- j am i
i~~,
VOL. 18.
itemarits of Mr. Henry K. Strong,
of Philadelphia City,
Delivered in the House of Representatives of Penn
sylvania, April sth, 1851, on reading a Bill in
place, to incorporate , a Company to purchase the
_Stain Line of Public Works for 15,000,000.
In presenting this bill to the House, I
may be permitted to say, that I have done
so after a full consultation with . members
from different sections of the State, repre
senting both political parties upon this
floor. All have acknowledged, that the
public finances of Pennsylvania, the great
interests of trade and commerce, and the
purity of our institutions, demand a speedy
divorce of the Government, from the man
agement of the public works.
The bill here presented is for the incor
poration of a company, to purchase, for
$15,000,000 the Main Lino of canals and
railroads, from Philadephia to Pittsburg.
It authorizes the Governor, upon the sub
scription of the whole stock, and the pay
ment of $3,000,000 in cash, or the bonds
Of the Commonwealth at par,
and execu
tion and the delivery of twelve mortgage
bonds, for $1,000,000 each, with interest
thereon, one bond payable each year until
the whole amount is paid; to convey to the
company, the whole Main Line, from Pitts
burg to the city of Philadelphia, together
with all the property, real, personal and
mixed, belonging to the same. The bill
does not stop here. In order to give more
value to the State property, and insure a
Sale, a section, is added, authorizing the
company to extend the Philadelphia and
Columbia railroad to the Allegheny moun
tain, and connect with the Portage, and
to extend the Allegheny Portage railroad
to the city of Pittsburg thus rendering it
one of the most efficient competitors for the
trade of the West, that can bo constructed.
fly the report of the Auditor General
and State Treanurer, laid before the Senate
at the last session, the cost of the Main
Line is stated to be as follows:
Phila. and Coltunbia Railroad $4,791,548 91
Eastern Division of the Canal 1,737.230 97
Juniata Division of the :!annl 3 ; 570,016 29
Allegheny Portage Railroad 1,860,752'76
Western Division of Canal 3,096,522 30
Total cost of the Main Lino
$15,056,077 23
To this may he added $575,000, appro-'
priated by tho Legislature to avoid the In
dined planes on the Allegheny Portage,
Railroad, and which if this bill does not
pass, will require snore than one million of
dollars more.
I believe it is now generally admitted
that while this great avenue of trade be
tween the waters of the Ohio and tho At
lantic, in the hands of an enterprising
company, may lie exceedingly proPtable,
yet under State management, the experi
ment is a signal failure involving the Com
monwealth in increasing debt, and afford
ing only a infirmary for all the broken
down politicians in Pennsylvania.
In the Canal Commissioners report, it is
pretended, that the revenue of the Main
Line, for the year 1852, was $485,571 OS
over all expenditure? It is there attempt
ed to be shown, that the receipts over ex
penditures for motive power, supervision
and repairs were on the
Plill'o. and Columbia Railroad $480.407 #5
Main Line of Cowl:: - • 101,227 23
Portage Railroad los:
Pretended net revenue of Main Line $485,671 08
That this pretended net revenue of the
Main Line, is entirely fallacious, I call the
attention of the Houge to the following
debts due, and expenditures made, not ta
ken into the calculation, but found in the
Canal Commissioners report, page 30.
The amount of debts not yet brought to
light, can not now be estimated. Every
years brings old debts up for payment
Debts due for repairs &trim: the rear
1852, on the 'Alla. and Columbia
, Railroad - • - . -
Debts doe for repairs during. floral
year 1851, on the Allegheny Po,
tage railroad, • . -
Debts dun for repairs, 11w 1852, on
. the little Line of canal, -
Motive power debt; on the railroads
for fiscal year 1552, unpaid, -
Old debts for repairs unpaid, -
Old motive power debts unpaid, -
Debts due for repairing road and
farm bridges, - .
Debts acknowledged due & unpaid, $233,868 33
To this sum add expenditures on the
39th page of the Auditor Genra.
