BLA.H.Vinr Proprietor.] NEW SERIES, A wkly Democratic it' I. Terms—l copy 1 year, (in advance) $12.00 ast paid within six month?, #2.50 will be charged NO paper will be DISCONTINUED, until all ar rty*regi are paid; unless at the option of publisher. ADV RTISING. xO line* or . 5 j j lest, make three) four two Jhret tix one sue square weeks\wetkt mo''th\mo'th'.mo , th year : <iuare 1,00; 1,26 2,25 2,87: 3,00) 5,00 2 do. 2,001 2,60 3,25 3.50. 4 50; 6,00 1 Jo. 3,00! 375 4,75 5,50. 7,00? 9,00 i Uolnmn. 4,00! 4.50 6,50: 8,00-' 10,00, 15,00 4 do. 6 00' 950 10,00) 12.00 17.00' 25.00 t do. 8,00 7,0 14,00, 19,00 25,00 35.00 t do. 10,00! 12,00 17,00i22,00 26,00)40,00 IXECUTORS, ADMINISTRATORS and AUDI TOR'S NOTICES, of the usual length, 82,50 •RITE ARIES.-exceeding ten lin s, each ; ItELI GIOU3 and LITERARY NOTICES, not of genera interest, one half tne regular retes. Business Cards of one square, with paper, $5. JOB WORK of all kinds neatly executed, and at prices to suit the times. All TRANSIENT ADVERTISEMENTS and JOB WORK must be paid for, when ordered. fusmtiss jjjfotifs. H 8. COOPER, PHYSICIAN A SURGEON • Newton Centre. Luzerne County Pa. R,R. I.ITTIjE, ATTORNEY AT LAW Offiee on Ttoga !reet, XunkhanDockl'a. GEO S.TUTTO*. AtTOTNEY AT LAW Xunkhonnock, Pa. Ufice n Stark's Brio •ek, Ttoga stjest M. M. PIATT, ATTORNEY AT LAW, 0 fee IB Stark's Brick Block Tioga St., Tunk kaaaaek, Pa. Sbf V iflilev |)uusf. IT AI i. A iif** ~KNNA . Tho ...rs baring lately purchased the •' BUEH' ;..r i- • '* " pioperty, has already com menced •• ar -J improvements as will reader v • lar House equal, if not supe rior, to • ahe City of Ilarrisburg. A -I . . the public patronage is refj*ct- GEO. J. BOLTON •A/ALL'S HOTEL, .. • re iIifEKI CAM House, % ?. i tN N4K'K, WYONIKG CO., PA v .tabli<hn.ent has r- cently been refitted an 1 turu.etied in the latent style Every attentk.n 'ill !>* .-ive* Ui the comfort and convergence of tho-e io ;/.fr-.Tiiee lie House. T. B. WALL, Owner and Proprietor . T::niihannk. September 11, 1861. HORTH BRANCH HOTEL, MESHOPPEN, WYOMING COUNTY, PA nm. H. CORTRIGIIT, Prop'r aAVTNG resumed the proprietorship of the above Hotel, the undersigned will spare ao effort to •eader the house aa agreeable place ot sojourn for all who may favor it with their custom. 3 Win. II CORTRIGIIT. June, trd, >063 ITHT A, C Id KC Iv Klt . PHYSICIAN A SURGEON, Would respectfully announce to the eitiienso* Wy miug, that he has located at Tunkhannock where fcn will promptly aAteßi to all calls in the line of t£i§ prof NMN 00. ry will b found at home on Saturdays of oaehwaek v— — jpeaits TOWA-NTDA, 3?A - D- B- BARTLET, | Late of the BBRAIMARD Horsx, ELMIBA, N Y. PROPRIETOR. The MEANS HOTEL, i one of the LARGEST tad BEST ARRANGED Houses in the country—lt ~4 itieH up in the nuflt modern and improved style, aud n > pa ns are spared to make it a pleajpnt and Mrecable f topping-place {or all, ■ s3, n2l, ly. - CLARKE,KEEN EY.&CO., C S**I'SACTCHF.K3 AMD WBOLCSALE HEALERS HI LADIES', MISSES' & DENTS' £ilk aiMagsimm §ats AMDJOBBKRBIN JUTS, CAPS, FURS, STRAW GOODS. PARANOIA* AND UMBREEI,AS. BUFFALO AND FANCY ROBES, 849 BROADWAY, CORN KB OF LKONARD STRF.KT, mssw B. . CLAM, ) A. • ISMtr, [ a. LCIBNWT. S M. GILMAX, AC GILHAN, has permanently located in Tunk l*l bannock Borough ar ! iegr"etfully tendered a • • r eseioual services U tb<- e liens of this place h n • euading ceuntry. i LL WORK W AttRANTED, TO GIVE SATIS fA TION. • T >u'- La* Oflce, aeer the Po ee 11.134s SERMON OF THE REV- JOHN CHAM BE ItS* - ON THANKSGIVING DAY, Thursday, December 7 th, 1865. The services of the day were commen ced by the reading of the 85th Psalm, in connection with the sth chapter of the Ist e" pistle to the Tbessalonums. The speaker then said: We have assembled in compliance with the request of the Chief Magistrate of the United States, that we should, on this day, meet and give thanks to Almighty God for the restoration of peace to our lately dis tracted and unhappy land —not that I recog nize the right of any civil magistrate to dictate the Church of Christ in any way — but a request, such, as the one put forth by President Johnson, must find its echo in the heart of every man and woman before me, and call foith unmingled grati tude toGodfortlie meicy vouchsafed us in being delivered from one ot the most cruel, bloody, and desolating wars the world ever saw. At the same time, I am sure that no one amongst us lias waited until this hour to pour forth the gratitude and praise which the cessation of hostilities must have caused to spring in the heart of every Christian and lover of humanity. What minister of the Prince of Peace has not urged upon his people the duty of devout thankfulness troin the moment the last gun was fired ? For it is a glorious truth that Christ, His gospel, and His ministers are a like opposed to war, which in all its conse qucnces is fraught with evii and evil only. Mr. Chambers then offered np a prayer, in which he thanked for the return of peace and freedom, that the writ of habeas <or/wliad been restored, so that men were no longei in danger of being dragged at the midnight houi from tiiair homes and families, lie ardently invoked the rich est blessings of the Almighty upon the President of theUnitetd States, the Gov ernor of each sovereign State, and