Newspaper Page Text
all those rights of person and property
guaranteed by the Constitution (?). This
is liberty, in the Southern Military Des
potisms of the American Republic, in the
year of our Lord, one thousand eight
hundred and sixty eight. It will be re.
menibered that a somewhat notorious
Radical politician was assassinated in
< l ohirebus some months since. The arrests
alluded to are supposed to be made for
the purpose of ascertaining the guilty
parties. Some of the most respectable
citizens have been arrested and imprison
ed and here follows the manner of pro
curing testimony tor their condemnation-
This communication is from Col. Edward
T. Shepard—and if it is not a shame and
a sin, a disgrace to the American people,
arid an outrage against all laws, human
and divine, then our civilization, and en
lightenment, and Christianity, belong not
t , the present, but to the ignorance,
superstition and tyranny of the Dark
Ages :
From the Sun and Times.
MILITARY DESPOTISM, OR MODE OF OBTAIN
ING “suitable” evidence.
Soon after our prisoners went off to
Atlanta yesterday morning, a military
- Iliad came out to my house and com
r.dled several colored servants and chil
dren to accompany them to headquarters,
where they were severally examined as
to their knowledge of Dr. Kirkscey’s
whereabouts on the night of Ashburn’s
murder, and what they have since heard
the Doctor say about it, etc. So far all
right; but when a witness did not tell
nough to suit (hem, the gentlemen exam
ining would accuse them of lying, saying
“they had a fortune-teller who had told
them all about it, and what they knew,
and threatened them with a shaved head,
a ball and chain, and being at once sent
to Fort Pulaski it they did not tell the
truth —asking which thcy r would prefer,
Fort Pulaski or Tortugas ? Such the
evidence, and such the means of obtaining
it (of freedmen) with which military
despotism is seeking to convict respecta
ble citizens of a most heinous crime—
offering rewards of thousand dollars to the
cupidity iff one class, and threats of
j ravishment by being sent a long ways
from home, shaved heads and manacles to
the other. Edw’d Siiepekrd.
Wgunion, June 4, 1868.
[Translated for the Banner of the South.]
MENDELSOHN AND HIS SISTER.
BY K***.
The union of Felix and Fanny Men
delsohn was something wonderful, like
the wonderful genius of sensibility and
the music which endowed them both.
Such pure, tender, and noble souls are
made lor each other. The more fervid
and exacting bonds of marriage and pa
rentage did not interfere with the pro
found sympathy in which they lived, both
when together and apart. They corres
ponded in music. Their emotions, too
deep and strange to bo conveyed in
words, like articulate thoughts, they 7 ex
pressed in tones. Seating themselves at
their instruments, they would, for hours,
carry on an intercourse perfectly intelli
gible to each other, and more adequate
and delicious than any vocal conversation.
V. ben Felix, at Naples, at Home, or in
■London, sent to Fanny a letter composed
in notes, she translated it first with her
eyes, then with her piano. The most
charming transcripts of these affectionate
and musical souls were thus made in
mude. Sweeter, or more divinely gifted
beings have rarely appeared on this earth.
Fheir relations of spirit were sensitive
and organic, far beneath the reach of in
tellectual consciousness. They seemed
able to communicate tidings through the
ethereal medium by some subtle tele
graphy of feeling, which transcends under
s'aiiding, and belongs to a miraculous re
gi noi life. For, when Fanny died, in
her Gorman home, Felix, amidst a happy
company in England, suddenly aware of
some terrible calamity, from the dis
turbance of equilibrium and dread sink
ing ot his soul, rushed to the piano, and
poureu out his anguish in an improvisa
tion ot wailing and mysterious strains,
whicu held the assembly spell-bound and
iu tears.
in a tew days a letter reached him,
announcing that his sister had died at that
very hour. On receiving the tidings, he
uttered a shriek, and the shock was so
great as to burst a bloodvessel iu his brain
Life had no charm potent enough to
ptaunch and heal the cruel laceration left
in his already tailing frame by this sudden
blow. The web of torn tibrils bled in
visibly. I{ o goon faded away, and fol-
Lwed his sister to a world of finer melody,
fitted for natures like theirs.
[Alger's Friendships of Women.
