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was that the war was to bring the
ut jj back into the Union, and so, in one
the war did ; for, it lias brought
them into a union of hearts and a union
~f hands that was never so compact,
ever so determined, never so universal,
r i now. Added to this element of
strength—for the cry is that that “the
G oU tb is powerless/’ and lam seeking
M show that it is not powerless— is an
thcr most potent instrumentality. The
nances are now the weak point of the
Vortti, just as Slavery was, in one sense,
t*he weak point of the South ; and. just as
/mancipation struck the South between
‘he joints of its harness, Repudiation can
i e made to smite the North under the
£fth rib. Some day, the South will have
a vote that must, and will be, respected,
let it but be distinctly understood that,
:f this present oppression continues, she
will, in memory of it hereafter, cast that
vote for a repudiation of the public
ileht, and such an impression would un
settle the price of U. S. securities in
tvei v market in this country and Europe.
The simple declaration of the intent, is all
that is needed. The proposition to be
nia ,je—and it is a proposition that the
North, flushed as it is with victory, can
not afford to disregard—is, If you will
let un done, now, we will guarantee to
abide, hereafter , of our free will, by
such settlement as you may make of
jour financial question; but , if you
persist in our present oppression, we
icill cost one solid vole for repudiation
the eery instant ice get a chance. It is
well known that a large portion of the
people of the North, about 60 per cent, of
those voting at the late election for Sey
mour, are secretly in favor of repudiation—
a circumstance which largely tends to the
present depreciated credit of the United
States —and if, added to this fear, should
come up a solid declaration from the
South of intent to repudiate it, it can well
be seen that this cruel money oligarchy
♦bat was built up by the war, and has
just succeeded in electing Grant, would
receive a shock like a thunderbolt. To
restrain the South from letting it be known
that she will repudiate, at the first oppor
tunity, if farther wronged, there is no
moral consideration. Neither in honor,
nor in ethics, is there any obligation on
the South to pay this debt. It is not her
debt. Siie never received any valuable
consideration, and is not bound, therefore,
in foro conscientice, to return any equiv
alent. The only obligation of this debt
is the obligation of force, and when the
force goes, the obligation goes, too. More
over, it will be rembered that this is the
age of “equal rights/' and as the North
forced the South to repudiate her debt, it
will be hut poetic justice for the South to
force the North to repudiate hers. All
of which is respectfully commended to
the attention of those who think, or say,
that the South is powerless, forgetting
that it is the universal teaching of history,
that, in no total population of, say
38,000,000, have 10,000,000 ever been
an unimportant, or impotent, integral
part.
Before long, the report of the U. S.
treasury for 1808 will be out, and from
Home advance sheets a few items of inte
rest are to be culled. For the fiscal year
ending June 30, 1868, the disbursements
on account of Ihe public debt were, in
coin, $103,469,558 58; in currency,
$05,425,301.83 ; total in currency, with
geld at 40, $168,900,081. The War
Department took $147,515,524.96, or, at
'he rate of about $400,000 per day. The
.'uvy, Diplomatic, Civil, and Miscellane
ous, lists, took about $126,000,000,
making the cost of the “ best Govern
ment the world ever saw,” for one year
• profound peace, in the neighborhood of
cuTious item, worthy of passing note, to
' v y : “received from conscience money,
5i9, 114.1 ].” Occasionally, you see,
• ■mebody who has robbed the revenue
—d, indeed, there can be a robbery ot a
robbery— feels pricked in conscience,
sends the amount of the theft, anony
mously, to the Treasury. Here it is re
'mded in a separate account, and it is
oas y f° estimate the value of the public
"hscience, for the past fiscal year, down
to a cent.
-^ e gro named Roberts, formerly
t resident of the Liberian Republic, and
l) .°' v resident of the State College in
CoUQ try, is at present travelling
a ’ ]l these parts, extolling the Re
public, and begging funds for his school,
ot his revelations are of interest.
600,000 inhabitants, 'about
U ’ Jjo Woes from the United States,
ruf, , scen^ au 6 the remaining
r ,0()0 tlie wildest kind of wild niggers
Gallas, and so on, who vindi-
? heir inalienable rights of citizen
nP having an army of wives and an
ooean °f children—he being decidedly
l “ best man who has the most citT-
and the most cubs. Slavery, it
15 SaJ sa y, exists in this nigritudinou*
Republic, the polygamous and fecund
citizens insisting on the “ peculiar
institution,” and the emigrants allowing
them to have their way, for fear that”
otherwise, the wild brethren might turn
to and ear them. To correct these small
failings, Roberts has a College, in which
he seeks to educate the young ones of
these many-wived suffragans, and, as it
has to be done gratis, is over here begging
means. To conclude this dark chapter, I
may say, that no white man is allowed,
under any circumstances, to vote in this
Negro Republic, or eveu to hold land,
and that not even the Negroes can vote
unless they have an educational and pro
perty qualification—the former by special
law. The suffrage provisions of the Li
berian Constitution, are, perhaps, of in
terest, and, therefore, subjoined verbatim :
“ Sec. 12. No person shall be entitled
to hold real estate in this Republic, un
less he be a citizen of the same.
