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About Weekly constitutionalist. (Augusta, Ga.) 185?-1877 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 29, 1868)
THE WEEKLY CONSTITUTIONALIST WEDNESDAY MORNING 1 . JAN. 29,1868 TO OUR FRIENDS. Club Rates for the Weekly Constitution alist. The year 1868 will be one of the most momentous in the political history of this country. A great contest —one that is to shape the form of government and fate of the people tor many years—will be fought aud decided. On the one side, we behold the forces of Despotism, arrayed under the Radical banner ; on the other side, the defenders of Constitutional Liberty, mar-; shalled under the glorious ensign of De- , mocracy. While the Negro aud the Public i Debt will be matters of contention in the' North, the acts of the Unconstitutional Convention will engage the attention of , the South. The grand struggle for the' overthrow of Radicalism will pervade all sections and shake them with a convulsion equal to that of 1860-61. In view of this tremendous drama, it will be our constant aim to keep the readers of the Weekly Constitutionalist fully posted on the partisan issues of the hour, as i well as the current news of each passing week. Pledging ourselves to this great duty, we confidently anticipate a generous support from those who wish us success in our efforts to maintain and protect their in terest. That every one may be enabled to sub scribe. and receive the benefits of a live jour nal, we offer the following liberal terms to i Clubs ; 1 Copy per year - - - $3 ( ) 3 Copies per year 7 .70 5 Copies per year - - - - 12 00 10 Copies per year - - - - 20 00 j We trust that every subscriber to the paper will aid us in adding to our list. - —_ JOHNSON AND GRANT. A few months, nay, a few weeks since,! the eyes of the people were fixed upon two ■ prominent men, whose united action would have gone far toward saving the country ■ from perdition. The defection of either; was looked upon as a great calamity; but it was confidently believed that, however, the Sword-Bearer might prove a traitor to his fame, his office and his Government, the ; Guardian of the Law would never desert his sacred trust. It is needless to say that these men were Gen. Grant and Andrew Johnson. The first has traveled the road that leads down to death ; if the following telegram be true, the latter has chosen the rugged path of duty, which leads to glory in the end. The telegram alluded to runs thus: V, AsniNGTON, January 21. --In a conversation ■ respecting the present situation and his future I purposes, the President said: “ A modifica tion, perhaps I might say, a decided change of public sentiment in the North, has been the consequence. One. who held fast to a principle when a majority was arrayed against him, is not likely to loosen his hold upon it when so much of the pressure has been removed.” If these noble sentiments are as nobly adhered to, the sting of Grant's surrender to Congress is measurably alleviated, and the spirit of Reaction endowed with new vitality. In connection with this subject, we clip the following paragraph from an article in Deßow's Review, which, treating of the relative positions of Grant and Johnson, thus speculates as to the line of conduct most becoming for the President to pursue. The writer says: “As for President Johnson, his whole political career, from his youth upward, opposed him, on principle, to the measures of the Republican party, and his vetoes stand as imperishable monuments of his implaca ble hostility to Radical rage and proscrip tive legislation. What plummet line could possibly fathom the depth of his turpitude, if forgetful of all his antecedents and the tremendous struggle that he has apparently made, on. principle, since his accession to the Presidential office, he should not only abstain from affiliation with the Democratic party in which he was nurtured and educat ed, but ally himself with an organization with which he entertained no one political sentiment in common, aud through no other discoverable notice than the base fear of impeachment? The possibility of such a result, especially in view of the recent popular elections, une quivocally condemning and repudia ting, not only the Radical leaders, but tlce measures of the Republican party, is not' credible. It is not in the nature of 1 things that he can so suddenly contradict ■ himself It is not to be believed thut he i will give up a whole life of signal exploits, j and belittle and belie a long line of bril-j liant antecedents, In exchange for so weak, j lame and impotent a conclusion, liis hesi- : tation to alligu himself with the popular movement cannot mean this. The Democ racy are disposed to attribute to him much j credit for the reaction. His message and vetoes chalked out, in a great degree, the line of march for the Democracy to pursue against Radicalism anti Black Republican ism. His speeches, however indiscreet, and