Lines.
AFFBCTIONATHLY INSCRIBED TO REV. FATHER PAQUHT.
Back to the laud of the snows,
Away from the land es the sun.
You go—and afar with you goes
The love of each heart you have won.
Yon camo—and the stranger became
To the hearts that gave welcome, a friend;
Yon go—but you leave us a name
With our prayers and our blessings to blend.
You came—and we looked on your face,
And the light of each day made it dear;
You go—but there lingers the trace
Os your virtues and gentleness here,
You go—and afar with you goes
A sigh from the heart of each one,
That back from the land of the snow
You will oome to the Land of the sun,
Morn A.
♦
NEW YORK CORRESPONDENCE
OF THE BANNER OF THE SOUTH.
2he Presidential Election —The Radi
cal Nominees—Fusion of the Demo
crats and Conservative Republicans —
Chase and Hancock—Reconstruction
a Sin and a Failure--The Democratic
Platform —Ecery State left free to
regulate Suffrage—Grand Prepara
tions for the Convention—The Vil
lainy of Reconstruction—The Despot
ism under which we Safer —The
Hand-writing on the Wall—The
Hour of our Deliverance drawing
nigh—lnterview with President John
son—His Sympathy for our Suffer
ings, Etc.
New York, June 6, 18G8.
The indications here are less that there
will be a straight out Democratic ticket
run against the Radical destructionists,
headed by Grant and Colfax, than that all
the elements of opposition to this shame
ful crew will fuse into a Constitutional
party, and put Chase forward as the
nominee of Democrats and moderate Re
publicans alike. To explain this, it is
necessary to say that, owing to the deep
hold this venom of Radicalism has on the
people of the North, it is thought hazard
ous to risk everything on a nomination so
purely and rigidly Democratic as to ex
clude any who have heretofore either be
lieved in Radical doctrines or voted the
Radical ticket. The disgraceful failure
of impeachment, the blackguard excesses
of the House, the rabid and furious parti
zansbip of leading Radical newspapers
and politicians, anil last, not least, some
glimmering idea, which is beginning to
penetrate the Northern head, that recon
struction at the South is a sin find a fail
ure, arc some of the causes that have dis
gusted thousands and thousands of those
who have heretofore been Radicals chiefly
from ignorance; and these thousands it is
that the keen, shrewd, long-headed leaders
of the Democratic party are endeavoring
to win over to their side. In order to do
so, it is necessary to concede something
to those prejudices that have not, as yet,
been wholly relinquished; and this con
cession, it is currently reported, will be
made by the nomination of Chief Justice
Chase. Chase and Hancock is the anti-
Grant ticket most favorably spoken of;
and those who are its greatest advocates
say it combines the citizen and the soldier,
the conservative Republican and the
Democrat, the West and the East, all that
is still dignified in the Government and
unspotted with dirtiness in the Army, in
an eminent degree. However all this
may be, still, as a chronicler of events, I
must say that the idea of this fusion and
compromise ticket meets with general ap
probation, and is confessed by Radicals
to be the greatest indication of danger
they have yet seen to their party. As to
the proposed fusion platform, it is thought
that on the bond question it will say that
the issue is not now a pressing one, and
that its determination may be left to other
days; while on suffrage it is proposed to
say that each State, North and South,
proportion its Representatives to the
number of those counted iu the repre
sentative basis that have suffrage. This
is the doctrine of the Constitutional
Amendment, with the offensive provision
that required the South to disfranchise
its leaders left out. The Convention
which is to finally determine these matters,
meets in this city on the 4th of July next,
at the new Tammany Hall, a very hand
some brick and white Caen stone, which
is erected and owned by the St. Tamma
ny Society, an old Democratic organiza
tion which has been in existence since
1793. Great preparations are making
for the event, and the tame proceedings
of the Radical Convention at Chicago will
be thrown a hundred miles in the shade
by the enthusiasm of the “ bloody Democ
racy,” as it comes up from all over the
country to recover its ancient power
and hurl the vile vultures who now defile
the temple of Constitutional liberty into
the murky waves of oblivion's deep sea.