Report, for fiscal year 1852-sfo
tire power and new Loci:motives, 483,465 01
Motive for night trains, - - 18,000 00
Repairs, &e., - - - 493,050 03
Straitning and improving Phila. and
Columbia railroad, - - -
Rebuilding Conestoga bridge, -
Clark's ferry bridge, -
tialaries of Collectors, Lock-keepers
and weigh-masters,
Canal Commissioners,
$1,537,5.12 20
Deduct repairs and salaries for lock
tenders, collectors, weigh -master:
cud incidental expenses, on Dela •
ware Division, Susquehanna, W.
Branch, and North I.lranch div is •
tons, as by Canal Commissioners'
Report, pogo B, -
Actual expenses of the Main Line as
far as known, - • . - 1,433,2112.. 23
Deduct receis.ts, as by Canal Coro
nlisploners' Report, page 6 and 7,
f
1, 4 , ,
01
Allegheny P. R. R., 311,188 82
Main line of Canal. 810,816 2G
1,391,649 44
Actual LOSS to the State on the
Main line, - - - - $39,G39 71
Thus it will be seen that instead of a net
revenue of $485,671 08 in 1852 there has
been an actual loss, as exhibited by the re
ports of the Canal Commissioners and Au
ditor General, of 39,689 dollars and 71
cents! To this amount every member of
this House may estimate and add for him
self the old debts yet to be dug up from
oblivion, and the damages paid for the de
stnction of goods and other property occa
sioned.by the carelessness of State agents.
To show, if possible, more conclusively,
that little or no net revenue is anticipated
for the coming year, I refer you to the
87th, 28th and 29th pages of the report of
the• Canal Commissioners, and you will
perceive that while the whole receipts of
the Main Line for 1852 were only 1,391.-
649 dollars and 44 cents, the estimated
sum needed for repairs; MOHO pliwer; add
salaries for this same work is 1,262 ; 640
dollars and 93 cents for the present year.
I ask them, is it not time to end this state
of things—to put a stop to this drab up
on the treasury, and to lay the foundation
for the extinguishment of the Public Debt:
This can done by the passage of the bill
which I have just read in my place. The
stock, I have no doubt, will be taken, and
that the work in the hands of an.enterpri
sing Company, will become a mighty aven
ue for travel and internal commerce amid
be profitable to the stockholders is indis
putable. There is one article of domestic
produce alone, which by State manage
ment is nearly, or quite,
excluded from the
'
Line which now yields more than one
third of the revenue of the Grand Erie
Canal of New York. I mean the article
of Western flour. Pittsburg, by her po
sition, at the confluence of the Mononga
hela and Allegheny—at the head of stcaui ,
boat navigation in the great Ohio valley—
by being a radiating point for railroads in
every direction—by being situated on a
parallel of latitude running West through
the centre to the Rocky Mountains, of the
great wheat growing regirn of the conti
nent, ought to be; and may bo made the
great depot for flour, seeking an eastern
market. Wheat is not raised to any great
extent in the counties on the Lake shore,
but in the interior of Ohio, Indiana,
and
Illinois, and can as easily be brought to
Pittsburg as to Cleveland, Sandusky and
Toledo. Why then is it not brought
there? Because State management has
not only excluded it from the Main Line,
but driven Western Pennsylvania flour to
the Lakes, there to be shipped to Buffalo,
and from thence to be carried over the
Erie Canal to the Hudson.
Tho whole amount of flour, in 1852,
sent oast from Pittsburg, over our main
line was only 230,169 barrels, awl the
wheat was only 9,839 bushels, and this
was wholly or mostly Pennsylvania flour
and wheat while a much larger quantity
went west from our western counties to the
lakes. The State revenue, from the flour
of other States was nothing. The distance
from Cleveland, the nearest lake port of
Ohio to New York is more than five hund
red miles. The distance front Pittsbnrg
to Philadelphia is about one hundred and
thirty miles less. But notwithstanding
this, Now York gets the Western flour,
and Philadelphia does not even receive the
Pennsylvania flour. There was carried
over the Erie canal in 1852, Western
flour to the vast amount of 4,837,893
barrels! yielding a revenue at 23 cents a
barrel to the State of New York one mill
ion one hundred and twelve thousand
settee hundred and fifteen dollars ! which
is an interest of sin per cent.on more than
EIGHTEEN MILLIONSO AND A HALF
OF DOLLARS. To secure the great
flour trade of the West now in its infancy,
will render Philadelphia the great grain
mart of the country, and build up and
maintain a foreign connoNTo.