hissteatly adherence to a fixed line of action, confidently relying upon the people, 1 notwithstanding his patient submission to ; a household composed of bad counsellors, ■ secret enemies and negative friends, in- j spired the courage and the much-needed j boldness at the time, that enabled the De- ? mocracy to burst the trammels of oppres sion that had been imposed upon the public mind by the, military despotism and detect- ive police system qf tl*e war, and that still continued to weigh like a pall upon the hearts of the people, and contributed large ly in other respects to that action of the people which, culminating in the re- | cent elections, has rebuked the tyranny j and consigned the tyrants to eternal dis- I grace. But the Democracy yet feel that treachery may steal away from them the fruits of their victories, and that no time must be lost in preparations for the great event to which these victories are only pre liminary. They cannot forget how they were cheated into an unholy and unconstitutional war of conquest' and subjugation, of negro emancipation and negro supremacy and do minion, through the pretence of a war for the Union, and in defence of the flag. They will not forget it. They feel they were thus made participants in the enactment of the bloodiest \ lie in human his’ory. They will take care i now whom they trust, and how far they t rust. ' They are wilting that Andrew’ Johnson shall become their standard-bearer in tho j battle of 1868, which is to decide whether the great American republic shall be maintained i as the pride and ornament of the white race of \ man, still reflecting his sentiments and his civilization, or whether the Government shall be altogether subverted, and our institutions be remodelled on the basis of empire, reflecting the brute passions and barbaric ideas of the African negro, and degrading our national \ structure and local existence to the extent that\ such influences shall permeate the avenues of\ our public and private life ; but they demand I that the Cabinet shall be speedily liar-j moiiized with the present phase of public opinion, and that the ad ministration shall fully reflect the un mistakable expression of the people. The President of the United States being the only officer of the Government brought into power by the whole body of the people, ■ in conjunction with the Vice-President, be- i cause he may become the President during i the term provided for. is always, under all circumstances, the tribune of the people, | armed with the veto power to arrest uas sionate and hasty legislation on the part of Congress until the will of tiie people may , be ascertained upon the subject involved. i When an appeal to the people has been ta ken upon an issue made by the veto, and j the people sustain the veto, it would be in- ' died monstrous for the President to hesi-1 tate in his course of policy and action, in i support of his previous attitude. Nothing could justify him in so doing. It would be l nrima facie evidence of a guilty venality i that would render him alone worthy of im i peachment. The decision of the people ac cord to him the liberty alone of strengthen ing and enforcing the positions of his veto j through his administrative and executive powers. This is the demand of the people, [ and this must be the response of President Johnson to satisfy that demand, even apart from all desire that he may have for the succession in 1868.” A BEAUTIFUL SPECIMEN, Governor Jenkins, of Georgia, is not only fortunate in the possession of a truly Roman soul, but he is, likewise, happily i placed between two Governors whose souls, i if Ihey have any (which we doubt), are wretched caricatures of divinity. What greater contrast could exist in nature than Patton and Jenkins? To the Alabam ' ian, this would seem the last analysis of difference ; but to the South Carolinian, James L. Orr presents an irresistible com parison. The conduct of Messieurs Pat ton and Orr has been terribly the re verse of that of Charles J. Jenkins ; so terrible, indeed, that ordinary logic fails to suggest a motive, and recourse must be had to the ingenuity of Rev. Caldwell, of the Georgia Menagerie, who openly ac knowledges his brotherhood with the cha meleon, and a desire for martyrdom un der the " new idea,” viz: that successful fanaticism makes the negro a gentleman and his former master a slave. The afore said James L. Orr, Governor of South Car o'ina, must be animated by this Cald wellian theory of transformation, or he would not have thus orated before the Bones and Banjo Convention of his native State: “ 1 say to you very frankly, that I regard this body as invested with the sovereign power of the Suite, and that the constitution which you may adopt for the people, of South Caroli na is one whwh well not only be ratified and accepted by Congress, but one under which all classes in South Carolina wid live for years to come." The Charleston jlfercwry, which still pre | serves its ancient heat aud high renown, ! takes this poor Governor to task and leaves I him where Beverley Nash wished His i Excellency to hang—completely upside i down. Read this: “Governor Orr in his speech says: ‘lsay to you very frankly, that I regard this body as invested with the sovereign power of the State.’ If Ibis is true, and the Kecon&truetion acts of Congress are constitutional, President John son’s Reconstruction measures must be (as Con- I grets affirms them to Ik?,) unconstitutional.— ' They swallow up President Johnson’s Recon ; sirue.ion measures, as usurpations and void.— j Now, of all the men alive, the last man, in the j South, (o admit that President Johnson’s tnea ! slices of Reconstruction are usurpations is Governor Orr. He championed President I Johnson’s convention. He entered it. lie ' claimed for it that it was the sovereignty of i South Carolina—he made a constitution by it. He set up elections by this constitution ; aud I had himself elected by it Governor of South I Carolina.” ! " Most assuredly, if in all these measures Gov ernor Orr was right—he must now be wrong, in claiming sovereignty for the negro conven tion. If the negro convention is the sovereignty of the State, then the Johnson convention could j not have been sovereign, and the constitution I made by it was without authority. Has Gov ernor Orr mistaken himself all this while ? t Was he no governor at all ? Was he.a humbug j —an impostor? What was he when he walked j arm in arm witii the Massachusetts Delegation ■in the Philadelphia Convention ? What was he when he went North to beg terms from the Radical rulers in Congress? What wa; he when he praised Genera 1 .Sickles, after his mani- fold tyrannies over our State? What was he when he, last Spring, at a public dinner de nounced the Democratic defenders of the Con stitution, and lent his countenance to the Re publican party ? What is he when he now af fects to speak tor South Carolina as her gov trnor before the negro convention. He is a governor—(if a governor at all) of the white race of South Carolina, who alone placed him in office. His efforts now to tear off bis own robes of office, aud to strip the State of her sovereignty, and to invest it in negroes, is a singular feat of consistency and gratitude, which only Governor Orr, we presume, can justly elucidate. He is the only instance we have ever knowb, of a governor, who stultifies himself, and at the same time destroys all claim to the affection anil esteem of tiie people who once loved him and honored him, and who gave him all the power he has used, to harrass, debase, and destroy them.” THE AUGUSTA FERTILIZING OOM PAN Y- The necessity of enriching the soil was never greater than at present. So potential has been this requirement that millions of dollars were expended, last season, for various kinds of manure. Nearly every dollar of this money went Northward ; and, we are sorry to say, it did not secure, in all cases, a profitable return for such very hard cash. We should judge, from numerous complaints, that many of the manipulated manures were gross impositions. The de sire to grow rich suddenly is, probably, as conspicuous in this line of business as in nearly all others, and so, a number of con fiding planters had to pay dearly for cre dulity. Under such circumstances, we are pleased to learn that a Company has been formed in Augusta to supply the agricul tural community with a genuine fertilizer, and one, too, within the reach of all. The well-known integrity of the gentlemen en gaged in this enterprise, and the materials within their grasp, warrant the assumption that the article offered to the public is what it represents to be. The nitre-beds ofthe Con federacy have been purchased and become the bases of an extensive development.— Beside these rich deposits, valuable collec tions of peat have been discovered in the immediate vicinity, and appropriated and worked with success. In the process oi manufacture, true Southern hospitality is practiced. There are no secrets and no mysteries. Al! interested are invited to an investigation, and the Company is deter mined to deserve everything it wins in the way of encomium or trade. To enable the planter to restore to the soil th.it which has been extracted from by small grain, cotton, corn, vegetables, &c., the Company, with an enthusiastic and com mendable diligence, has its agents scat tered broadcast, engaged in ransacking the city and county for all the elements which enter into the composition of plants. The refuse of the city is carefully removed and premiums offered to all for articles, which, hitherto considered nuisances, are made immensely valuable when brought under the dominion of science. A two-fold bene fit is thus produced. The city is rendered healthy by the scrupulous removal of all noxious matter; and the soil is enriched by those very materials which cumbered the earth and were an offense to all. A move ment of this kind is one in the right direc tion. It is a bold and honorable attempt to encourage Southern independence and an example for other branches of industry in the important item of keeping the money of our people at home. The manures produced by the Augusta Fertilizing Company have ceased to be ex periments. They are now of established reputation, and those who were so fortunate as to try them, during last year, have reap ed a substantial harvest. The chemist of this company is General Rains, whose fame is not limited to any narrow area, but is familiar to the Old as well as to the New World. With such a directing genius, in conjunction with such an honorable company, there is no such word as fail. All the requisites of success have been combined, and we feel convinced that the progress of the enterprise will be '■o mucus urate with its undoubted excel lence. Tiie attention of all concerned in agri cu! i are, who read these lines, is directed to the subjoined remarks, which proceed from one whose clear understanding, critical research and long experience entitle him to a hearing. Gen. M. C. M. Hammond thus writes of the Augusta Fertilizing Company and the result®! its labors : “ A high cultivation, on less land, with more manure, is the great object of modern tillage." If this remark be true in a general sense, it is especially applicable to the South, where capital is greatly reduced and labor impaired andhtneertain ; where large plantations and an nual clearings to supersede the worn or ex hausted lands are no longer practicable, and where the utmost production from present open fields has become necessary for subsist ence. The prime question is, where to procure the least costly and most effective fertilizer?— Heretofore, we have imported, at high prices, many kinds of manures—Peruvian and other guanos, phosphates and other saline com | pounds, raw and dissolved bones, etc. The j laiger portions of these have been specifies | and applicable properly to soils containing all the other ingredients, and requiring only these comparatively few of the many elements de manded for foe perfect growth of plants. These requirements ofthe plants have liven left generally to conjecture—sometimes have been discovered by often repeated experiments, and, only on rare occasions, by analysing the soils. But the deficiencies cannot be ascertained every where. It is utterly impossible, from 1 want of skill and means, to obtain analyses of every one’s fields or farm ; and, without these, the selection of special fertilisers or specifies— few combining more than five or six of the twelve or fifteen substances essential for vigor ous vegetation—is mainly guess work. Even the mixture of several of these, performed by certain planters at an outlay of labor, time and expense, while an improvement on theapplica tion of simple manures, has not entirely obvi ated the difficulty. The desideratum is a concentrated manure, combining all the elements in all plants culti vated in field and garden, in a state of assimila tion, of easy transportation, and at a price which the most of our people can command. Farm-yard (including stable) manure, espe cially of animals fed on grain as well as long forage, and properly saved, possesses all the nutriment needed by plants. And this is uni versally saved, after some fashion, and used.— But it is too bulky for our diminished horse power, insufficient in quantity, and promises to decrease surely under the aggressions upon stock by the freed people. Night soil is equally effective. But among us I am not aware that the first step has been taken io rival the Chinese in their careful preserva tion and use of this valuable material. Its value is well known to intelligent planters, and has been urgently' commended to their attention lor more than twenty years. Necessity will so ne day overcome the prejudice to its mani pulation, aud the manufacturer will contrive means to collect and prepare it as a fertilizer.— Until then, the Northern poudrette will continue to be applied, which is the same tiling in a state comparatively emasculated. The Ammonia Phosphate, however, made by "The Augusta Fertilizer Manufacturing Com pany,” comes nearest to the desideratum sug gested. With a smaller proportion of silica (ac< ording to the published analysis aud a par tial knowledge of the process of manufacturing) and a larger one of potassa, it would about fullfil the required conditions. It is composed of materials derived from the three kingdoms of nature—the animal, the mineral, the vegetable— (the organic and the inorganic); bones and car cases of animals, solvents to hasten decomposi tion, absorbents to intercept and fix the valua ble escaping gases. It embodies, therefore, all the substance and elements which unite to stimulate growth, to perfect the structure and develop and mature the fruii. And so combined, that in affording am ole sustenance to the herb or plant or flower, it is modified bychemical appliances and affini ties io ward'all injury from the tenderest germ. The guanos, the phosphates and alkaline phos phates and the other natural and artificial fer tilizers will all find their counterparts, their i essential constituents, interwoven in this com pound. It is with the planter to determine the quan tify to be applied, which will depend on the quality of his land, fresh or worn, rich or poor, less on the character of his soil, stiff cr loose, as alumina or silex predominates. It will not injure any and may benefit all. The advantages to the purchaser are, that it is made at home, and by well known persons, whose intelligence will not be questioned, thus guaranteeing an honest article, and, as its pro cess of preparing and analysis are open to pub lic inspection, assuring a most valuable one. M. C. M. Hammond. Beech Island, 8. C-, January, 1 868. Since the above was written, we have authority for stating that the improvements suggested have been adopted, viz: increas ing the proportion of potassa and lessening that of silica. Besides, the company’ has taken the first step to “ rival the Chinese in the preservation and use of night soil.” Nothing will be left undone to make “ Am monia Phosphate” the most perfect manure in the land. The United States Supreme Court.— The following information, in reference to the Supreme Court of the United States, will cor rect some prevalent mistakes as to the names and fftmjber of Judges, and be. otherwise in teresting, now that public attention is directed to the rumored action of th.it tribunal with the reconstruction laws. Tnere at present eight Judges, who rank as follows • Salmon B. Chase, Ohio, Chief Justice; salary $6,500. Nathan Clifford, Maine, Associate Justice. Samuel Nelson, New York, “ “ Robert'C. Grier, Pennsylvania, “ " David Davis, Illinois, “ “ Noah W. Swayne, Ohio, “ “ Samuel J. Miller, lowa, “ “ Stephen J. Field, California, “ " Each Associate Justice has a salary of $6,000. The ages of these Judges, so far as we can ascertain them, areas follows: Chase, sixty; Grier, seventy-two, on the sth of March, 1868 ; Miller, forty-one ; Clifford, sixty-five, on 11th of August, 1868; Nelson, about seventy-five; Field, forty-five; Davis, sixty; and Swayne, about fifty-five. Os these min, Chase, Miller, Swayne, Davis and Field, were appointed by Lincoln, Grier by Polk, Clifford by Buchanan, and Nelson by Buchanan or Pierce. The Democratic parti sans are Nelson and Clifford; Justice Grier, claimed on the same side. Os the five Judges appointed by’ .Lincoln, Mr. Field is accepted as a reconstructed Johnsonian; Mr. Davis as a very moderate Republican, whose name has lately been mentioned as a Conservative candi date for President; while Messrs. Chase, Swayne and Miller are avowed members of the Republican party. Death of General Peter Force.— Gen. Peter Force died at his residence, in this city, at a quarter before 7 o’clock yesterday evening, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. He had been confined to his room, quite low with a general debility, resulting from a disease of the stomach, for some two months, and gradually sunk into his last slumber, as if falling into a pleasant sleep. He was in the fuil possession of his reason to the last, though he was not able to speak during the day on which he died. The last act of recognition was when, at half i past three o’clock yesterday afternoon, a tele l graphic 'Communication was, in substance, au ! nouneed to him from his only daughter, Mrs. Jones, who resides at Fort Wayne, Indiana, th.it she was coming to be with him in his last hours. She had been sick, and not expected to come, and the satisfaction produced l>y the intelligence was clearly manifested in his counte nance. Dr. 8. C. Hall, Dr. Thomas Miller and Dr. J. M. Toner were his attending physicians. Genera) Force leaves five children, four sons and a daughter. Two sous reside in Alabama ; one, Dr. Wm. Q. Force, is a resident of this city, and the other, Gen. M. F. Force—a resi lient of Cincinnati, Ohio, and upon the judicial bench of that State —was one of the generals who came into this city at the head of his com mand in General Sherman’s army on their inarch homeward from the sea at the close of the war.— National Intelligencer. Sad Accibent.— We regret to have to re { cord a serious accident to Mr. John W. Ver j dery, conductor on the Atlantic and Gulf Rail road. He was on his freight train bound to this city, which arrives at No. 9 just before dark and lays over at that station till next morning. A short time before reaching the station he lost two bales of cotton from his train, and so y esterday morning, before the time lor starting liis traiiq lie took the engine and an empty car and ran back for the missing cotton. We could not gatbqr the definite particulars of the accident, but it seems he was on the en gine when liis foot slipped and both feet wore caught and crushed. One foot was crushed al- j most entirely off and the other for about half its length. Mr. V*. was brought down on Ins train, ar riving here yesterday evening, when he was at tended by Dr. J. B. Read. Last night he was suffering much pain, but was getting along as well as could be expected. | Savannah Advertiser, "dh. The Money Market —Such is the state of commercial depression in the foreign markets that nature has been assisting to wise the wind by a series of Cyeloans. A 1 panic was the re sult. Our New York Correspondence. New York, January 18. The events of the past week have not been surpassed in importance by any that have occurred in the same period. They have done more to develop the position and cha racter of men, to reveal the actual state of parties, and lift tiie veil from the future, than all that has occurred since the surren der of General Lee. They have stripped the cloak of “ Conservatism ” from Gen. Grant. His reckless ambition, his weak and ill balanced mind, and his ignorance of the commonest proprieties of civil life, stand revealed before the whole country, and his prestige as an “ inevitable” of the future is much impaired. The Radicals affect to be pleased with the turn affairs have taken ; for a few days their joy was sincere, but they already see that while Grant, from be ing the favorite, has become the abhorrence of a large class of Conservatives, he has not gained a particle of strength with the Rad icals ; for very many insist that the whole coarse of the Radicals in Congress is wrong, and that impeachment is their true remedy. The political education of the old Barn burner Democrats of this State, who went into the Republican movement, prompts j them to revolt as quickly against the course i of Congress as they did against what they l regarded as President Johnson’s attempts j to establish a reconstruction policy without ' consulting Congress. i The Democrats, although vastly irritated by the nominal reinstatement of Stanton to | his place in the War Department, are by no j means cast down. Every exhibition of Radical disregard of the Constitution is a nail in their coffin next November. The only people who seem to be thoroughly non plussed are the participants in the Cooper ; Institute nomination of General Grant for i President, on the ground that he is a “ se . co.ul Washington.” They, like Mahomet’s I coffin, are suspended between heaven and j earth. The Herald and Commercial Adver \ User, two of the earliest champions of Grant, incontinently throw him overboard, the for i m?r assailing him with great bitterness, ' and the latter evincing a wish to bring out | Admiral Farragut as a Conservative candi ! date that may be relied upon. The Times \ and Evening Post have vastly moderated their zeal in favor of Grant, and take strong . grounds against the course of Congress. I But the most important of all is the con- I viction which has been forced upon the | Radicals in Congress, that so long as a Con i servative is in the Presidential chair, they ■ are powerless to turn the tide that has set ; in against them, and their determination to [ j avail themselves of the slightest pretext I for the impeachment of Mr. Johnson. All | private information from Washington I agrees on this point, and no one can read the Tribune and oilier Republican papers, which have heretofore opposed impeach ment, without belli"; convinced of this fact. | Whether they will succeed in finding a pie- j text or not is, of course, quite uncertain ; j but Mr. Johnson is well advised of their plans, and will, of course, act accordingly. Mr Johnson has gained vastly in popu larity from the insults and treachery to which he has been subjected. At Niblo’s Theatre last night an attempt to raise a cheer for Grant was put down with hisses, followed by tremenduous cheering for the President. It is not improbable that Stanton will be compelled by his own party to abandon the position which he has usurped under the wing of Congress, and thus another ele ment of demoralization forced back upon the Radicals, increasing, perhaps, their desperation, but not in any sense adding to tb.eir strength. And here let me pay a tribute of praise to the real devotion to the Constitution and the Union which pervades the vast majority of the Northern people, when they are left to their own reflections, uninfluenced by exciting circumstances.— President Johnson’s policy of reconstruc tion failed; first, because it was within it self an infringement of the rights of States; and secondly, and mainly, because they be lieved he had no right to inaugurate a “ policy” on the subject and ask Congress to adopt it. The President was rebuked when he attempted to usurp the functions of Congress, and tiie Congress has, and will again be rebuked for attempting to usurp the functions of the President. In these issues the nullity of the laves that have been passed affecting the Southern States have been, in a great degree, lost sight of. THE WEATHER—HARD TIMES —THE PUBLIC HEALTH. Wc have thus far experienced a winter of unexampled severity. Coid weather shut down upon us before Thanksgiving. The range of the thermometer has since been a'most constantly below the freezing point, and for days together in tiie neighborhood of zero. Our harbor wasfllled with ice at an unusually early date, and is now impassable except to the most powerful steamers.— Fields of ice a mile in extent come sweep ing down the Hudson river, anil inflict serious damage upon the ■wharves and ship ping. The severe weather adds to the distress which arises from want of employment, and the high cost of living, every day—every hour—strong men, who would work if they had work to do, are compelled to see their wives and children turned into the cold and snowy streets, because they cannot pay the rent of their apartment. Powerful efforts are being made to afford prompt relief for these sufferers. There is, in view of the severity of the weather and the prevailing distress from the “hard times,” a most remarkably favor able state of the public health. The aver age of deaths in New York and Brooklyn are not more than sixty per cent, of the av erage. This has always proved to be the case when our citizens have been forced to practice economy in their current ex panses, and is cited by physicians and others in support of their assertion that gluttony is quite as serious a vice, in its ef fect upon the physical organization, as Gram-drinking. Our metropolis has sel dom been more orderly than now’ —people cannot maintain their usual round of dissi pation, and the effect is seen in our weekly bills of mortality, leaving little doubt to any reflecting mind that many more die from results of excess in the use, than from ' isuliiciency in the supply of the necessa ries and comforts of life. BUSINESS MATTERS. Cotton has become active and excited, the stocks being found to be rather low —tiie demand improving, and the re- : i ceipts at the ports having latterly shown r i unexpected falling off. For some days past, the private accounts from Liver pool have been much more favorable than the published reports, and those in the se cret have gained a great advantage. The improvement seems to be one that Las taken placeinspiteofauadver.se feeling abroad, and may be reckoned upon as having a sound basis. We are almost without shipping to trans port our products abroad. One who should see the forests of masts for nearly two miles on both sides of the East river, aud the numberless great steamers which line tiie North river shores for a long distance, would hardly believe that there is a scarcity of ship room in port. But at the reduced prices now current, we have to export pro ducts to tiie value of $4,000,000 per week, and the physical labor and the amount of ship room which this requires is not easily imagined. Breadstuff's and provisions de cline under the advancing freights. There is nothing but the political situa tion to sustain gold, and Washington clamor has lost a good deal of its influence. Sterl ing exchange is weak, and the export of gold has nearly ceased, while the amount in our banks has increased to about twenty four millions. General trade slightly im proves. Willoughby. [For the Constitutionalist. ’J Messrs. Editors: Senator Sprague, of Rhode Island, complains that they have de stroyed our monopoly of cotton, and their manufactory has lost one million of dollars. Are he and his friends sufficiently alive to the fact that they have destroyed 'American prosperity generally and reduced the proud and well paid white laborer of America to the level of the European ? A little politico commercial truth niay show how this is. There must be a basis labor somewhere which, for a day’s support, will give a day s work. From the proceeds of this lanor is derived the raw material for the next high er order of laborers to work upon and add value to, by transportation to the market or the work shop, in one or the other of which it receives additional value, and con tinues to roll on till it reaches the con sumer. In the passage, each one who han dled it got something for his work, of what ever nature it was. There must also be a basis of exchange and credit somewhere, in an article desired by all men. Food and clothing is this basis, however the fact may be lost sight of in our adoration of money or the representa tive of value ; and the nation that can sup ply these cheapest, must largely control the world’s commerce and share its wealth. In the negro, we had the Sasi's labor, for as long as his increase was suffi cient interest on the capital invested in him, the master could get along with his comparatively inefficient labor, and yet feed and clothe him well, selling the pro ceeds of his labor at the same time cheap to the Northern transporter, merchant and manufacturer. They selling dear to the rest of the world could give good wages to tbeir convertirs, and all flourished. Cotton, wanted cheap, was the basis of