an, important bearing on tbe trial. If
the injunction was not granted, he could not
see how Davis could be tried for treason—
for the refusal would convey with it the as
sertion that the Southorn States were not
States of the Union, and therefore their cit
izens could not have been guilty of treason
in rebel).ng. This seemed to him to be the
light in which Charles O'Connor, who was
counsel in both cases, viewed it.
I remained at Mr. Stephens' residence
that evoning and during tho following day
until train time, lie expressed great won
der when I told him of my intended depart
ute, and logged me " stay a week and see
the country, 'or, in any event, to "come
back this way,'' and call to see him again.
I spent Friday evening in conversation with
him, and found him the mostdelightful and
inexhaustible talker I had ever listened to.
Many ol the events connected with the war,
with which I was already familiar, he rela
ted to me with such an interesting and at
tractive manner that I forgot I had ever
known anything of them, and listened to
them as to something entirely new and
startling.
lie spoke of the Hampton Roads confer
ence as having been consented to by Jeff.
Davis only to thwart another proposition
looking to peace and re-union. Tho Con
federate Congress was about to pass a joint
resolution in favor of a cessation of hostili
ties, for the purpose of calling a national
convention to scttb all existing differences,
Davis wanted to defeat this, by making the
Sou tlietn people believe that the North would
accept no terms but an unconditional sur
render, and this he thought the Hampton
Roads conference would accomplish. Mr
Stephenson his return from Hampton Roads
felt convinced that the Southern cause was
lost, and told Jeff Davis so, but Davis would
not believe it. He soon after returned to
his home in Crawfordsville, where he re
mained until arrested by Wilson's cavalry,
and taken to Fort Warren. He is now en;
gaged in colleoting and arranging the ma
terials for a book to be styled " Tbe War,
Its Causes, Conduct and Results." It will
be in two volumes, the first to appear about
the close of the present year. He told me
he would s»y very little about battles, or
battle-fields, for he has an utter loathing for
them. 110 holds that war degrades any
people that engage in it, and retards in
stead of advances civilization. Hie book
will be on the war in its relation to citil i
liberty and republican government in this j
country and throughout the world.
Respecting the present civil contest in the
South he desires no public expression of his
views. As one who is disfranchised and a
paroled prisoner he feels it prudent for him
to keep quiet aud take no part iu public af
fairs. 1 shall therefore say nothing in this
letter touchinghis position on reconstruction
under the Military Law. 110 converses freely
on the subject, and has no lesitation in giv
ing lys opinion when asked in hisown house.
He does so, however, with the injunction
that no public nse shall be made of what Se
says on the subject—and he has a right to
demund this much. No man in thecouritry
loves the American Union more than be does
or more sinuerely desires its preservation ;
no one is more ardently devoted to consti
tutional liberty than be; no one is less of a
monarchist or an aristocrat, or more of a re
publican, He takes little iuterest in parlies,
except as they tend to promote the cause to
which be is so warmly attached, aud views
all questions as a philosopher rather than as
a politician.
IIENBY JENKINS, whose arrest in New
York for embetzlement, last year, caused eo
much excitement, died at a city hospital to
whioh be was removed from the jail a short
time since.
"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, PENN'A, WEDNESDAY, MAY 22, 18G7.
ERROR IN RECONSTRUCTION.
The lata argument* in the Supreme court
show some of the mistakes which the coun
try has made upon the question of recon
struction. Yet they are natural errors, an J
ore such as reveal the prudent and wise
habit of the popular mind whioh deolines to
act until it perceives the reason of action.
The problems with which the fall of the re
bellion confronted the country were wholly
new and of the most vital importance. There
was a technical, summary ,superfical solution
of them, very easy to understand, and also
very cure to make the war ridiculous. This
solution was merely the policy of treating
the rebellion as a riot. Certain citizens
have resisted the authority of the Govern
ment, it was urged ; they would not disperse
upon reading the riot act, and it was neces
sary to call out the military force. That has
succeeded in quelling the di-turbanco, and
now everything will resume its ordinary
course. This was a view which was very
plausible in 1861. It had become sheer
folly in the year 1805.
