Newspaper Page Text
She %scu filet
GS-. A. Miller* Editor.
THOMAS TON^GEORGIA.
Saturday Morning, March 9th, 1861.
Vox Poptili.
Our intelligent and esteemed correspon
dent, Vox Populi asks us to give an idea
by way of answer to the question which
heads his communication—“ What are the
prerogatives of the Georgia Convention ?”
In England, prerogative means that spe
cial power and pre-eminence which the
K'ir'g hath above other persons, out of the
ordinary course of law, in right of his re
gal dignity: Even th**re, this prerogative
is limited and restrained by bounds, so cer
tain and notorious that if he mistakes or
legally exceeds them, he makes himself di
rectly responsible to the people. It is sub
ordinate to the absolute rights which ap
pertain to every Englishman—the rights
of religion, of life, of person and property.
King James the First, who had high no
tions of regal divinity, considered it pre
sumption in a subject to dispute what a
King ma)’ do—that he must rest content
in the King’s will, revealed in his law. The
same notions of prerogative caused the
Second King James to abdicate and induc
ed anew settlement of the crown and fin
ally brought the head of Charles I. to the
block. Prerogative (from prae and rogo')
is something in the shape of authority, that
requires and- demands obedience, in pre
ference to all rights ; and lienee according
to the theory of the English Constitution
the King reigns by Divine Eight,—lie can
do no wrong and the privileges of the peo
ple are partly subordinate and inferior to
his exhibitions of power and mercy. This
power and authority of the King on one
hand, and the rights and privileges of the
people on the other, have caused for ages,
a continual conflict between tyranny and
civil liberty. • Prerogative, is the asserted
power of the few, over the many—Privil
ege is the just right of the many, against
the usurpations of the few.
In England, Franco, Germany and wher
ever else} the Feudal System was incorpo
rated in their political policy, the doctrine
prevails tfrat all'ihe rights and liberty-of
the governed, are but mere favors or con
cessions of Royal Prerogative—here, the
fountain of political power flows from the
people and all authority not expressly del
egated remains in the governed. Here the
officers are the Servants—the people are
the Sovereigns; If our rights of life, lib
erty, character and person are violated ;
by proper vigilance, we can displace our
servants and punish them bv law. We
should guard equally against the sly ap
proaches of the snake and the deadly, open
spring of ts& tiger. The demagogue and
despot are tp be.equally feared. Tyranny
is tyranny, whether efifotced under popu
lar names such as Democracy or Republi
canism or under that of King, Emperor,
Czar, Convention or Congress.
We have, no doubt that the Georgia
Convention has by prerogative, encroached
upon the privileges of the people. They
were commissioned to db a certain thing,
shey have exceeded their power and hence
such protests as the following trorn the At
lanta Intelligencer—
First, we have to notice the fact, that
The Georgia Convention elected seven out
of the ten-mem here-to the Southern Con
gress, out of its .b-ujy.- A. number of the
commissioners appointedro the border slave
States, we dVrnot exactly know the num
her, were taken from its own body. Sec
ond, the Southern Congress, (which should
have been held only to organize a Provi
sional Government, and report to a Con
vention of the States a plan of Permanent
Government, and then b; functus officio, )
seems to ba perpetuating its existence with
unliinired.power, for the whole period of a
Provisional Government, instead of allow
ing the people to elect members to the
Congress which should legislate for the
country under President Davis. Third,
then* this Southern Congress, (to have the
chance of getting distinguished places and
fat otfices under the Provisional Govern
ment) have o.n#eeDn the Provisional Con
stitution, that article in the Federal Con
f4iUUion,.*whtch prohibits members of Con
gress-from holding any office of honor and
emolument, and which also prohibits any
person uokUug any office under the Gov
ernment, from being a member of Con
gress. * _
Now, we are well aware that there is a
very large amount of talent in the Southern
Congress ; but, most assuredly, all the tal
ent, ot the South, is not concentrated in
that body.* We would again remind our
public servants, to not rely too much upon
their own power, but to remember that a
Republfratf form of Government is based
on the v!rtue f -the intelligence, and the Pa
triotism of the People. ~ l r ox Fopuli , Vox
Dei. ft. .. •
Kext hear the Griffin Middle Georgian - :
Without designing to oiler any captious
■ © qycuon* to the action of the Provisional
Congress, wp must say th&f, in our judg
ment, its system of economy is not mark
ed by any great amount of disinterested
ness ; for, so far, all the retrenchments
| seem to have been made at the expense of
the people, without in the slightest degree
affecting the emoluments of office holders
and law-makers themselves ! \\ ould it
not be well to reverse this order of things
a little, and by beginning the reform with
themselves, for Congress to prove that its
members are a part of the people, and de
sire to share with them the pecuniary bur
thens of Government ? We should dis
like to deal unjustly with those whoore la
boring to perfect a system of Government
for the Southern Confederacy, and shall
say nothing in condemnation of their acts
which we do not conceive the public inter
est demands.
