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KEY. A, J. KYAN, Editor
AUGUSTA, GA., OCTOBER 31, 1868.
A MOMENTOUS DAY,
The Third day of November next—
and that is I’uesday next—will be a mo
mentous day in the history of the Ameri
can Union. It will be a day in which
the people will have to decide for them
selves whether or not Constitutional Li
berty shall survive or perish on this Con
tinent. It is not a question of men; it
is a question of Principles, which they
must decide; a question of justice and
right, which appeals to them against a
question of wrong and oppression.
In one section of the Union, there is
tyranny, and fraud, and ruin. That sec
tion stands proudly before its peers to
day, and asks for simple justice, It
seeks no special privileges, it craves no
power, it asks no place. It only de
mands its rights. It has done no wrong,
to merit the crushing weight of wo which
is heaped upon it. In its weakness it
cowers not, it crouches not at the feet of
triumphant wrong, to beg, in suppliant
tones, for mercy. But, as a proud co
equal in the sisterhood of States, the
South asks that sisterhood to give her
only her Constitutional rights.
Os these, she has been deprived.
Military tyrants have been placed over
her.
Fraudulent Governors and Legislatures
are ruling her now.
The Negro is here elevated above the
white man.
She has no voice in the Councils of the
Nation.
She is taxed beyond her means.
Her resources are squandered ; her
interests betrayed ; her business para
lyzed or destroyed.
Her ruin is the ruin of the North.
Her prosperity is the prosperity of the
Nation. Then, to-day, avert her ruin and,
build up her business, People of the
North and West, by giving your votes
to the candidates of peace, justice, and
Constitutional Liberty—to Seymour and
Blair. You have tried Republicanism
fully and fairly. It has failed you. It
has ruined you. It has sunk your coun
try in debt and burdened it with taxation.
It is in your power, to-day, to rescue it
from the hands of that corrupt party,
and place it in the hands of those whose
guardianship made it a country of honor,
of peace, of national glory. Do this, and
you will restore it to its wonted prosper
ity, happiness, and grandeur.
And you, people of the South ! You
have a duty to perform to-day. You have
more at stake than you imagine. The
safety of your mothers and sisters, of
your wives and children; the prosperity
of your States ; the peace of your sec
tion—all depend upon your action to-day.
Hesitate not, then, in the line of duty,
falter not in the path to victory, but give
one day to your country; go in solid
phalanx to the polls, and deposite your
votes for the candidates of the Democrat
ic party, the only party which can help
you, the only party which will help you,
and the only party which, if any, will
be able to stay the tide of Radicalism and
beat back the waves of .Fanaticism.
out ofthTstreets.
Out of the Streets, comes the wail of
wo, misery, and heart desolation. Out
into the roads, out into the forests, and out
into the meadows, there is peace, and joy,
and happiness. Out there animated Na
ture sends up its thousand tongued praises
to Heaven and blesses the world with its
music, its fruits, and its flowers. But out
of the Streets comes that wail of serrow,
that sound of revelry, that sigh of heart
breaking misery. Out of the streets,
into the mansions, into the great City,
with its teaming populations, its grand
palaces, its mighty wealth, there is sin
and sorrow, and shame, and poverty, and
wrangling, and revelry, and silent weep
ing over hidden wrongs ; and the world
knows it not—the world sees it not. But
it is seen and heard beyond the clouds,
beyond the skies, beyond the stars, and
its, record is there.
Out of the Streets, into the busy office
of the wealty merchant, comes a little
beggar girl. Rags are her clothing,
shoes she has cone, dishevelled is her
hair. Her poor mother lies helpless,
prostrate on a bed of sickness; and the
little wanderer asks but a pittance to give
that poor mother—and the starving sis
ters and brothers—a morsel of bread to
keep body and soul together. Oh ! but
those piles of gold, and silver, and bank
notes are not for starving women and
children; and so, with rough words and
threatening gestures, the unhappy child
goes out into the Street again to bring to
her squalid home, rebuffs, curses, and
tears. And out of the Streets come the
praises of the generous merchant whose
charities fill the papers, and whose popu
larity is only . bounded by his wealth.
The tears and the curses go out of the
Streets together, and are recorded in the
Book of Judgment.
Out of the Streets, comes the sound of
wrangling, and men gather together,
fired by strong drink; and with oaths,
and shouts, and blasphemies, make the
night hideous; while the pistol, the Bowie
knife, or the dagger, sends its victim to
his last account. And the oaths, and the
shouts, and the blasphemies, and the lost
soul go out of the Streets together, and
are forgotten here—but not up there.
