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THE WEEKLY CONSTITUTIONALIST
WEDNESDAY MORNING. MAY 27, 18®8
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CROPS AND OURREN L' NEWS.
Qur subscribers and friends in the coun
try will confer a favor on us and our nu
merous readers by sending us items as
to crop prospects and general news in
their different sections. We trust that
each subscriber will consider himself a
special correspondent for the Constitu
tionalist, and thereby add to the interest
of the paper.
A KNOWING MAN.
George Wilkes, Os sporting notoriety,
was admitted to a scat on the door of the
Senate, during the impeachment trial.—
While snugly ensconced in a Senatorial
chair, he was very anxious to bet against
Andrew Johnson, and the pious Theo- I
dore Tilton, of the Independent, was equal- i
ly anxious to hold the stakes. Well, im- ■
peichinent failed and Wilkes lost his j
money. From the first-class yell he has ejac-|
ulated, since the departure of his very hard |
cash, we are led to believe that he has been
eriously hurt in pocket, but not very seri
ously damaged in his own conceit. We say
much when we say that Forney s biutal
yawps are positively meek and amiable in
comparison with Wilkes hyena howl. He
wants the earth to yawn and engulph the
traitors whose conduct lost him such a pile ot
money. The Roman Emperor who exclaimed
“ Varro, Varbo, restore me my legions 1”
is pictured in classic literature as the incar
nation of desperate grief. But his imperial
tribulation was genuine happiness when
matched with Wilkes’ wrathy chagrin, for
through the columns of the “two papers,
both daily..” and amid the resounding cor
ridors of the National Capitol, his strident
voice screams in uttermost agony: “ Trum
bull, Trumbull, give me back my postage
stamps 1”
This notable fellow, who has but recently
miscalculated his prophetic knowledge, is
loath to abandon the department of seer
ship, and so, with the memory of perished
greenbacks still before him, he turns like a
blood-hound to rend the Conservative ele
ments of the Republican cabal, and, in the
quality of Magian, to predict the course of
the Democratic party. lie says:
“ We know of what we speak, and wc say
authoritatively that the Democratic platform
will be so amended as to recognize the nation
al progress of the last seven years, and to suit
the progressive temper of the time. On the
Fourth of July next that programme will be
enunciated in Tammany Hall, in the city of
New York. Its main planks will be a denun
ciation of the principle of human slavery and
an acceptance of all the legislation of the period
on that subject, the repudiation and extinction
ol the Confederate debt, the equa’ity of all
before the law, and impartial suffrage. It is
ahriwdly calculated that, in view ot such a
programme, the alienated Democratic clement,
which now constitutes the Republican majori
ty, having become disgusted with a party
which is incapable of government, or even of ;
defending its own life, and perceiving, more- I
over, in other and vigorous hands a platform .
covet ing their old principles, will at once flock i
to the new standard and leave the Republican
party to sink to ruin.”
We put very little faith in the outgivings
of seedy prophets, and least of all in such
spiritualistic doctors as George Wilkes.
But while we are induced to doubt his
sketch of the Tammany Hall programme,
in its fullness, we think it highly probable
that Democracy will give the repentant and
conscientious Republicans some stray spars
of principle to swim with to keep them
from being whelmed in the general wreck.
As an evidence of Wilkes’ extreme views,
and the fiendish delight he will probably
take in helping the party of progress to
plunge into Chaos and Old Night, we give
his opinion as to the fate deserved by the
seven Senators who voted to acquit the
President. Hear him:
“Os one thing there can be no doubt, and
that is, that these defeated traitors to the Re
publican party should be tried at Chicago, on
the 20th inst., by drum-head court martial, and,
being convicted of their treason, brought to
the head of the column and shot.”
It is not our funeral, and we have no spe
cial affection for any of the “ recreants,”
but we should suppose that men who have
proved themselves honorable enough to vote
without fear or favor, will be able to stand
the yelps of George Wilkes* The Repub
lican party has long been drifting into the
hands of the very worst men in the country. >
We trust it will go on with its destiny and j
be buried without the sacraments. The men
who gave it respectability are men on .the |
point of being scourged out of it. If they
leave, the foul thing becomes fetid at once.
If they do not leave, they must, perforce, be
entombed with a corrupt body, which even
their decency can never more sweeten or l
make clean. The leprosy is upon it, from j
Wade’s sore head to Roscoe Conkling’s !
dandified feet. The seven Senators have;
their adherents. They voted for acquittal i
to escape perjury; will they elect to leave 1
Jacobinism to escape leprosy?
The Way to Please Them —Forney ‘
complained that “do what we will, wc |
can’t please the Democrats.”
Prentice asks him to try a little arsenic '
or strychnire.
‘■CONTEMPTIBLE CANT.”
Under the above heading, we find in the
Rome GmiinercioZ the following paragraph:
“Our cotempornrlcs, the Augusta Constitu
tionalist and Chronicle S$ Sentinel, wrapped in
the dignity of an exalted self-righteousness,
have not ceased, with unblushing effrontery, to
cast their unmanly slurs upon the people of
North Georgia, indiscriminately, for the repro
bncy of a few. They appear to keep an espi
onage over the members of Congress, and
whenever Thad Stevens, or any of his cohorts,
introduces an oppressive measure, they make
it a subject text, and at once set about giving
the people of North Georgia a lecture.”
We deny, most emphatically, that we
have cast any “ slurs upon the people of
North Georgia indiscriminately." We have
ever qualified our allusions, and this attack
upon us is as unexpected as it is unjust.
In our article on Mr. Stevens’ amendment
to the Georgia we directed
our remarks to those “ who had accepted
the Bullock bribe.” Concerning such men,
we thus spoke on May Ist, when Bullock’s
election was known to be a fact:
“ Should it come to pass, as we believe, that
the relief from debt which so dazzled the peo
ple of North Georgia is the merest sham;
should it come to pass that they have delivered
themselves over to a worse bondage than mo
neyed obligations— those who have so rccreantly
betrayed their race and State will make a cleaner
record in the contests that are to come. While
our brethren in the White Belt have rendered
themselves liable to censure, we are disposed to
treat tneir delinquency as an error of the head
rather than a criminal intent of the heart; we
are rather disposed to win them back by soft
rebuke, than drive them into the enemy’s camp
by vituperative menace. After they have sup
ped their till upon Relief, let us approach them
with the subtle and all-pervading reasonings
that cluster about the kindred tics of blood
atid tradition. Let us endeavor to perfect or
ganizations among them which will give us
Greater strength in other campaigns. Surely,
we ought to be able to offer them superior in
ducements to those offered by the sinister dis
ciples of Radicalism. At all events, the trial
is worthy of attention, and demands a rousing
up equal to the emergency and the stake pre
sented.”
‘ We have always desired to cultivate a
spirit of harmony among the members o f
the Democratic Press, and probably writ
ten less in harsh judgment of the people of
North Georgia, even those who voted the
Republican ticket, than any other journal
ist in the State. But our esteemed cotcm
porary has poured out his bitterness when
the grievance was really unfounded and
imaginary. Now that he has relieved him
self of much wrath against the Constitu
tionalist and the people of the Fifth Dis
trict, we beg that this spirit of recrimina
tion may be stilled. Instead of wrangling,
let us work harmoniously, and wherever
there has been error, on either side, let us
repair it by closest union rather than inten
sify it by bickerings which keep the heart
sore.
“ PROSCRIPTION.”
The Southern and Northern Radicals are
very much exercised over what they’ call
“ proscription on account of a difference of
opinion.” Any’ one would suppose, from
their bitter anathemas, that this was a
crime peculiar to Democracy; but it is
really and truly nothing more than the old
story of the wolf and the lamb. By’ whom
have thousands and hundreds of thousands
of white men in the South been proscribed
for difference of opinion ? By whom are
the seven Senators who voted against im
peachment proscribed and threatened, for
difference of opinion? A Radical paper, the
Cincinnati Commercial, gives the latest
phase of ostracism in the party of great
moral ideas. It says:
“The feeling on the Senate floor is excited
and litter. No Republican Senator but Ed
monds baa spoken to Fessenden. Ross, Fow
ler and Henderson sat conversing together.—
Tl.e latter came over to Fessenden to speak to
him, when all the Republican Senators imme
diately moved away. Sprague, Willey and An
thony are being warmly congratulated by the
Republicans. The only explanation for an ad
journment is found In the movement to admit
the Arkansas Senators.
“ Ashly swears that he will be d—d if be will
ever give up the impeachment scheme. He
boastfully declares that he originated it, and
asserts that he will stand by it to the last. He
is loud in denunciation of Chief Justice Chase,
and says that when the distinguished presiding
officer held out bls hand this afternoon, he
(Ashly) refused to take it or to recognize him
in any manner.”
This coolness, mark you, is between
white men who keep the negro under their
heels at home and use him for spoils and
revenge abroad. If it is human nature for
grave and reverend Senators to have their
mutual antipathies on a purely judicial dif
ference of opinion, how very natural that
white men in the South should spurn those
who have turned political miscegenators for
purposes as base as those of Congress?
The Radicals in both sections arc as glut
tonous as the daughters of the horse-leech.
They’ hate proscription, but dearly love to
proscribe. Wc love not proscription any
more than onr neighbors; but if ever a
people bad cause to hate and outlaw others,
the Southern people, who have been the
victims of Brown and Brownlow, have
the greatest and deepest provocation—the
more so as a Yahoo like Bradley can sit
in the Senate of Georgia while Charles J.
Jenkins
“ Wanders witherinsdy,
In other lands to die.
And where h s fathers’ ashes be
His own may never lie ”
Not a Radical.—The Radical journals
of this State claim Mr. David Welchell,
of Hall, a member elect to the Legislature.
Mr. Welchell denies the claim. Poor
man! General Meade will make quick
work with him, if necessary.
Combasii, a negro member of the Mis
sissippi Convention, has been indicted by
the grand jury, in session at Jackson, for
stealing convention warrants from another
l negro delegate.
AT THE THRONE OF GRACE.
Chaplain Boynton, of Congress, who has
a national reputation fur advising the Su
preme Being, made a stump speech to the
Creator, prior to the vote on impeachment.
It is bad enough to have thus hari&gucd,
but the abomination is intensified when it
secures the hearty congratulations of For
ney, who piously says:
“The eloquent, earnest and heartfelt prayers
which yesterday opened the proceedings in
both Houses of Corgress, may be accepted as
exponents of the Christian feeling of the land.
How many similar offerings went up from the
church and the social altar! The moral heart
of this whole nation yields accord to the senti
ments of the reverend father of the House:—
‘ May all things be so done as to vindicate the
the honor and dignity of American statesmen.
May no one so vote as that his children shall
blush for it when they stand by his grave. The
Lord preserve ev ry one from doing anything
by which the interests of the country might be
endangered, or the cause of liberty put in per
il.’ These fervent words, prompted by the ru
mor that great men in a great epoch had been
• weighed in the balance and found wanting,’
should fall with telling effect upon the hearts of
those to whom they were directed."
Although Boynton, sweet angel, prayed
to the House of Representatives, he was all
the while glancing askew at the doubtful
Senators. We trust, for the sake of poster
ity, that Boynton is a bachelor. It is a
sad heritage for children to know that their
progenitor thought so well of himself that
he undertook to lecture Almighty God and
abuse him, too. Since Sylla slapped the
face of his pocket divinity and Quequeg
drove a spike into his fetish, we have
had nothing so awful as Chaplain Boyn
ton —Reverend by brevet of Messrs. Don
nelly, Washburne and Forney.
THE KU KLUX KLAN AGAIN.
Some days since, we showed that the Ku
Klux Klan had gone Northward, having
had but temporary sojourn at the South.
Now that it has returned to its spawning
place, its manifestations are growing more
and more frequent. Breathing assassina
tion in Maine toward Senator Fessenden,
it throws stones in Pennsylvania at John
A. Logan. The Grand Commander of the
Army of the Republic was stoned at Aork,
but the Commanding General of that Dis
trict plays mum, instead of Drum, and
nothing more is heard of the “ outrage.”
Giving hints of its vitality in the East, the
Klan moves Westward, and, from dismal
Kansas, Senator Ross hears at Washington
the horrid clash of knives or thud of bul
lets ready to make a cold corpus of him be
cause he voted for acquittal. The meanest
threat came byway of a telegram, which
not only cost the delinquent Senator four
dollars in national currency, but damned
his eyes, ears and everything else to an
eternity of fire and brimstone.
When such things occur in the South,
there is ready reckoning and a slim chance
of pardon. Involve a negro or a carpet
bagger, and it takes a procession of matrons
and virgins, with prayers and entreaties in
numerable, to save an offending Southron
from the Dry Tortugas of the modern Co
riolanus.
FESSENDEN AND TRUMBULL.
Our New York correspondent, in his let
ter published yesterday morning, expresses
but a poor opinion of the motives of Sena
tors Fessenden and Trumbull, as exem
plified by their votes for acquittal. The
National Intelligencer evidently suspects a
cat in the meal-tub. It says, speaking of
the Arkansas bill before the Senate:
“Mr. Trumbull, of Illinois, anxious, appa
rently, to make up for his vote for acquittal,
was very anxious to fetter the white race of Ar
kansas with the shackles ot negro tyranny by
adopting the infamous constitution recently
framed there by the negroes and carpet-bag
gers.”
Again:
“There seemed to be anxiety both by Messrs.
Fessenden and Trumbull to vindicate their po
sition as zealous Republicans coute qui coute,
and to make up for one honest and independ
ent vote by an act of cruel and unsparing vin
dictiveness towards the people of the South,
which, by its magnitude, puts to shame many
of the worst atrocities perpetrated in hot blood
during the war. These Senators in this proce
dure fail not lees in consistency than they do
in a broad and elevated statesmanship. To ad
mil these carpet-bag Senators is to make two
more votes for impeachment if the majority so
will it, and the majority are for conviction. In
addition to this view, how can it be regarded
as decent or proper to send to the President,
while ten articles of impeachment arc hanging
over bis head, a measure from which he cannot,
with due regard to his own honor and duty to the
Constitution, withhold a veto I
’ “ A NEW POPULATION-”
Immediately after Bullock’s election
was assured, a Radical sheet in Georgia
grew jubilant over that event because it
would bring tens of thousands of white
laborers to the State. Now, that little
scheme was studiously kept in the dark
when “ colored votes ” were wanted for the
Radical candidate. What was merely
glanced at by the mongrel paper in Geor
gia is blurted right out by a mongrel paper
at Mobile. The Alabama carpet-bagger
says:
“As soon as our loyal State government is
put in operation, measures will be taken to or
ganize colonies of immigrants, and everything
that the government lawfully can do will be
done to people the State with a thrifty, enter
prising population.”
The Mobile Tribune thus comments upon
tills plan of operations:
“ The 1 thrifty, enterprising population ’ men
tioned above is the sort that drove the Indians
to the foot of the Rocky Mountains, where
they are now engaged cutting their throats.
Liberia is the only place ot refuge for the ne
gro. Let him fly to it.”
TO THE AGRICULTURISTS OF
GEORGIA.
We publish, in another column, an appeal
to the planters of Georgia, which should be
hearkened to and its practical suggestions
adopted. This is a move in the right direc
tion, and if our land owners throw off their
apathy and come up to the work like men
keenly alive to present distress and future
dangers, Georgia will very soon experience
a wholesome change for the better. Vir
ginia and other Southern States have en
tered into this scheme of Immigration with
much enthusiasm; we should not be be
hind them in au enterprise of such vital and
enduring importance.
The signers of this appeal are gentlemen
Qf experience and energy. Col. Frank
Schaller, though of foreign birth, has
long been identified 'with the South in her
prosperity and a sharer in her woe. He is
a gallant and accomplished gentleman, fa
vorably known abroad, and, all in all, the
very best man in Georgia to serve her in
terests in other lands.
Col. M. C. Fulton, the associate of Cel.
Schaller, is a native Georgian, well
known to our landed proprietors, thorough
ly acquainted with their peculiar wants,
and withal a man of great activity and
breadth of mind.
We call upon our planters to respond
heartily and substantially to this appeal.
If they perform their part in a proper spirit,
much can be done to redeem Georgia and
make her in fact, as in name, the Empire
State. <
HE DON’T LIKE IT.
Every now and then Mr. Greeley blun
ders upon an honest misgiving. Here is a
specimen. Arguing against the Brown
low system of disfranchisement in Tennes
see, which pervades the entire South, the
Tribune editor says:
“ Every day lessens the number of disfran
chised rebels, and increases that of their de
scendants, who have attained the. age which en
titles them to vote. If the rebels are indeed a
majority, their crowd will soon be in power
through the operation of natural causes, to say
nothing of the chances and changes of politics.
And then we may have the blacks disfranchised,
as well as the surviving rebels enfranchised.—
We dislike the prospect. Shakespeare says that
1 bloody instructions return to plague th’ in
ventor.’ ”
We are pleased to know that Horace
“ dislikes the prospect,” the more especially
as it is as inevitable as fate. Horace had
better stick to Shakespeare. He will prove
a better monitor than old John Brown or
Parson Brownlow.
GRANT AND COLFAX.
It will be seen, by reference to our tele
graphic column, that General Grant has
been nominated for President and Schuyler
Colfax for Vice-President on the Radical
ticket. The platform is eulogistic of Con
gress, denunciatory of Johnson, flattering
to the bondholders, loud-mouthed against
corruption (I), and complimentary to the
Negro as a Southern Loyalist.
Trooly Loil.—What a beautiful set of
men the loyalists are when judged by their
own descriptions of each other, thus:
“ Sutler says Bingham is a murderer. Bing
ham says Butler is a coward and a thief —Don-
nelly says Washburne is a scoundrel and a fool.
Washburne says Donnell}’ is a convict and a
liar.”
By such men are laws made, Presidents
impeached, and true forms of Republican
government determined.
In a sketch of Ben Wade we read as fol
lows :
“His knowledge of men is profound. He
loathes a knave. He hates a thief. He despises
a liar. A coward and a traitcr he never for
gives.”
How he must loathe Forney ; how he
must hate Butler; how he must despise
Grant ; how he must proscribe ex-Gov.
Brown.
Query.—The New York Times is on
tenter-hooks. It says:
“ A Washington dispatch in the Commercial
says that Secretary Stanton ‘feels much cha
grined ’ at the result of impeachment, as ‘he
only consented to remain in office on the posi
tive pledges of the impeachment and removal
of the President.’ Who had any power or au
tority to give such pledges? Who had the
audacity to pledge the action of Senators un
der oath, on a judicial trial, before a word of
testimony had been taken ? Is everything in
the action ol Government a matter of bargain
and sale ?”
Decapitation.—Ross and Fowler are
in danger of expulsion from the Senate. In
order to impeach Mr. Johnson, the party
of progress has the choice of one of two
alternatives—the admittance of the Arkan
says Senators, so-called, or the expulsion
of Ross and Fowler. Butler has called
a truce for the purpose of settling upon
the meaner method.
Curious Consistency.—Senator Antho
ny edits the Providence Journal, which de
clared that “ if impeachment was success
ful it is easy enough to see that the Repub
lican party is ruined 1”
As Senator Anthony voted for impeach
ment. the World wants to know if he did so
“ in order to ruin the party ?”
A Thought for the North. —If the
plan of admitting carpet-bag Senators from
the South for the purpose of convicting the
President under the remaining articles, or
on some new indictment, be carried out,
and if the people of the North submit to it, they
may as well reserve any further expression
of sympathy for us of the South as a con
quered and enslaved people, for it will be
plaig that they are as much and as truly
cdigtiered and enslaved as we—with the
addnton in our favor that we fought to
avert our fate, while they tamely accepted
theirs. Sympathy, under such circum
stances, would be as misdirected as it
would be unacceptable.— Richmond Whig. \
Our New York Correspondence.
New York, May 16.
I have seen but few excited days in New
York which would at all compare with
that through which we have just passed.
The fall of Fort Sumter, the first battle of
Bull Run, and the homicide of Lincoln pro
duced demonstrations of public feeling
equally decided, but of a totally different
character to those witnessed to-day. Joy.
a sense of relief, a hope in the future, all
struggled for utterance.
To be sure, the question is not formally
settled, but no one doubts the result. The
adjournment of the court to the 26th inst.
is not in the hope of gaining strength, but
to enable the managers to turn to account
at Chicago the strong indignation which
has arisen among the Radicals, by which
the nomination of Gen. Grant and Ben.
Wade may be effected against all opposi
tion.
There are those who are disposed to be
stow high honors upon the Republican
Senators who have voted against convic
tion. lam not among the number. Fes
senden and Trumbull—men of very mode
rate abilities—have fancied themselves
great men, and have been greatly chagrin
ed because they have not been asked to be
come candidates for President. They, as
well as Grimes, were animated by per-*
soual resentment; they are all extreme Rad
icals; to Fessenden belongs the responsi
bility of defeating the Crittenden Compro
mise in 1860, a measure that might have
prevented the late war and its attendant
horrors. There were others who really be
lieved it would not be well for the Republi
can party—others determined to prevent a
personal triumph to Butler, Thad, Stevens
and Ben Wade. If Ross, Henderson and
Van Winkle had not voted for the Presi
-dent’s acquittal, other Republicans would ;
they were selected.for the negative vote, be
cause they were believed to be best able
to “ stand the press.” And this is the
wherefore: A delegation of the friends of
Mr. Seward went on from this city to make
terms with old Ben Wade; they demanded
the appointment of Marshall O. Roberts as
Secretary of the Navy, the retention of Sur
veyor Wakeman, Postmaster Kelly, Mar
shall Murray, and the continuance of the
“Whisky Ring” in its present parts undis
turbed. They could not succeed in this ne
gotiation. The Ohio hog drover would not
“ make terms with traitors.” The fiat im
mediately went forth for the acquittal of
Mr. Johnson. It was this at which I hinted
in my last, but whose influence and power
was not then developed.
As to the part played by Mr. Johnson, the
nomination of Gen. Schofield, the personal
friend of Gen. Grant, to be Secretary of
War, gives currency to the report, which I
have from the best authority, that he (John
son) offered to modify his policy and enter
into a treaty of peace with his Republican
opponents, in consideration of his acquittal,
and that the proposition, on being submit
ted to Stanton and Grant, was by them re
jected.
democratic matters.
Mr. Pendleton continues to gain strength
and his prospect for nomination by accla
tion are improving, and, in fact, are most
promising, with a platform of moderate
character in its references to Federal
finances, but outspoken and vigorous in
opposition to Radical usurpations North as
well as South, and protesting vigorously
against negro domination. It is felt that
it is too early as yet to give the financial
questions undue prominence. Public opin
ion, even within the Democratic party, is
not sufficiently matured with reference to
the public finances, to permit any very pro
nounced views thereon being incorporated
in the Democratic platform. "
the anniversaries.
Anniversaries are the order of the day—
we meet them and hear of them at every
turn, and especially are they enjoyed by the
country clergy and by those excellent old
ladies who having in bye gone days ex
hausted theatres, operas and concerts,.now
have recourse to funerals and the like.
Both these classes of individuals are, how
ever, greatly interfered with, perplexed, and
distressed by the unpropitious and very
lamentable state of the weather, which
threatens, if it does not actually do, great
damage to the broadcloth of the clergy and
the health of the aforesaid old ladies. There
is, however, a notable band of women whose
irrepressibility no weather can harm and
who through everything wear a defiant
front; these are the women’s rights women,
who have profited by the occasion of the
anniversaries to make another vigorous
onset upon the tranquility of New York,
notwithstanding the lamentable absence
and doleful captivity of their masculine
General, George Francis Train. Singular
that these renowned champions of the fem
inine persuasion should submit to the indig
nity of being headed by a man of any
species, nevertheless to their shame be it
spoken, they were undoubtedly glad of G.
F. T.’s favor and protection last winter,
and a day or two since at their anniversary
meeting did not hesitate to avail themselves
of the services of Fred. Douglas. They
held forth generally and launched their
weapons of defiance in the hall of the Coop
er Institute, their missiles being aimed at
the heads a decidedly small assemblage,
though probably they flattered themselves
that the audience made up in quality what
was wanting in quantity, as it was inter
spersed and only flavored with individuals
of African descent, and also largely sprin
kled with apparently strong minded females,
who wore ominous ringlets and dispensed
with the attendance of any of the male sex.
Among the crowd were a few fair faces, a
very few pretty bonnets; these evinced
much amusement at that which went on,
by giggling with their escorts. The best
looking woman on the platform was Mrs.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton; of the rest the
least I say the better. I did not see one
pretty face, and there was a singular ab
sence of everything calculated to improve
the toilet as well as a sublime indifference
to the claims of waterfalls, crimps, trains,
and the like. Os this Fred Douglas did
not seem altogether to approve, for a very
pretty and a very playful little discussion
arising on that, point between the Rev. Mrs.
Brown and himself, he declared himself em
phatically in favor of becoming hats and
other female adornments which he classed
in a bunch together under the generic title
of furbelows, thus exhibiting a tendency to
comprehensiveness of mind. The strong
minded by whom he was surrounded, show
ed evident symptoms of horror at this mo
ment, and the discussion was dropped.
Mrs. Lucy Stone wound up in a speech of
great vehemence, in which she insisted on
the right of mothers to their babies, and
declared that every woman who was not a
woman’s rights woman, was a woman pos
sessed by a demon.
THE FASHIONS.
Despite the bad weather one sees pretty
dresses on the streets, and these are all the
prettier from being of uniform color
throughout, bonnet, veil and all, or, at
most, of two colors well contrasted and
harmonizing. Colored bonnets are much
worn ; they are relieved and trimmed with
a color which corresponds with the dress.
Some of these dresses are made with only a
skirt and pelisse; others have two skirts
and a sac or paletot cut into the form like
a basquinc at the back and crossed as a
small shawl in front. Sashes at the back
are almost universal, being very seldom
dispensed with. Ruffles are also much in
favor, one or more, according to the taste
the wearer, being put on. the skirt, and
also to correspond on the pelisse or paletot.
One of the latest novelties are leaves and
ornaments of mother-of-pearl, the gilt and
steel which were so much worn last winter
having become quite common. The old
fashioned fringe, too, has been suddenly re
vived, so that those provident persons who
have stores of it put away may, with confi
dence, pull it out and put it to use. An ex
quisite fringe for trimming their materials
and Lght silks i- one recently brought out.
It consists of a blonde lace, with a fringe
of very delicate texture woven into the
ends. La els also very much worn.. The
prevailing colors are blue, brown, "grey,
trimmed, as I said before, either With the
same or a contrasting color; green and vio
let wc also see.
For house dresses the trains are still
worn very long—so graceful a fashion does
not pass away, and I scarce know which to
admire the most—the long sleeping skirts
in the drawing-room —their appropriate
place—or the equally pretty and suitable
little walking dresses on the streets.
The hair is still worn high, with water
fall and crimps; some wear two long curls
at the side. The waterfall is, of course, in
dispensable, as it is a necessary finish to
the outline of the head upon which the tiny
hat is set. Wide bonnet strings are quite
passec—narrow being worn, tying either un
der the waterfall or in front—lace in addi
tion, confined loosely under the chin, arc
also a sine qua non.
BUSINESS MATTERS.
Trade continues to drag, and all hopes of
a general improvement must be postponed
for a general revival. Os one thing there
are better appearances. The prenent price
of cotton is pretty certain to be supported.
Food is cheapening, and the growth of cot
ton»diminishing rather than increasing, and
I should not be surprised if in the course of
the next two years a real scarcity should
be felt in the article. Egypt has reduced
her growth of cotton materially, and other
ports are likely to show some falling off,
while our own cotton growing districts
seem incapable, under the present system
of labor, of more than 2,000,000 bales.
Prices receded early in the week to
but recovered, with an export and specula
tive demand, to 32c. Breadstuff's have all
declined and are drooping, in the face of a
considerable export. But supplies have
been liberal and stocks have accumulated.
Provisions have also taken a downward
tendency. Willoughby.
[From the Philadelphia Le< gw.
Constitutionality of the Income Tax—A
Test Case.
A bill has been quietly filed in the Uni
ted States Circuit Court by John O’Byrne,
designed to test the constitutionality of the
act of Congress levying the income tax.—
The bill avers that the act is in violation
of article 4, section 9, of the Constitution
of the United States, which says: “No
capitation or other direct tax shall be
laid, unless in proportion to the census
or enumeration hereinbefore directed to be
taken.”
The bill sets forth that complainant re
ceived a notice from the United States As
sistant Assessor of the 11th Division, Ist
District of Pennsylvania, requiring a return
ot income, &c.; that such return was made.
The complainant says that after having
made the said return, he received from Col
lector Charles Abel on the 9th of April,
1868, a notice informing and notifying him
that he (Mr. Abel) had levied upon such of
the property of him (the complainant) as
was liable to distress for United States in
ternal revenue tax due by him, amounting
to -$544 45, and notifying him not to re
move at his peril any of said property with
out payment of said tax and expenses of
the distress; and that he (Mr. Abel) threat
ened that if said tax and costs -were not
paid before 3 o’clock on the afternoon of
the 10th instant, the property would be
taken possession of, which would increase
the amount of payment to s6ll 64.
The complainant contends that the al
leged act of Congress, together with its
supplements under which Collector Abel
claims to act, are in direct violation of, and
in opposition to, the Constitution of the
United States, and arc not in any binding
force or effect.
The complainant then prays the court to
grant a writ of subpoena directed to Col
lector Abel, commanding him to appear be
fore the court upon a certain day, to an
swer this bill of complaint, and to grant an
injunction restraining the defendant from
taking possession of the property above
referred to, and from executing the said
distress.
The court fixed the first Monday in June
on which to hear the argume it.
(From the New York Sun (Rad.)
The Democratic Candidate.
The case is narrowed down to the choice
between Gen. McClellan and Mr. Pendleton.
The probable strength of the former may be
summed up as follows:
New Y0rk....33 Connecticut. .. 6 Maine.. 8
Pennsylvania .26 Rhode Island.. 4
New Jersey.. 7 Massachusetts. .12 T0ta1...104
Delaware 3 Vermont 5
The strength of Mr. Pendleton may be estima
ted as follows :
Oregon.. . 3 Wisconsin.. 8 Tennessee.... 8
California.. 5 Minnesota.. 4 W. Virginia.. 5
Nevada.... 3 Illinois 16 N. Hampshire, 5
Kansas 3 Indiana 13 Maine 1
Nebraska.. 3 Michigan... 8
lowa 8 Ohio 31 Total 138
Missouri.. 11 Kentucky.. .11
In this list we have put down Michigan
as sure for Pendleton, although the dele
gates will not be appointed till the 25th in
stant, and New Hampshire, although her
delegates will not be chosen till the 10th of
June; but these States are both tolerably
certain tp go for the greenbacks candidate.
He may also get Vermont, though we have
reckoned that Stateas for McClellan. Maine
has appointed one Pendleton delegate, and
he will be likely to get support from other
districts of the State. The delegates from
Western Pennsylvania are known to be in
his favor, though they may be controlled
for a time by the request of the State Con
vention that the delegation should vote as
a unit.
On the whole, Mr. Pendleton’s stock is
rapidly rising, and bis supporters will evi
dently be strong enough in the convention
at the outset to prevent the adoption of the
two-thirds rule. We do not see how he can
he beaten, except by a coup de main, which
might be accomplished by taking Gov.
Seymour, and putting him through with a
rush of general enthusiasm, in spite of his
own unconquerable unwillingness to be a
candidate.
■—l - -
Ten Years Imprisonment at Hard Labor.
—W. R. Prysock—who was convicted at this
place some mouths ago, of assaulting and rob
bing Matbias Shealy, and who appealed for a
new trial—having abandoned his appeal, was
sentenced lately by the Appeal Court to be
hanged on the 19th of June next. In consid
eration, however, of a petition for mercy in be
half of the doomed man, signed by many citi
zens of Edgefield District, Gov. Orr has com
muted his sentence to ten years imprisonment
at hard labor in the State Penitentiary. Pry
sock has already been lodged lu the Pcniteulia
"y. Advertiser,