The rebellion wus a death struggle be
tween the two principles which disputed the
mastery of the Government. The dispute
was maintained under the form of interpret
tation of the constitution. The principle
known as the South claimed that the con
stitution was a treaty between sovereign
States, which might be annulled in its own
case by the will of any one of the States.—
This was the claim The object was the
perpetuity of human slavery as the corner
stone of a Southern Empire, The principle
known as the North held that the constitu
tion was a national bond under which the
Union had become a nation, and that seces
sion was national dissolution, which was
consequently opposed by every patriotio in
stinct. This was the theory. The convic
tion was that by the laws of society and hu
man nature slavery would be peacefully end
ed and a groat, free, and happy republic es
tablished.
The controversy became at la<t too radi
cal and intense for a peaceful solutirn.—
There was no tribunal which could settle it,
and war was invoked to decide what the
constitution meant. Thus it was not upon
the side of the North a war merely for the
constitution, but the constitution as the
North understood it; while the South, in
seceding, was attempting to interpret the
constitution as the South understood it. Of
course the side which was victorious won its
interpretation of the constitution. The
North, not morely as a seotion, but ns an
explanation of the constitution, triumphed.
Its 11 i-st duty, therefore, was to make the
constitution say what the last irreversible
appeal had declared it to mean. That was
what the South expocted. It looked to seo
the North remove the disputed point from
future controversy by dispelling the obscu
rity of the constitution upon tl|o question.
Anil this, clearly, is what should have been
done. We should havo distinctly forbidden
secession by the fundamental law, and wo
should havo provided in the constitution
that any State which attempted secession
should assume its relations in the Union
only upon such conditions as Congress might
require.
This wo should have done while the sur
rendered States still remained under the
military authority of the Government. And
when it was done we should have proceeded
to settle the conditions upon which they
might return. Then there would have been
no Georgia or Mississippi petitions; and the
Supreme court would have had no voice in
the question unless it had undertaken to de
clare that tfcu constitution had been one.in
stitutionally amended— a declaration which
we doubt if even the eloquence of a Robert
J. Walker could have won from it. The
present difficulty is, that the war has dis»
tinctly decided the constitution to mean what
we have not made it distinctly express. The
old verbal obscurity therefore remains, and
the lawyers in the Supreme court arc re
neating the speeches of Webster and llayno
in the Senate The framers of the consti
tution intentionally loft the question of
State rights and sovereignty obscure. They
feared that Union would be impossible if
they did not. From that clond came the
war. The war has dispelled the obscurity
in fact, but we havo not yet stricken it out
of the instrument; and as courts and law
yers deal with verbal interpretations, we
are actually witnessing the absurd spectacle
of a nice technical dispute in a cour'-rooni
o( an jssue which has been decided by the
most tremendous war.
Every written constitution is a perilous
folly and snare if it is not most liberally in
terpreted and amended just as fast and fully
as tho public sentiment demands. The rev
crenee fur the constitution asa oomplete and
inspired instrument, needing no change,
which has been so sedulously incnlcated in
this country, is an incredible stupidity. It
has discouraged independence of politicsl
thought, so that since the days of the revo
lution tnd of the Federalist we have added
nothing whatever of importanee to political
pbilusophy but the speculations of Mr. Cal
houn and a few essays like Sidney Fisher's.
Calhoun wag the most fearless political thick
er in our history except the inen of '7O and
'B9, and a few of the living radicals. Ilis
political theories were purely medieval, in
deed, but his mind was sincere and indes
pendent. at least saw what his follow
ers do not, that to make the supreme court a
political tribunal of tbe last appeal is to
subvert tbe Government. •
In the Military bill, Congress has acted
in the spirit of the great decision of arms.