“ Sec. 13 The great object of forming
these Colonies, being to provide a home
for the dispersed and oppressed children
of Africa, and to regenerate and enlighten
this benighted continent, none but per
sons of color shall be admitted to citizen
ship in this Republic.”—-Art. V.
“Sec. 11. All elections shall be by
ballot; and every male citizen of twenty
one years of age, possessing real estate,
shall have the right of suffrage.”—Art. I.
These provisions are pretty strong, as
strong, perhaps, as the legislators who
made them, and, yet, though they show
that the white man cannot vote in the
black man’s country, it is gravely pro
posed here that the black man shall vote
in the white man’s.
It will be remembered that, some time
since, a Gen. Kilpatrick, of the United
States Army, and now United States
Minister to Chili, a person of very noi
some reputation, charged Gen. Forrest
with nailing Negroes, at Fort Pillow, to
the fence, and then setting it on fire. In
denying this gross calumny, Forrest de
nounced Kilpatrick as a liar and poltroon,
and intimated that he stood ready to jus
tify those epithets by arms. The IJ. S.
General and U. S. Minister to Chili, in
response, refuses either to retractor light.
This, you will see, is eminently in accord
with the “ superior civilization.” It is
all right, according to this, to abuse and
villify a man, but all wrong to apologize,
and, as to fighting, why that’s where the
“ barbarism” comes in. It is a “relic of
slavery” to believe that a man should
either have.moral courage enough to do
another man right by a retraction, or
physical courage enough to give him that'
sort of satisfaction we first read of in
Scripture, in the celebrated affair of
honor between Gen. Goliath, of Gath, and
Mr. David. As to Kilpatrick, further, it
may be said, that he is as potent an ora
tor as he is an accomplished gentleman.
He made violent speeches in Massachu
setts against Butler, at SIOO per speech,
and, wherever he spoke, the “ trooly loil”
showed their appreciation of his eloquence
by rolling up unprecedented majorities
for the Beast.
It is pleasant to know that the Banner
of the South grows so rapidly in favor.
The people of the South are all right,
though some of those who claim to repre
sent them are unspeakably fishy, and
will, so fast as the Banner comes to their
notice, show their appreciation of a jour
nal which, so far from whining out, “ We
thought we were right,” says “We were
right, and are right, and history will so
record it.” Tyrone Powers.
—
Gypsies made their first nppearance in
Hungary in the year 1417, in the reign
of Sigismund. In Northern Hungary,
inhabited by Slavonians, they acquired
domestic habits. In Southern Hungary,
they remained nomadic. The color of
these gypsies varies from white to red.
In Hungary proper they number 30,000
to 40,000. There their trades are black
smiths, musicians, and horse-dealers.
Maria Teresa endeavored to interest them
in agricultural pursuits, but unsuccess
fully. It is told of a band of 1,000 of
these gypsies, that they successfully de
fended a fortress against a more numerous
force. Driving back their assailants,they
boasted that their victory would have
been more complete, if they had not ex
pended their powder. Hearing this, the
enemy returned, captured the fort, .and,
to their disgrace, killed every gypsy.
Alphabetical List of Reasons for
getting Married. —A man gets married
from ambition, from blindness, from cun
ning, from devotion, from ebriety, from fol
ly, from giddiness, from heroism, from idio
cy, from jauntiness, from kindness, from
love, from malice, from nonchalence, from
obstinacy, from pig-headiness, from
quarrelsomeness, from raggedness, from
spite, from toadyism, from utilitarianism,
from virtue, from want, from (unknown
quantity) youth, from zanyism. There
is a story of a man who got married be
cause he inherited a four-post bedstead,
and of another man who got married
because he had bought a piece of silk
cheap, at a sale, and wanted a wife to
give it to.
•BIEEIS ©g ffliaffimrf':'
A Noble Poem.
The following beautiful and manly stanzas were, in
part, published some time since in a paper in Albany,
New York, of which City the gifted Author is a citizen.
