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ewy (MEMOKEE PHffiWIX, AMD INDIANS’ ADVOCATE. PAINTED UNDER THE PATRONAGE, AND FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE CHEROKEE NATION, AND DEVOTED TO THE CAUSE OF INDIANS — E. BCUDINOTT, LDITCH. VOL, IT. NEW ECIIOTA, WEDNESDAY JULY 8,1829. NO. 14. PJUNTF.D WEEKLY BY JOHN F. WHEELER, At 5(2 50 if paid in advance, 5*3 in six months, or $3 50 if paid at the end of (he year. To subscribers who can rea l only the fchwokee language the price will be $2,00 in advance, or $2,50 to be paid within the year. Every subscription will be considered as Continued unless subscribers give notice to Vhe contrary before the commencement of a View year,and all arrearages paid. Any person procuring six subscribers, an i l ~‘*" 01Q i n g responsible for the payment, shall 'receive a gratis. Advertisement* will be inserted at seven ty-five cents per square lo» the first inser tion, an ’ thirty-seven and a half cents tor each conuliuanc.j longor onoo in propor tion. , _ JCP All letters addressed to the Editor, post paid, will receive due attention. OtVy Jif Jt V0*^ h51 JEC.8 J. ¥>0ATiXm).I TAAJ* UW JIiVbAU P-4o9-I. bs/ie j[h«t?hwi<*y kt^i d^p o’ejn.i TGTZ TEJUOf TGTZ t»tiP Tj30*A TB D9-1^^Kod-I, KT DV-R (BO-IBa K4o9.l. D?.D*#9EZ TB YW o*y^T d^p cpe.tBa i-4<*vi. Gwyz CPC.R wf*v d»r O’O.JB.R l*4<».* TGTZ TR.UO-T’ D0- KT.1Z D-^P 0^y‘t^ O’J.IB' V.IR Dej^)«!P tSi.I. AGENTS FOR 1 HE CllEROKEE PHCEN1X. The following persons are authorized to receive subscriptions and payments for the Cherokee Phumix. Messrs. Peirce &. Williams, No. 20 Market St. Boston, Mass. George M. TryCy, Agent ofthe A. B. C. F. M. New York. Rev. \. D. Eiydy, Canandaigua, N. Y. Thomas Hastings, Utica, N. Y. Pollard & Converse, Richmond, Va. Rev. James C ampbell, Beaufort, S. C. • William Moultrie Reid, Charleston, 5. C. Col, George Smith, Statesville, W. T. William M. Combs, Nashville, Ten. Rev. Bennet Roberts, Powal Me. Mr. Thos. It. Gold, (an itinerant Gen tleman.) Jeremiah Austil, Mobile, Ala. Rev. Cyrus Kingsbury, Mayhew, Choc taw Nation. Capt. William Robertson, Augusta, Georgia. Col. James Turk, Bellfonte, Ala. INTSMFEEAN OE. CONFESSIONS OF A PRISONER. The following confessions, of a prisoner in one of our Slate peniten tiaries'. present some interesting facts In relation to the insidious progress of the vice of intemperance; and the power of a vicious habit against the remonstrances of reason and con science. They are contained in a com munication addressed some months since, to the General Agent of the American Temperance Society. The unhappy author discloses his own his tory with much apparent faithfulness. In the course of a private note, he frankly remark*; “certainly I do not write now for fame, and have endea voured to dwell more briefly upoi* the favourable than the unfavourable parts of my unhappy story.” Jour, of Humanity. gir^ I address you from the solita ry cell of a penitentiary prison. The 6peciflc crime alleged against me is forgery, but the cause of my present condition, and of all the calamities which have attended my devious career of life, is the inebriating bowl. Nearly four years have passed since I entered these dreary walls, and more than three others remain for me to spend here. An offended God in wrath remembered mercy. The morning bitters, the drams of the day cr of the night, have not reached me. Eyes that were once inflamed have acquired their native clearness; trem bling limbs have resumed their wont ed functions; internal fevers and burn ings, are quenched. Ruined, de graded, and wretched as my condition may seem, it is very possible, that when U‘ e sealed hook shall be opened, it will appear that with me the pris on was substituted for the tomb;— that while Intemperance was hurrying thousands to the gates of death, I was rescued as a brand from the burning.’ If the graves which intemperance, this prime minister of Death had peo pled, should ‘‘burst their marble jaws,” to raise a warning voice to the living, the church-yards would fear fully yawn, as by a mighty earth quake, and the united inonilions of all that is loathsome, appalling or fear ful, would cry to the votaries of the cup, in more than human accents, Bt- ■ --V0./ ICu. -. But though no spirit may l * se tho tomtt of liio (load, “cv |Y«nu.. 0 voice may come forth from the dun geons of the living. And whenever punishment, whether considered as the necessary sanction to human laws, or as the dispensation of an overruling Providence,—has produced its legiti mate effect; whenever the pride of the human heart is humbled under the mighty hand of offended heaven, there will he no hesitation in stating the causes which led to infamy and ruin. While I could wish to mare the feeling of the-connexions of Iny fami ly; for myself 1 should he willing that •the story of one, whose earthly hopes intemperance had blasted, should be written upon the walls of the city,and find its way to every tap-room in the nation. I find myself surrounded with more than five hundred beings, in the same condition with myself. The at mosphere I breathe is agitated with sighs and groans; and my individual calamity seems lost in the wretched ness that surrounds me. Where shall we look for the source of all this* misery? Let the keeper’s docket tell. Theft, forgery, burglary, bes tiality, rape, murder; every species of crime, at the name of which the soul recoils, appears in the black catalogue. These are specific ac tions, upon the perpetrators of which the law can lix its hold. But the vice which leads to every other, eludes tire grasp of the law. Inflamed eyes, bloated visage, pal sied limbs, sickness, poverty, or even death, are not the things which give to this vice its most appalling aspect. It unnerves the soul more fearfully than it does the body. It gradually destroys the moral sensibilities of the heart, and rouses the Violent passions of our depraved nature. It mars the soft and refined emotions of the soul, like the hideous trail of the serpent over the brightest blossoms of Eden. If the pillow be sometimes the place of serious thought, the libation of the morning obliterates the salutary les son. One draught calls for a second, the second still more louldly for the third, another for another, until every other sentiment and feeling is lost in the insatj|ble cry—-“gioe, gtre.” Such was once my condition. 1 saw indeed that destruction was before me, and still approached, with accelerated pace, the horrid gulf. When a child, I once saw a bird charmed by the sparkling eyes of a serpent, and ap proaching near the reptile which lurk ed for its destruction- When, from pity, 1 destroyed the enchanter, and set the fluttering captive free, how little did I think that 1 should ever be enchanted—that the frightful pit of perdition should yawn before me, and yet that I should voluntarily rush with open eyes, toward the abyss. An overruling Providence interposed, and my career of vice was arrested by the arm of civil authority. The destiny which denied me the accustomed stimulus, was, at the first, inexpressibly painful; the separ ation from the bottle seemed like the separation of the “joints and marrow.” An artificial and vitiated appetite had predominated over every other feel ing; overpowered'the entreaties of friendship, jjie inductions of reason, the monitions of conscience. No dis suasive from my vice was effectual, whether drawn from that which is desirable in life, or from wha( is re pugnant in the prospect of vagabond degradation and premature death.— Heaven had not sufficient charms to allure me, nor Hell sufficient terrors to deter. The will was enchained to a tyrant who never said, enough. But in imprisonment, the manacles which bound my body set my spirit free. The unnatural cravings of the stomach gradually subsided with the disuse of spirit. In the haunts of dissipation, the mind may be banished from itself; but in the cell of a prison, who can avoid revolving in his mind the variety of (/aviso? which oonapirc'd to i-ivtt Iu8 fetters? Who "ill not inquire—At what period of life did I commence the construction of this gloomy abode? When did I lay the first foundation? On what anvil did I forge the bolls and bars? From what quarries did 1 obtain materials for the wall? Through what means did I provide and adapt the various materials of the building, until, at length, I came forward with the las' key-stone to the arch? Why am 1 doomed, like the ox, to toil for another? Was I not “born free as Caesar?’, Why, then, have I “sold myself for nought?,’ Alas! while I can trace the source of my present wretchedness and ruin to the infatuat ing effects of ardent spirits, I am con strained to add that it has blasted the fairest hopes. I entered upon the active scenes of life, without friends, patrimony, or connexions, at the age of sixteen; and though the four years immediately preceeding were passed in active la bour, yet works of literature and phil osophy were n y companions in the field; and, at that early period, I an ticipated a literary career. When parental protection was removed. I exchanged the axe for the pen. My first essays were published in an ob scure i illage paper, and I had the gratification of seeing them reprinted in popular journals. At