Tho whole funded debt of Pennsylvania,
according to the report of the Auditor
General, on the (list day of Deceinber, '52,
was $40,769,805 71, of which $20,768,-
307 34 was incurred in the construction of
canals and railroads, now in use, and own
ed by the Commonwealth.
After the sale of the main line, the State
will still own the following profitable canals,
the management of which by the State, is
far less objectionable than that of railroads,
with their complicated machinery and pat
ronage. The length, cost, and revenue of
which was in 1852, as follows - :
Canals. M. Cost
$581,634 29
96,063 20
S 5,369 71
50,329 71
:36,08 56
78,242 HI
32,889 83
13,756 71
13,000 00
218,390 13
1,923 311
.51,/ 00
Net Hollow
in 1832.
I). Division, GO $1,384,606 911 $214,6613 92
N. 13. in me, 71 1,598,370 33 122,655 25
N. 11. tintinisli'd,94 1,388.265 00
Susq. Division, 31 897 . .160 ?
W. 13. Div. 81 . 1,832,083 28 5 62,758 00
. _
Tolul„ 330 87.301,405 1,1 $400,080 17
10 , 1,3137 38
5,428 01)
During the last year the revenue from
Anthracite coal, carried upon the Del
aware Division, amounted to 1.4 per cont.
on the original cost of oonstruction, and
upon the 71 wiles of the North Branch ca
.., L .nil noon .
1•:.3,55Q ;17
HUNTINGDON, PA.; WEDNESDAY, MAY 4, 1853.
was more than sufficient to keep the canal
in repair. The completion this year of the
whole line, and a connexion with the Now
York canals, will open an entire water coin
' munication, by oanal, from the great lakes
to the city of Philadelphia, through New
York and Pennsylvania, and create an im
mense new trade, not now existing between
these great States,—Pennsylvania supply
ing Western New York, and the Lakes with
Anthracite coal, and New York supplying
Pennsylvania with Salt and. Gypsum. This
trade, it is confidently predicted, will be
fore five years, add annually $500,000 to
our revenue. In addition to this, the tax
upon real and personal estate, will constant
ly increase with the extension of internal
commerce, and the increase of poptilation
and wealth if no unwise restrictions are
permitted to paralyze the growing trade of
the Conimonwealth.
We may therefore confidently predict,
that if this main line is sold to a company,
for the sum proposed by this bill,that there
will imuuttlly remain over the expenses of
the Government and the payment of all
calls upon the Treasury, the sum of at least
$1,500,000 to be put into a sinking fund
for the extinguishment of the public debt.
That this may be done, I call the attention
of the House to the foilowitig items of rev
enue in 1852; and will take this :0 the
maximum for twelve years to come :
nEVENITP..
Tax on corporation stocks, - - $210.542 30
Tax on Bank dividends, - 146,960 07
Retailers' Licenses, - - - 109.269 67
Tavern Licences, - - - - 100.120 11
Auction Duties and Commissions, - 75,635 76
Tax on holders of loans, - - 118.444 16
Collateral Inheritance Tax, - - 143,141 65
Premiums on Charters and Right of
Way, -
73,408 06
Tax on certain emcee and enroll
ment of laws, - - - - 13,911 65
Tax on Writs, Wills, Detds, &e.. 56,671 71
Purehmm money and fees in the
Land Office, - - - 40,223 41
Tex on Brokers, l'etilers, &c, about 56.201 97
Tax on reel and personal estate, - 1,359,030 30
Net revenue in 1632 on canals Un
sold : Delaware Division. North
Went Branch &
Sueque
hnnnn ennalg, - 400,080 17
Total, - - - - $2,904,248 59
increased revenue on the eannls,
and tax no real and personal es
tate, Cl least, - - 447,519 16
revetittc,
It is not doubted that the sure increase
of the coal trade and other causes will
swell the annual revenue to a much larger
sum. But I will assume the annual rove-
DUO to $3,351,707 75, and then deduct the
expenses of the Government, and it will be
seen that $1,500,000 will remain for the
extinguishment of the State debt, without
any increase of taxation, or a resort to any
other source of revenue. In 1852, the
following were the expenses
OF STATE COTERNNIENT.