With this much as to the probable
anti-Grant move, it may be of interest to
say a word or so about reconstruction
m mi SMSL
and impeachment. In the course of seve
ral late visits, the writer had abundant op
portunities to hear and see some things
which most strangely confirm his prior
opinion of that unutterable villainy—Con
gressional reconstruction. From the very
beginning it was meant only for a cheat,
and without being actually forced to do
it by the clamor of the North, I do not
think the South will, oven now that it has
been reconstructed, as they call it, bv ig
norant negroes and debased whites, be
admitted. The secret of this is two fold.
In the first place, though the bogus re
presentatives now “ elected” in the South
are thorough Radicals of the worst stamp,
with but here and there a true Southern
er, and may be depended on for any
measure of scoundrelism Stevens or Sum
ner may inaugurate, they are only chosen
for two years, and if the Supreme Court
should decide the test oath unconstitu
tional, there would be nothing to prevent
their being succeeded by a full delegation
of genuine Southern Representatives, who
would go against the Radicals with their
seventy votes en masse. This would at
once kill off the Radical two-thirds, and
you can hence see how they hesitate to
take the risk. In the second place, there
is a reason for the Radicals not wishing
to let in even the carpet-bag Senators arid
Representatives, which is as disgraceful
to them as it is to those who have been
foisted into the position of Congressmen
by those unworthy soldiers who per
secute and insult the South with their
bayonets. This reason is that if the bogus
delegations cbme in, the public plunder
will go by long division, and those spoils
which arc now monopolized by 188
rogues be obliged to Ixi shared out among
258. Furthermore, as these bogus Rep
resentatives are generally much poorer
than their brethren now in Congress,
they will sell their votes on any mea
sure of plunder at a cheaper rate, and
thus bring dowu the value of that com
modity in both the Senate and the
House. Recognizing these dangers, the
Radicals in Congress are very shy of
lotting in the carpet-baggers, and it is
not at all improbable that, on one excuse
or another, they may not be let in at
all. Meanwhile, they hang about Wash
ington like leeches, haunting the Capitol
during the day, and sneaking around
the hotels at night, until bed-time, when
they skulk off to low lodging-houses on the
order of that in which Ashburn was killed.
While in Washington, a few days since, I
saw several of the vermin who had been
especially busy in the bogus Conventions
of last year, both in Alabama and Geor
gia, and could not but couple with my
disgust for them abhorrence of those men
and papers that I am ashamed and mor
tified to see are so far forsaking princi
ple, and right, and justice, and prudence,
and the glorious superiority of the white
race as to fawn about these wretches be
cause, by the bayonet, they have gained a
little transitory triumph. This whole
hideous nightmare of reconstruction is
doomed—doomed to a speedy and irrepar
able destruction, 1 tell you, even as the
whirlwinds of God scatter the dry bones
that moulder in deserts. Death has set
his seal upon the outrage. I have seen
it from one end of the South to the
other, when it was in full operation. T
have looked at it from a Northern stand
point, and heard Northern people talk
about it, and studied it with all (he ines
timable advantages of a personal attend
ance at Washington and an inspection of
official records, and 1 rejoice to say to
my suffering countrymen of the South,
that this bastard child of hell and death
is irrevocably doomed. Yet a little more
patience, a little more noble and manly
endurance of shameful oppressions, a
little further utter refusing to have any
thing to do with this cheat and snare, and,
hand in hand, with impeachment it will
go down into the Hades where the medi
tated crimes of all tyranny repose.
While in Washington it was my fortune
to see and have a somewhat extended con
versation with the President. On my re
lating to him some of the wrongs recon
struction inflicted on the poor South, he
bent his head down for a moment, as if
in thought, and then, raising it, said, in a
tone of commiseration, “ Isn’t it awful.”
I must confess l have not been much of a
Johnson man, but this incident led me to
kinder thoughts. Then the conversation
turned on the general theory of Congress
in regard to the restoration of the South
ern States, and the President said, “ It’s
all useless. The States are in the Union;
you know I’ve always held that, and there
is no need of laws to get them in ;” and
from this and some other utterances, I was
led to believe he would veto any farther
measures of military despotism and un
constitutional legislation as promptly in
the future as he has in the past. He then
spoke of the glorious future of the South,
on the settlement of the present distract
ing issues; and—for Isaw 7 him before the
final vote was taken on impeachment—
smiled at the mention of bis conviction.