seventeen I removed to one of our Atlantic cities, where the editorial department of a daily paper was committed tempor arily to my charge, during the sickness of its proprietor. There, although an entire stranger, and almost with out resources, I succeeded in acquir ing the friendship Of some literary men. Penhaps they were willing to accept my homage to science, in the place of profound knowledge. The friendship of such men was worth more than the patronage of the rich. It opened a wider sphere of action, and,-at twenty three, having visited Europe, 1 found myself the proprie tor of an ample fortune, exclusively the production of the pen. But be fore this period the seeds of destruc tion had been sown, and they now be gan to take root. Shortly after en tering thff city of , I attached my self to several clubs of wits, “free and easy” associations; but I sooq found that a convivial evening drew heavily upon the morning of ifie suc ceeding day. At lenpjVn the morning bitter was called for, to chase away I he ennui c. rising from the midnight debouch. This impaired the relish for breakfast. Coffee became insi pid—appetite for food diminished. The Bitters in the morning required a rejoinder at eleven, and a surrejoin der at one. And it w r as nut until I frequently found myself in a state of intoxication, and some of my friends began to whisper, “this is the road to ruin,” that I first suspected myself of being reprehensibly intemperate. 1 had completely entered the camp of the enemy, before I discovered the presence of danger. Every effort to retrace my steps proved vain; the only avenue of escape was barred as by a giant,—by burnings and cravings, insatiable as the grave. Every fit ol intemperance operated upon my con stitution with more than ordinaly force; it led to distracting frenzy, and extravagant excesses. My friends could weep; and yet I Wanted reso lution to dash the fatal poison from my lips. Unwilling to blast every prospect, in a ci.y still dear to iny re collection, I reufbved to another, un der the vain hope that a change oi place might lead to a change of hah it. From that period to the commence ment of my present imprisonment, in 1824, an interval of eleven years, i have floated over the surface of the world, without any settled purpose ot life, and there is scarce a section, in two empires, in which I have not temporarily resided. My rescources w ere soon exhausted, and I found the necessity of adopting sonic nit-nna (oi a livelihood. I have been the pre ceptor of a School in fifteen different villages and neighbourhoods; have conducted the editorial department of eight different newspapers, to three of which my name was attached; and have worked as a mechanical printer in thirty or forty different offices. But so completely had the desire of spirituous liquor acquired the ascen dancy, that the earnings of a month were not unfrequenily squandered in a week; and it was never till my pockets were emptied, that I left the tavern, or the grocery, in quest of employment. But an empty purse was the least of all the evils occa sioned hy this besetting and besotting sin The same stimulants which heated tho blood, and inflamed the animal spirits, overpowered reason; while the feet tottered, the arms trembled, and the tongue faltered, the soul was in the wildest frenzy. Three times I have been led to ex cesses which fell’within the cogniz- ance of municipial law'; and impris onment followed; twice for a few days, and once lor a little more (ban a year. The details of my unhappy course would fill volumes. I will merely mention two or three additional inci dents. One ofthe instances of imprison ment which 1 haie already mentioned, was at Salem, Washington County, N. Y... for a transaction at Whitehall, where 1 had been the actual though not the nominal editor of the W hitehall Emporium. 1 left the prison penny- Icss^and Stevenson. Senelary of the Washington County Bible Soi iety, and one of the proprietors of the Salem Post, received me into his office for a few days, for the charitable pur pose of repairing my exhausted funds. At my departure lie cautioned me with much tenderness, to guard a- gainst “the sin which so easily besel me,” anil requested me to read the Scriptures pla< ing at the same time, a i copy of the New Testament in my i hand. I did not leave Salem hefote my money was squandered at fine tav ern; and that I might indulge the sin ful propensity to the uttermost, I sold liie «nok, which was given me fora very different purpose, to an inn-keep er, and received the quid pro quo from the bar. 1 cannot hut view this as the blackest action of my wicked