Senate, 532,340 50
I louse of Itenrc , cllisti , c , i 70,993 55
Public Prinrintr. 25,239 7 . n
Executive Department.
Auditor General's Office, B,lBO 68
'Treasurer's Otlit f . 6,635 GO
Surveyor General's Office, ' 8,951 12
Judiciary,
Pensio...l (iratnitice,
Charititide Itmitutions, 76,763 33
State Agricultural Society, 2,000 00
Common Selma's, 165,109 63
Penitentiaries, . '. ' 43,932 50
Miscellaneous, say, 5,194 18
Totidospopge, $563,277 47
Interest MA05,749,805 71,at 5 per
cent 1,288.490 28
Total amount required to pay ex
pen-,e, id the Uovernment,iinil
ter,t nn the public deht. after the
sale of the Main line, 51,851,767 75
If then we deduct the amount necessary
to meet the demands upon the Treasury
front the annual revenue, it will he seen
that One and a half of dollars
annually, is left to put into the sinking fund.
Annuli revenue, - - - $3,351,767 75
Annual payments, - - 1,951.767 75
Allllllll.l sinking
In Making this calculation, I have, for
convenience, assumed that $3,351,767 75,
will be the annual average revenue for 12
years to come. It is believed it will be
ninch greater. The completion of the N.
Branch canal, the increase of trade upon
the canals, consequent upon the develop
ment of the . resources of this great mineral
Quiumenivealth; ind the augmentation of
the receipts for taxes upon every succeed
ing valuation in the State, render it certain
that our revenue will reach a much higher
amount, and that the amount annually to
be sot. apart for the extinguishment of tho
puhlie debt, will considerably exceed $l,-
500,000. But I will assume this to be the
annual sum,and it will be perceived that if
the company is organized on the fat day of
January, 1854, that in twelve years from
that time, the whole public debt of Penn
; sylyania will be extinguished, and the great
productive coal canals will still bo the
property of the State. If this legislature
now incorporates a company to carry out this
great measure, the abundance of capital'
now seeking investment will insure a sale
for the sum named in the bill which I have
just presented to the House, and it deserves
and will receive the gratitude of the .tax
pavers of this Commonwealth.
The 'following table will show the amount
of State indebtedness, at the periods indi
cated, and the annual, payments and inter
est at 5 per cent. each year, carried to tile
sinking fund.
Years. - Public Debt• Payments into
Sinking Fund.
1853 840,769,865 71 $15,000.000 00
1854 25,769,805 71 1,500,000 00
1855 24.269.805 71 1,575.000 00
1856 22,694,806 71 1,653,755 00
1857 21,041,050 71 1,736,437 55
1858 10.304,613 16 1,823,259.62
1850 17.481.353 54 1,919 422 35
1860 15.561,931 19 2,010,393 47
1861 13,551,337 72 2,110,913 14
1862 11,440.624 78 2,216,458 80
1863 - 9,224.165 98 2,327.5 , 81 72
1864 6,898.884 26 2,443.645 83
1865 4,453,238 C 3 2,565,828 07
1860 1,987.410 56 2,694.119 46
Thus it will be seen that by the sale of
the Main Line of Public Worke,for the sum
indicated in the the gradual ope
ration of the Sinking Fund, iu twelve years
from the sale, without any increase of rev
enue beyond that now received, which aug
mentation ho man can doubti.the WHOLE
PUBLIC DEBT OF PENNSYLVANIA
WILL BE EXTINGUISHED, and the
sum of $706,709,90 remain in the Treasury.
Having shown the financial operations of
the bill which I have presented to the
House. I will now undertake to point out
some of the advantages which the great in
terests of trade and commerce will derive
from the measure.