the Ju diciary of the nation, supreme and subordi nate, The sermon w as based upon the text, St. Mtt. 16th chap.. ,-3d v.: "Can ye not dis cern the signs of the times," and was as foil ows ; No man ought to he a:r idle or inatten tive spectator of passing events, or shut his eyes to the signs of the times. Buiit is a melancholy fact, ti at comparatively few of (he great mass of men think tor themselves either politically or religiously, and hence they are the slaves or dupes of others who have the courage or the ambition to bethiet leaders* It is know to tue world a? large, that no people on earth boast more ol their civil and religions liberty than do the American people t but it is a sad truth that, in many casess it is but the empty sound without any solid foundation, and that the many are led captive by'the few—especial ly politically. The past four or five years have been among the most eventful ot the world's history. The great experiment of self-government has been streched to its ut most tension. At a nation we have been upn the verge of ruin, and I confess that even now my mind is not satisfied that the ship of State is entirely off the lee-shore or safely moored. There is a wilderness in the political heavensVhich to the attentive observer must appear portentous of evil in tho future, and what makes it more alarm ing is that the masses of our people are ignorant of their chartered rights. How few of the teeming millions of this nation ev er carefully read or studied the Constitu tion of the United States ? Do you sup pose that more than one in every thousand has ever done so ? And y-t this grand in strument is the book of the people—not by any means the exclusive property of the ju rist, the lawyer or the politician, but, I re peat. it, the book of the people, made for them, and for their special benefit ; and the man who fails to make it the rule of his life, as a citizen, is derelict of duty. But let us now proceed to inquire into what is our present condition, and what our future prospects ; and first of all, I shall view thejp as they stand related to the Bi ble standard of Christian purity and excel lence. Let us go to the law and to the tes timony. We read, Titus, 3d chap., 1-3 verse# : "Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey mag istratcs, to be ready to every good work to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness unto all TO SPEAK HIS THOUGHTS IS EVERY FREEMAN'S RIGHT. "—Thomas Jefferson. TUNKHANNOCK, PA., WEDNESDAY, JAN. 10, 1866. men— for we ourselves also were some times foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living io envy and malice, hateful and hating one another I ask you whether this nation aa a whole, nay, even that portion ot it who profess and call themslves Cbsistians, are living in the state of mind so beautiflly described by the Apostle in the first two verses which I have read, or whether, alas, the condition to wh ch lie refers as being in the past with him is not in the present with us ? Is it not an undeniable fact that, in many instan ces, even the ministers of religion have not the politeness of the publications spoken of hv our diviue Master in St. Matt.., sth ehap. , verses 4-6 4-7 ? Is that the spirt of gentleuess, meekness and forbearance which the Apostle enjoins in his letter to Titus characteristic of those who call the same Lord, Master, and who declare pub licly by their own act and word thai henc forth they will walk togethnr according to His commaudment I On the contrary, is not the spirit of intolerance and persecution rampant in the land ? What does our Lord say, John,, 12th chap. , 35 verse,"By this shall all men know that ye are my dis ciples if ye havs love one to another." Rem ember what St. Paul tells us, "Love work eth no ill to his neighbor— therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. By their fruits you shall know them." Is it true that we, as a Christian Church,are carrying out the principals of the good Samaritan? We have, at this day thrown out upon the world some lour millions of human beings who never before had any care about the fu tnrc, and what is being done 4 10 render them comfortable or provide tliem with the means of an honest, honorable self-support? I acknowledge there is any quantity of bla tant oratory on this subject, but that un fortunately neither feeds nor clothes, nor shelters the miserable and unhappy crea tures whose present condition, if we may be lieve one half even of what wc are told in the public prints, is horrible in the ex treme. We are told upon the best author ity that they arc dying by the hundreds— yea, by the thousands. The publie jour rials of the day inform its that hospitals and almshouses are being prepared for them. These are both new inventions so far as the negro is concerned, and never were needed for him before. A lid not only are we told that, the physical conditon is de plorable, almost beyond their description, hut that the hot breath of moral pestilence is sweeping over them like the sirocco of the desert. Moral disease, moral death is worse than anv temporal calamity. To rescue them from human servitude, only to leave them to the bondage of Satan, is a poor compensation Thcr e*ore, I hold it is tire duty of those who took these people from