They hare since been added to and revised, and from
a manuscript, by the Author himself, we publish them
in their attractive perfection. The skill of versifica
tion is excellent, but inferior to the vigor and nobili
ty of the thought We thank the gifted Author for his
sympathy, and our enemies will admire, even if they
have not the manhood to practice, the magnanimity
so nobly advocated. — Louisville Courier,
IS IT A DREAM?
I saw a nation glorious and free,
Leading a darkened world to Liberty,
First in the van, impetuous to strike
The festering chains from limb and soul alike,
Far o’er the rear-ward legions shining gleam
Her star-gemmed banner. Was it but a dream ?
Her life was young; her poets, fresh and bold,
Sang hymns prophetic, centuries foretold
Os peace and plenty ; eloquent and wise,
And pure and just, jurists aud.statesmen rise
To shape her destinieß, a God-like scheme
Os Right triumphant, Was it but a dream?
No loug, dark records of a barbarous age
Os blood and rapine, dimmed her history’s page,
No feudal chieftain held her virgin soil,
No conquering despot seized her for his spoil,
An equal people held the power supreme
With law and order. Was it but a dream ?
The latest and noblest born of time,
Her mission and destiny sublime ;
Peoples to fuse with peoples, and restore
Heaven’s first design, that w r ar should rage no more,
The abject, wailing nations to redeem,
And band them brothers. Was it but a dream ?
The teeming West—-a continent—her domain,
Where she sat peerless in her gentle reign ;
The sun, up-rising from Ins Atlantic bed,
On her broad brow his roseate honors shed,
And smiled upon her when liis latest beam
Warmed the Pacific. Was it but a dream ?
Strong was she in her fresh, exuberant health,
Ships, mines, fields, workshops, deluged her with
wealth;
New States—young Empires—from the prolific stock,
In vast accretions lock and interlock,
By bonds of kin, faith, interest, it would seem
Welded forever. Was it but a dream ?
It passed. I saw her ghastly, stained with blood,
Pale in the sombre weeds of widowhood;
Her broad fields, ridged and furrowed, wave on wave—
War's cruel tillage—harvest of the grave;
I saw her dungeons foul with victims teem,
And hate, wrong, greed hold sway. Was it but a
dream ?
Her sacred laws, her cherished memories,
Her proud traditions—all the good and wise
Os her best days could teach—control no more ;
Her creeds are blotted out with tears and gore;
Her priests between the porch and altar scream,
Frantic for blood. Ah, God! is it a dream ?
Hosts against hosts, who, lately, hand with hand,
Grasps kindly, now, in ranks embattled stand,
And bayonet thrust, and hiss of shot and shell,
And shriek and groan, the tale of horror tell.
Meek Saviour! hear not frantic men blaspheme
Who now invoke Thee! Is it but a dream ?
Death in the field, death in the crowded camp,
Death on the march, death in the bivouac damp,
Death in the cell, death in gaunt Famine’s clasp,
Death's victims fall too fast for sense to grasp,
O’er all the blighted land Death reigns supreme
And hell rejoices. Is it but a dream ?
So horror upon horror ghastly grow;
Who talked of pity to the infuriate crew,
With curse and yell was silenced, till at last
The vengeful storm, exhausted, blight and blast,
Ceased from the soil the red hot flood to steam;
Sick w ith revenge we rest. Is it a dream ?
Peace, yet no peace, blind passion yet holds sway,
Malice and hate, insatiate, hold their prey;
Greedy, for plunder, drunk with lawless power,
Fierce Anarchs rule the woe-begotten hour,
And all that just or merciful we deem, '
Frantic and scolliug, spurn. Is it a dream ?
“ Fee Viclisl" is the cry with fury frought—
Warning and prayer are scorned and set at naught;
False as cogged dice, the shameful ballots cheat,
Proscription, ruin, make the work complete,
And omens teach us that again may stream,
The blood so newly staunched. Is it a dream ?
Day-star of Freedom, sinking into night,
Must we forever lose thy holy light ?
If we now Buffer thee to Set iu gloom,
Ours is the crime—we well deserve our doom ;
God’s vengeful thuuders gather ; ere they break,
And shatter and destroy us, let us wake.
[Fortlia Banner of the South.]
LEAVES FROM THE BOOK OF NATURE.
DY MRS. SUSAN H. WADDELL.
“Keep Nature’s great Original in view,
And thence the living images pursue.”
Horace’s Art of Poetrt.
How many lessons of humility and self
distrust are taught to reflecting and ob
servant minds, by the vast and ever
changing kaleidoscope of Nature !
We often pass wonders unheeded;
wonders, which should fill our souls with
adoration of the Divine wisdom and
goodness of Omnipotence.
There is not a blade of grass, or a
pebble, but has its mission to fulfil, in the
sublime economy of Nature ; and the in
sect, whose structure is but a degree
above inanimate matter, possesses, in
common with the most exqusite and com
plex being, a message for us from on
High, if we should but pause to read it.
In sandy regions, we daily pass a little
cavity in the earth; it is an inverted
cone, and no geometrician, with his instru
ments of science, can sketch one more
accurately. This is the work of a small
insect resembling very much a gray
spider, except that its body is longer and
its legs shorter. It is his home ; and he
may have many saloons and chambers in
his subterraneous abode, as Huber dis
covered in the possession of the ant,
during his unparalleled researches into
the natural history of the bee and ant.
Poor Huber! When he had arrived, in
liis patient investigations, to a degree of
knowledge his predecessors had never
attained, he became blind. The accidental
tall of a small bug or other insect, in
passing this cavity, at once developesthe
wonderful adaptation of Nature to the
wants of the Ant-lion. It is evident that
the habitation of this animal is construct
ed in this artistic manner for the purpose
of entrapping unwary travellers on the
highway of life, and thereby securiug food
lor its inmates; for, in each attempt the
bug makes to escape from the pit into
which it has fiillen, the invisible inhabitant
will flirt a shower of sand upward, and
the doomed Sisyphus instantly comes
down again. This is repeated until the
bug* is too much exhausted to make any
further attempts to escape, and it is now
that the lord of the cave will appear,
seize his prisoner, and vanish into the
earth.
A small species of Mason-Wasp builds
for her offspring a habitation of fine clay.
She attaches it to a wall, or some uniform
surface, which happens to be near the
place of her nativity. Iu structure, it
resembles the kraal, or hut, of a Hotten
tot, and is divided into compartments.
In each of these, there is deposited one or
two eggs, and a given number of spiders;
the divisions are now carefully sealed,
and the little building left entirely to Na
ture. When the young are hatched,
they find their food already provided for
them, and so wc*ll is this provision adapt
ed to their necessities, that, when they
have devoured the last of the spiders,
they are prepared to perforate their
prison wall, and wing themselves away to
their tribe.
The manner in which this little Mason
W asp supplies herself with food is very
interesting. She flies around and about,
until she observes the web of a spider;
this she reconnoitres, and, when satisfied
as to the strength of its silken fortifica
tions, she darts suddenly into the web,
and soon is entangled in its meshes. She
struggles, and her notes are those of dis
tress and terror. This induces the spider
to come forth, and, fiudiug her entangled
in his web, he seizes her for his prey.
At thisjuncture, she quickly secures him,
in turn, breaks the silken eordage with as
much ease as she would shake the cow
from her wings and, Hying away, feasts
upon him, or places him in her reservoir.
Biology teaches us that the Universe
is filled with such examples as these, and,
in them, we discover one great trutli:
r J here can be no life, but through death.
This is practically and physiologically
true in regard to our material existence;
for, daily life is sustained by a sacrifice of
life in some form. There is not one
modification of matter, animal or vegeta
ble, but sutlers death, r.hat physical life
may be sustained. The animal bleeds,
and the ripe fruits or vegetables are cut
dowu and consumed, to preserve life.
Thus, in typical harmony with all of
the works of God, we find the Sacrifice of
the Saviour of the world !
From the earliest ages of which we
have any record, until the era of our
Redeemer, sacrifices appear to have been
innate iu the human mind.
And how many moral sacrifices do we
suffer through our souls or minds, ere
death bestows upon us new life and im
mortality.
“What deaths we suffer ere we die.”
Some physiologists regard mind as the
result of an organization of matter, and
believe that it cannot exist in a state of
separation from it.
We would say, may not the soul, or
mind, in the dissolution of the body, as
sume a gaseous, invisible form, and pass
to spheres where affinities, suited to its
new existence, surround it ? We cannot
say this is not so, for the reason that we
cannot sec this result, as in other philo
sophical investigations; for, animalculae
exists in every variety of form around
and about us, and are yet invisible and
intangible to our senses. This w*e know
to be true from the developments made by
magnifying lenses since Roger Racon’s
day, and the modern improvements of Sir
David Brewster in this truly magnificent
discovery.
Here, in this vase, is a flower, which,
but yesterday, til led the apartment with
fragrance; to-day, it is withered and dis
colored, petal after petal is falling from
it, and its vitality is gone forever. Where
is the odor ? We perceive it not, and yet,
like mind, it surely existed. There is
the flower, but the fragrance is gone,
leaving no traces of its flight, no clue to
its dwelling place.