We should be glad to bear from “Vox
Populi” often. Many members of the Sou
thern Congress are now possessed of as
many as three offices.
For the Upson Pilot.
WIIAT ARE THE PREROGATIVES
; OF THE GEORGIA CONVENTION?
Mr. Editor :
You, being as it were a sentinel on the
watch-tower, and better posted, no doubt,
relative to the machinery of our political
government, than we rurnlists who scarcely
see a newspaper once a week, would per
haps, do an acceptable service to many of
your patrons by giving them an “idea” by
way of response to the above interroga
tory.
W e country people who have never
learned any other way to get our bread
than in tlie sweat of - the face, and who
have never been so fortunate (or unfortu
nate) as to be fed and fattened, greased and
pampered with pap from the public crib,
think that if we were to commission special
agents to perform a specific trust, at a lib
: eral per diem pay, and those agents after
having performed the trust delegated to
them, (towit : to enquire into the expedi
ency of doing a certain thing, and if
thought expedient, to determine the best
mode and manner of doing it, subject to
our approval or disapproval,) should as
sume to themselves, not only the right to
make contracts in our name, not included
in the commission, and involve heavy and
ruinous debts upon us ; but also to
constitute themselvc our agents in a higher
commission, and arrogate to themselves
the sole right of ratifying or rejecting the
acts of that higher commission, aud pio
long the timoat our cost, and all without
a word of approbation or consent from us;
and then, as if to add insult to injury, tell
us that what they are doing is a secret, and
they can’t tell 11s what they, as our agents,
are doing for us, we think we should at
least discharge those agents, if we did not
repudiate their unauthorized acts. In such
case, we as private citizens should have no
hesitation as to what course we would take,
but whether such an independent course in
political matters would do or not, we are
at a loss to know. Whether we have been
so completely fettered and bound hand and
foot by the machinations of demagogue
ism, that we must tamely submit to an ol
igarchy, (worse by far than absolute des
potism,) or whether we yet have democratic
rights—whether the sovereignty yet resides
in the people, as in the clays of our fore
fathers—while in- the zenith of our pros
perous and happy nationality, or whether
it has been transferred to political leaders
and demagogues while in the azimuth, (as
we would fain hope,) of our national e
istenee —these are questions, which from
the portentous omens of the time, seem
to be of doubtful solution.
We elected representativ s to go—not
to Savannah to eat shad and oysters, but
to Milledgeville, to 11 consider all griev
ances, impairing or ecting the equality
and rights of the State of Georgia as a
member of the United States , and deter
mine the ?node, measure and time of re
dress!” ‘They determined the mode,
measure and time of redress to be imme
diate secession—the resumption of inde
pendent State sovereignty, and subsequent
initiation with a Southern Confederacy.—
Here, we think, their commission expired ;
and that they should have returned to
their commissioners, not to tell them that
they had solved themselves into a “Secret
oath bound” legislative body, but to tell
them frankly what they had done, and
await their ratification or rejection. But
instead of this, they not only assumed the
prerogatives of a legislative body in direct
antagonism to the Constitution of the
State of Georgia, 0 but they constituted a
J portion of themselves our representatives,
(without our privity or consent,) to meet
in Montgomery, Ala., with delegates from
other seceding States, to form a “plan or
* Constitution of permanent Government,”
declaring by solemn resolution that the
■ same should be or obligatory” on
us, when “submitted to and approved by
titis Convention.” Was ever Aristocracy
—was ever Oligarchy—was ever Monarchy
more insolently assuming P Will the peo
ple submit ? or shall we hear
VOX POPULI ?
i
*See Constitution, Art. 1, Sec. 17, and Art.
