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THE COUNTRYMAN.
161
Macon, 17th.—“A quorum of both
houses. Governor Brown’s message
* strongly opposes the arming of the
eteves, Our unfortunate policy, here
tofore, has wasted our strength, and
reduced the numbers of our armies.
The president, unable to get men as
conscripts, and unwilling to accept
them, when organized, now seeks,to
fill the army by the conscription of
negroes, who can’t be relied on as
soldiers, if forced into the ranks with
• promise of freedom for faithful ser»
Tice. The single proclamation of
Lincoln, offering immediate freedom,
exemption from service, and wages for
their labor, would cause whole brig
ades of them to desert. If we arm
the slaves, we deny the justice of
slavery, and abandon the institution.
If the government can buy slaves,
and give them their freedom, it may
abolish slavery, by buying and free
ing them all, and taxing the people
to pay for them.
In relation to oar condition, and
prospects, the whole body politic is
diseased, and, unless active remedies
ara administered, death is the inevita
ble result. The constitution has been
violated ; the rights of the states pros
trated by congressional encroachment,
and executive usurpation ; protests of
the state legislatures unheeded ; un
constitutional taxes laid; impress
ments made oppressive, without just
compensation; agriculturists placed
under heavy bonds not to sell produce
at market value, or exchange for ar
ticles of necessity ; citizens Dot be
longing to the army, arrested, and im
prisoned without due process of law ;
good citizens travelling on lawful bus
iness, must carry passes ; the finances
anfortunately administered, and piop-
ositiens being considered to sustain
them, are little better than legalized
robbery.
A wretched conscription policy,
well adapted to the control of Euro
pean serfs, and repugnant to the spi
rit of a free people, has driven men
to desertion. The government will
be a military despotism, when the
habeas corpus is suspended, to which
the president’s earnest efforts are con
stantly directed. The present policy
is the surest mode to diminish the ar
mies, exhaust resources, and break
down the spirits of the people, and
drive them to despair. If persisted
in, it will result in reconstruction, or
subjugation, to both of which the
governor is utterly opposed.
The governor does not despair of
our ability to succeed; conscription
must be repealed; states called on
for men ; good faith kept with troops;
no more repudiation, or impressmeuts,
except in extreme cases; secret ses
sions abandoned; and discipline re
stored to the army. The president,
having failed in a military administra
tion, which has brought the country
to the very verge of ruin, should be
relieved of military power, by amend
ing the constitution, aod placing the
armies under a commander-in-chief,
independent of the president’s con
trol.
He recommends a convention of
this and other states, to require con
gress to call a convention of all the
states, to make this change in the
constitution, and restore the great
principles of state sovereignty, and
constitutional liberty, now disregard
ed.
The governor concludes : ‘No one
is more vitally interested in the suc
cess of our cause than myself. I have
staked life, liberty, property, and the
liberty of my posterity on the result.
The enemy has destroyed my proper
ty, and shed the blood of my nearest
relations. My destiny is linked with
my country. If we succeed, we are
freemen; if we fail, the same com
mon ruin awaits me. The night is
dark, the tempest howls, the helms
man is steering towards a whix-lpool ;
our remonstrances unheeded, we must
restrain him, or the crew will sink to
gether in irretrievable ruin.”
Items From Richmond.—“The
Richmond correspondent of the Ap
peal, furnishes that journal with the
annexed interesting items :
We had an inspiring speech, last
night (Jan. 31st) frota Stanhope
Flournoy, an old line whig, and not
an original secessionist. He believes
in giving up everything, negroes, and
all, for the cause. Independence, or
death, is his motto. The speech did
good, aod its good effect will be fol
lowed up. ‘Old Virginia never tire.’
It is not likely that Kirby Smith
will be deposed. All the Texas and
Arkansas members are for him ; the
Louisiana delegation is against him.
He certainly bungled the last cam
paign sadly.
Gold is falling, and to fall. Tren-
holm is going to drag it down. It is
whispered that Trenholm is working
out some great scheme. This alarms
the speculators. It is said he has
now on hand twenty millions of spe
cie, and more coining. Things look
decidedly better. All we want is
plenty of food for Lee’s army, which
is suffering. They also suffer from
cold. Think of two bushels of soft
coal, and a dozen small sticks of wood,
to last a company of fifty men for
twenty-four hours.
Gentlemen from Savannah say the
mass of the people there, are sound
as a dollar. Letters to members of
congress from the district devastated
by Sherman, represent that the suf
ferers are exceedingly exasperated
against the yankees, and have not the
first thought of giving up. Toombs
lias regained his ascendency in Geor
gia, and Toombs is averse to recon
struction, and to a state convention.
Mr. Stephens has now all be ever
asked for. Habeas coipus suspension
is dead, conscription has done its
work, impressmeut is to be, in great
part, abandoned, government is to go
into open market, like every other
purchaser, negotiation is begun, and
Stephens is at the head of it. He
told some Georgians, the other day,
that now he intended to stand on the
deck of the ship, and ring the bell
until she weathered the storm, or
went down in tbe breakers.
Grant bolds out an exceedingly
tempting bait to our mechanics, to-
wit : entire immunity from military
duty, and constant employment, at
$300 a month, in greenbacks. Con
sequently, thirty af the best machin
ists, blacksmiths, etc., in this city
have gone over, within the last week.
Gentlemen of practical good sense
(would to heaven there were some of
them at the head of affairs) are con
ceiting measures to put a stop to this
ruiuous business.”
Fact and Fiction, is the tide of a very
entertaining volume of original, and se
lected articles, mostly incidental to the
present struggle, by Mr. II. O. Judd.
The selections indicate a cultivated
taste, guided by patriotic aspirations.
The author is a refugee young Kentuck
ian, whose wido > ed mother, for services
rendered the confederacy, has been ban
ished to Minnesota.
There is, in this collection, a poem by
the proprietor and editor of this paper,
which, however, would not have been re
ferred to, but for three, or four gross ty
pographical errors, which mar the poem.
Its real title is * Behind the Pall,’ but the
title given by the journal whence it was
selected, is, ‘ Soliloquy of the Spirit over
its Clay.’
Tbe price of the volume is $5. We
trust the work will have a profitable run.
—Telegraph <& Confederate.
‘We 6ee it stated that an agent
has been appointed in Nashville, and
is now ready to receive proposals for
leasing abandoned plantations along
the T'ennessee river, northern Ala
bama, northeastern Georgia, and along
the several lines of railroad, reaching
from Nashville to the Tennessee river-/