their former condition, and through whose agency they now occupy their pre°- ent one. to provide amply for them, espec iallv that portion of the American people whose ancestors were chicflly concerned in bringing them to these shores, and who*e childern's children arc now living on the princely fortunes made in the African slave trade.' It is a well known fact that the principal part of that trade was carried on hv men of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Whv. then, do not the men who have filled our land with confusion and miserey, with out delay import into those two States at least one million of these homeless desti tute creatures, in order that they may be cared for by those who ought to consider themselves their natural protectors under existing circumstances ? '?* Another fearful sign of the times is the general demoralization which wefindmeet ing us on every side. It mar, indeed, be said that "iniquity abounds," and yet what indifference there is to the increase of crime. The press teems with mnrder6 frauds, defalcations, robberies, blasphemy, and general lawlessness. Some tell us that this is the necessary result of increase of population, but that cannot be. We have lost more men byfthe war than we have gained by emigration. No—it is in a great measure owing to the four years of blighting, desolating hostilities through which we have passed, in which all the evil passions of men, and I blush to sav, of women, too, have been called into action and kept in constant play, and have so completely gained the mastery over us as to refuse now to be allayed. This alarming demoralization runs through all grades of society. Who does not know that in our legislative halls we are largely represented by corrupt and venal men,and that it ia an understood and accepted fact in many, cases it is hut neces sary to offer a bribe sufficiently large in or der to have your point carried? The ballot- box, of which we boast so much, is rotten to the core, and our independence, in which we appear to glory, it little more than a farce. It is a fact, as patent as the noon day sun, that free Americans can be, and are, bought upon election days as readily as you can buy sheep in the market, and that the party which has the most money is the winning one. The tyrant, too, who employs labor will compel his employees to vote in the way to suit himself, or dis charge them from their places. And this employer call himself a free American—a lover and promoter of civil ai d religious freedom! And the men who thus obeys his behests are called freemen,and challenge the world to admire the liberty of thiftking and acting for themselves, which the insti tutions of their country guarantee to them ! Am I wrong in denouncing this so-called freedom as a farce when such things can be cited as facts ? What significance, too, has the common expression which so many of you have heard, "He can be approach ed." What docs it mean, but that the man is in the market, and up for the highest hid 1 My hearers, if wc do not awake to a full sense of our danger, we will be swept by this tide ofavaice, of grasping cupidity, which is widening and* deepening even day, into the maelstrom of irrecoverable ruin. And then, too, let us see what is the style, and what the character of the men who arc selected to represent ns in the law making, as well as in the executive depart ments. What is the first question ? Not, "Is he a man of great moral wortli—of spotless integrity and unflinching courage in the discharge of his duty—of the proper intellectual calibre or educational fitness ? ' Alas, it is only, "Is he available ? Can we by any means, fair or foul, elect him ?''— Hence it is that the veriest dolts ar.d most illiterate of men are elected to fill places for which they hare not one qualification, un less it be to receive pay for their votes. — Look in upon your city councils. By whom are those seats filled ? By your best citizens—your < xperienced and staid men— your most honorable and capable financiers —men whom every citizen would be proud to call our city fathers, not because of their wealth, hut solely on account of their emi nent qualifications and fitness for the place? But alas, this is not the ease. In many in stances half tledged and not half educated' young, and inexperienced men, who have nothing at stake and nothing to loose, but everything to gain, and who very rarely the moral courage to resist the outside pressure brought to bear upon them, when tor example a pet scheme for contracts is before the people, and who can be ap proached—such, I say, are the persons elected to fill offices of public trust among us. Then,again, look iri upon the Congress of the United States of to-day and com pare it, if you have sufficient temerity, with that of thirty years ago. up to your remembrance the mighty men, he intel lectual gian's who then composed # that bodv —men of sterling worth, of unim peachable integrity— men, the dash of whose pen would make thrones tremble and tyrants grow pale—Webster,Clay Bell, Benton, Calhonn. McDnffie. Cass, Choate. And the lower House,too, —what an assem blage there met the gaze. Lived there a man in those halcvon days of the repulblic who wonld have presumed to lobby a bill through in either or both Houses