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About The banner of the South. (Augusta, Ga.) 1868-1870 | View Entire Issue (June 13, 1868)
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
