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THE COUNTRYMAN,
185
In the history of our own country,
we find that, in a time of profound
peace, when the most cordial brother
hood of sentiment existed, and when
a long and bloody war had been
brought to a triumphant close, it re
quired two years to assemble a con
vention, and biing its deliberations to
an end, and another year to procure
the ratification of their labors. With
such a war as the present in progress,
the views of the large assemblage of
negotiators proposed, would undergo
constant change, according to the vi-
cis: itudes of the struggle, and the at
tempt to secure coi\f<qrdant views
would soon be abandoned, leaving the
parties more embittered than ever,
and less hopeful of the possibility ol
successful negotiation.
Again, how is the difficulty result
ing from the conflicting pretensions of
the two belligerents, in regard to sev
eral of the states, to be overcome 1 Is
it supposed that Virginia would en
ter into a delegation from what our
enemies choose to term the ‘state’ of
‘West Virginia/ and thus recognize an
insolent, and violent dismemberment
of her territory ? Or would the Uni
ted States consent that ‘West Virgin
ia’ should be deprived of her preten
sions to equal rights, after having
formally admitted her as a state, and
allowed her to vote at the presiden
tial election? W T bo would send a
delegation from Louisiana, Tennessee,
.Kentucky, Missouri*? The enemy
claim to hold the governments of those
states, while we assert them to be
members of the confederacy. Would
delegates be received from both sides?
If so, there would soon be a disrup
tion of the convention. If delegates
are received "from either side, then a
number of the states most vitally in
terested in the result, would remain
unrepresented, and what value could
be attached to the mere recommenda
tions of a body of negotiators, under
such circumstances ? Various other
considerations suggest themselves,
but enough has been said to justify
my condusioYi that the proposal of
separate state action is unwise, im
practicable, and offers no prospect of
good, to counterbalance its manifold
injurious consequences to the cause of
our country.
Very respesctfully,
Yours, &c.,
Jefferson Davis.
To the Hons. Senators of Georgia—
Messrs A. R. Wright, Pres’t Sen
ate ; T. L. Guerry, J. M. Cham
bers, T. M. Lloyd, F. K. West,
R. B. Nisbet.
*
A Word to Voters.—As the day
for the election of our rulers is near
at band, I feel it a duty devolved
upon me, by the most serious and im
portant considerations, to call your
attention to the following facts i
For nearly three years, we have
been scourged with one of the fiercest,
and most sanguinary wars known to
modern history. The enemy 7 , with
vastly superior land and naval forces,
are now all around our borders ; and,
in many places, advancing, and threat
ening the desolation of our cities,
towns, and villages, our fields, fire
sides, and altars, and every interest
dear to the heart of the Christian, and
patriot. The war-cloud spreads its
darkness over all our land—and, if
unsuccessful in this desperate strug
gle, the future portends evils too re
volting for contemplation.
One of the causes of these- calami
ties, has doubtless been the wicked
ness of our rulers. We are told, in
the word of God, ‘that when the
wicked rule, the people mourn.’ The
truth ol this declaration is vindicated,
not only in our own sad experience,
but in the world's history. Wicked
rulers are the medium through which
heaven's wrath descends upon the
people. Men who are recklessly un
scrupulous in self-government, are
poorly fit to govern others. ‘If the
blind lead the blind, both shall fall
into the ditch.’ But you say we
want orld men at the helm of nation
al affairs—and why not old men for
the field. This is all stuff. We want
men of sound heads, and hearts—men
of unquestionable moral character.
We want Jeff Davis, and Stonewall
Jackson ; men, whose faith, and trust
is m the Lord of hosts ; men, whose
godly life, and example, inspires uni
versal confidence, and w hose heroic
achievements have won the world’s
admiration. To cast your vote for
those whose conduct ignores all reli
gion, virtue, and morality, and then
ask for divine intervention in nation
al affairs, would be the most consum
mate hypocrisy.
I ask you, then, for the sake of our
bloody battle fields, and the thou
sands of our soldier sons, that sleep
cold in death—and in view of the ter
rible crisis upon us, and the early,
and triumphant vindication of the
right of self-government, to be care
ful how you vote. Vote for.no man
whose character will not admit of the
closest scrutiny. Putnam.
— Confederate Union, 1S63.
‘Never be afraid of catching could
from a showei of curl*.’
The Persecutors, and the Per
secuted.—The Countryman, of Sep
tember 29th, has the following :
‘ He (the editor of The Banner)
says something about the church be*
ing persecuted. Our reading of. his
tory teaches us the opposite—that it
is those wh« call themselves ‘ the
church,’ that have done the persecut
ing. Christ and his church were
certainly persecuted ; for they were
weak, and had the whole world to
contend with. But as soon as secta
rians seized upon church organization,
for temporal, and selfish purposes,
then they began to persecute, and
have continued to do so, to this day.’
This is truer than half the preach*'
ing of the sects. It is the unmistak
able voice of veritable history ; and
yet, the truth-loving, and truth-telling
editor of The Countryman, insists on
regarding these persecuting sects as
the church of Christ, and complains
of us, because we do not recognize
them as such. ‘ They call themselves,*
‘the church,’ and be calls them the
church, and talks about them as the
church, and counsels them all to a
certain course of action, lest the
church should fall behind the world!,
in these days of ‘progress.’ We do
not so much differ, after all. He says
these persefiufors call themselves the
church—and so say we. He seems
to think that what they call them
selves, they are—and we say, No l
The sects who have ‘ worn out the
saints of the Most High God/ who*
have ‘ stolen the livery of the court
of Heaven to* serve the devil in,’ are
not of the ehurch of Christ ;■ nor is
his church to be held in any degree
accountable for their wicked deeds.
His church has never been a persecu
tor, but alway the persecuted.
If The Countryman will turn to
his history agaiD, he will find that
these cliurchly persecutors were those
who hai been made christiars by the
ceremony of infant baptism—not by
the power of the spirit, and word of
God. He cannot find a church of Bap
tist persecutors. He cannot find a
union of church, and state, where the
church was such as Christ established,
or such as the Baptists now repre
sent. A. C. D.
Baptist Banner, 1863.
‘A fortune won in a day, is lost in a
day ; a fortuue won slowly, and slow
ly compacted, seems to have acquir
ed, from the hand that won it, the
property of endurance.’
‘The young lady with ‘speaking
eyes’ has become quite hoarse, in con
sequence of using them too much/ .*