Out of the Streets comes a moan of
anguish, from some womans voice. Once
she was fair and innocent—the darling
of her parents —“the angel of the house
hold.” Once she was the object of af
fection. “The old, old story is told
again;” and, debased, ruined, wretched,
the unhappy creature, now despised, put
aside, buffeted about, feels her deep, deep,
wo, and sends up one moan of dreadful
anguish ; while the destroyer passes his
victim, without a pang of remorse, no
thought of sorrow, no word of sympathy.
The destroyer and the victim shall stand
together, some day, aud out of the Streets
that moan of anguish shall plead for
justice.
Out of the Streets, up from the haunts
of vice, comes the sound of revelry ;
and debased men and abandoned wo
men join together in the lewd dance, the
ribald song, the rude jest ; or, over the
“flowing bowl” sits and sips the maudlin
inebriate, whose poor, neglected wife
cowers over the scattered embers, by her
midnight lamp, while her starved and
half naked little ones, lie shivering be
neath the scanty coverlid, trying to sleep
away the thoughts of want which crowd
their little brains; and he drinks, and
they starve, and she groans and pays for
help. And that sound of revelry, that
groan, those prayers, mingle together, and
are not heard here; but out of the
Streets, above the midnight sky, they will
be separated, and they will be heard.
Out of the Streets, into the mighty
mansions of the great, there is strife and
dissension, and family griefs. The world
looks on the beautiful edifice, and the
world envies its inmates. But the world
knows not its history, its mystery —its
hidden wrongs and its silent weepings;
but beyond the atars, beyond the ken of
human vision, they are known and heard,
And out of the Streets, and out of the
mansions, and out of the City, will go
up all these sounds of wo, misery s
wretchedness, revelry, wrong, oppression,
and vice ; as out of the roads, out of the
forests, out of the fields, will go up the
sounds of joy, of peace, and of gladness ;
and they’shall be seen and judged. And,
seen and judged, the wicked shall trem
ble and thejust rejoice,
So let us live, then, reader, that when
we go up out of the Streets of Earth, it
shall be to the Streets of Eternal Glory,
mssm ©s fii wifi.-
from the Mansions of Earth to the Man
sions of Eternal Mercy, from the Cities
of Earth to the City of Eternal Bliss. It
is our power, our work, our duty. Fail
not, Falter not, Fear not, and away up
out of the streets we will have our re
ward, our triumph, and our glory.
THE ELECTION.
We earnestly urge upon our friends
everywhere the importance of observing
the strictest decorum at the polls on
Tuesday next. ’ Be circumspect in your
conduct and courteous with your oppo
nents. You may have much to try your
patience and forbearance; but, remem
ber that you have everything to gain,
and nothing to lose, by such patience and
forbearance. A word, a gesture, or au
impetuous action, might pr oduce a serious
disturbance ; and so, we ask our friends
to be calm and cautious ; and we sin
eerely hope that they will be ; for we
want them to come out of the contest
with honor and safety, even if they do
not come out of it with victory.
MISREPRESENTATION.
We do not know that it will do much
good to deny or disprove the false state
ments which are continually being
“manufactured out of the whole cloth”
in regard to Southern riots- and murders,
and sent North for electioneering pur
poses. Still, justice to our section, and
the hope that there may be some at the
North who respect the Truth, lead us to
say here a few words in defence of our
section. There have been riots, there
have been robberies, and there have been
murders. But who are the instigators
and promoters of these crimes ? We
charge It upon the leaders of the Radical
party —upon those adventurers who came
South, with their store of wordly wealth
crammed into a carpet bag; and upon
those who, though “to the manor born,”
have cursed their section and 'themselves
by leaguing with the enemies of the
South. They incite these disturbances
in order that the statement may go to the
North that the people are yet “rebel
lious” and “disloyal,” and eager for ano
ther “war ” The Camilla riot, the New
Orleans riot, all show how earnestly and
zealously the white people strove to avoid
difficulty--how, in the one case, the
Radicals and Negroes came armed, and
in martial array, with banners and music,
into a country village, with threats and
menaces against its peaceful inhabitants;
how those inhabitants exhorted them to
tay down their arms and come in peace
fully; how they refused; and how they
suffered the conseqences; how, in New
Orleans, the people there endeavored to
avoid all collision with the Negroes;
how the Radical leaders threatened incen
diarism and destruction ; and how the
latter partyjfired the first shot, and so pre
cipitated a bloody riot. In every case of
this kind, we might show the animus of
the Republican party, and the responsi
bility which rests upon its leaders ; but
we trust to the efficacy of the plain
statement of facts which will go abroad
in Southern Journals, and to the long
continued forbearance and patience of
the Southern people for the best refuta
tion of the false and slanderous charges
against our Southern people. No people
have ever borne so much or so meekly, as
they have, the sufferings of Yankee mis
rule ; but, hoping that Justice may yet
awaken from its slumbers, they bide their
time in patience and hope.
