Newspaper Page Text
Entered according to Act of Congress, in J une, 1868, by J. W. Burkk & Cos., in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the So. District of Georgia.
VOL. 11.
Written for Burke’s Weekly.
A CONVENTION.
0 you know what a Convention
is? Look in the dictionary,
Ca and you will find that it is
“an assembly of delegates or represen
tatives to accomplish some specific ob
ject, civil, political, or ecclesiastical.”
Conventions are assembled for various
purposes. There are Sunday School
conventions, church conventions, tem
perance conventions, and railroad con
ventions. Some time ago there was an
assemblage of newspaper editors at Au
gusta, in our own State, and this was
called a Press Convention. But the
convention which has attracted most at
tention throughout the United States
recently, was the National Democratic
Convention. You will discover from
the name that it was not only a Demo
cratic Convention, but a National Dem
ocratic Convention. This means that
it was made up of delegates from every
part of the nation —from the North and
the South, the East and West. These
delegates numbered several hundred,
and many thousands of people were at
tracted to the great city of New York to
witness their deliberations.
Now, my dear children, I don’t want
any of you to turn politicians too soon ,
nor do I intend to preach politics in the
Weekly, but it is well enough that you
should know something about the two
great political parties of the country.
The two parties in this country now are
the Democrats and the Republicans, or
as we call them, the Radicals. The
Radicals, who are so strong in Congress
that they control that body, insist upon
forcing upon the white people of the
South a government which they do not
like. They claim the right to say who
shall and who shall not vote in the dif
ferent States of the South, although they
know very well that this whole matter
ought to be left for the people of the
States themselves to determine. But,
worse than this, they force us to submit
to laws which they will not themselves
be governed by. llow would you like
it if someone, stronger than you are,
MACON, GEORGIA, JULY 25, 1868
v . - rS'Z-
should force you to admit to a seat at
your table a person whom he would not
allow at. his own table? And yet the
Radicals are doing this very thing. They
tell us at the South you shall allow the
ignorant and foolish negroes, who have
no education or information, to vote,
but we will not allow them to vote at
the North. Is this right? Os course it
is not.
Well, this Radical party have nomi
nated General Grant for the Presidency,
and say if they can elect him they will
keep the South - under this unjust and
tyrannical rule. The Democrats, who
recently met at New York, have nomi-
nated the Hon. Mr. Seymour, of that
State. Mr. Seymour and the Demo
crats insist that the people of the States
themselves, and not Congress, should
be left to decide who shall vote and
make laws for them, and of course all
good people in the South are in favor of
Mr. Seymour and his party.
These political conventions, as I have
said, are made up of delegates from all
parts of the country. The delegates are
elected or appointed generally by State
conventions, and are authorized to cast
the vote of the State in the National
Convention. But there are always thou
sands of people present at these large
assemblages who are not delegates, and
very often these outsiders, orlobby-mem
bers, as they are called, have a very great
influence on what is being done in the
convention.
In the picture you see some of these
outside members, discussing with one
another the chances of the different can
didates, or fixing up plans for the fu
ture. The old man with check pants
sitting on the bench, is a country dele
gate, and the other is a lobby-member,
trying to influence his vote.
\\ hen the boys who read this are old
er, they will understand all about these
different moves on the political chess
board. In the United States, where all
are voters, every man should be thor
oughly posted in the polities of the
country. It is, therefore, well enough
for the boys who read the Weekly to
know something now of the two great
controlling parties of the country.
Uncle Ollapod.
From the German for Burke’s Weekly.
THE BEAUTIFUL MAKUSCHKA.
A SLAVONIAN FAIRY TALE.
® the south of the
£/>') Carpathian moun
tains dwell theSla
-4 A vonians, a rough,
but lively people.
And as they are
fl imaginative, their language
abounds in fairy tales and prov
erbs. One of the oldest and
most popular fairy tales is that
of the beautiful Maruschka. We
translate it, but in so doing we fear we
are stripping the enameled colors from
the butterfly’s wings.
Once«upon a time, there lived on the
edge of a forest a woman with her two
daughters. Helena was her own child,
and Maruschka her step-daughter. It is
true that Maruschka was the most ami
able and beautiful maiden in the world,
but at that time, (when all step-mothers
were cruel, and all younger sons op
pressed,) this woman naturally loved
her own daughter and hated the other.
Maruschka had no idea that she was
NO. 4.