2, Sec. 10.
’ Gen. Forbes Britton died iu Texas
last week
INAUGURA L AI>D RE s S 0 F
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
Fellow Citizens of the United States:
In compliance with a custom as old as
the government itself, I appear before you
to address you briefly and to take, in your
presence, the oath prescribed by the con
stitution of the United States, to be taken
by the President before he enters on the
execution of his office.
I do not consider it necessary, at present, for
me to discuss those matters of administfh-’
tive policy, about which there is no special
anxiety or excitement. Apprehension seems
to exist among the people of the United
States, that by the occasion of a Republi
can administration, their property and
their peace and their personal security are
to be endangered.
There has been any reasonable
cause for such apprehension. Indeed the
most ample evidence, to the contrary’, has
all the while existed and been open to their
j inspection. It is found in nearly all the
published speeches of him who now ad
dresses you. .1 do but quote from one of
these speeches when 1 declare that I have
no purpose directly or indirectly to inter
fere with the institution of slavery in the
►States where it exists.
i believe I have no lawful right to do so
—and I have no inclination to do so.—
T hose who nominated and elected me did
so with the full knowledge that I had made
this and many similardeclarations and had
never recanted them. And more than this
—they placed in the platform for my ac
ceptance, and ns a law to themselves and
to Mic, the clear aml emphatic resolution
which I now read.
“ Resolved , That the maintainance invi
olate of tile rights ot the Slates, aud es
pecially the right of each State to order
and control its domestic institutions ac
cording to its own judgment exclusively’, is
essential to that balance of power on
which the perfection and endurance of our
political fabric depend, and we denounce
the lawless invasion by armed force of the
soil ot any State or Territory, no matter
under what pretext, as among the gravest
of crimes.”
1 now reiterate these sentiments, and in
doing so, I only press upon the public at
tention the most conclusive evidence of
which the case is susceptible, that the
property, peace and security of no section,
are to be in any wise end.mgered by the
now incoming administration. 1 add too,
that all the protection which, consistently
with the Const i tut ion and the laws, can be
given, will be cheerfully given to all the
►States, when lawfully’ demanded for what
ever cause, as cheerfully’ to one section as
another.
There is much controversy about the de
livering up of fugitives from service or la
bor. The clause I now read is as plainly
written in the Constitution as any other of
its provisions.
“No person held to service or labor in
one State, under the laws thereof, escaping
into another, shall, in consequence of any
law or regulation therein, be discharged
from such service or labor, hut shall be de
livered up on the claim of the party to
whom such service or labor may be due.”
It is scarcely questioned that this pio
• vision was intended by those who made it,
for the reclaiming of fugitive slaves, and
the intention of the law giver is the law. —
All members of Congress swear their sup
port to the whole constitution—to this
provision as much as to any other. To
til’- proposition, then, that slaves whose
cases come within the terms of this clause,
shall be delivered up, their oaths are unan
imous.
Now if they would make the effort in
good temper, could they not with equal
unanimity frame and pass a law by means
of which to keep good that unanimous
oath ?
There is some difference of opinion
whether this clause should be enforced by
national or by State authority ; but surely
that difference is not a very material one.
If the slave is to Ik* surrendered, it can be
of but little consequence to him or to oth
ers, by what authority’ it is done—and
should any one in any case be content that
his oath shall go unkept in a merely cir
cumstantial controversy as to how it shall
be keptP
Again in any law upon this subject,
ought not all the safeguards of liberty
known in civilized and humane jurispru
dence to be introduced, so that a free man
be not in any’case surrendered as a slave?
and might it not be well, at the same time,
to provide by law for the enforcement of
that clause in the Constitution, which
guarantees that the citizens of each State
should be entitled to all privileges and
immunities of citizens in the several
States?