In appearance, Mr. Johnson shows no
sign of the many struggles of his life,
his brow being unfurrowed and his
whole appearance that of a man who j
had had plain sailing all his life, instead j
of one succession of storms. His voice
is very peculiar, being very deep and
yet perfectly clear, with a certain so
norous ring like the boom of a rifled
cannon. Unlike Lincoln, be has no body i
guard about the White House, and a ]
trooper or two to carry dispatches is all
there is to see in the shape of soldiery.
Os impeachment I might say some
thing, had I not written at such length,
since I had the fortune to be present at
that most exciting scene when the verdict
of Not Guilty was rendered, but will close
with an expression of gratification at
the manly and determined course pur
sued by the Chronicled' Sentinel, the Con
stitutionalist, a paper published at Dawson,
(I forget its name,) and your own Banner
of the South, Messrs. Editors, and the I
good advice now given by them to the
Southern people. Nothing is to be gained
by cringing or concession. The skies are
brightening, and principle, adhered to,
will yet win the day.
Tyrone Powers.
THE BASTILE IN IRELAND-
The horrors of the system to which the
victims of the lettres de cachet are subject
have been exemplified, and are very fairly
known ; blit that they are fully known,
or arc known at all in the florid characters
with which they deserve remembrance, is
not a fact.
There have been martyrs in Mountjoy
Prison who are only accused of being
“suspected.” There arc martyrs within
its walls who are only accused of being
suspected still, who suffer every indignity
and enjoy the government of the director,
the chief jailors and their subordinates, in
that abode of horror.
Rut who knows, or who can tell, or
who has told anything about the pangs
suffered by prisoners in Kilmainham un
der the same circumstances ? No one is
aware that in the treatment exercised in one
jail and the treatment in the other there
is an appalling difference. Prisoners in
Kilmainham pray for their removal to
Mountjoy, and yet the public of those
countries have been shocked and shamed
by the consequences of the latter. Dis
ease has invariably followed it—disease
of mind or disease of body. It has evoked
the voice of Ireland to stigmatize it; but
what voice has been resonant to declare
the tenfold horror* of Kilmainham?
Here is the contrast.
In Mountjoy there are three meals
daily allowed the prisoners.
On four days of the week those meals
consist of stirabout and milk in the
morning, soup and meat for dinner, and
tea for supper.
On the remaining three days it consists
of coffee for breakfast, milk for dinner,
and tea for supper.
In Kilmainham two meals daily are
given—stirabout and milk for breakfast,
soup on two days of the week for dinner,
and milk for the others; for supper,
nothing but—memory.
In Mountjoy the change from a system
like that of Kilmainham was recommend
ed by the late medical officer, Mr. Robt.
M ’Donnell.
In Kilmainham things are statu quo.
In Kilmainham the prisoners dare not
smoke.
In Mountjoy the former medical officer
recommended it as a necessity for the men
during their hours of exercise.
In Kilmainham the prisoners who are
suspects get two hours exercise at once.
They cannot sit down during the time it
is allowed. They cannot stand except
for some necessary cause. If they require
to rest they must go to their cells.
In Mountjoy they can rest during their
hours of exercise. Scats in the ring arc
provided for that purpose. And in
Mountjoy three hours are allowed for
that object, which are given, half in the
morning, and half toward one in the
afternoon.
In Kilmainham the prisoners walk
singly, and dare not speak to each other,
under pain of “solitary.” At exercise
each prisoner marches three yards behind
his fellow. He is liable to be punished
if he whistles, sings, or attempts to com
municate with any other of the prisoners
within its walls who is subject to the
same regime as himself; if lie makes
signs to him, or directly or indirectly
strives to hold converse with him.
In Mountjoy, by the incessant reports
of the medical officer, I)r. M’Donncll, each
prisoner has a companion for the purpose
of saving him from lunacy, to whom he
speaks, with whom he walks, and to whom
lie can in some sort reveal those senti
ments which humanity possesses necessary
for revelation, unless it sinks into idiocy,
insanity, or brutish stolidity.