It baa acted according to the constitution as
tba final resort has decided Ibe constitution
to mean. But it has made the necessary
verbal amendment of the constitution more
difficult. For when, under the conditions of
the Military bill, the States which tried to
secede are once more restored to their func
tions in the Union, one of which is voting
upon amendments to the constitution—they
will necessarily have a vote upon an.v clause
forbidding secession, and prescribing the
penalty of the attempt. Harper's Weekly.
Hancock and tjie Kiowa Indiana.
The St. Louis Democrat's correspondent
with Hancock's expedition, writing from
Fort Hayes, May 3d, gives a long account
of the council held between General Han
cock and Satanta, principal chief of the Ki
owas, at Fort Lamed, on the first. Satan -
ta's speech was full of pence, and promises
tc keep his yonng men quiet, and to u-e his
influence with other tribes. 110 said the
Cheyennes and Sioux abandoned their vil
lages because tliey were afraid of the troop',
and thought Hancock did wrong to burn
them. He was opposed to the railroad ruti
ing through the Arkanses River region, and
charged Col- Leavenworth with selling Ki
owa annuity goods for his own benefit.
Col. Leavenworth replied he had kept
back annuities by orders from Washington.
General Ilannock replied at length, g'ing
over much the same ground as in the former
speech, but laying particular stress on the
point that unless the Indians faithfully per
formed their treuty obligations, and preserv
ed peace, they would bo severely punished-
He explained that he burned flie Oheyeiine
and Sioux villages because those tribe* lied
to him and acted very treacherously. They
began the war by burning stations and kill
ing whites on Smoky Hill route, and would
be punished; and similar conduct on the
part of other Indians would ireet with like
results.
A gentleman who left Sioux city on the
9th inst., says that notbingwas known there
of the reported capture, murder of the crew
and burning of the steamboat Miner.
Hare the Mormons Bribed Congress?
Our last Salt Lake Union Videlle don't
give any signs of having sold out to the Mor
mons. It charges tfie Saints with having
bought up loading Congressmen—Ashley,
chairman of tho committee on Territories,
is meant, among others—so ns to stave oft'
any more anti-Mormon legislation, and
quotes the following significant bragging
from the Mormon paper, the Telegraph, as
some evidence of it:
"It is a eomtffon saying that tho Roths
childs, by their purse-strings power, exer
cise no mean influence ever the shape and
color of Kuropean politics. The Mormon
chiefs nie moving in a similar direction. It
is common enough to read in the newspapers
of 'long heads,' 'great eiecutive and tinao*
eial ability,' and well secured 'piles of the
needful,' as characteristic of the chiefs of
the Mormon church, while for industry and
application to the urls of peace the Mormons
have evinced an aptitude that, in a few years,
must place them in tho van in those respects.
We see occasionally, broad hints of this cor
porate body and that corporate body, this
Legislature and that Legislature, and even
Congress, being particularly sensitive to
money arguments, that cash will carry ony
measure through. Now if the Mormons,
like tho Jews, have a habit of making to
themselves friends of tho unrighteous Mam
mon. the god of this world, it will not be
very difficult for them to control quite a
he ip of politics in the new world,and would
it not be a very curious thing'Sf in a few
years the polygamic J»ws should control
politics in tho Eastern hemisphere and the
polygamic Mormana in the Western ?"
AN I.VCIDINC or FORT FISMBR.—A person
who was in Fort Fisher duriug tho bom
bardment, tells the following story in an
English magazine: "Oh I the agony of
despair to sec ball and shell falling harms
less from those turrets of iron, or rolling
like pellets along tho low decks, while the
gallant defenders of Fort Fisher were falling
in sheaves within a fortification which
would, four years before, have defied the
efforts of auy navy— 'a work,' as Porter says,
'stronger than anything Sebastopol could
boast of. - ' One day a happy shot fiom ihc
Fort succeeded in finding its wny into a weak
spot of a two-terreted monitor, a picco of
irou evidently was turned up, and jammed
the turret. Hurrah ! one at ln-t disabled,,
thought the poor Confederates. Ry Jovel
see Wro sailors qnictly walk out. and set
themselves down, the on? holding a chisel,
the other striking with a hamtner. They
were cutting away the obstruction ; and so
-ccure was the monitor against any vital
injury being inflicted on her, that, although
sileuced, she would not retire from her po
sition. A swaim of Southern riflemen were
thrown out to slay the two bold Federals ;
but no one hit them, f<nd they worked on
calmly until Genoral Whiting generously
interfered, and said, " Such gallant fellows
deserve to live ; cease firing, my lads, at
them." So the iron was cut away.
