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4 p&fr <eO^ of 1 r 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.”