life. 1 should do injustice to myself, if I did hot add, that the first moment of reflect ion, w hen the mad dening influence of ardent spirit sub sided, “my* soul shuddered at the thought that I had been base enough to convert the generous feelings that would have reclaimed me, into the means of a further sinful indulgence and perhapsihe purchaser, who was aware of all the circumstances, was little less guilty than my self. Again destitute, I wondered as 1 could to Troy, wheve my necessities were supplied by a literary gentleman, res ident at that place. I entered the borough of Easton, Perm, at another time, on my way from New York to Harrisburg, at which latter place T had business, and where, some years before, I had con ducted the editorial department ot o news-paper. I was a stranger in Easton, and Satan seemed to whipper aat 1 might here gratify my launile propensity better than aU a place where I had any character at stake. Having squandered the small funds I then had, $50, which were divided between the bar and the card table, next divested my sell of every vala- ..j|e article of apparel. Penny less, a ranger,»and almost naked, the stom- ieh as still unsatisfied, ar.ci to grat ify its incessant clainots, as a Iasi re port, I joined a sunll leeruiting party, Mien in the as a pi wait soldier, under the assumed name of Thomson * from no higher piinciple than that of converting the six dollars advance in to rum. Vic win shortly aftei trans- 1’cired to Fort Niagara, where 1 ie* mnined about a month. But tiie dis ci'.line of the < aU p could not guard against the expedients by whit h I ( on- tinned to gratify this f'sial ptopet.srty; and. in a fit of intemperance, I was guilty of a violation oi dis, i; line, ren dered capital hy the rules and articles of war; for which l was t;rush rred, a prisoner, to Sacketls 1 labour, con fined in tlie guard-ioim, anti loaded with irons. Before a court martial convened, I contl ived, though at the hazard of instant death, to effect my escape.* Overleaping the picketts of the cantonment I wandered throe git woods and morasses for three days' without sustenance, in which 1 pro gressed about forty miles, until at length 1 found a canoe at Alexander hay, with w hich I crossed to t!^; Bri;^ ish dominions. Heaven, which had ever loaded me with unmerited blcss< ings. still continued to he merciful Although n stranger, and appearing under the most unfavourable cirr urn- stances, I experienced, almost at the first house 1 entered, the kindness nr.d affection of a brother, and the confi dence of a friend, from a mercantile gentleman whose name was Jones He was a Christian, and Ins house' a little Sanctuary in whi h the love of God dwelt, lie immediately sup plied me with decent apparel, for f had nothing blit a soldier's fatigue dress, and through his influence, in less than a week, I was employed at re spectable wages, to take the charge of a school, in the neighbourhood, for three months. Here was the fust in stance in which a moral feeling over powered the strong propensity for the bottle. It was a Christian neighbour- h'oil, iny immediate predecessor o^i* < in led at the sacred altar, and I saw that indulgence in intemperance would result in a cl.smissal, which would place it out of uiy power to refund' the advances of my generous benefac tor. This was a step 1 daijed not take. I completed the contract,, with perfect sobriety, and commenc ed a new one at an increased salary, - which was further augmented by su pernumerary si liolars, s me of wbirn were studying Latin and the higher branches ol education. But my fret soon began to stumble. I idept over* the fust fit of intemperance, after the abstinence of four or five months; and w ith prayers and sighs implored the God of Heaven to save me from tho gulf which seemed to yawn before me. My ense was communicated to the village clergyman, who opened his doors for my reception, and treat ed me with peculiar delicacy and ten derness. But all was in vain. I con hi not pass a tavern; and I could •ot drink one glass, w ithout following ihe enchanting poison w ith another & another, till raving frenzy, or beastly intoxication ensued. I neglected my school, and a dismissal followed. Collecting my earnings and discharg ing my debts, I proceeded to Mon-f heal, genteelly habited; and with a- bout sixty dollars. Here, instead of entering into busv? siness, 1 passed the time in the low est groceries, with which that city abounds, until l had expended every penny, and exchanged my wardrobe for rags.—One morning as I awoke from a broken and painful sleep, after excessive intoxication, and faintly