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THE COUNTRYMAN.
17
v
of ever seeing a convention of ‘sover
eign states,’ in which those of the
north will be represented. They
could not even send delegates to such
a convention, or enter into any agree
ment with any southern state, on any
subject whatever, without repudiating
the constitution, the authority ot
which they have been fighting for
four years to uphold. Section 10, of
article 1, expressly forbids any state
from entering into ‘any agreement, or
compact with another btate, or with a
foreign power.’ So that, whether we
regard the Confederate States as sim
ply in revolt, or as independent pow
ers, all attempts to conclude any
treaty, or argument with them as sep
arate states, would be revolutionary.
Can any sane southern man believe,
after due reflection on the evidences
of northern earnestness which he is
daily receiving, and which he has re
ceived since 1861, that we would stul
tify ourselves to such an extent as to
follow the example of the men we
have been so long trying to punish as
criminals, unless we were forced into
it? The notion which the southern
reconstructionists seem to entertain,
that the offer to throw Davis and his
government overboard, and each, as
separate states, to negotiate as sover
eigns, for a peace, is an offer of com
promise—is sheer delusion. We can
no more treat with Georgia as an in
dependent power, than we can with
the whole confederacy. 4s a state
which has Ueeu in revolt, and is anx
ious to stop fighting, and come back
to the union, of course we should be
delighted to meet her; but in no oth
er character would meeting her be of
any use, and through no othei chan*
nel than the national government es
tablished at Washington, could we
have anything to say io her. This
war has been, from the outset, main
tained by delusions on one side or
the other. There will be peace only
when they ale destroyed, and there
could not be a more mischievous one,
thau the idea that the great majority
of the northern people see any rest
ing place short of reunion, on the ha-
pis of the existing constitution. As
soon as the south abandons it finally,
we shall be one step, aud a long one,
nearer the end.”’
LrTERARY AND SCIENTIFIC GENE
RALS.—“Some eminent commanders
have not been scholars. But the
tli ree greatest generals the world has
ever produced— Alexander, Caesar,
Napoleon—were all men of letters.
The first an annotator on Homer, the
second a classical author, the third a
philosopher, if he had not been an
emperor, ‘Do you think,’ said Napo
leon, if I had not been general-in-
chiel, and the instrument of fate to a
mighty nation, that I would have ac
cepted the place and dependence ?
No ! I would have thrown myself in
to the study of exact science ; my
path would have been that of Galileo
and Newton,*and since I have always
succeeded in my great enterprises, I
should have highly distinguished my
self, also, in my scientific labors. I
should have left the memory of beau
tiful discoveries.’ ”
DrUN«renness—A Lesson.—UII-
der this, or a similar caption, an ex
tract from the ‘ Confession of a Drunk
ard,’ by Charles Lamb—most instruct
ive, winning, and lovable, even among
the essayists of England—is going
the rounds of the press, and is copied,
and endorsed as an actual report of
Lamb’s experience, by editors who
should know better. Since we be
gan to write for, or observe, the peri
odical press, and newspapers, the sto
ry of Lamb, and a similar story,
about a reported reformation of Will
iam Wirt—one of the best of Ameri
can essayists, and southern writers,
whose name, as usual, the. South
seems willing to forget—have gone
the rounds perhaps a dozen times.
The story of Wirt has been contradic
ted, on" authority, and we hope will
not be reproduced. Is it necessary,
for an added warning against drunk
enness, to blot the name and memory
of Chailes Lamb, a martyr of a long
life and pilgrimage of patient, ill-re
quited toil, and an exemplar of pure
broth, rlf affection,and sacrifice which
the world has rarely witnessed? Let
those who deem it necessary, or just,
to write ‘drunkard’ after the name of
Charles Lamb, read the story of his
affection, and devotion to his unfortu
nate sister, and learn a lesson of char
ity, and charitable judgment.
Nothing surpassing ii—little equal
to or approaching it—can be found
but in the lives of the best missiona-
•ries, and martyrs of benevolence.
Charles Lamb wrote also the ‘ Con
fessions of a man after being hanged,’
and cut down at the latest moment
for recovery.
Why do not our friends of the press
take an extract from this, as a warn
ing against murder, or robbery, or
other offences liable to capital pun
ishment ?
This would he quite as logical, and
correct, as to call and brand him as a
drunkard on account of a ‘confession’
in which, with his rare powers of fan-
cy, or representative art, he describes,
and reveals the supposed experience
of a drunkard, or of one who had
been rescued from the almost fatal
noose.
‘What is a drunkard’is a question
not exactly answered—tior can we
undertake to state in detail, the acts,
and facts of Lamb's life, and habits, to
repel the charge.
To those who think total abstinence
the only test of virtue, of course Lamb
and all w! o followed the social usa
ges of his dav, and his circle of friends,
are drunkards. So Timothy would
have been after followings prescrip
tion of his master, and spiritual fath
er, and preceptor Paul, whose reli
gion was concerned about higher top
ics than meat and drink.
By many persons, that sturdy mor
alist, Samuel Johnson, would be call
ed a drunkard in tea, as bis cups were
often counted by the dozen. Excess
in all things—and in none more than
in those allowable, or proper, or nec
essary in moderate use, is akin to
drunkenness. That Lamb thus erred,
sometimes, in taking a little more wine,
oi perhaps brandy—both good, and
genuine—than a competent physician,
intimately acquainted witli him, would
have ordered, may be admitted—that
lie was a drunkard, in any sense indi
cating a warning against a suicidal
abuse of powers, or neglect ot duties,
can be, and should be, stoutly denied-
The simple statement of his labors,
and writings, and the results of his
leisure hours, and odd intervals of holi
day, f.cantly snatched from the toil
ing and moiling drudgery of a dull
desk, will show that he was not a
drunkard—and if he was, the world
would be benefitted, by finding such
drunkards iu every bank, and count
ing house.
There aie warnings, and personal’
examples—and instances lecorded of
the dead, and instances arnotig the
living, in all abundance—to ‘ point
a moral, or adorn a tale’ about drums-
enness, without resorting to the name,
and tomb, of Charles Lamb —Charles
ton Courier.
“We regret to learn, as we do from
the Rebel, of the capture of CoL
Moses White, commander of the post
at. Eatonton, Ga. He had left town
to escape the yankees, but accidental
ly ran against them. He was, before
the war, a resideut of Memphis, for-.
merly a member of the legislature of :
Tennessee, and colonel of the 37th
Tennessee regiment.'’
We often gain happiness at the ex
pense of other people-