I take the official oath to-day’ with no
mental reservations and with no purpose
to construe the constitution or laws by
any hypercritical rules ; and while 1 do
not nnw choose to specify particular acts
of Congress as proper to be enforced, I do
suggest that it will be much safer tor all,
both in official and private stations, to
conform to and abide by all those acts
which stand unrepealed, than to vio
late any of them, trusting to find impuni
ty in having them held to be unconstitu
tional ?
It is seventy-two years since the inaugu
ration of a President under our National
Constitution. During that period, fifteen
different, and greatly distinguished citizens
have, in succession, administered the Ex
ecutive branch of the Government: They
have conducted it through many perils,
and generally with great success. Yet
with all this scope for precedent, I now en
ter upon tlie same task for the brief con
stitutional term of four years, under great
aud peculiar difficulties.
A disruption of the Federal Union,
heretofore only menaced, is now formida
bly asserted. I hold that in contempla
tion of universal law ami of the Consti
tution, the Union of these States is per
petual. Perpetuity’is implied, if not ex
pressed, in the fundamental law of national
governments. It is sate to assert that no
O t t
government proper ever had a provision in
its organic !a\V for its own termination.™
| Continue to execute nil the express pro*
visions of our national Constitution and
I the Union will endure forever —it being
impossible to destroy it, except bv some
action not provided for in the instrument
itself.
Again, if the United States be not a
government proper, but an association of
States in the natuie of a contract merely,
can it. as a contract, be practically unmade
by less thau all the parties who made it ?
One party to a contract may violate it—
break it, so to speak— but does it not re
quire all to lawfully rescind it ?
Descending from these general princi
ples, we find tin* proposition that in legal
contemplation the Union is perpetual, con
firmed by the history of the Union itself.
The Union is much older than the Con
stitution. It was formed in fact by tlie
articles of association in 1774 It was
matured and continued by the declaration
of Independence in 1776. It was further
matured, and the faith of the then thirteen
States expressly plighted and engaged that
it should he perpetual, by the Articles of
Confederation in 1778, and, finally, in
1787, one of the declared objects for or
daining and establishing the. Constitution,
was to form a more perfect Union.
But it destruction of the Union by one
or by a part only of the States bo lawfully
possible, ihe Union is less perfect than be
fore the Constitution, having lost tin- vital
perpetuity. It ‘follows from these views
that no State upon its own mere motion
can lawfully go out of the Union —that re
solves and ordinances to that effect are le
gally void, and that acts of violence within
I any State or States, are insurrectionary
or revolutionary according to circum
stances.
I therefore consider that in view of the
Constitution and laws, the Union is un
broken and to the extent of my ability I
shall take cure, as the Constitution itself
expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws
of the Union be faithfully executed in all
tho States. Doing this 1 deem to be only
a simple duty on my part and I shall per
form it so far as practicable, unless my
rightful masters, the American people,
shall withhold the requisite means, or in
some authoritative manner direct the con
trary.
I trust this will not be regarded as a
menace ; but only as the declared purpose
of the Union that it will constitutionally
defend and maintain itself. In doing this
there need to he no bloodshed or violence,
and there shall he none, unless it be forced
upon the national authority. The power
confided in me will he used to hold, occu
py and possess the property and places be
longing to the government, and to collect
the dot ies and imports, hut beyond what
mnv be necessary for these objects, there
will be no invasion on—no using force
against or among the people any where.—
Where hostility to tie United States in
anv interior locality shall he so great and
so universal as to prevent competent resi
dent citizens from holding the federal offi
ces, there will he no attempt to force ob
nodious strangers among the people for
that object. While the strict legal right
rnav exist in the Government- to enforce
the exercise <d these offices, the attempt to
do so would he so irritating and so nearly
impracticably withal, that i deem it better
to forego, for the time, the ui;C of such of
ficers.
The mails, unless repelled, will'continue
to he furuisned in all parts of the Inion
So far as possible the people every ufftere
shall have that sense of perfect security
winch is most favorable to calm thought
and reflection.
The course here indicated will he follow
ed unless current events and experience
shall show a modification or change to he
proper, and in every case and exigency, my
best discretion will be exercised according
to circumstances actually existing, and
with a view and a hope of a peaceful solu
tion of the National troubles, and the res-*
torution of fiaternal sympathies and affec
tion.
That there are persons.in one section or
another who seek to destroy the Union at
all events, and are glad of any pretext to
do it, I will neither affirm nor deny ; hut
it there be such, 1 need address no word
to them. To those, however, who really
love the Union may I not speak. Before
entering upon so graven matter as the
destruction of our national fabric with all
its benefits—its memories—its hopes—
would it not he wise to ascertain precisely
why we do it ? \\ ill you buzzard so des
perate a step while there is anv possibility
that any portion of the ills you fly from
have no real existence ? Will you, while
the certain ills you fly to are greater than
all tin* real ones you fly from ? Will you
risk the commission of so fearful a mis
take ?
All profess to he content in the Union
if all Constitutional rights can he main
tained. Is it true, then, that any right
plainly written in the Constitution has been
denied ? I think not. Happily the human
mind is so constituted that no party can
reach to the audacity of doing this. Think
if you can, of a single instance in which a
plainly written provision of the Constitu
tion has ever been denied.
If, hv the mere force of numbers, a ma
jority should deprive a minority of any
clearly written constitutional right, it
might, in a moral point of view, justify rev
olution. It certainly would, if such a right
were a vital one. But such is not our case
All the vital rights of minorities and of
individuals aic so plainly assured to them
by affirmations and negations, guarantees
and prohibitions in the Constitution, that
controversies never arise concerning them, j
But no organic law can ever be framed
with a provision specifically applicable to
every question which may occur in practi
cal administration.
No foresight can anticipate, nor any doc
ment of reasonable length contain, express
provisions tor all possible questions. Shall |
fugitives from labor be surrendered by
tional or by State authority ? The Con
stitution does not expressly say. May
Congress prohibit slavery in the Territo
ries ? The Constitution does not express
ly gay. Must Congress protect slavery in
the Territories ? The Constitution does
not expressly say. From questions of this
class spring Constitutional contro
versies, and we divide upon them into ma
jorities and minorities.
If the minority will not acquiesce, the
majority must, or the Government must
close. There is no other alternative.for
continuing the Government thaff aeqnies
ence on one side or the other. If a minor
ity in such a case will secede rather than
acquiesce, they make a precedent which in
time will divide and ruin them ; for a mi
nority of their own, will secede from them
whenever a majority refuses to l>e controll
ed by such minority. For instance, why
may not any portion of anew confederacy,
a year or two hence, arbitrarily secede a
gain precisely as portions of the present
Union claim to secede from it.
All who cherish in this Union such sen
timents are now being educated to the ex
act temper of doing this. Is there such
perfect identity of interest among the
States which compose the new Union as
to produce harmony only and prevent re
newed secession ? Plainly the central idea
of secession is the essence of anarchy. A
majority held in restraint by Constitution
al checks and limitations, and always
changing easily with deliberate changes of
popular opinions and sentiments, is the on
ly true* sovereign of a free people. Who
ever rejects it, does, of necessity, fly to an
archy or to despotism.
Unanimity is impossible. The rule of a
minority as a permanent arrangement is
wholly inadmisable ; so that rejecting the
majority principle, anarchy or despotism in
some form, is all that is left. I do not for
get the position assumed by s mie, that
constitutional questions are to be decided
by the [Supreme Court ; nor do I deny that
such decisions must be binding in any case
upon the parlies to a suit, as to the object
of that suit, while they are also entitled to
very high respect and consideration in all
parallel cases by all other departments of
the Government ; and while it is obviously
possible that such a decision may be erro
neous in any given case, still the evil ef
fect following it being limited to that par
ticular ease, with the chance that it may
he overruled and never become a precedent
for other cases, can better be borne than
could the evils of a different practice.
At the Same time the candid citizen must
confess that if the policy of the Govern
ment upon vital questions affecting the
whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by
decisions of the supreme court, the instant
they are made in ordinary litigation be
tween parties in personal actions, the peo
ple will have ceased to be their own rulers,
having to that extent practically resigned
their government into the hands of t licit
eminent Tribunal.
Nor is there, in this vie v, any assault
upon the Court or Judges. It is a duty
from which they may not, shrink to ‘decide
cases properly brought behoe Them, and it
is no fault of theirs it others seek to turn
their decision to political purposes.
One section of ourc amny b lieves slave
rV is l ight and ought, to he extended, while
the ‘other believes it is wrong-a lid ought
not to be extended. This is ihe sub.-nan
tial dispute.’ ‘The fugitive slave clause >1
the Constitution and the law tor the sup
pression of the foreign Have trade, are
each as well enforced perhaps as any law
can eve* - he in a communit \ where the mor
al sense of the people imperfectly supports
the law itself.
j The great body of the people abide by
tlu* plain legal obligation in both cases and
a few break over in each. J think* it can
not he pel feet ly cured and it would he
worst* in both cases after the separation of
the sections than before. The foreign slave
trade now imperfectly suppressed would be
ultimately revived without restriction in
one section, while fugitive slaves, now on
ly partially surrendered, would not be sur
rendered at all by tin* other.
Physically speaking, we cannot separate
—we cannot remove our respt ctivesections
from each other—nor build an impassabb
wall between them. A husband and wife
may be divorced and go out of the pres
ence and beyond the reach of each other,
but the different parts of our country.can
not do this—they cannot but remain face
to face, and intercourse either amicable oi
hostile must continue between them. Is
it possible, then, to make that intercourse
more advantageous or more satisfactory af
ter separation Iha ti before? Can aliens
make treaties easier than friends ? Can
laws—can treaties be more faithfully en
forced between aliens than among friends?
Suppose you go to war—you cannot fight
always, and when after much loss on both
sides, and no gain on either, you cease
fighting, the identical old question as to
terms of intercourse are again upon von';
Tl :is country with its institutions, be
longs to the people who inhabit it. When
ever they shall grow weary of the existing
government, they can exercise their consti
tutional right of amending it, or their rev
olutionary right to dismember or overthrow
it.
I cannot be ignorant of the fact that ma
ny worthy and patriotic citizens are desir
ous of having the National Constitution a
mended. \\ bile I make no recomendation
of amendment I fully recognize the right
ful authority of the people over the whole
subject, to he exercised in either of the
modes prescribed in the instrument itself:
and I should under existing circumstances, j
favor, rather than oppose, a fair opportuni
ty being afforded the people to act upon
it.
I will venture to add that to me the con
vention mode seems preferable, in that it
allows amendments to originate with the ‘
people themselves, instead of permitting
them to take or reject propositions origi
nated by others not especially chosen for
the purpose, and which might not he pre
cisely such as they would wish to either ac
cept or refuse.
I understand a proposed amendment to
the Constitution which amendment how
ever, I have not seen, has passed Congress
to the effect that the Federal Government
shall never interfere with the domestic j n _
stitutions of the States including that of
; ffcrs. ns held to Service. To avoid mig
constructions of what l haVe said, I depart
from my purpose not io speak of particu
lar amendments, So far as to say that hi
ding such a provision to now be implied
constitutional law, 1 have no objection to
its being made express and irrevoca
ble.
The Chief Magistrate derives all ]fl ß
authority from the people and they have
centered uoue upon him to fix terms for
j the separation of the States. The people
i themselves can do this also if they choose
but the executive as such has the present gov
ernment as it came to his hands, and to
transmit it unimpaired by him to his suc
cessor.
Why should there not boa patient con
fidence in the ultimate Justice of the Peo
ple ? Is there any better or equal hope in
the woild ? In our present differences, ig
either party without faith of being in the
right ? If the Almighty Ruler oi Nations
with His eternal truth and justice be oil
your side of the North, or on yours of the
South, that Truth and that. Justice will
surely prevail by Mhe judgment of this
great tribunal—the American people.
By the frame of Government under
which we live, this same people have wise
ly given their public servants but little
power for mischief and with equal wisdom
provided for the return of that little to
their own hands, at very short intervals.
While the people retain their virtue and
vigilance no administration by any extreme
of wickedness or folly, can very seriously
injure the government in the short space of
four years.
My countrymen, one and all, think calm
ly and well upon this whole subject.
Nothing valuable can be lost by taking
time. If there be any object to burry anv
of you in hot haste to a step which you
would never take deliberately, that object
will Ik; frustrated by taking time, but no
good object can be frustrated by it.
If it were admitted that you who arc dis
satisfied, hold the right side in the dispute,
there still is no single good reason for pu--
oipifate action. Intelligence, patiiotism,
j Christianity and a fiim reliance on Him
who has never yet forsaken this favored
land, are still competent to adjust, m the
best way, all present difficulties.
In your hands my di satisfied fiiends
and countrymen and not in mine, is tlm
momentous issue of civil war. The gov
ernment will not assail you—you can have
no conflict without, being yourselves the
aggressors. You have no oath registered
, in heaven to destroy the government, while
, 1 shall have the most solemn one “to pre
serve, protect and defend” it.
lam loth to close. We are not enemies
but friends. Wo must not he enemies.—
Though passion may have strained, it
it must not Ireakour bonds of afnc’ion.—
i The mystic chain of memory, s!retching
from every battle fin Id and patriotic gtaw,
; to every living heart hearlstone all over
, this broad land, will yet swell tie chorus
I of the Union, when again toucln and. as f.urc
’ lv they will be, by the belt! r angt Is of <ur
uu! u rev
GOING TO BED.
The following i.s from the Chicago J ur
j nal :
Some fling off their garments as if Trey
j wore the- shirt oi N’ sstis —wasn’t that Ins
name ? and wore, part ieiilarlv arvxi >us to
gel at it. Here whirls a vest in one cor/
ner, its contents jingling to the floor as it
lies. There goes a boot litovhrt. The
| stockings are turmd inside out ; the hap
less coat hangs hv its skirt to a nail, and
the bed is attained with a bound. Bil
lows tumbled this way and that ; the feet
| are inserted between the sheets, and, like a
shuttle through a loom, down goes tin*
body, one arm is flung Under Hie load;
: lower jaw and eyelids droop together, and
: the man is asleep—asleep all over —asleep
for all night.
1 Another goes telering about on his toes.
ll* puts his watch here, his coat there,and
his vest there. llis boots stand aside, like
a brace of grenadiers : the tips of his stock
ings peep out syslematically to the top* ;
and if it be winter, he lingers upon the’
bed’s edge like one about to take a hath —
dreading, yet desiring, and finally stean
into bed hv degrees, draws the quilt atid
*o7’ 1 #
the counterpane over ids head and motion
less—i*gone—arrives in the land of Nod.
It one only thinks of if. sleep in a great
city is a queer tiling. Think of fifty thou
sand in this city all sleeping at once. lit
ty thousand, in tiers of one, two, tlnee,
four, five deep from collar to garret. Fifty
thousand in rows a mile long. Ten thous
and in red nightcaps, tasseled and untas
seled. Ten thousand in dingy ones that
were white, Mondays and Mondays ago. —
Five thousand in silken ones. Some edged
beautifully, some hemmed with a sail nee
dle, and some uncapped altogether, with
locks dishevelled and ruffled like “quills
upon the fretful porcupine.”
Five thousand snoring alto ; five thous
and snoring bass. Twenty thousand un
der calico. A hundred or so beneath silk.
Borne weeping ; some smiling in their
dreams ; others dreamless as the grave.
Singlets twisted up in cigar-lighters ; tress
es streaming over the pillow ; no tresses at
all.
Even asleep humanity preserves its pe
culiarities. Even in dreams men are dis
tinctive still.
SOU THE IICONGRESS.
Montgomery, March 6.—The Hon.
L M. Curry, of Alabama, introduced a res
olution that the Committee on Judiciary
be instructed to enquire into the expedien
cy ol prohibiting the importation ot slaves
into the Confederate States from the Uni
ted States, except said slaves are owned by
persons emigrating fur settlement and resi
dcnce.
The Congress went into secret session.
The Feast of St. Antonio, the patron of
fire and four-footed beasts, was celebrated
as usual in January last by his devotees at
Naples. The priests go round with an im
age of the saint to receive presents, a ru
bonfires of old furniture are made in the
streets to do honor to the saint.