For the Liauuer of the South.
ESSAYS.
I.
ARE WE A NATION ?
This was the question that was asked
by Senator Sumner in a lecture hawked
about the country by him last winter, and
an affirmative answer to it is the cardi
nal point of anew school of political phi
losophy which has its headquarters in
Boston. The latest exponent of the theo
ry is Motley, the historian, who, in a
speech delivered in that city not long
since, labored greatly to prove its cor
rectness, and, as the general doctrine is
one that is destined to be much debated
before long, it is proper to touch some
what upon it.
We are not a “Nation,” but a “People.”
There may not seem any great difference;
but let the reader rest assured that, in
the political ideas lying back of these two
words, there is a difference, a very great
difference, all the difference, in fact, be
tween Popular Government and Empire.
The enactiug clause of the Constitution
reads, “ We, the People of the United
Stales * * * do ordain, do. Now,
strike this out and put in “ The Nation
* * * ordains and you see at
once that it makes “an unco’ difference.”
It is very easy to say who “We, the
People,” are. IPs you, and I, and all the
rest of us, but, when it comes to “ The
Nation” business, who is to say how many
or how few that term includes? “We,
the People,” implies an aggregation of in
dividuals, each one of whom is the politi
cal peer of any other, thus giving the
idea of a diffusion of power. The Nation
conveys directly the opposite idea, to wit:
that of concentration, or consolidation,
and throws no light on the nature of the
integral elements which go to make up
the Nation. Accordingly, it is that we
find, as very acutely stated by Crabb, in
his synonymes, that “ Republican States,
are distinguished by the name of People :
but Kingdoms are commonly spoken of
in history as Nations. Hence, we say,
ihe Spartan People, the Athenian People,
the People of Genoa, the People of Ven
ice ; but the Nations of Europe, the Afri
can Nations, the English, French, Ger
man, and Italian Nations'' More than
this, if we go to Etymology, we find that
People is, so to speak, the generous, or
comprehensive word, and Nation, the re
strictive, or stingy word. People conies
from a Greek root, which means the
many, and expresses the idea of number,
without any reference to where those who
make up the numbers come from Nation
comes from the Latin natus, and means
those connected by common ancestry.
“On this ground,” says Crabb, the best au
thority, it may be mentioned, in the
English language, on these points, “the
Romans are not called the Roman Nation,
because their origin was so % various, but
the Roman People , that is an assemblage
living under one form of Government;”
and, to strengthen this view, he might
have added that the standard, under which
they went forth to victory, was inscribed,
“S. P. Q. R.— Senates Populusque Pit
man ns —the §enate and the Roman
People .” There was no Nation about
these world-renowned statesmen and war
riors till that terrible and bloody day
when the Republic merged into the
Empire.
With these lights, it can be seen why
the Boston philosophers are so eager to
change People into Nation. As long as
People remains the desiguatory term of
the ruling power in this country, no man
can be deprived of bis just shate of par
ticipation in the Government without be
ing able to say I am one of the People ; I
am a sovereign ; how dare you lay a
finger upon me ? Sooner or later such
an appeal will touch the rest of the People ;
in their assault on their fellows, they will
see themselves invaded, and Twill redress
the wrongs of one to preserve the rights
of all. But, if Nation come in vogue, the
ideas of the ruling power, and of the
participation in that power of the individ
ual citizen become at once disassociated.
Instead of being visible in the persons
of all who are entitled to exercise politi
cal power, under the fundamental law,
the ruling power will be an invisible
thing, called the Nation. Instead of
being diffused in many human bodies, it
will be concentrated in one abstraction,
and no man can say but that, in the
process of concentration, his particular
share of power has been boiled down to
nothing. Nation cloaks a most danger
ous idea, and one of its incidents is highly
pernicious to what has heretofore been
deemed a crowning glory. “America,
the Home of the Oppressed,” has passed
into a saying. Here, it has been our
boast, the down trodden might come, and
be merged in with ns, The People. The
heart-broken Irishman, forsaking Old
Erin; the stout German, forced to re
nounce the Fatherland ; the English
peasant, the French artizan, all might
here find a land where “We, the People,”
rule. If we are to remain a People,
then, the city of refuge will still remain ;
but, if from the American People, we
become the American Nation, the next
thing will be to apply the National rule:
x\merica for Americans. Fleeing from
one Nation which denies him political
power, the foreigner will find but another
which does the same. Already those who
favor this word have attempted this
ostracism. The germ of a Government
of the Nation, instead of a Government of
the People, was seen in Know Nothing
ism— “America for Americans”—and
though that assault was shivered on the
immutable barrier of Southern Democ
racy, its animating virus still remains.