our ex change and credit, and money, based on an annually reproduced crop of $200,000,000, was abundant. Now, politico-economists say that it re quires S2O per head io keep up the exchange and credit required for a woiking popula tion ; so that $200,000,000 supported in ac tivity (10,000,000) ten millions of men, be side the master and the negro, who were self-sustaining. But Mr. Sprague and his friends did not see this, and knocked away the basis labor ! Result: Master loses the profit of the negro’s increase, and can’t as ! ford to work for nothing. Negro being free [ won’t work for nothing, and very little for anything, so master can’t sell what he can sell cheap. Food and clothing being dear and work scarce, competition increases aud wages consequently diminish, till at length the whites supply the basis labor essential to the progress of all above. Negro wont, white must. Will they ? I ask Mr. Sprague. In Europe they do. Wages, 15 cents a day. ISUNDIGA. [From the Atlanta Opinion The Republican State Convention —A Word to Republicans. A call appears in the Neio Era, of this morning, for the Republican voters of Geor gia “to send delegates to a convention, to be held at the City Hall,” in this city, on the 19th of February next. The purpose, or alleged purpose of this proposed conven tion is, the “ transacting of any business that may come before the convention 1” —; The basis of representation in that proposed convention is to be as follows: “ Each county will be entitled to the same number of delegates to which they are entitled in the constitutional convention, now in ses sion in Atlanta.” This call is signed by Foster Blodgett, Chairman of the “ Repub lican State Committee,” and also by a num ber of gentlemen who were not consulted as to its propriety, and knew nothing of the proceeding! This whole scheme looks very much like an imposition, if not a downright swindle. In the first place, there has not been, as we are reliably informed, a meeting of the com mittee of the Republican party. A meeting was called last week, but there was no quo rum present, and no action taken. Nor has there been any regular meeting since. The whole thing is gotten up by Bryant and Blodgett, and forms a part of a scheme in the interests of the Augusta clique. Foiled in their efforts to place Col. Bullock in the Gubernatorial chair; foiled in thei r effort to obtain possession of the State Road ; de feated in their purpose to gain undisputed possession of the State, its Treasury, and its great Thoroughfare; and failing to con summate a scheme to build up the broken and desperate fortunes of the Loyal Georgian and New Era newspapers out of the plunder of the State, they now resort to this scheme to secure to themselves and their allies a portion of the minor civil offices of the State. The fact that the names affixed to this call are there without a previous meeting of the committee ; that many "whose names thus appear were never consulted in rela tion thereto ; and the further fact that the call appears for the first time in the edito rial columns of a newspaper which has al ways disclaimed, and still disclaims any con nection or affiliation with the Republican party, will make the true men of that party, suspicious of a swindle. Men who act from principle will very naturally ask why this call has been put forth thus hastily, and promulgated through a medium which Republicans seldom see or read. If the ma nipulators of this call were actuated by honest convictions, why did they not pro mulgate it through some one or all of the recognized organs of the Republican party in Georgia? Why publish it in a pape; that has persistently fought that party ? We would ask Mr. Sheibly if he knew any thing of this extraordinary procedure, and if it meets his approbation? Did Mr. Hig ginbotham sign this paper, knowing that it was to be thus promulgated ? How many of the gentlemen whose names appear to that call, are "into” the clique by which they are used? Is this underground pro ceeding, this snap judgment, this flank movement in the interests of the plunder faction, this treachery, to lie ratified by the Republican party of Georgia? Is 1 his to lie the future tactics of the Republican party? If it is, we have no hesitancy’ in saying that the party will soon go to per dition, and that its memory will be a re proach before all honest men, a stench in the nostrils ofthe whole community. If Mm is to be the future policy ofthe Repub lican party’ in Georgia, decent men w ill not tarry long on the .threshold of its tem ple, but will make haste to wash their hands of the whole concern; nay, they will shake off the very dust from their feet , and blush to own that they ever belonged to such a party. Such a course will kill any party—it will break up and destroy any political organization; because no party, no organization can prosper which is based upon fraud, trickery, treachery, ingratitude and individual lust for plun der.