TUE Georgia injunction case, only, was
dismissed by the U. S. Supreme court for
want of jurisdiction. The case of Missis'
•ippi,as amended making Arkansas a party
to the complaint, and covering Gen. Ord'a
action with regard to the treasury of the lat
ter State, was to have been argued on Fri
day 17th instant. It is hoped by the com*
piainants that the Arkansas treasury case
will furnish a property clause upon which
tlie court can bftse jurisdiction.
Last Wager of Battle in England.
An English paper sayß: "There has died
in Birmingham a poor old man, one event
of wbDße history forms an important mark
in tbe progress of civilization in England,
especially as relating to the old batbarous
mode of settling disputes, and trying causes
by the " wager of battle." TW deceased,
William Ashford, was the last per-ou who
wns challenged in an English court to meet
in single combat a man whom ho bad ac
cused us the murderer of his sister. On the
20tb of May, 1817, a beautiful young wo
man named Mary Ashford, in her 2'lth year,
went to a dance at Erdingten, without pro
per protection. She left the festive scene at
a late hour, accompanied by a young man
named Abraham Thornton, a farmer's son
in the neighborhood. They were last seen
talking together nt»a stile near the place,
but next morning she was found dead in a
pit of water; and there were evidences that
she had been muldered. Genera! suspicion
pointed to Thornton. He was arrested and
tried for murder at Warwick assizes in Au
gust; but, though circumstantial evidence
wns against him, che defence, which was an
alibi, obtained a verdict of " not guilty."'
"Tho feeling of surprise and indignation
at bis acquittal was so intense that a new
trial was called for, and nn appeal was en
tered against the verdict by William Ash
ford, tho brother, and next of kin to the
murdered girl. Thornton was again appre
hended, and sent to London in November,
to be tried before Lord Ellenborough and
the full court of Queen's Bench. . Instead
of regular defence by arguments, evidences
and witnesses, Thornton boldly defied all
present modes of jurisdiction, and claimed
his right, according to ancient custom, to
fight him, and decide bis innocence or guilt
by the 'wager of battle.' His answer to the
court was ' Not guilty, and I am ready to
defend the same by my body.' He accom
panied these words by the old act of taking
oil' his glove and throwing it down upon the
floor of the court.
" At this stage of the proceedings Will
iam Ashford, who wns in court, actually
came forward, and was übout to accept the
challenge by picking up the glove, when ho
was kept bnck by those about him. With
what wonder did the assembly, and indeed
the nation, ask 'Can a prisoner insist on so
obsolete a mode of trial, in such a time of
light as the nineteenth century 7 But with
greater wonder and regret was the judgment
of the court received ; for, after several ad
journments, it was decided in April 1818,
that the law of England was in favor nf the
'wager of battle;' that tbe old lnwssanction
ing it had never been repealed ; and that,
although this mode of trial bad become ob
solete, it must be allowed. Thornton wns
therefore discharged, and, being set at lib
erty, left England for America, whore he
died in obscurity."
Itcforiu, Here aud There.
England is all astir with excitement in
favor of reform. Able men aro discussing
it, immense meetings are hold, politicians
aro risking their positions and influence on
the enterprise; tho throne itself is trembling
—or is supposed to be so, ns scoree of times
before, although it has never quite toppled
over. All this for the purpose of securiug
to some persons the privilege of voting. The
United Stotes has its reform project ol a sim
ilar kind going cn with discussions, big meet
ings, party arrangements, speeches, news
papers and all political enginery This is to
secure to the black people, lately slaves, the
privilege of voting. Voting soeins to be tbe
tummum bonum and chief end of life, in
both cases.