In the first place, the State being re
lieved from the fear of rivalry front other
competing lines, will throw the doorFigo
open to private enterprise, and sever invite
it to enter the field of competition for the
growing trade of the mighty West. We
shall have two great lines running paral
lel through the centre of Pennsylvania,
each striving by cheapness of transit, ce
lerity, and superior accommodations to win
the favor of the public, and secure their
'portico of the trade and travel that pas
ses from the valley of the Mississippi to
the,Shor6i of the Atlantic Ocean. Every
emigrant that now passes to the West.,
every new farm opened upon the praries,
and every house built beyond the moun
tains increases that trade, by creating
wants in the West which must be supplied
in the East. The time is at hand when
all the great lines of communication, be
tween the east and the west; will net be
Sufficient to accommodate the trade. Bet,
still, the active rivalry north and south of,
us will require something better than
State management, to render our Main'
Line worthy of being ranked with the
Pennsyvania railroad, the Baltimore and
Ohio railroad, the New York and Erie
railroad, the Now York line of railroads,
by the side of the Erie canal from Buffalo
to Albany, and the Grand Erie canal.—
The active rivalry between the New York
lines has already drawn, not only the
whole trade of the Great Lakes through
Now York but is causing a large portion
of that in the Ohio valley, to pass around
us, the long circuitous route, to the con-,
trary notwithstanding. This New York
rivalry and the want of it in Pennsylvania,
is actually attracting tr.ide and travel
around us in the line of a periphery of a
circle to New York, and demonstrates that
high charges, bad management, and the
prevention of rival parallel routes cannot
force it through Pennaylvaniti to Philadel
phia in a line of a diameter of the same
circle. This state of things can only be
remedied by the transfer of our Mein Line
of Public Works front the State to a com
peting, efficient company, where an army
of lazy political drones cannot find em
ployment, and where fraud and speculation
will be discarded.
But sir, there is another reason for
posing of this Main Line, composed of al
ternate sections of railroads and canals to
a company. It is the preservation of the
purity of the public morals. No people
ever has been, or ever will be truly free,
that long suffers a festering corruption up
on the body politic. One after another of
the pillars of public virtue is undermined,
upon which rests the arch of our free in
stitutions, until the people themselves are '
fit only to be slaves, and seek refuge at
last in the tyranny Of a master. Such an
ananint of public patronage creates a love
for office and place; cherishes idleness and
a distaste for regular business; fosters
speculation and extravagance, and ends at
last in intetnperanee and crime.
Let us then pass this bill. The Ono
and the eireummtanees are propitious, and
render a sale as certain as its enactment
into a law. The people will hail it with
enthusiasm as the measure of their deliv
erance from the thraldom of a public debt.
It will be a now era in the onward course
to wealth, power, and greatness of our own
Pennsylvania. And finally it will remove
that gangrene from the body politic, that
is now eating like a cancer into the vitals of
Our liberties.
$3,351,767 75
$1.500m0 00
[lr At a oawp meeting held In Connec
ticut, a preacher delivered himself of the
following ,
' , I would that the Gospel were a wedge
and I a becttle; I'd whack it into every
Armor's heart among you 1"
's(a
Letter from Oregon
I4NToN, 0. T.
January 18th, 1853. 5
Col. Mc.—DEAR
Being requested by
some of toy friends in Van Buren county,
to write a little from Oregon and let them
know something about what my experience
has, been In regard to travelling across the
plains, and also something about this coun
try, its climate and its resources, &e., &c.,
I will in the first place say: that I will ad
vise no person to come to this country, from
the hitt ark I never saw as much distress
in all my life as I seen on the plains, from
sickness,while we traveled on Platte river.
It was art-rending to see the number of
persons sick and the number that died from
' cholera. This was all the couiplaint on the
first end of the route; however, this may
not occur again in ten years. I have seen
persons that have crossed every year for
the last seven years, and they say that
1850 was the only year besides this year
that there was any sickness on the road,
and flux prevailed to some extent on the
latter end of the route • and some few cases
of mountain fever. t would advise all I
those that intend coming across the plains
riot to get frightened and run their teams
to death to get away from the disease, for
this will not do; the teams will not only
suffer hut. also the sick will not get the no-1
cessary attention; but do not stop to nurse
the sick except they are very sick, and bo I
very careful how you give medicine in the
absence of aphysician, as the most of the
deathi do doubt was occasiOned by taking
either too much medicine or else not the
right kind. Every person ought to have
sonic medicine, or, rather get in a train
where there is a death:, this would bo much
the best, and never drink water from pools,
wells or ponds nor springs, except some
that are very clear and have no bad smell.
Drink the water of Platte river. Always
start early iu the morning and camp early,
never drive after night, for night travelling
is sure to.get, you hits dangers and difficul
ties and never stay two nights in one place,
travel every day, if it is but three or five
miles, you will find to he a duty. If you
are to have preaching drive on Sabbath
morning till the hour appointed, then stop,
put your teams to grass, and then you can
attend to your religious exercises. You
AI hive to lay lijr about one clay in a vroek
or at least one day in two weeks to wash,
and when these things aro done, and you
arrive in Oregon you will find that the
winter is not far off. Do not use much
malaratus in your bread, on this road, for
this reason: the water you drink, and the
very air you breathe is more or less im
pregnated with alkali, and the system is
sufficiently charged without having it in
your bread. Itis a wonder that writers
from Oregon hrivo not instructed in regard
to this particular before this time. The
most wholesome bread for this trip, and the'
qt.ickest made, is to have about a peck of
dry rising made of corn meal and mix your
dough in the evening and let it rise until
morning, and bake for breakfast and din
ner, and at noon mix again; put in the ri
sing, knead it up in a largo tin pan and it
will be ready fur to bake for supper, &e.
The least ardent spirits is used on the road
the better, but each family should have
some, as it is a necessary medicine on this ,
trip. As I said before, keep driving on,
lose no time hunting or pleasuring on the
road. Platte river is the place to make
good time, and hundreds were mistaken in
this matter the last season; they thought
that this was the place to recruit their
teams, but it is not the fact. I would ad
vise the starting early enough so as to cross
the Missouri river by the 20th of April, or
at least the first of May, and keep along
steady and you will find grass much better
than if you are late starting, particularly
on the last end of the road, and this is
where the elephant is most generally seen.
Start with one waLion more than you ex
pect to bring through, load it with feed in
cage of do early start and throW it away
when your feed is done; bring alcnig sonic
solo leather to use in case of loose tiro.—
Take off the tire and put leather between
the felines and also on the ends of the I
spokes, cut a hole in the leather so as to
let it down to the shoulder of the spoke.—
Bring plenty of wagon grease. The last
end of the road you will need the most
wagon grease, tar or black lead anti lard I
or flour anti lard. I shall not in this let
ter make out alt outfit necessary for the
trip, as it has been attended to by other,
writers, but I will tell one thing that has
entirely been neglected, and it is very ne
cessary: each driver should have a curry
comb and a good horse brush, and every
night before unyoking your team, curry and ,
brush all the dust nut of the hair of your ,
cattle. This will appear evident when I
tell you that for twelve hundred miles
there is not a tree or a stump or anything
else for the cattle to rub against, and duet
is intolerable on tho latter part of the
road. Do not drive your teams closer to
each other than twenty y: r Is. The dust
E so bad that it makes the cattle low all
the time and is bad on the lungs. But few
curried their team; and those who did, had
NO. 18.
I nice fat cattle, and they would' lick them
delves, but .those who did not curl y and
brush. out the dust, their teams got sentry
and got the hollow-horn, and hardly any
of them made the riffle, but the most of
them died on the road. If an ox getti his
foot worn through on the bottom, have a
shoe put on the bun° side to.raisc. ikhigher
than the sore one. It would be well for
each person to have a few shoes and nails
with him, for they cannot be bad on the
road. And if an ox gets ;the foul foot take.
a piece of iron, as you can get any quantity
of old iron on the road, heat it hot and put
tar or rosin on the sore and burn it in with
a hot iron, first clean out the sore and put
a moccasin on the foot.. I found no
ans troublesome. Before I close I would
just say that each family should be well
supplied with spirits of turpentine, and
ev
ery day put a little on the cattle's horn: : :
and on their feet. People do not water
their gardens here, as is supposed by son,
in the States.