So flits away the soul.
Pythagoras, among the ancients, and
Sir Humphrey Davy, iu modern times,
assure us, that, from the commencement
of lime, there has never been one atom
of matter lost —that it only assumes an
other form; and, yet, jthe mind, that
greatest of the. works of our Creator, is
believed, by some, to perish with its finite
body. If there are to he found so many
exquisite adaptations of cause and effect,
and so many remedies provided for evils
incident to every condition of animal and
\ e ® G able life, why should we doubt that
e sou is provided for in the unerring
economy of Omnipotence? No! no! if
and the physiology and anatomy of Nature
teaches us this truth, how then can the
soul alone be neglected and forgotten,
when we agree that it is the greatest of
terrestrial creations !
Those splendid and hallowed fires kin
dled each night, and from century to
century above us, may be the future
dwelling places of souls: “In my Father’s
house are many mansions. ” We see them
iu their silent orbits, and we wonder, and
gaze, and wonder. Why not believe
that they are, in their mysterious beauty,
the future homes of disembodied s mis ?
Enough, that they have never been
explored, and yet exist. There is some
thing that the knife and magnifier have
not yet reached, and, as they do exist and
are still unknown, so may we infer that
the soul need not be annihilated, for the
reason that it is inscrutable to faculties so
finite as ours.
ROMAN CELEBRITIES,
PIUS IX.
I ius IX. is of middle height, some
what stout, with a slow and laborious
gait. There is nothing very remarkable
in liis person; but he has beautiful hands;
a small foot; his head attracts and rivets
your attention. With the exception of
the chin, which is rather heavy, the fea
tures are regular; the mouth conveys a
harassed, anxious expression, indicative
of scorn and irony to those who know not
how to read suffering in its outline: the
complexion is fair, but of a sickly pallor,
and the entire physiognomy so clearly
defined, has something severe and arbi
trary, which, to some, reveals indomita
ble perseverance; to others, a determina
tion which nothing can subdue. But
Pius IX. has spoken. From those con
tracted lips a voice issues, resonant and
gentle, harmonious and penetrating. From
hfe eye, fixed in repose, dart forth a
thousand rays! A transfiguration is ac
complished.
INAUGURATION OF HIS PONTIFICATE.
Everyone knows how Pius IX. scarcely
seated on the “ Sedia Gestatoria,” inau
gurated his Pontificate. The doors of
the political prisons were thrown open
without reserve; the Swiss Guards dis
banded ; the clergy submitted to taxa
tion; and, on the 14th of March, 1848, a
liberal constitution was accorded to the
Roman people amidst great enthusiasm.
Pius IX. courageously put himself at the
head of the movement ; but it overpower
ed him. Ou the 15th of November,
1848, his Minister, Rossi, was assassinated;
the revolution was in Corso; the Holy
Father abandoned the Vatican, and took
refuge in the Quirinal.
CARDINAL ANTONELLI.
Giacomo Antonelli is a muscular man,
of commanding stature, possessing an easy
carriage, with a head well poised upon
athletic shoulders; the hair is cut short.
His high forehead has, at its base, thick
eyebrows, forming a dark straight line,
which shelter beneath well developed
stag-like eyes, whence issue a clear,
quiet, almost melancholy glance, which
caD, however, according to humor, be
crnie most fascinatingly pleasing; an
aquiline nose, with fleshy, but very flexi
ble nostrils; rather thin mouth, plain in
repose, put plainer when it smiles ; but
the eye redeems the mouth ; a high narrow
jaw, and a flat but well formed chin,
make up 4 a countenance whose general
expression conveys rather disdain than
pride, scorn than wrath; but, more than
all, an indomitable determination. He
was born on the 2d April, 1006, at Sonino
—classic land of brigandage; his family,
though poor, could number among its
members more than one Knight who died
in defence of the Holy Sepulchre - . His
father was a poor woodcutter, who
toiled hard, yet found his earnings bare
ly sufficient to support four children.
One of his friends proposed to have his
son Giacomo entered in the Roman
University, an offer of which he gladly
availed himself. The boy’s progress was
rapid; a precocious intelligence, joined to
an extraordinary memory, attracted his
master’s notice. Gregory XVI. interest
ed himself in the young mountaineer,
who became successively a Prelate, As
sessor of the Superior Criminal Tribu
nal, and delegate at Orvieto and Viter
bo; eventually, Cardinal Lambrusehini
confided to him the Portfolio of Finance.
MONSIGNOR DE MERODE.
Menage, in his Etymological Dictiona
ry of the French language, at the word
5