Maniacs have been traced to Mountjoy
—maniacs who have been made maniacs.
What eye has inquired into Kilmainham ?
What voice has demanded inquiry ?
The one system is harsh. What
words will characterize the other ? The
one system has made madmen—has
broken the health as well as the fortunes
of those that endured it.
hat has the other made ? Who can
tell its dread, its indignity, its pangs ?
j The voice of any prisoner who has
been in the one jail and in the other
would give a verdict as to the stretch of
suffering endured in the one and mitigated
in the other. Mountjoy prison is terrib’e
to those who are confined in it. It is
made terrible with a purpose. The sys
tem that prevails within its walls is a
system which, in a civilized country, should
not be tolerated an hour in its exercise of
cruelty upon men that the law admits in
practice to be innocent in the discharge
of ninety-nine out of one hundred arrested
under the power of the suspension of the
i Habeas Corpus Act. But the discipline
ot Mountjoy is a discipline of mercy as
compared with that of Kilmainham.
Where are those members of Parlia
ment hidden out of earshot, who proclaim
themselves interested for the country, and
tor the heroism of those who suffer for it,
that no voice of rebuke escapes their lips
for this stinging injustice ? Are they,
like the gods of the False Prophet, “on a
journey ?” Are they deaf, are they
blind ?
Where is The O’Douoghue, if no
one else can be found, to ask the Senate
of England why this should be ?
The Bight Hon. William Ewart Glad
stone went to Naples to see the horrors
of Italian prisoners ; what Irish member
of Parliament went to Kilmainham to
understand the griefs of the Irish Bastile
— lrishman.
Irish “Felons.” —ln strong contrast
with the judicial ruffianism displayed in
the Central Criminal Court last week was
the perfectly gentlemanly conduct and
bearing of the prisoners. Burke, at
least, showed no bad temper, no want of
due respect to the tribunal before which
he stood, and indulged in no violent lan
guage. There was clearly a gentleman
in the dock, at any rate, even if there
was not one on the bench, and,
as far as the prisoners were concerned,
“the majesty of the law and the dignity
of the bench” were not impinged upon,
but rather respected and sustained. It
is a marvellous fact that in all those trials
of Irishmen during the last few years,
the poorest and most illiterate, as well as
the educated—the rank and file, as well
as the officers—have all shown themselves
to be possessed of high natural abilities,
and the true instincts of gentlemen. The
facts speak well for the moral civilization
of the Irish race, and the destiny in store
for it.— Universal News.
The Telescope and Microscope.—
While the telescope enables us to see a
system in every star, the microscope un
folds to us a world in every atom. The
one instructs us that this mighty globe,
with the whole burden of its people and
its countries, is but a grain of sand in the
vast field of immensity—the other, that
every atom may harbor tribes and families
of a busy population. The one shows us
the insignificance of the world we inhabit
—the other redeems it from all its insig
nificanee ; for it tells us that in the leaves
of every forest, in the Powers of every
garden, in the waters of every rivulet,
there are worlds teeming with life, and
numberless as the stars of the firmament.
The one suggests to us that above and
beyond all that is visible to men there
may be regions of creation which sweep
immeasurably along, and carry the im
press of the Almighty’s hand to the re
motest scenes of the universe—the other ,
that within and beneath all that minute
ness which the aided eye of man is able
to explore, there may be a world of in
visible beings; and that, could wc draw
aside the mysterious veil which shrouds
it from our senses, we might behold a
theatre of as many wonders as astronomy
can unfold—a universe within the com
pass of a point so small as to elude all
the powers of the microscope, but where
the Almighty Euler ot all things finds
room for the exercise of Ilis attributes
where he can raise another mechanism of
worlds, and till and animate them all
with evidences of Ilis glory.
—♦ * «
Church lias started on a journey to
the Stony Mountains in Arabia, with a
view of painting the landscapes and cu
rious sculptures of Petra, the ancient and
wonderful metropolis of Edom.
There is a portrait of Abraham Lin
coln, at Huntington, L. 1., done on an
oak board with a hot poker, which the
art critics claim is 'a wonderful likeness,
and worthy of a conspicuous place in the
National Academy.
Plutarch, when between seventy and
eighty, commenced the study of Latin.
5