by the use of money ? There are sitting before me now grey-headed men who know thai the man who wonld have ventured such an attempt upon the integrity of one of the then representatives of the nation, would have been roughly and properly,dealt with. I sadly fear the snn of those days has set to rise no more, unless we have an entire moral and political reformation. Another alarming sign of the .times is the growing spirit of insubordination com mencing in the familv and running through society in all its ramifications. Behold the veriest hoys and girls who throng our •tho roughfares What boisteronsness, what profanity, what obscenity ! And yet these are the germs of our fu'ure as a nation. — Then, again, look at the frightfully grow ing disregard of law, both constitutional and statute. Bnt. perhaps the mast dan gerous sign of the times which we are cal led on to observe, is the assumption of the military over the civil power. The knell of all former republics tolled out upon the morning of that sad, sad day, when the military triumphed civil authority You have bnt to refresh yonr memories with the history of the past to understand this thoroughly. And there is nothing more true than that "history repeats it self." When that great privilege of which England and America boa*t as the bright est evidence of their civilization and Christianity, the writ of habeas corpus, was assailed, and you were left at the mercy of anybody and everybody, it required but another cast of the die to fix upon you a military despotism. Then your ligh. would 1 have gone out at noonday. Nicodemus ! asked with startling emphasis, when the ' chief Pr iests were clamorous for the blood of Jesus : "Doth our law judge any man before it liear him and know what he doetb.' So asks the ha be is corpus, why arrest this 1 man —wM^ruthlessly tear him from his wife and children ? Doth our law judge any man before it hear him and know what 1 he doeth ? And in thunder tones it rolls out no ! no! and thus the great chart of the American citizen's liberty stands by his side as the military despot drags him away under the cover of midnight, and "pleads like angels, trumpet tongued, against the deep damnation of his taking off." Let us be fearlessly jealous of our : rights. We are the sovereigns. We make the laws It is we, the people of these Unitod States, who make Presidents and Governors. They are onr servants appointed to serve us. and if they do not please us, we put them out and put others in their places What other nation can like ourselves, make use of the plural pro. noun,* We -We the American people— We the the sovereign people. Thank God for this proud distinction ! Let us never loose sight of the fact that as the Union is made up of separate and inde pendent States, so also are the States made up of individual sovereigns, and just so long as each citizen maintains his individuality, amenable only to the laws and Constitu tion, so long we are safe. Ihe most alarming thought to a right thinking man in this matter is the fact that we are de parting from our old land marks. Would that I were able to impress upon all my countrymen the danger of such a course, and e c peciaily the necessity of *guarding against all fanatical and unconstitutional innovations. What can be more unnatural, more unreasonable, than any attempt to amalgamate discordant elements which God never intended should he united ? W T e are a nation of white men Our national compact was formed by and for white men The Convention which assembled to form our Constitution was composed of white icn, and the Chairman of that body* was no less a than George Washington, the pure, uncompromising patriot. Think you that he, or any other of the wise and g.>od men composing that asemblage, ever contemplated the idea that the government they were using their best efforts to estab lish was to he anything but a government of white men ? Thank God I have never seen the time when I could say "let the Union slide"—when I could pronounce the great chart of our aationality "a covenant with death and an agreement hell," or declare the flag cf onr country to he a "Haunting lie." Let us keep our govcrn meut is it was originally intended by its founders. The moment you admit the ne gro to an equality of citizenship, you make him eligible from the Presidency down — otherwise he is not your political equal.— All I is that the man who is 9C clamor ous for negro equality should throw open the doors of his house and invite him to share in his social enjoyments—permit him< to take a seat on his crimson velvet sofa, tete-a-tete with his beautiful daughter, and freely accord to him the right to demand her hand in marriage, if he he so inclined. Then, and then only, will I believe in and respect his consistency. Until then 1 deny the propriety of his assuming as his own any such characteristics. No man is a better friend to the negro than I am. I I would have him cared for, protected,and elevated in the scale of humanity, as far as possible. But it must in his proper place and position. If you have any real regard for him, or for the comfort of the | white man, do not attempt this pernicious, this fatal work of equalizing the races.