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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.