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THE COUNTRYMAN.
TURNWOLD, GA., NOVEMBER 24. 1862.
The President and leaders of the Confede
rate States.
It is no small compliment to be president
of the Provisional Government of the Con
federate States. The world will assign the
man who holds that office, if he fills it well,
a proud position upon the page of history.
Millions of people have trusted their homes,
their firesides, and their wives and children
to his guardianship. It required a degree
of heroism which has never been surpassed,
for the Southern people to dissolve a gov.
ernment which was the admiration of the
world, and in the teeth of the prejudices of
the nations of the earth, to plant, as the
corner stone of their new constitution, the
inequality of the races, and write in bold,
legible letters,in their organic law, the word
SLAVERY.
But dissolving their national government,
and planting slavery it: unmistakable terms
in their constitution were not the ouly bar
riers to be overleaped by the men of the
Confederate States. The words traitors
and rebels stared them in the lace, and the
hangman’s rope was suspended in no very
inviting coils above their heads. * To dare
this, for the sake ol establishing upon a se
cure basis, what the world blindly suppos
es to be slavery in its old and odious sense,
is what will make the nations gaze in as
tonishment upon the chief actors in our rev
olution.
These.are no ordinary men. The world
does not contain their superiors, if it does
their equals.—1861.
Theory.
“Theory is worth hut little unless it can
explain its own phenomena, and it must
effect this without contradicting itself:
therefore the facts are sometimes assimil
ated to the theory, rather than the theory
to the facts. Most theorists may be com
pared to the grand-father of Frederick,
who was wont to amuse himself, during his
fits of the gout, by painting likenesses of
his grenadiers. If the picture did not hap
pen to resemble the grenadier, he settled
the matter by painting the grenadier to the
picture. To change the illustration, we
might say that theories may he admired
for the ingenuity that has been displayed
in building them : but they are better for
a lodging than a habitation, because the
scaffolding is often stronger than the house,
and the prospects continually liable to be
built out by some opposite speculator.
Neither are these structures very safe in
stormy weather, and are in need of con
stant repair, which can never be accom
plished without much trouble, and always
at a great expense of truth. Of modern
theorists, Gall and Spurzheim are too ridic
ulous even to be laughed at. We admire
Locke and Hartley for the profundity and
ingenuity of their illustrations, and La-
vater for his plausibility, but none of
them for their solidity. Locke, however,
was an exception to this paradox so gen
erally to be observed in theorists, who, like
Lord Monboddo, are the most credulous
of men with respect to what confirms theo
ry, hut perfect infidels as to any facte that
oppose it. Mr. Locke, I believe, had no
opinions which he, would not most, readily
exchange for truth. A traveller showed
Lavater two portraits: the one of a high
wayman who had been broken upon a
v» heel : the other was the portrait of Kant
the philosopher. He was desired to dis
tinguish between them. Lavater took up
the portrait of the highwayman : after at
tentively considering it for sometime,* Here,’
says lie, ; we have the true philosoober;
here is penetration in the eye, and reflec
tion in the forehead ; here is causes and
there is effect ; here is combination, theie
is distinction ; synthetic lips, and an analytic
nose !’ Then taming to the portrait of the
philosopher, he exclaims, ‘The calm, think
ing villain is so well expressed, and so
strongly, marked in this countenance, that
it needs no comment.’ This anecdote Kant
used to tell with giyat glee.
Ur. Darwin infoims us that the reason
why the bosom of a beautiful woman is an
object of such peculiar delight, arises from
hence: that all our first pleasurable sensa
tions of warmth, sustenance, and repose,
are derived from this interesting source.
This theory had a fair run, until some one
happened to reply, that, all who were
brought up by hand had derived their first
pleasurable sensations from a very differ
ent source, and yet that not one of all these
had ever been known to evince any very
rapturous or amatory emotions at the sight
of a wooden spoon !’’
Wit by the Way Side.
“ In the neighborhood of Hoddam Cas
tle, Dumfriesshire, there is a tower called
Repentance. A pleasant answer of a
shepherd’s boy to Sir Richard Steele,found
ed on the name of this tower, is related. Sir
Richard having observed a bey lying on
the ground, and very attentively reading
his bible, asked if lie could tell him the
way to heaven ? ‘ Yes, sir,’ answered the
bov, ‘ you must go by that tower.' ”
‘We ask advice, but we mean approbation.’
Resolutions of ’98 ’99.
I have before me a copy of these Reso
lutions “ published by order of the Union
Meeting held in Milledgeville on the 16th
Dec , 1833.” These resolutions are ac
companied by Mr. Madison’s letter of 1830,
on the subject of the resolutions, and some
remarks of William A. Tennille, chairman
of the Centval Committee of the Georgia
Union Democratic party. The object of
the publication is to show that the Nulli-
fiers of 1S33 could not claim the resolutions
of ’98—’99 in support of their nullification
schemes. Be this as it may, we have no
use for the Virginia and Kentucky resolu
tions now. Our *>ew constitution is plain
enough without any exposition. Every
principle contended for by the State Rights
party has been engrafted upon that instru
ment. May it be perpetual !
The Bushmen.
“On the 14th,we went out on foot,after a
troop.of ostriches, one of which we wound
ed, and came home much exhausted. The
very ground was as hot as the side of a stove.
'Lite following day we were visited by a
party of Boers from the neighboring en
campments, who had come to see how we
were getting on. Finding our brandy good,
they made themselves very agreeable, and
sat for many hours conversing with its.
The leading subject of conversation was
gemsbok and lior. shooting, and the slaying
anti capturing of whole tribes of marauding
Bushmen in by-gone days. They inform
ed us that when they first occupied these
districts the game was far more abundant,
and eland and koodoos were plentiful.
Their herds of cattle were constantly at
tacked and plundered by the vindictive
wild Bushmen. Unlike the Caffree tribes,
who lift cattle for the purpose of preserviqyg
them and breeding from them, the sole ab
ject of the Bushmen is to drive them to
their secluded habitations in the desert,
.where they massacre them indiscriminate
ly, and continue feasting and gorging them
selves until the flesh becomes putrid.
When a Kaffir has lifted cattle, and finds
himself so hotly pursued by the owners that
he can not esfcape with his booty, he be
takes himself to flight, and leaves the cat
tle unscathed : but the spiteful Bushmen
have a most provoking and cruel system of
horribly mutilating the poor cattle when
they find that they are likely to fall into
the hands of their rightful owners, hy dis
charging their poisoned arrows at them, and
cutting lumps of flesh off their living car
casses. This naturally so incenses the
owners that they never show the Bushmen