Respectfully yours,
• SAMUEL E. BARR.
Col. T. W. MeMAxAm
" A 1 1 34 Well."
I'm;lye o'clock at night, and all'u well
False prothet ! Still and statue-like, at
yonder window, stands the wife. The clock
has told the small hours, yet her face is
pressed closely against the window pane,
striving in vain with straining eye, to pierce
the darkness. She sees nothing—she hears.
nothing--but the beating of her own heart.
Now she takes her scat, opens a small bi
ble and seeks from it what comfort she may,
while tears blister tko pages. Then she
clasps her hands, and her lips are tremulous
with mute supplication. Hist! there
unsteady stop in the hall—she knows it
Many a time and oft it has trod on her ve
ry heart strings. She glides down gently
to inset the wanderer. He falls heavily
against her; and, in maudlin tones, pro
nounces a name ho had long since forgot
ten "to honor." Oh ! all enduring power
Of woman's , leve!—no reproapb, no up
braiding—the slight arm ?eased around the,
reeling figure (once erect in God's own
un
age.) With tender words of entreaty
which ho is powerless to resist, if ho
she loads him in. It is but a repetition of
a thousand such vigils!! It.is the,perfarni
auee of a. vow, witli.a heroism and patient
endurance too common and every day to be
chronicled on earth; too holy and heaven
ly to pass unnoticed by the "registering
angel" above.
"ALL's WELL False prophet
yonder luxurious room sits one whose curse
it was to be as fair as a dream of Eden.—
Time was, when those clear eyes looked
lovingly into a mother's face—when a gray
haired father laid his trembling hand, with
a blessing, , on that fair head—when broth
ers' and sisters' voices blended with hsi
own, in heart music around the happy
hearth. Oh! whore are they now ! Are
there none to say to tho repentant Magda
lene : "Neither do I condemn thee; go and
sin no more !" Mutt the gilded fetter Ooii
thine to bind the soul that loathes it, be
cause man is less merciful than God?
"ALL'S WELL!" False prophet!—There
lies the dead orphan. In all the lengths
and breadths of the green earth, there was
found no sheltering nest where the. lonely
dove could told its wings, when the wen',
birds had flown. The brooding wing was
gone that covered it from the cold winds of
neglect and unkindness. Love was ita life
and so it. dropped.
Wind, !" .False prophet ! Sin
walks the earth in purple and fine linen ;
honest poverty, with tear-bedewed fees,'
hungers and, shivers, and thirsts, while the
publican stands flier off. The widow pleads
in vain to the criminal Judge for 'justice
and, unpunished of Heaven, the human ti
ger crouches in his lair,and springs upon his
helpless prey ! . •
“ALL'S WELL !" Alt yes, all is well! for
he who ‘seeth the end from the beginning'
hqlds evenly the scales of justice ; "Dives,
shall yet beg of Lazarus." Every hunian
tear is counted. They shall yet sparkle as
gems in the crown of the patient and endu
ring disciple! When clear, broad light of
eternity shines upon life's crooked paths,
we shall see the snares and pitfalls from
which our hedge of thorns has fenced us in!
And in the maturity of our full grown faith,
we shalt greetingly say--"‘Father, not as
I will, but as Thou wilt."
ONE VOTE.—Within the last dozen years
the Governor of Massachusetts was twice
elected by a majority of one. A recent
paper says that a single vote sent Oliver
Cromwell to the Long Parliament, Charles
Stuart to the scaffold, revolutionized Eng
land, and made Great Britian free. One
vote gave us the tariff in 1.842, and one
vote made the tariff of 1846. One vote .
gave us Texas, and made war with Mexico,
and purchased California, turned thither
the tido of emigration, and will change
Ithe destiny of the world. Those who are
l in the habit of excusing themselves from
' attending elections, in the belief that one
vote will not make much difference will do
well to treasure up these facts and act tin:.
der their influence.