Of course we are satisfied—every good
citizen must be so—to see a disposition pre
vailing to extend to all people the civil rights
and privilege that belong to them. But as
voting has an aspect towards the public in
terest, as well ns towards private and indi
vidual rights, some solicitude should be felt
about tho qualifications of voters. On this
depends great consequences connected with
tbe public interests. Blind partisanship
needs no qualifications, and thurefore, those
who have only partisan ascendency as their
end, nre indifferent about the intelligence
or moral fitness of voters. If they hold a
ballot between thumb and finger, ntid hand
it in at tbe polls, it is enough. The suffrage,
in the eye ol tho citizen who regards the
public good, demands more than this—some
understanding of the natu c of the Govern
ment; some power of discriminating between
righf and wrong in politics.
In England and in this country classes
are aspiring to the right of mffrage which
have net heretofore enjoyed it The c laim
meets wi.h opposition in both cases, and in
both has a powerful support- And it would
not be strange if in both—we think we see
it clearly—there should be a predominance
of the partisan over the patriotic motive, in
much that is said on both sides of tbe ques
tion. The right of suffrage being grauted,
the contest for the c introl of the new po
litical element naturally ensues. This is
the phase now presenting itself in
the Southern States, where thoae who op
posed the grant are quite ns keen for taking
advantage of it as those who favored it.—
Pitt. Com I.
SENATOR WILSON, on his trip from Atlanta
to Montgomery, Alabama, addressed several
white audiences, and was severely catechised
about certain customs in the North, but was
able to make suitable replies to all ques
tions. Ou Saturday he addressed an audi
ence of the usual mixed character, and in !
the course of bis speech made no reference
whatevor to confiscation. He was replied
to by a prominent lawyer named Clanton,
who urged in argument that the negro did
not owe his freedom to the Republican party;
that President Lincoln had promised the re
bellious South two years after the commence
ment of tbe war that their slaves would be
undisturbed. After tbe speeches, General
Strayne called for the sense of the colored
people as to who were for the Republican
party, and the response was a unanimous
affirmative;
DECORATE THE^ HOMESTEAD.
The mild breath of fpring and the music
of the enrly birds reminds us. that the sea
son approaches for planting, not only vege
tables and grains necessary for man's sub
sistence, but shrubs, trees nnd flowers to
feed the eye ind nourish tho taste.
There is no homestead cn which a little
judicious labor will not result in more or
less pleasure licrenfter. None on which
there is not some nook or corner thatcan be
beautified by a vine, a shrub »r a plant of
flowers. Nature will do her part if we per
form ours, and many a barren and unsight
ly yard or oominon may thus become a thing
of beauty, adding to the pure joys of home.
Next to wholesome fjod, home pleasures
are neecssnry to enliven our spirits, promote
our good health and give zest to rural life.
What can give greater satisfaction to a
family of refined taste than to have the
grouuds around the homosiead decorated
with the beauties of nature so bountifully
furnished us? The species and varieties of
trees, shrubs, rosos, vines, St, c., are now so
numerous that a clinic* selection can be
made to suit every clime, soil and exposure,
and to bloom and fruit all the season. Seo
them tastefully arranged and gorgeously
dressed with foliage of various colors, nnd
decked with blooms far transoending the
most costly jewelry in brilliancy, and por
fuming tho air with their fragrance. In
windy days they gracefully bow, prance,
and whirl around like sprightly youth in
the dance, and the melody of the breeze
serves them for music. How beautiful the
picture and great the enjoyment to those
who can appreciate them. It makes a cot
a palace, a home a paradise ; the owner a
king, and his wife a queen ; it imparts a
dignity to the manly graces of sons, and
lustre to the beauties and virtues of daugh
ters. The passing way-farer is delighted
with the scene, and sets itdown in his mind
as the abode of the great and good in heart,
and the virtuous and wise ia action.
After planting climbing vines to clothe
the veranda, and a few deciduous trees
around the bouse for shade in summer, all
the other trees, shrubs and roses should be
so arrayed ovor tho lawn that all will be
seen at one view. Set the more dwarf near
er the house, and the taller farther off, and
they will appenr to rise in graceful folds a R
they recede from the eye, and the contrast
of size, form and color of the various indi
viduals will show to greater advantage, and
that will give additional graces to their
charn's.
The Southern States and tho "Iron
Heel."
In liis late speech at Augusta, Georgia,
Ex-Governor Blown put very pointedly the
dilemma in which the petition of Governor
Jenkins and tho argument of Mr. O'Conor
leave the State of Georgia. If, he says, as
Governor Jenkins and tho rest have con
stantly claimed, Ueorgia is a foreign State
conquered by the Union, what claim has she
to any privilege in the Union except what
may be conceded ? If, on the other hand,
Georgia is and always has been a State in
the Union, all of ns who rebelled are guilty
of treason and liable to be hanged, and our
property to be confiscated. "We either did
go out, and the Government has the right to
deal with us as a conqnered people; or else
we did not seoede, and wo were rebels and
liable to be dealt with as rebels."
If the loyal people of the country insisted
upon beinglitotally logical, and upon treat
ing a great national crisis in the spirit of a
Tombs pettifogger, which is the policy of
the Democratic party, this weuld be the in
evitable dilemma in which the Southern
States wcutd be plunged. But because the
Government will neither treat the lato rebels
exclusively as foreigners nor traitors, but
regards them as citizens who may resume
their relations upon certain mode
rate nnd just conditions, it is amusingly de
scribed as " the blood-hound party," nnd
its.polie.v of restoration, which neither hangs
nor confiscates nor exiles nor imprisons, but
merely gives a vote to those who never re
belled, is nothing less than "the iron heel."
The New York World whose political allies
were in tho habit, before their rebellion, of
chaseing with actual blood hounds the loyal
men whom the Government has enfranchised
and who had a pleasing an i summary way
of stamping tho iron heel of the stake, the
halter, or the mob upon American citizens
who asserted the plainest principle of the
Government, is peculiarly glib in the use of
this kind of rhetoric. It is the same excel
lent conservative " sheet that felicitously
called tho murderous mob which ia the sum
mer of 1863 hunted an J massacred the de
fenceless colored population of New York,
anil tried to inaugurate the rebellion in this
city, "the laboring population." Of course
a party which enfranchises instead of en
slaving colored Americans is in its view a
" blood-hound party,'' and the policy which
would protect them f.om mayor Monroe's
lambs, who, we suppose, are "the Üboring
population" of New Orleans, is " the iron
heel." — Harper's Weekly.
ERRORS IN THE PRINTED HIBLE — A
London paper notices a curious misprint
in one of the editions of the New Testa
ment pTinttd at Oxforde where the word
is converted int oelad. The persou
who detected the error rccievd the re
ward ot one guinea which the Oxford
I'rcßS offers for such a discovery, it is an
extraordinary facl that; with this stand
ing offer of a reward, and all the vigi
lance of readers, Sanday School teaehers
and scholars,this error uf a single letter is
, tho only one that has been detected in
upwards of sixty different editions.
NUMBER 23.
Speech of Fensan Burke after his
Conviction for Treason.
By the last arrival of mails from Eng
land we have the following extract from the
speech of Fenian Burke, after his convic
tion fur high treason:
•'lt is not my Jesire now, my Lord), to
give utterance to one word ngainst the vtr*»
diet which has been pronounced upon me.
But fully eoti9eiou» or my honor, as a man,
never inipagned ; fully conscious that I can
go into my grave with a character unsullied,
I can only say this, that these parties, actu
ated by a desire either for their own aggrand
isement, or to save their paltry, miserable
lives, have pandered to the appetite—if I
may so speak —of justice, and my life ihall
pay the forfeit. Fully convinced and satis
fied of the righteousness of my every act in
connection with the late revolutionary move
ment in Ireland, I have done nothing that
would bring the blush of shame to mantle
my brow. My conduct and career here and
in America, if you like, as a soldier, are be*
before youf and even in this, my
hour of ray trial, I foel a consciousness ef
having lived as an honest man, and I will
dio believing that I have given my life to
give freedom and liberty to the land of my
birth. I have done only that which every
Irishman, and every man, whose soul throbs
with the feeling of liberty should do. I seek
not the death of a martyr, but if it be the
will of Almighty and Omnipotent Ood that
my devotion for the land of my birth should
be tested at the seaffold, I am willing there
to die in defence of the right of men to b#
free, to give the right of an oppressod pso
ple to throw off the yoke of thraldom. I
am an irishman by birth, an American by
adoption, by nature a lover of freedom, and
tin enemy to the power that holds my native
land in bonds of tyrranny. It has so often
been admitted that the oppressed have tho
I rightjto throw off the yoke of oppression—
oven by English statesmen—that I deem it
unnecessary to advert to it here- Ireland's
children are not, never were, nnd never will
be, willing or submissive elaves; and eo long
u England's Bag covers one inch ef Irish
soil, just so loffg will they believe it to be a
divine right to conspire and device means to
hurl down its power and erect in its stead
the Ood like struoture of self-govevnmeat.
WoNDKBS.— VVhea a youg mau is a
clerk in a store and dresses like a prince,
smokes foreign cigars,' drinks 'nioe bran
dy/ attends theatres, dances and the like,
1 wonder if b« do tt all on the avails ef
bis clerkship ?
When a young lady sits in the parlor da
ring the day, with her lily white finger*
covered with riugs, I wonder if'ber moth
er doesn't wash the dishes aud do the work
in the kitchen 7
When the deaeoa of the ehurok sells
strong butter, recommending it as a good
uiticle, 1 wonder what he relies mpon for
salvation.
When a lady lasos her waist a third
less than nature made it, I wonder if her
pretty figure will .tot shortea life a dozen
years or more, besides inukiug her miser
able while she does live?
When a young man is dependent upon
his daily toils for his inoome and marries
a lady who does not know how to make a
loaf of bread or tnend a garment, I won
der if he is not lacking somewhere, say
toward the top for instance ?
When a man receives a periodical or
newspaper weekly, and takes great delight
reading it. and don't pay for it, I wonder
if he has a soul or gizzard.
WHAT NEXT.—A gentleman riding
near the city overtook a well dressed man
and invited hira to a seat in his carriage.
"What," said the gentkraan to the
young stranger, "are your blans for the
future?"
" lam a clerk," said the gentleman.
" and my hope is to succeed, and to get
into buisncss for myself."
" And what next?" said the gentleman.
" Why, to continue in buisness, and ac
cumulate wealth." (
■'And what next 1"
'•lt is the lot of all to die, *HJ 1 of course
cannot escape."
"And wliat next?" imce more inquired
the irentleru m; but thp young man had
no answer totnakejhe had no purposothat
reached beyond the present life. How
many joung men are in precisely tho
same condition ! —What pertains to the
wurld to come has no plaee in all their
plans.— Amrricnn Meuenger. .
W. B. UAKD, Frosidcnt of the Bank o
Lexington, X. C., and D Ilampton, one of
the Directors, were taken to Salisbury, on
Tuesday 14th instant, by order of General
Sickles, under charge of embezzling the
specie of the bank about the time of the sor>
rend* of the rebel General Johns-n. The
complaint was made by .1. \V. Thomas and
others. Tie parties have had a bearing,
the etidence forwarded to General Biekh>-,
and the accused will remain in custody of
tho military until the General is heard from.
JI DCE KIM.) thepeopleof New
Orleans on Saturday c\caing, 11th instant,
on the politi.tal status of the South. Ilia
audience was the largest mas- uecting of
citizens known in that .city ior some time.
Resolutions of a strong Hi-publican charac
ter were adopted after the meeting. The
remarks of the Judge were frequently ap
plauded.
*ar lorace Greeley is attempting to jaa*
ii fy himself in the eye* of the public for be
coming Jeff. Davis' hondaiaan