Mindful of the source whence it* defeat
came, it steadily hated the South.
Secession came, and, eagerly seizing the
opportunity, it unfurled, a second time,
the banner of a Government of the
Nation, and not of the People. Under
no other flag eould it have waged the
war. It said the Nation's life was in
danger, and roused one part of the
People to fight against another part of
the People, on ihe plea that a part was
threatening the whole. In 1861, “We,
the People,” were 31 States, 12 on the
one eide, and 19 on the other. If it had
been said that the 12 were fighting
against the People, or the 31, men would
have laughed at the absurdity of the 12
fighting, not only against the 19, but
against themselves, or the 12, too. On
the ground that this is a Government of
the People, the war could not have been
made anything but a combat between one
portion of the People on the one side
and another portion of the People on the
other. So the idea of its being a Govern
ment of the Nation was put forth. It
was said that the Nati/jn was in danger.
Men did not stop to consider that the
Nation here meant 19-31 of the People,
but rushed into" the conflict, and the
many conquered the few. The Nation
prevailed, and here you can see how true
is the statement that, whereas People is
the generous. Nation is the stingy, word.
A Government of the People diffuses; a
Government of the Nation consolidates.
All the People it concentrates into some
of the People ; the some it reduces into
a few; and, finally, comes one who
squeezes the few into himself, and says
I am the State.
Nation is a bad word. It means
Empire. Those who are trying to foist it
into use, hate the true word, Republic.
They don’t like to talk of the history of
the Republic, or the future of the
Republic, but are never tired of canting
about the Nation's life, the great heart of
the Nation, and other such trash, which,
under a coating of rubbish, hides the
cold steel. Tyrone Powers.
Education in the South.— Among
the numerous difficulties arising out of
the impoverishment caused by the war,
which the Southern people had to con
tend with, is their inability to sustain the
institutions necessary for the education
and consequent usefulness of their child
ren. Before the late contest, the schools
of the South, though not as numerous as
in the North, were of a high order, and
enlisted in the duties of instructing gen
tlemen and ladies, who did not make it a
mere stepping-stone to other avocations,
but who devoted their lives to it, ele
vating the position of teacher to the
dignity and influence of what has usually
distinguished any other profession. Since
the war, education, especially in the
higher branches, has suffered like every
other interest, the people, in general,
having but little means beyond their
daily subsistence.
At various important points, efforts arc,
however, being made to provide for the
establishment of such schools as former
ly existed in the principal Southern
cities by enlisting the co-operation -of
those at a distance who sympathise with
the distresses of the Southern people. Aid
in this direction has been extended to
schools in Charleston, and an appeal is
now being made for an institution in At
lanta, the Atlanta Seminary’, for young
ladies, by Airs. George Battey, one of its
two lady principals* who desires to pkee
it on a permanent basis, and is travel
ing in its interest. Mrs. Battey is now
in this city. The institution, which is
not in any way denominational, is now in
operation, with a full corps of teachers,
but many of the pupils are unable to
pay, and it is not deemed advisable to
seek State aid in the present condition of
affairs in the South. For these reasons
an appeal is made to the liberality and
sympathy of our people.— Balt. Sun.
A Church Built of Golden Bricks.
—We copy the following from the Atchi
son (Kansas) Patriot, of the 11th.
“ We are informed by Mr. J. P. Brown,
of the firm of Brown A Bier, contractors
for building the large Catholic Church in
this city, that every brick in this mam
moth building contains a quantity of fmc
gold. This edifice probably contains
more brick than any block in the city.
For a long time the workmen and brick
layers have noticed small specks in the
bricks, resembling gold, but which, of
course, they little thought was in reality
the precious metal Yesterday, Air.
Hempler, the Architect, having pulverized
several of the bricks, ascertained beyond
a doubt, by the aid of chemicals, that they
realy contained gold. The Prick.- were
manufactured at the kilns just bcl wv G.
W. Gillespie k Co.’s saw mill, and
supposed that gold may be found in
quantities on the bluff, just west ol the
brick kiln.”