— My dear people, you have long known that I entertain* d the most serious fears in j regard to the final issue of this question, j which for many years has been agitating , the minds of the two sections. It came at last, and in such horrible shape as nothing but the lapse of time can banish from the . memory of any who lived during that fear ful period Thank God, it is over, and | now our duty is to endeavor by every I means in our flower to promote, as far as in 1 us lies, the peace and happiness of the na tion now once again united, and, above all, to allay that thirst for blood which I am • forced to fear still lingers in the breasts of many who besr the name of Christian, j Let us now consider what srennr prospects TEH.MB, SQ.OO X s 232 V. ANNDM for the future. 1 must confess that to my mind it bears a threatening aspect, and'that that tlje whole political heavens aro over bung with clouds surcharged with ruin. What can ward off the impending doom Canarmiesor navies? Can hatred and strife ? Never ! We must cotnc back to the old landmarks, as I have told von be fore. Tbe pulpits must cease their ciy for blood and \ engence and preach the gospal of peace and good will. Bvery American citizen mu6t be a man, and a white man too. Taking for the rule of his politicaT life the Constitution, as prepared and inter preted by its fraraerSj and having an intel ligent perception of the rights guaranteed to him by it, he should exercise those rights without fear or favor. And this brings to my mind an overflowing compli ment made by an English paper to the for mer slaveholders of the South, in which it said that inasmuch as the leading politic ians of this country propose mt once to con fer upon everey negro over 21 years of age tbe right of sufferage, it is of course to be taken for granted that these negroes must have been well instructed by their master® all questions of political ethics, and conse qently all that has been said and written us to the condition and ignorance, and utterr degradation in which they were kept up to the moment of their emancipation goes for nothing. No my friends —No such means as these wil avail us, if we wish to escape future de strution. The evil is too deep-seated for any mere patchiug up or temporizing, to remedy it. We must strike at the root of it. We must as a people be imbued with virtue, intelligence, and scriptural pi*ty. Then, and only then will we be safe. These alone are the bonds which can hold us together. Our destiny is in our own hands. The men who fill all official sta tions must be men ot unblemished integrity. Those whom we appoint to make our laws, must be of the highest order of intellect # and morals. The ermine on the judicial robes must be as pure as the snow Hake on its way to the earth. Every man who goes to the ballot-box must go as a free man, un tramelled by fear or bribe. Our nobleman hood must be untarnished by passion; prej udice, or avarice. Let eveiy manbefully persuaded in bis own mind. St. Paulaaja "Happy is he that condemetb not him self in that thing which he alloweth," and David, the King of Israel, with his dying breath charged upon his 8on_Solotoak "I go the way of all the earth—be thou strong therefore, and show your thyself a man" —and Paul again exhorts all men thus a "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith,*aad quit you like men—be strong." He aUo de clares;" When 1 was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child.-but. when 1 became a man I put away childish things." Let us understand and apply to ourselves this glowing and el oquent admonition. As American citizens let us be mc/t-strong"in our politic! rect titude, and in every Christian grace and virtue. VOL. 5 NO. Mr people, 1 have done. I hate endeav ored lo give you my simple yet firm con victions of whit I believe to be the state and condition of the country, and of what the future will be. I beg you to believe that it has been done in all truth and hon esty, without any attempt or design nt die tation or interference with the conscience of others. lam only too willing to accord to others the right which I claim for myself*"* that of thinking and acting for myself. But in mv humble position as a minister of the Church of Christ, I feel that a solemn duty rests upon me to warn those who are my special charge and care of the perils which surround them in this day and generation, and to implore each and all to exert his in dividual influence to avert the consequen ces which must betall this nation in the event of no effort being made to roll back the tides of sin and ruin which are, day by day, rushing in upon us. Let each one len.i his voice to swell the cry of "Peace on earth and good will to men." And when the last great day shal come, when Gabriel with one foot on the land and one on the sea, shall sound the trumpet which shall call the nations of the earth to judgement, may you and I, mine and yours be of that mighty host who shall take up their march around the throne of God, having received from our Lord and Master the welcome, "Well done, good and faithful servants, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord-" Never despise counsels from whatever quarter they reach you. Remember that the pearl is keenly sought for iu spite of the coarse shell which epvclops it.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers