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tfhvoniclc A* Sentinel 1
\\ l.it.V 1.>.1» i V SWMM'I JAXI'ABT 10. ,
Tiir> niflVrento nt'!«wn Learning and
Education,
If there is ary one subject which should
now engross the attention and elicit the
thoughtful consideration anl judicious
action of the Southern people more than 1
another it is that of education.
J-Vr more than four years the youth of
the land have been deprived of educational
advanta-' at best but partial and insuffi
cient in the South--by reason of the closing
of most of the schools and colleges during j
the progress of the war, and the absence of j
the greater portion of the boys, who ought j
to have been receiving instruction, in the ;
armies of the Confederate States.
Now that the hot blast of war has passed ,
over us, wrecking, a-; it did, in its dcstruc
tive course, the fortunes of our people, it j
beconuS our highest duty to make all the j
provisions for the education of our children
that our altered prospects and means will
justify. The country school, the academy,
and the high school, no less than our col
and universities, must l»e built up,
and"the benefits to be derived from their
proper and correct organization secured for
a 1 the children of the South, upon whom
tin conduct of' our national and political
affair- will, in the course of events, soon
devolve.
There has been in the past a great error
i numittod in this country in confounding
“alwcatwii" with I learning This pop
ular delusion, to a considerable extent, still
lingers among us. It has: been the banc of
Northern society for more than a century,
and ha-, by its wide spread and universal
acceptance there, been one of the chief
can- - that led to the late dis
astrous war. Wo should now, when we
arc alxrnt to take anew start in this matter
of education, cast about us with anxious care
in order that our beginiog should ho based
upon uch principles-and ideas as will pre
vent our running into the errors upon which
our forms of society and principles of Gov
ernment have been sought to be founded
by the Puritans of New Lngland.
' The Mobile Register, in a late able arti
cle on this .jub’eet, says there can hardly bo
n greater mistake than to confound learn
ing with education. A man may be very
thoroughly educated who has never read
more than fifty hook*, while he limy be a
w dkin ' thesaurus of the facts and prin
ciple < of all the arts and sciences, yet not
bd ha If educated. If we wish to inquire
j„io the extent of a man’s learning, we
a:-!,. What does ho know ? If we desire to
know how far he has been educated, the
,j U lion is, What can he do '£ Learn
ing lias reference to the material which
the mind employs, education relate to the
power to use it. The possession of a great
store of material does not necessarily im
ply very great vigor ol intellect. Learning
supplies the tools with which the intellcc
tural man works.
Education not only provides the skill
and strength with which lie uses them, it.
also dertermincs the end to he accomplish
ed. 'fhe mere man of learning is the
hod carrier in the section of the great tem
ple of human progress. ’I lie man of edu
cation is both the architect and the build
er on the walls. It must, however, he
admitted that in the process of acquiring
knowledge the mind is to some extent
c lncated, and it is hardly possible that the
mode of acquisition, can he so absolutely
vicious ns to fail altogether of producing
some salutary effect upon the mind itself.
This may account for the fact that
mankind have generally failed to dis
tinguish between learning and educa
tion, perceiving that those who have
made the largest acquisitions are generally
the strongest men. Tlioy draw the erro
neous inference that in order to he strong
wc have only to acquire. It is strange
that the fallacy of this inference is hardly
ever suspected when the world has pre
• * ! •■■■an;,' instance" in wlvcb the
men of tin -ehools have been 16 ml want
ing . lie great conflicts of life. Their
Wanted n'« on- "twl the*!-.
to disqualify fill th" pursuits
of men, an* in at • di? ‘ uk*. din the race
~ power cal .us. by compel
ilors who liave had no advantage of train
ing, and who arc ignorant of the first
principles which regulate their own arts.
When such cases occur, instead of doubt
ing the correctness of their former infer
ence, men now conclude that learning and
education are injurious, or at least, un
practical. If they do not reach this ex
treme conclusion, they find fault with the
instruments of education, contounding
them again with education itself. Then
we liave batter! sos ridicule erected, which
pour their volleys of squibs and crackers
into the solid and time-hardened ram- j
parts of the tried and tested curriculum.
The chief point of attack is the most im- J
pregnable part of tlui whole lino—the ]
study of the dead languages, though a fierce j
attack is often made on the point where the j
metaphysics stand strongly invested.
The mathematics, the physical sciences,
and especially these sciences as applied to
the useful arts, arc lauded as the only sub
jects of study suited to this eminently prae- j
tieal ago.
This all proceeds from the one error of
mistaking these instruments of education
for education itself.
The tirst and most essential principle of
the science of education is that the pursuit
is everything, and the object of pursuit com
paratively nothing. The process is of far
more importance than the result. Tais
great truth has been more ably illustrated by
Sir William Hamilton, than by any other
modern writer, although his learning in
depth and extent was almost miraculous.
\V hilc it is true that learning is the means
to a true education, it is also true that none
but the really educated man can become the
possessor of avast and at the same time a
valuable and useful erudition. There is but
one subject in which we Southern peo
ple have at this time a deeper and more
practical interest than the education of our
children and youth. The future of our land
depends, under uod, upon the moral and
intellectual training of the next generation.
It is. therefore, of the utmost consequence
that the Southern people should In' thor
ough-emancipated from all crude and erro
neous notions as to the nature of Educa
tion, what it is. and what it is designed to
accomplish. A narrow, utilitarian theory,
which would limit the noble intellect of
man to “the bread and butter sciences,"
is the most plausible and dangerous error
to which our circumstances now expose us.
If we train our children so as to qualify
them for nothing higher than the procur
ing of broad and butter, they may or may
not get enough to keep them from starva
tion. If we educate them thoroughly, the
bread and butter will come, of course, and
with them pie and pudding too, with all
that refines and adorns the life of man on
the earth.
Richmond fount} Agricultural Soviet}.
The monthly meeting of this Society was ,
held yesterday, at Kosncy Chapel. There
was. notwithstanding the threatening
character of the weather, a very fair atten
dance. and the proceedings were of un
usual interest.
Under the direction of the members of J
the Society, a thorough, practical test
wa- had ot the merits of the sulkey culti- j
vat or. and us adaptability to Southern j
agriculture. We behove that the working I
o! this cultivator was highly gratifying, |
and met the approval of the Society. A
machine for pulling up stumps was tried. :
and we believe that every one present was
delighted with its operations. There were
several large yellow pine stumps jirked up
by the roots, and we saw a pine tree of i
about four feet in circumference taken up
in just lour minutes from the time the
machine was made last to it.
After these experiments were made, the
members of the society and all the visitors
present assembled in the Church, where
essays were r.-ad by .1. P. Berk man, Esq.,
and Hubert Schley. Esq., upon the char
acter of manures best suited to our soils.
Both of these essays were highly instruc
tive and practical, and we regret our ina
bility to give even the leading features ol
the addresses.
Mr. Berkman startled a number of the ;
im n.liei • with the assertion that “pine j
straw” was not only worthless as a fer
tilizer, hut absolutely injurious to crops.
This elicited considerable discussion, and
so much interest was felt in the question
that it was determined to renew thediseus
sion at the next meeting, which will take
lilace on the second Saturday in next
i month.
j In the meantime we hope to be able to
procure copies of the addresses delivered
i yesterday and will take pleasure in laying
j them before our readers.
Advances to Planters—Ample Security ,
Given.
The great difficulty which lies in the
way Of’ planters the present year is the in
sufficient and wholly inadequate supply of
corn, provisions, &e., for the use of their
stock and labor. If there bad been a fair j
crop of cotton raised, or even a half crop, j
with the ruling prices received, there would ;
have been little or no difficulty in procuring I
the necessary amount of supplies to eulti- j
vate and bring into market the crop of the J
present year. But as the cotton crop at i
least in Georgia, is less than a third of a fair i
average one, it lias failed to bring into the j
hands of planters more money than was j
actually expended in its cultivation.
The almost total failure of the corn and
provision crops of the State leave our
planters, even now at the commencement
of the year, with little or no provisions for
the coming season. There is notmorc than
perhaps one planter in four who was en
gaged in planting last year who has money
enough left, after paying for his labor, ad
vances received, and the actual and press
ing demands for his immediate household,
to buy the necessary stock, implements and
previsions to make a crop this year. We
; liave already heard of instances in this
] section of the State where the stgck of corn
I and provisions was exhausted before Christ
| mas. We can readily foresee the results
I which are certain to follow from this im-.
p /VcrLhed condition of the planting in
j torest, unless some measures are adopted
j to secure to planters a sufficient amount of
; supplies for the cultivation of the forth
coming crop.
Ail tiie material interests of the State
are directly and closely connected with the i
argricultural prosperity of the country. |
Trade, commerce, manufactures, the me- i
chanic arts, arc all dependant upon agricul- j
turu for their support and prosperity. If
the crop of the great Southern staple shall
prove a small one again this year, there
is no telling to what extent the Southern
people will suffer. The whole country is
deeply’interested in'securing to planters
such means and facilities as will enable
them to bring into market next fall a full
crop of cotton. This cannot ho done unless
the planter receives aid, and that by some
such advance, of ready money as will
enable him to provide a good supply of
stock and provisions. We know that
motiey is scarce in the South, but if capi
talists in the different large commercial
centres will contribute a rnocity of their
cash in loans to the planter, great good can
he done and important results effected.
The reasons heretofore given why money
has not been more freely advanced in aid
of agriculturalists, we admit, to have been
to a considerable extent well founded.
These no longer exist. The Legislature at
its last session passed'a bill, which gives
ample protection to persons who may make
advances upon the growing crops. The
want of such a measure of protection was
found to be a serious drawback to our
planting interests last year, and led to tire
enactment of the following law. It will be
seen that it provides for the protection of
landlords, who may make advances to
laborers, and gives to factors and merchants
a special lien upon the growing crops for
advances made for the .purchase of pro
visions, commercial manures, etc., neces
sary to carry on the farm.'.
The terms upon which such advance
ments are to be made are we think wisely
'eft to the parties interested. The mode
1 prescribed for the < nforcement of liens
j thus created v simple, speedy and dice
rive. \Ve.-an am no reason wkavwur why
| forwind promptly and make amio.
; with ! eir iu patrons which will enable
I them i" 'heii lantat6ms tlm present
i year to their fullest capacity. In this way,
and in this alone, can we hope to have a
good crop and a fair trade next fall.
The following is the bill passe dby the
Legislature bearing upon this subject: !
Am act to give Landlords alien upon the \
crops of tenants , for stock, farming i
utensils, and provisions, furnished such
tenants for the purpose of making their
crops ; and to give Factors and Mer
chants a lien upon the growing crops of
Farmers, for provisions, and commer
cial manures, furnished them for the
purpose of making their crops.
S upton 1. Th e General Assembly of the
State of Georgia do enact, That from and I
alter the passage of this Act, that land- j
lords may have, by special contract in I
writing, a lien upon the crops of their ten- j
ants, for such stock, farming utensils, and i
provisions, furnished such tenants, for the
purpose of making their crops.
Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That 1
Factors and Merchants shall have a lien j
upon the growing crops of Farmers, for
provisions furnished, and commercial !
manures furnished, upon such terms as !
may he agreed upon by the parties.
Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That j
such lines shall be enforced in the same !
way and maimer that liens are now enforc
ed against steamboats in this State.
Sec. 4. Repeals conflicting laws.
Approved loth December, 1806.
Defective Education.
I The New York Sun well says : Educa
i tion is valuable in proportion as it fits men
: and women for the actual duties of life. It
! is not alone what is actually learned that
■ gives this fitness, but the mental drill and
j discipline necessary to the acquirement of
facts qualify the mind to grapple with
I other facts and other obstacles. Yet this
I mental exercise may be made the means of
j storing the mind with useful knowledge,
: or it may be expended in unprofitable
: studies, flic latter is too generally the
i case. It is much to be regretted that some
: attention is not devoted to such useful
branches of education as the elements of
book-keeping and the management of busi
ness affairs. In all public schools and col
leges such things are entirely ignored,
though of unquestionable utility to - all,
even to those who have no intention of
engaging in commercial transactions. It
falls to the lot of everybody to need at
times some little acquaintance with the
forms of ordinary business. But the high
est education attainable in the country
leaves young men without this useful
knowledge. We have seen men who had
carried off college honors appear as help
less as children iu the most trivial matters
ot the bank or counting house. This is j
an iik > insistence- unworthy of American in
-of k anting. A th trough busi- ;
ness e lueanon is not necessary for all, but*
some acquaintance with the rudiments of,
business should form a part of the teach- •
ing of all public schools. The extent to j
which private commercial schools are pa- i
tronized shows the need young men feel j
for this branch of education. But only a :
few of those who have been educated at !
public shook have time or means to avail j
themselves of private teachers, and many j
of them engage at once in business, trust
ing to learn the intricacies of it as best they !
can. A practical acquaintance with ae- j
? should 1 ii sist 1
upon in every public school and college in
the country.
Massachusetts.
The public debt of Massachusetts is over
twenty-seven millions of dollars, and her
population about one million. The liabil
ity of each person, old and young, white j
and black, male and female, withiu the i
btate for the isiate indebtedness is twentv
seven dollars. The expenditures for the ;
current year were five millions of dollars. I
which, if distributed equally among the i
inhabitants, would be at the rate of five
dollars for each soul.
This is an enormous burden when it is
considered that not more than one in six of
the population pay any tax at all. An
average annual tax of thirty dollars and a ,
bonded liability of one hundred and sixty
two dollars for each tax payer in the State. •
shows that independent of the negro wor
shipping propensities of her people, Mas
sachusetts is any thing but a desirable |
place to live.
W lien, to tbc amount which is annually ;
levied to pay current expenses, and die
interest on her large debt, is added the '
enormous Federal taxes which are levied i
upon every branch of industry, we think j
that the citizens of the “Old Bay State,” j
can well claim the distinction of being the |
“best taxed people” in America.
Have States Lost their Bights Through
W ar ?
1. Some writers upon public law have i
said that civil war dissolves the State. I
I attel is often cited ? 293, in which he
says:
“A civil, tear breaks the bonds of society
and government, or, at least suspends their
force and effect: it produces in the nation
two independent parties, who consider
each other as enemies and acknowledge no
common judge. These two parties, there
fore, must necessarily be considered as
thenceforward, constituting, at least for a
time, two separate bodies, two distinct so
cieties.”
Now, suspends their force arid effect, is
the qualifying phrase, and corresponds as
we find with the original; and in that sense
it is not only logical, but clear in principle.
Civil war does not rupture the government
and disorganize it dejure, nor dc facto,
until the insurgents have broken up the |
legitimate government or overthrown it. ,
Yattel says:
“Que un dcs deux ait en tort de rompre
limite l’etat, deresister a l’autorite legitime,
ils n’end sont pas moms devises de fait."
So Vattel sustains the proposition that
the bonds of society and of government are
suspended, by civil war, and the unity of
the nation divided, in fact, while the war
lasts, notwithstanding one of the parties to
the contest is in the wrong.
So there b only a suspension of the func
tions of the government during the con
test —there is no absolute rupture of the
government, or of the constitution. To
say that civil war had that effect, would bo
to assert that it breaks up the government
—that mere force sunders civil States, re
gardless of the final results— that a revolt
which is repressed, detroys the govern
ment which represses it.
Now this conclusion contradicts the pro
position of Vattel, that “war is that State
in which we pmsecuteour right byforce, ’’and
for the purpose of sustaining the right to its
final triumph. Here there is no triumph of
the right, ifaniere appeal to force dissolves
the State, rather than suspends its opera
tions. We have the proposition that the
war, unsuccessful as it was, nevertheless
dissolved the States, and the Union, and
hence a re-organization of all the seceding
States. The proposition is, then, that war
of itself absolutely destroys the Union,
although the Government has ever treated
it as a mere insurrection. The framers
understood that revolt and insurrections
must be provided for and suppressed by
federal power ; but that wai* as known in
public law, might end with the overthrow
of the Government and the triumph of the
nsurgents.
Wheaton lays it down that a State,
“whatever be its internal condition or form
| of government, or whatever may be its
! rulers, or even if it be distracted with
anarchy, through a violent contest for the
government between different parties among
the people, the State still subsists in con
templation of law until its sovereignty is
completely extinguished by the final dissolu
tion of the social tie , or by some other cause
which puts an end to the being of the State.”
This existence continues until it is inter
rupted by some change affecting the being
of a State. If this change bo an internal
revolution, merely altering the municipal
| constitution and form of Government, the
State remains the same ; it neither loses any
of its rights, nor is discharged of any of
its obligations.'' \ Lawrence’s Wheaton,
page 40. J
These propositions are sustained by all
the great publicists, from Grotius down to
our own times, as indisputable and un
questionable.
Here, then, we have the principle, that
the being of a State remains identical in
contemplation of law. during all internal
convulsions, anr.,l its sovereignty is com
: ph ■■!), ‘-.ctingutshed by the final dissolution
, -J li>> ‘‘"call tie. or L \ some other cause
• ■'-• to tin being'of u State.
\.j\r this ir thus put an end to
either State or nation ? Answer that!
I So wi t ver, that in no way were these
' States dissolved or broken up by the final
rupture of the social tie, in these States,
; or by any other cause affecting their being
as States. The conventional act of seces
sion did not destroy their existence as
States, for that alone could affect their
relations to the Federal Government. War
did not dissolve these States, or disturb
their being as States ; for that was carried
on solely to preserve the Union of these
States as it was before secession was at
tempted. The seceding States took up
arms to make good and carry out their
right to absolve themselves from Federal
relations, and on that issue they met with
disastrous defeat. Force sustained the
principle that States could not thus secede,
and when the national tie was thus vindica
ted, the war ceased, as a fact, and was ter
minated by the military head of this nation.
So there was no attempt to destroy these
States by force of arms, on the part of this
nation, or by the Confederacy itself. So
the States remained, until the end of
the war, undisorganized and unbroken in
their identity and organic being as States.
This appears entirely conclusive upon
the principle we have stated that a State
or nation subsists in contemplation of law,
until its sovereignty is completely extin
guished by the final dissolution of the com
pact, or by some other cause which puts an
end to the being of the State or nation.
Now who will assert that the war did com
pletely extinguish the national sovereignty
by any cause which has put an end to its
being and its authority ? The national
sovereignty was rather vindicated and re
established by force of arms, and not
broken up, as the final result of the war
proves.
Moreover, the sovereignty of the nation
| resides in no particular State, but equally
jin all the States; and there is no Such thing
as its sovereignty remaining when nearly
one half of the States are utterly broken
up. 1 fisorganize and obliterate the States,
there is no longer any Union, although a
government in another form would still
, exist. So the destruction of a considera
ble portion of the States now existing
would result in anew Union, and would
end the old, in fact, in principle and in
substance.
There is no obligation to remain in this
federal system, when it subverts the Consti
tution and overthrows the States, for when
the Constitution is subverted, that ends the
government which we established ; and the
States are free to resume their sovereign
power, and withdraw from such rule. It
becomes, then, a mere question of policy,
and not of obligation, to sustain such ty
ranny and such rule.
Hence, if force alone is applied to change
this government, regardless of the Consti
tution, the States can absolve their rela
tions to it, at one moment. That is the
right to revolution, or rather the right to
redress and preserve, as sanctioned in the
Declaration. But this destruction of
States cannot take place except by force
used to that end. Sovereign law, the
States collected will, remains embodied in
State constitutions, and they are not bro
ken up nor driven out by the sword. That
result cannot be thus accomplished, and
Constitutions must be changed by the
civil, and not by the war power ; and so
these State Constitutions remained during
all these internal convulsions, and now re
main in full force and effect in all the j
eleven seceding States, notwithstanding
the Radical clamor that may be heard in
Legislative halls, that they are extinguish
ed. As theseoonstitutious remain embod
ied in State organizations Sov
ereignty, the people therein can assert all
the rights that belong to States in the Un
ion. And upon even - principle that we
are able to adduce, in the exposition of the :
principle of the war and the nature of our
system, these States and the Federal gov- 1
ment remain intact and undissolved now.
If the organic being of the nation re
mains in full force it can not be reorganized
—nor can it be allowed that these states
absolved their relations to the government
bv the conventional act of secession. That j
is the only act that can, ujKm any show of j
these States. Deny that State secession
ha; this effect and the Union remains un- j
broken—for, during the war, wc have (
shown that though these States were dis
solved in Fact, and.the operations of the!
government were partially suspended, yet
their organic an I sovereign existence re
mained, and was in no manner destroyed !
through war; and since the termination of
reason. intervene to 'dissolve the Union of
j the war the Federal Government has set
! the whole machinery of the States in reg-
I ular motion at that point where the rebel
| lion began, and the continuity is resumed
where the practical operations had ceased.
So the States are re-established under Fed
eral authority. Lee surrendered the Con
federate forces upon terms. Grant stands
by these terms, and so does the nation.
These States are likewise re-established
and in full operation, by the sanction of the
Executive branch of the Government.
Both acts were equally under the military
power. Neither had the sanction of Con
gress, but they are nevertheless the pledges
o p the nation, as acts done by our agents —
done under the military arm of the Na
tional Government.
The faith of the nation is pledged to
these terms and conditions of surrender,
' and of restoration. It is now toolateto
* erase the conditions and it is bad faith to
disregard the nature and obligations of our
promises to those who readily accepted
them. Fidelity to the principles of the
war and to the terms of surrender, and to
the conditions of restoration, require that
the nation shall make them good.—A’. Y.
Express.
Taxation.
THE INCOME TAX —WHO SIIOELD BE TAXED.
No principle of taxation is better estab
lished than that property should pay for
its own protection, and that taxes should
be drawn, directly, from those who have
only labor and skill, the availability of
which depends wholly on continuance'of i
health. Wealth realized is not subject to !
the accidents of the lot of the individual;
but labor and skill hang upon the most
uncertain tenure. When Feel proposed
and carried an income tax of seven pence
in the pound sterling on the incomes of
over SBOO in England, it was thought a
monstrous thing; but this is little more
than half the rate imposed by our revenue
law on all incomes over S6OO per annum.
A clerk or professional man on a salary of
$2,000 is obliged to pay the'government a
of S7O per annum,and in addition must tax
meet the enhancement in the price of every
article of household consumption created
by a tariff averaging fifty per cen
tum ad valorem, and by internal
taxes that reach the most trifling arti
cles of convenience or necessity, and all
this with a currency fluctuating and
greatly depreciated in value. Suppose the
accident of sickness or death to overtake
the man so circumstanced, and how op
pressive becomes the exaction of this tax.
In small incomes, how many little com
forts, what means of relaxation or im
proved intelligence, are represented by
this sum of S7O, more or less, withdrawn
by the Government. On men of smaller
incomes than $2,000, the exaction of the
smaller sums of ten, twenty, fifty dollars
I weighs with equally oppressive force ;
hardly any one is so poor as to escape the
universal drag-net.
Oftentimes persons of small incomes, de
pendant on labor and skill, find their
profits swept away or diminished after the
return has been given in to the Assessor,
and it is literally taking their life-blood to
exact payment. But if they have any
little property liable to distraint, the de
mand must bo met. In case of persons of
the largest incomes the law in its present
form also bears
New York, where the success of business
men depends so largely on individual exer
tion, and where fluctuations are so sudden
and violent, a man often gives in, in the
months of April or May, an income of
$25,000 or $20,000, which is perhaps
equal to his entire eapital, and oil all over
$5,000 he is taxed at the rate of ten per
cent., Or one-tenth of the whole. The
month of October or .November following,
when this tax is to he collected, may see
the whole of this profit swept away, and
perhaps a part of the capital with it, but
the ‘law is inexorable, and the tax must
be paid, even if it takes away still more of
the means of self-help and recovery.
The tax of ten per cent on all incomes
over $5,000 seems as unwiso and oppres
sive on the range of incomes it reaches as
the tax of five percent, on incomes less
j than that sum. It is said by unthinking
j persons, Never mind, they can afford it;”
but tl forg that tin kill and
j prise which secure large Itceomts, are iu
! themselves a valuable and direct eoutrUm
i t.ion to the general wealth, and should,
no more than indigence, be subjected to
' ■ ’" .1- ■ luctive
power. There are in large cities a few
striking instances where this tax, falling
on colossal income derived from an im
mense invested capital, does not weigh
heavily, but for every Astor or Stewart
there are thousands who are crushed by
this tax, with incomes ranging from five
to fifty thousand dollars, in whose case the
productive force of the community and the
prosperity of the poorest is diminished by
just so much as is unwisely withdrawn by
this tax from their resources. Experience
seems to show, in this country, that if the
income tax is to be continued, in the pres
ent condition of the currency and of prices,
it should touch no sums of less than fif
teen hundred or two thousand dollars, and
should not exceed three per cent, on in
comes less than five thousand dollars and
five per cent on those in excess of five
thousand dollars.—A! Y. Evening Post.
tfi}'- We find the annexed items in the
New Orleans Picayune of January the
Bth :
The Hood Homestead Fund. —We
learn from the executive committee of the
Hood Homestead Fund in Texas, that the
worthy general lias directed them to turn
over the entire proceeds in behalf of the
church. General Hood, with a determina
tion which does him infinite credit, says
that he can earn a living by his own indus
try, and while warmly thanking his numer
ous friends for the interest they have taken
in his welfare, urges npon one and all that
he intends to make his own bread, so long
as ho enjovs his present health and
strength. This is the right spirit.
Southern Hospital" Association
Prizes. —We are indebted to M. -Jeff.
Thompson, Chairman of the Committee,
for a list of the prize numbers in the dis--
tribution of Christmas gifts by the South
ern Hospital Association of this city.
It is stated for the information of the
purchasers of tickets, that of 25,000 tickets
distributed to lie sold, only 5,534 have
been reported as sold, and consequently,
the gifts, though 500 in number, onlyequal
iu the aggregate 81V 67, or one-half the
amount realized, as promised by tbe Asso
ciation.
The delay in returning the unsold
tickets has occasioned much labor in pre
paring the list, as no unsold or unaccount
ted for ticket was allowed a prize. We
find in the list 200 gifts, worth sl, 150
worth $2 50, 70 at $5,40 at 810, 20 at 820,
10 at 830, 4 at 850, 3 at 875, 2 at 8100 and
1 at 8117, makingin the aggregate 82,767.
Persons holding prize numbers will
please indicate what kind of gift they de
sire, of the value designated in the list,
and it will be purchased and delivered or
sent at once, and it is hoped that those at
a distance will name pictures, book.-, or
some article that can be sent by mail. It
is hoped that those who have drawn
prizes in this “small affair,” will try the
grand bazaar, which this association will
hold in February, and that those who have
not been fortunate, will remember the
cause and try again. The list will be for
warded to all interested.
AIT
lo make the employment of any servant
whatever during his term of service ille
gal, and declare the same a misdemea
nor.
Section I. The General Assembly do_
enact, That from and after the passage of
this Act it shall not be lawful for any per
son to employ any servant in the employ
ment of another for and during his term
of service, and if any - person, by himself
or agent shall be guilty of employing the
servant of another during the term for
which he, she, or they, may be employed,
knowing that such servant was so employ
ed, and that his term of service was not
expired, or if any person or persons shall
entice, persuade, or decoy, or attempt to
entice, persuade, or decoy any servant to
leave his employer, either by offering high
er wages, or in any other way whatever,
during the term of service, knowing that
said servant was so employed, shall be
deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon
conviction thereof shall be fined any sum
not more than two hundred dollars, or
confined in the common jail of the county
in the discretion of the Court, and not to
exceed throe months.
Sec. 2. Repeals conflicting laws.
Approved 13th December, 1860.
Before his aliened departure for Ireland,
James Stephens tried to buy up every
photograph of himself, to destroy them, so
as the British could not get hold of Lis
picture. He was chagrined to find tnat
he had been photographed while speaking
from the Metropolitan Hole*, the day of
his arrival, and that his phisiognoiny pre
ceded him wherever he went. His attempt
to secure the likenesses, of course, failed.
In Ireland he never had one taken, and
always refused to sit tor any here.
The Cincinnati suspension bridge al
though not fully completed, was to be
opened for vehicles on Tuesday.
General ; ;t q j of the Last j
General Eariyhr* .mpleted his history ;
of she l ist -i sn i v- r, and we regret :
to find ! « ... n the Richmond j
Lignin, th.i: i uited number of ;
copies ! beet j • ed, and are now ‘
for sal ■ l it sons sos our
enterpi ■ ill arrange at once
with tl : : wand large edi
tion of '■ i irk. We give to
1 our re.-1 - •'..->. og preface to the
; work , , i the New York
j Times
hut. e.
Und of duty to my un
happy the brave soldiers
who ft ; well as to myself,
the fb! . i been written: _
Wb I practical secession
from i arose, as a citizen j
| of the | . and a member of j
| the C ■. mi fay the authority of j
1 the L ■. t State, I opposed j
( ibility I possessed, j
i with t: hoi ;: horrors of civil war |
| might t,-crt. 1 that a returning |
sense . au on the part of the
■ masse n States would in
; duce tl ]ii ii. i > rights of the peo
. pie o file some Northern
politic ,i [1 who subsequently
took most unscrupulous
and • ■ i■,. enemies, and now
hold or and rebel, were
; openly ... ustifying and en
| couraj as laboring honest
ly am 1 -erve the Union.
As ; Virginia Conven
tion, .r, the Ordinance of
Seees: n ,by that body, with
the hi ,that. n, the collision of j
arms md some satisfac
tory a .---i.i at. The adoption !
of th; lg from me bitter
tears at once recognized
my du / 1 cision of my native
State, . her soil against in
vasiot which I may have
entert : right of secession,
were j he mad, wicked and
uncoil res of the authori
ties a U the frenzied clamor
of thi North for war upon
their i of the South. I
then, .o'- have, regarded
Abrai eonselors and sup
porter .':tutors who had over
thrown tlie Constitution and Government
of the United States, and established in lieu
thereof an odious despotism ; and this
opinion I entered on the journal of the
Convention when I signed the Ordinance
of Secession. I recognized the right of
resistance and revolution as exercised by
our fathers in 1776, and without cavil as
the name by which it eras called, I entered
the military sei vice of my State, willingly,
cheerfully and zealously.
When the State of Virginia became one
of the Confederate States, and her troops
were turned over to the Confederate Gov
ernment, 1 embraced the cause of the
whole Confederacy with equal ardor, and
continued in the service, with the determi
nation to devote all the energy and talent I
possessed to the common defence. I fought
through their entire war without once re
gretting the course I had pursued, with an
abiding faith in the justice of our cause ;
and I never saw the moment when I would
have been willing to consent to any com
promise or settlement short of the absolute
independence of my country.
It was my fortune to participate in most
of the great military operations in which
the army in V irginia was engaged, both
before and after Gen. Lee assumed the
command. In the last year of this mo
mentous struggle 1 commanded, at different
! times, a division and two corps of General
Lee’s army in the campaign from the
llapidan to Janies River, and subsequently
a separate force,V which marched into
Maryland, threatened Washington City,
and then went through an eventful cam
paign in the Valley of Virginia. No de
j tailed reports of the operations of these dis
! ferent commands were made before the
! close of the war, and the campaign in
, Maryland and the Valley of Virginia has
I been the subject of much comment and
I misapprehension. I have now written a
narrative of the operations of all my com
mands during the closing year of the war,
and lay it before the world as a
contribution to the history of our great
struggle for independence. In giving
that narrative, I have made such
statements of the positions an and
strength of the opposing forces in Virginia,
and such reference to their general opera
tions as were necessary to enable the reader
to understand it; but Ido not pretend to
detail the operations of other commanders.
I have not found it necessary to be
guilty of the injustice of attempting to pull
down the reputation of any of my fellow
officers, in order to build up my own. My
!'■;■•; iti >i ..nd my can-; align stand on their
;wn m i 'i, whatever they may be. Nor.
ir. any thi -'I may have found it necessary !
to say in regard to the conduct of my troops, !
do i waui io be und over - us. in any way, l
decry.:; -i ■ e'ln.-rii’Ue ihc rank j
and: ,do fmy commands. I believe that i
thi world ! as *n< vei
men superior m courage, patriotism anu
endurance, to the private soldiers of the
Confederate armies. I have repeatedly
seen those soldiers submit, with cheerful
ness, to privations and hardships which
would appear to be almost incredible; and
the wild cheers of our brave men, (which
were so different from the studied hurrahs
of tlie Yankees,) when their thin lines sent
back opposing hosts of Federal troops,
staggering, reeling and flying, have often
thrilled every fibre in my heart. I have
seen, with my own eyes, ragged, barefoot
ed, and hungry Confederate soldiers per
form deeds which, if performed in days of
yore by mailed warriors in glittering armor,
would have inspired the harp of the min
strel and the pen of the poet.
I do not aspire to the character of a his
torian, but, having been a witness of and
participator in great events, I have given
a statement of what I saw and did, for the
use of the future historian. Without
breaking the thread of my narrative as it
proceeds, I have given, in notes, comments
on some of the errors and inconsistencies
committed by the commander ofthe Federal
Army, General Grant, and the Feneral
Secretary of War, Mr. Stanton, in their
reports made since the close of the war.
Also, some instances of cruelty and bar
barity committed by the Federal command
ers which were brought to my immediate
attention, as well as some other matters of
interest.
As was to have been expected, our ene
mies have flooded the press with sketches
and histories, in which all the appliances
of a meretricious literature have beeD made
use of to glorify their own cause and its
supporters, and to blacken ours. But
| some Southern writers, also, who preferred
! the pen to the sword or musket, have not
| been able to resist the temptation to rush
I into print; and, accordingly, carping criti
| eisrns have beeu written by the light of
1 after events, and even histories of the war
j attempted by persons who imagined that
I the distinctness of their vision was en
| hanced by distance from the scene of con
i fiict, and an exemption from the disturbing
| elements of whistling bullets and bursting
I shells. Perhaps other writers of the same
: class may follow, and various speculations
j be indulged in as to the cause of ourdisas
j ters. As for myself, I have not under
taken to speculate as to the causes of our
failure, a* 1 have seen abundant reason for
j it in the tremendous odds brought against
us. Having had some means of judging, I
will, however, say that, in my opinion,
both President Davis and General Lee, in
their respective spheres, did all for the
success of our cause, which it was possible
for mortal men to do. and it is a great
privilege and comfort for me so to believe
and to have been able to bring with me
into exile a profound love and veneration
for those great men.
In regard to my own services, all I have
j to say k that I have the consciousness of
having done my my country, to the
very best of my ability, and whatever my
j fate, I would not exchange that conscious
ness for untold millions. 1 have come into
exile rather than to submit to the yoke of
the oppressors of my country; but I have ■
never thought of attributing augiic of j
blame or censure to those true men who, :
after having nobly done their duty in the i
dreadful struggle through which we passed, ;
now that it has gone against us, remain to
share the misfortunes of thc-ir people, and
to aid and comfort them in their trials; on j
the contrary, I appreciate and honor their ;
motives. 1 have not_ sought refuge in i
another land from insensibility to the !
wrones and sufferings of my own country; ;
but I Teel deeply and continually for them,
and could my life secure the redemption of ;
that country, as it has been often risked, so :
now would it be as freely given for that ob- :
ject. - j
There were men born and nurtured in |
the Southern States, and some of them in i
mv own State, who took sides with our ;
enemies, and aided m desolating and hu- :
miliating the land of their own birth, and
of the graves of their ancestors. Some of j
them rose to high positions in the United 1
States Army, ana others to high civil
posisions. I envy them not their dearly i
bought prosperity. I had rather be the
humblest private soldier who fought iu the
ranks of the Confederate army and now.
maimed and disabled, hobbies on his !
crutches from house to house, to receive
his daily bread from the hands of the i
grateful women for whose homes he fought j
than the highest of those renegades and
traitors. Let them enjoy the advantages
of their present positions as best they may! 1
for the deep and bitter execrations of an i
entire people now attend them, and an im- j
mortality of infamy awaits them.
As for all the enemies who have overrun
or aided in overrunning my country, there !
is a wide and impassible gulf between us. 1
in which I see the blood of slaughtered
friends, comrades and countrymen, which
all the waters in the firmament above and j
tae seas beneath cannot wash away. These
enemies nave undertaken to render our j
cause odious and infamious ; and among j
other atrocities committed by them in the
effort to do so, an humble subordinate,
poor Y\ irz. lias been selected us a victim
to a fiendish spirit, and basely murdered
under an executive edict, founded on the
sentence of a vindictive and illegal tribunal.
Let them continue this system ’ they are
hut erecting monuments to their own eter
nal dishonor, and furnishing finger posts to
guide the historian in his researches. |
They may employ the infamous Holt, j
with his "Bureau of Military Justice,” to
sacrifice ou the altars of their hatred, and
provost marshals and agentsofthe “Freed
men's Bureau” may riot in all the license
of petty tyranny, but our enemies can no
more control the verdict of impartial histo
ry than they can escape that doom which
awaits them at the final judgment.
During the war slavery was used as a
catch-word to arouse the passions of a
fanatical mob, and to some extent the pre
judice of the civilized world were excited
against us ; but the war was not made on
our part for slavery. High dignitaries in
both Church and State in Old England,
and Puritans in New England, had partici
pated in the profits of a trade, by which
| the ignorant and barbarous natives of
! Africa were brought from that country
j and sold into slavery in the American colo
i nies. The generation in the Southern
States which defended their country in the
j late war found among them, in a civilized
| and Christianized condition, 4,000,000 of
j the descendants of those degraded Africans,
i The Almighty Creator of the Universe
| had stamped them indelibly with a differ
i ent color and an inferior mental and phys
-1 ical organization. He had not done this
! from mere caprice or whim, but for wise
I purposes. An amalgamation of the races
! was in violation of His designs, or Tie
| would not have made* them so different.
■ This immense number of people could not
| have been transported back to the wilds
j from which their ancestors were taken, or
if they could have been, it would have re
sulted in their relapse into barbarism.
Reason, common sense, true humanity to
the black, as well as the safety of the
white race, required that the inferior
race should be kept in a state of subordi
nation. _ The condition of domestic slavery
as it existed in the South, had not only
resulted in a great improvement in the
moral and physical condition of the negro
race, but had furnished a class of laborers
as happy aud contented as any mile : world,
if not more so. Their labor bad not only
developed the immense resources of the
immediate country in which they were
located, but was the main source of the
great prosperity of the United States, and
furnished the means tor the employment
of millions of the working classes in other
i countries. Nevertheless, the struggle
j made by the people of the South was not
I for the institution of slavery, but for the
inestimable right of self-government,
against the domination of a fanatical fac
| tion at the North; and slavery .was the
I mere occasion of the development of the
i antagonism between the two sections,
j That right of self-government has been
lost, and slavery violently abolished. Four
! millions of blacks have thus been thrown
! on their own resources, to starve, to die,
j and to relapse into barbarism ; and incon
; ceiyable miseries have been entailed on
the white race.
■The civilized world will find, too late,
that its philanthropy has been all false,
and its religion all wrong on this subject;
and the people of the United States will
find that, under the pretence of “saving
the life of the nation, and upholding the
old flag,” they have surrendered their own
liberties into the hands of that worst of
all tyrants, a body of senseless fanatics.
When the passions and infatuations of
the day shall have been dissipated by time,
and all the results, of the late war shall
have passed into irrevocable history, the
future chronicler of that history will have
a most important duty to perform,
and posterity, while poring over the pages,
will be lost in wonder at the follies and
crimes committed in this generation.
My narrative is now given to the public,
and the sole merit I claim for it is that of
truthfulness. In writing it I have received
material aid from an accurate diary kept
by Lieut. Win. W. Old, Aid to Major
General Edward Johnson, who was with me
during the campaign in Maryland and the
Shenandoah Valley, until the 12th of Au
gust, 1804, and the copious notes of Capt.
J. Hotchkiss, who acted as Topographical
Engineer for the Second Corps and the
army ofthe Valley District, and recorded
the events of each day, from the opening
of the campaign on the liapidan in May,
1864, until the affair at Waynesboro, in
March, 1865. J. A. Early.
November, 1866.
[From the National Intelligencer ]
The Impeachment Fiasco.
If any who partially comprehend the
arts of politicians supposed, even so far
bac4t as the last session, that it was intend
ded by the ruling spirits in Congress to
tpf the President,
j they might have fully expected that pro
j Ceedings to that end would be instituted at
would agitate so
>".ichment of ibe
1 President-—a thing , - t would convulse
'’ • . tion and create rofound seusation
hout.Christend —except for great
causes, arising from gross Executive usur
pation or foul infraction of law that shocked
the popular sense, and would justify and
require prompt and decisive action. Not
to institute it at once, under such circum
stances of aggravation, would be tolerat
ing wrong, and the lapse of time would so
blunt the edge of public reprehension as to
seriously detract from the morale of a prose
cution ofthe matter, if ultimately determin
ed upon.
So obvious is this view that the movement
of Mr. Ashley did not cause the assembling
in caucus ot but half the Repulflican mem
bers. What were present crushed the life
out of of the bantling by snapping upon ii
the old Democratic “two-thirds rule,” if
the measure were to have party sanction.
It was footballcd by the more conservative
Republicans, and Mr. Stevens himself
tossed the thing about in a variety of ways,
just as a sleight-of-hand performer keeps
many bails in the air at the same time.
Finally, it came to grief by a decision that
it should be consigned to the Judiciary
Committee. Considering tho source ofthe
measure, as it took practical form in
caucus, who could have contemplated a
much different result ? With the superior
men of the destructive type in Con
gress the menace of" impeachment has
been nothing but a stalking-horse to
frighten timid electors from sustain
ing . tho policy and party of the
President. . Ilad there been earnestness in
the thing it would have issued from a
strong source ; “urgency” in Congressional
action at the last session would have been
demanded ; a two-thirds vote to give it
efficacy would not,'have beenrequired in the
Republican caucus ; a full attendance of
the members would have been pressed ;
and it would have been put in charge of a
special committee of the ablest Radicals in
Congress. It is a credit to tho country, as
it is a safeguard to the public securities,
that the tiling is thus tabooed in Congress
as it is by the better part of the Republican
press. If we entertained other than these
charitable ideas we should reproduce for I
profit and instruction theic articles against ■
so Quixotic an adventure as the measures
for impeachment proposed by Mr. Ashley.
Referring to the subject the New York ,
Tribune of yesterday spoke as follows :
As we read the doings of the House j
caucus on Saturday night, Congress has !
determined not to allow its proceedings to j
be interrupted and its time absorbed by J
an attempted impeachment of the Presi- 1
dent, until at least a majority of' the House !
shall have deliberately adjudged such an j
extreme measure necessary; and it has not !
yet so adjudged it. We need not say that
this decision is in full accord with our own j
convictions.
We copy extracts from the Washington
| correspondence of the Tribune, as follows :
| Mr. Stevens, of Pennsylvania, said
1 caucuses were generally planned for weak
kneed and designing and knavish members
to hide their defection and treachery from
j their constituents, lie therefore moved
j to lay the whole matter on the table, and
if articles of impeachment were introduced
into the House, lot each man take his
i stand openly and fairly before the country.
: This motion was defeated by a vote of 20
yeas to ii-i nays— Garfield, Bing
; Lam, and others, who hitherto have been
I extreme Radicals, _ taking ‘conservative
ground and voting in the negative. Mr.
j Stevens made the remark that the vacant
United States judgeship in Northern Ohio
i had made nearly the whole Ohio delegation
j “rotten,’' and until Mr. Johnson filled
; the vacancy caucuses were necessary for
! political tricksters to hide up their evil do
: ings. There sprang up a warm debate
! between Messrs. Stevens, Bingham, and
j others on the_ legal questions involved in
1 the proposed impeachment,
The Senate was not in session on Satur
; day. The House was in session for the
1 purpose ot speech-making only. Judge
• Spalding, of the Cleveland district, of
Ohio, made a speech on restoration. Ilis
i remarks brought out Messrs. Stevens.
! Maynard, and IV ushburne, of Illinois, who
i engaged in a very spirited debate, and
some very severe personalities were in
dulged in. Spalding took conservative
ground as usual, and Stevens charged him
with treachery.
The debate between Stevens and Bing- j
ham illustrated the saying, “When Greek
meets Greek, &c. Bingham, in his re- ,
marks, leaned strongly to Johnsonian, and
spoke in his usual irritable, impulsive and
highly seasoned style. Stevens met all ;
Bingham’s eulogies of Johnson, and replied
in terms bitter and severe in the extreme.
Steven’s strictures on Johnsonized Radi- I
cals again brought out Judge Spalding, ]
who once more deprecated all movements
looking to the impeachment of the Presi- i
dent, and defended himself against the ■
charge of being a Johnson man. Mr. *
Spalding oi posed the proposed action very
earnestly; he did not believe that any good I
would result from it.
A Louisiana father testified against his
son for forgery.
Some of Our American Luxuries. j
It may be interesting to those who hnfe 1
mover had occasion to }ook at the statistics
on the subject, to know the number of j
cigars and the quantity of tobacco, smqk- j
mg and chewing, which are annually emi- !
sunied by the people of this country, i
1 robably the most complete and reliable j
source from which correct figures can be i
reached, pertaining to those articles of \
manufacture, are the returns rendered to j
the Bureau of Internal Revenue, and |
these put us in possession of facts that, !
to say the least, are surprising.
According to the records of the above ■
named bureau, it is shown that the num- i
her ot cigars returned by manufacturers j
throughout the loyal section of the coun- :
try. under the tax law of July 1, 1862, up !
to and including Jffne 30,1864, amounted !
to 462,780,700 : those returned under the i
law of June ®3O, JIS64, amounted to 530,- I
491,902, and those returned under the law !
of March 3, 1865. amounted to 258,086,-
763, making an aggregate of 1,281,359,365
cigars on which tax was paid to the Inter
na! Revenue officers between the dates of
July 1, 1862, and March 31, 1866.
The gross sum of tax paid upon these
cigars was $6,503,697 61, inclusive of all
grades, and the different amounts of tax
imposed by the several laws quoted. For
the benefit of those who may be unac
quainted with the provisions of these laws.
in this respect, we will say that the rates
of taxon cigers, under the law of July,
1862, were $1 50, $2 50 and $3 50 per
thousand; under that of June, 1564, they
were $3, SB, sls, $25 and S4O per thou
sand; and under that of March 3, 1865,
they were all merged into the uniform
figure of $lO per thousand, irrespective of
quality..
Notwithstanding the enormousness of
these figures, they do not show the entire
consumption of this article of luxury, which
certainly must reach a total that is almost
incredible. Upon the consideration of
j three facts, this truth will bo manifest.
| First, the fact that all cigars made are not
returned. It is well known by revenue
officers that immense frauds arc perpe
trated upon the revenue by some snuff, to
bacco and cigar manufacturers at
the present time, and have been, since the
establishment of our internal revenue laws.
Frauds, which are exceeded in extent only
by those of distillers. Second, the fact
that the returns , herein quoted were con
fined to tho Northern States ; that the
whole South is now open to swell the re
turns. Third, tho fact, which must be
apparent to all, that , the consumption of
tobacco, as a luxury, is increasing steadily
each year to a great degree.
The same sources from which we have
drawn the above figures show that returns
were rendered in the fiscal year of 1863, of
smoking tobacco, amounting in the aggre
gate to 8,448,882-pounds, on which $334,-
798:94 tax was paid; for tho year 1864,
24,191,792 pounds—tax, $1,209,589.63 ;
for the year 1565, 14.176,166 pounds—tax,
$2,080,019.26; and for' the first nine
months of the year 1860, 6,837,927 pounds
—tax, $1,504,055.98. But the totals of
cigars anil smoking tobacco are less as
tounding than those of the single article of
chewing tobacco, in its various forms of
cavandish, plug, twist, line-cut, etc. In
the fiscal year of 1863, .15,231,174 pounds
were returned, which yielded a tax of $2,-
244.173.49; in 1804,30,180*634 pounds-tax,
$5,877,095.11 ; in 1865, 22,-162,854 pounds
—tax, $5,936,101.37 ; and for the first
nine months of the year 1866, 18,330,647
pounds—tax, $7,329,428.63.
The same considerations as to illicit
manufacture, restrictions of tax-paying dis
tricts, and annual increase of consumption
claimed for cigars are, of course, equally
applicable to smoking and chewing tobac
co. Could the true amounts of manufac
ture and sales of these articles be ascer
tained, it may reasonably be inferred from
what wc have already shown, that the
figures would reach an almost fabulous ex
tent ; so much so, that we have uq doubt
many would believe tho totals to bo incor
rect.. It is said by experts in the revenue
service, and by others, that not more than
twenty per cent, of tlie spirits distilled in
the country is returned for tax. It can
scarcely be considered unreasonable to say
that only half of tbe cigars and tobacco
manufactured in all forms are returned for
tax. The tiles of the Internal Revenue
Board show the large extent of attempted
fraud in this respect.
Double the figures we have given, allow
for tho opening of tho entire Southern
market and tbe regular increase, and an
aggregate for tho present year will.he pre
sented, both for tax and for quantity made
and consumed, that may well cause a
thinking mind to reflect upon the aggre
gated cost, of trifling luxuries which arc
generally indulged in by a people. It is
only through such statistics as those here
given that the truth is brought before us.
Consider that in three-fourths of one year
over seven millions of revcuue has been
derived from chewing tobacco alone, with
a fair prospect of the balance of the year
swelling the total to ten millions.
There is much food for reflection pre
sented by these facts. We must remem
ber that this is the tax upon the several
articles. Calculate the amount of sales of
tho quantity made, returned and unreturn
ed, and some idea may be had regarding
the magnitude of this branch of trade.
They come, too as a useful exhibit of the ex
tent and cost of popular luxuries of small
expense. They show the people where our
taxes come from, and stand forth as indis
putable proofs of the extravagance incurred
by indulgence in those things which are
popularly known as “petty vices,” and
which most men call trifling in cost.
Literary Originality.
Originality, as it is called, is, in popular
estimation, a first merit in a writer; but
then originality mty either attract or re
pel. In itself originality is not necessarily
a merit. The color-blind man is original
in a world of men gifted with normal pow
ers of vision. To a sane individual there
is nothing more frightfully priginai than
tho seething brain of a lunatic or madman.
Our dreams arc more original than our
waking moments, but they arc, on the
whole, less wise. The feeling of strange
ness witli which one occasionally, for the
first time peruses a book does not usually
go for much. It is frequently the mere
foreign looking husks and wrappings of
the matter —the wampum-belt arid scalp
tuft of tho Pawnee Indian, the bear and
snow shoes of the Esquimaux—rather than
the matter itself. The highest beauty does
not dazzle at first, it frequently seems a
simple plainness. The writers who strike
you as original are never original enough,
just as the man who strikes you as cun
ning has not been cunning enough to hide
his cunning. All the colors sleep in a beam
of pure white light. The generations of
books are like tho generations of men, the
one begets the other and not unfrcqueutly
the features of an ancestor recur in a dc-
scendantof to-day. Absolute originality,
even were it possible, would be of no effect.
An absolute original bqpk would resemble
the scenery of the moon. It would be a
world without an atmosphere, ln'reading
such a book one would be raft away from
the mighty aids of association and use and
want. In the sense of newness and
strangeness, Australia is the most original
country on the planet, and it is the least in
teresting. In the same sense, Asia and
Europe are the least original and the most
interesting. The strange kangaroo of the
one continent is nothing to the homely spar
row of the other, which has been mans
companion and chirped on his thatch dur
ing six milleniums. In poetry the gaudy
parrot is. as nothing with the brown
lark. It is astonishing, when one reflects
I upon it, to what few and simple root ideas
| the entire poetry of the world may be
traced. lam, I was, I love, I hate, I
| suffer, lam glad, I must die—these lie at
j the bottom of all song. After the death
of Abel, the iirst family had pretty nearly
| gone the round of all possible experience.
In the primodal elements of human ex
| perienee there is nothing trite—except to
| the trite; and the only faithful originality
: comes out of an entire and noble appre
! hension of those primordinal elements,
I and the man who can to that noble appre
] hension give musical utterance is a poet
! and a sufficiently original one, too, for all
. purposes. The generation of singing-birds
i pass but the music of the Spring mornings
| goes on. although it has hardly changed a
! note since Adam. Originality is not a
; thing which a man can put on like a cloak
jto masquerade in. It is, if we have it all,
| the pure outcome of his personality—the
| clear unobscured, unobstructed utterance
I of his nature —that which is to himself
; special and peculiar, like the tone of his
: voice and the play of his features, an un
i definable something of which he is in the
I most profound unconsciousness, but by
which he is made recognisable and is set
apart from other men. Thus it comes
j about that die original man is the least
; concious of being original. And the un
i definable something which sets a man
i apart from his fellows is the most valuable
| thing in the world; it is absolutely price
: less. You cannot forcast its next mani
i festation any more than you can conceive
anew color. It cannot be imitated, it can
never be forged; no counterfeit by any
possibility can ever pass current—-and yet
; every man and womau is born into the
world with some proportion of it more or
less. To this pure, clear, natural note of
the soul all the world listens, for a whole
grove of clever mocking birds no one cares.
Nature makes the Kok-i-Xoor, and Birm
Ingham will turn you out a bushel of imi
tations. And it is this special and indi
vidual something in great writers which,
above ail things, subserves a noble culture.
These men bring anew thing into the
world with them, and when they die they
leave it as an inheritance. Scott, writes, I
and the historic past is no longer pale and
cold", but warm and many colored. IVords
worth writes, and ever after the solitariost
place breathes an austere contentment, and j
to the thoughtful men there i - no such j
thing as utter loneliness in the world, j
Keats writes, and the coldness ot Greek <
marble is faintly tinged with passion. In
modern culture all the poets are represent- j
ed by their best. — Argosy.
Slate Items.
Mr. .("In Rice, President ofthe Chatta
hoochee National Hank of Columbus, has
been forced to resign that position on ac
count of ill health.
From December Ist 1865 to December
31st 1866, there was, in Columbus, but
one fire, and eight alarms of fire. Amount
of property destroyed $18,000; covered
by insurance $14,300.
At Columbia ou Tuesday, there were
sold at auction, 15 shares of Georgia Home
Insurance at $29 50 per share.
Henry Gwinn, a colored man well spoken
of. lectured in Savannah Thursday evening,
subject: Lobor—morallv, mentally and
physically considered. The lecturer’s
object is to impress upon his race the neces
sity ofindustrv and good faith in their con
tracts as laborers.
lit. Rev. Bishop Wilmcr of Alabama,
will deo volento be in Savannah the last
i Sabbath in this month, to preach a sermon
I commemorative of tho life and services of
the late Bishop Elliot,
j After long delay and very much injury
j to the press, a weekly mail route has been
I established in Twiggs county. It is a one
| horse mail, and leaves Macon every Sattir-
I day morning, via Jeffersonville. Marion
and Twiggville.
A letter, appearing under date of Janu
ary sth. in yesterday’s Atlanta Era, re
counts the unprovoked shooting and killing,
on a Mississippi river steamer, of a young
man named M. Langford, formerly of
Atlanta.
A writer in the Rome Commercial urges
the appointment of Colonel Underwood for
the vacant Judgeship in the Tallapoosa
Circuit. Neither of the candidates, iii
the recent election were honored with a
majarity—hence the vacancy.
Savannah and Charleston Rail
road.—At a meeting of the stockholders
of the Savannah and Charleston Railroad
Company, held yesterday, the following
gentlemen were unanimously elected a
Board of Directors for the road : J ames
11. Taylor, J. Reid Boylston, Wm. S.
Hastie, Jno. S. Ryan, Alex. Isaacs, of
Charleston; Francis T. Willis, of Savan
nab.— Charleston Courier , January 11.
The Selma, (Ala.) Messenger has the
following: “Captain B. J . Smith, one of
tbe most successful business men in Geor
gia, has just returned from a six month’s
tour in Europe, lie thinks that present
Liverpool prices are based on the supposi
tion that over 2,000,000 bales will be pro
duced in America the present year, and he
expresses the opinion ttiat so soon as they
appreciate the true state of things, that
the staple wiil rize to 20d. He argues
that cotton lands are valuable, and that we
must not let Cuffce emigrate.
Election for the County-site of Bar
tow.— Below we give the result of the
election held at the various precincts in this
county, for the county site, on Monday
last:
Carters- Cass
' ville. Station
Manasses, 000 143
CartcrsviUe, 680 32
17th District 135 107
Kingston, 9 223
Adairsville, 1 224
6th District, 9 69
Pine Log, 64 84
Wolf-Pen, 40 28
Stamp Creek, 83 00
Aiiatoona, 67 9
Total, . 1085 919
Majority for Cartersville, 166 votes.
Thus has this exciting, perplexing and
provoking local question passed off, and,
we trust; forever. Now let us all shake
hands, bury the tomahawk, and he friends.
Cartervsille Express, January 11,
“1\ hinino’ Women. —Brigham Young,
of Utah, has been blowing up the women
of that free-and-easy Territory in a man
ner at once awful and unique, lleaccuses
them of “whining,” and says that they
must either “stop that sort of nonsense”
or else start for the other side of Jordan
at once—and he tells his. own forty wives
that he means them, as well as the rest of
the feminine Utahyans. He says that the
kernel of the whole difficulty—the direct
occasion of the disagreeable and unbearable
“winnings”—lies in the fact that “the wo
men expect too much ofthe Saints!”
lie says that tho women—even his own
forty—are so weak-minded as to sup
pose that the saintly elders of the Mor
mon Israel can make a heaven on earth
for them —and that after a woman has
entered a Saint’s family, and finds that
after all he is not able to make a heaven on
earth for her, she begins to “ whine” and
talk about “too many wives,” and the ■
“evils of polygamy,” and such like
“blasphemous twaddle.” Brigham also
says it is iiis opinion that any woman who
ever lived would be disappointed in the
best “Saint” in Utah should she marry
him—and on this point wo unreservedly
agree with Brigham. The Governor gave
all the women warning that two weeks
from date of his sermon against “ whining”
ho should call upon thorn either to promise
never to “whino” more, or else loave the
Territory, hag and baggage, saying he
would even send off all his own wives, and
go to heaven alone, sooner than take such
a “whining” crow along with him. We
shall await the next news from Utah with
deep interest.
IV OMAN in Adversity. —Woman should
be more trusted and confided in as wives,
mothers, and sisters. They have a quick
perception of right and wrong, and, with
out always knowing why, read the present
and future, read characters and acts, de
signs and probabilities, where man sees no
letter or sign. What else do we mean by
the adage “mother-just,” save that woman
has a quicker perception and readier in
vention than man ? llow often when man
abandons the helm in despair, woman
seizes it, and carries tho home-ship
through the storm 1 Man often flies from
home and family, to avoid impending pov
erty or ruin. Woman seldom if ever for
sook home thus. Woman never evaded
mere temporal calamity by suicide or de
sertion. The proud banker, rather than
live to see his poverty gazetted, may blowout
his brains, and leave wife and children to
want, protcctorless. Loving woman would
have counseled him to accept poverty, and
live to cherish his family, and retrieve his
fortune. _ Woman should be counseled and
confided in. It is the beauty and glory of
her nature, that it instinctively grasps at
and clings to the truth and right. Reason,
man’s greatest falculty, takes time to hesi
tate before it decides; but woman’s in
stinct never hesitates in its decision, and ts
scarcely ever wrong where it has even
chances with reason. Woman feels where
man thinks, acts where ho deliberates,
hopes where he despairs, and triumphs
where he falls.
What the Local Said of the Lec
turer.—“ The lecture last evening was a
brilliant affair. The hall ought to have
been filled. We are sorry to say, only
forty persons were present. The speaker
commenced by saying that lie was by birth
an ecclesiastical deduction ; gave a learned
description of the devil, and his skill in
sawing trees. Among other things, he
| stated that the patriarch Abraham taught
j Cccrops Arithmetic. Wo trust the elo
quent divine may be induced to repeat the
lecture at some future day.”
IV IIAT THE LeCTUIIER SAID OF THE
Local.—Dear Sir : In a report of my
lecture in your beautiful city, you have
made some few mistakes which 1 wish to
correct. \ou make me speak of myself as
by birth an “ecclesiastically deduction ;
“what I said was, that 1 was not by birth
but only ecclesiastically a Dutchman. In
stead of speaking of the devil as sawing
trees. I spoke of him as souring tares. I
said nothing of Abraham, but spoke ot the
Arabians as nomades of patriarehical
simplicity. 1 said that Cccrops was the
I founder of Athens and instructed the peo
; pie in agriculture.
Very truly yours.
| Mark Twain, a California humoris;
! about to visit the Atlantic States, in the
printed programme of a lecture he was
i lately to give in San Jose, proposed to
] illustrate the cannibal propensities of the
| ancient islanders by devouring a child in
| the presence of the audience, provided
I some lady would furnish one for the oc
, casion. That part of the programme was
j necessarily omitted, no maternal relative
1 coming forward with a spare infant to
| enable him to carry out the illustration,
j The*doubtfnl word rousing , used in the
j sense of hearty, is getting to be altogether
j too common in newspapers. We read
I yesterday in a report of a certain festive
! gathering, that “before dispersing the
| whole company joined in a .rousing doxol
ogy. ’ IV e shall hear soon of “rousing
sermons.”
Henry Hull, Jr., Esq., of Georgia, was
on the 2d inst., unanimously elected Cash
ier of the Louisiana National Bank of New
Orleans. Mr. Hull is a native of Georgia,
and has had a long connection with the
banking interest of his State, and is a gen
tleman of experience and attainments
which will commend him to the confidence
and esteem of our citizens. — M. 0. Bulle
tin.
The Macon’ Telegraph learns privately
that Governor Jenkins has vetoed the bill
: passed near the close of the session to char-
I ter the New Orleans, Mobile and Chatta
nooga Railroad. The Telegraph learns the
| ground of objection to be “that it confers
! an extent of power anil privilege danger-
I ous to railroad interests generally, and
especially to the Western and Atlantic
Railroad, in the fact that it would be equiv
alent to admitting the new company as
partners with the State in a considerable
portion of that important work. I\e
have not noticed allusion to the subject in
any paper but our Macon.co temporary.
No Congressional Committee has as yet
been appointed to “investigate’ the case
of the four negroes who perished in the
fire at Vicksburg.
News and Oder items.
TTow much cfo&a !b !wt : h -■,
A Miu|A-tou. w ■ - -
'SOb*®
In Virginia they use squirrels for small
change m commercial transactions.
Ben Butler is of Nm-ti- .
Smtev'r. detraCti ° n ’
A Richmond paper says the mule is the
crowning Iluid ol the woes of Virginia.
Mr. Gladstone was at Rome studying
and commenting on the works of Dante.
Some communities in France arc cele
brated for never rearing children.
Fiax is a profitable crop on the Pacific
slope.
It is six years since the banks suspended
specie payment.
New pet name for young ladies—Chig
nonette.
At every public dinner in New .York a
dozen policemen help to discuss the victu
als.
France begins to feci that she is getting
to be a little too much surrounded.
i Four thousand emigrants a month go to
Texas.
Austria contains 728 monasteries and
298 convents.
Indiana has thirty-two incorporated
cities.
There is a lull in ‘.the Nashville matri
monial market.
A Richmond doctor says rubbing with
kerosene oil will cure rheumatism.
The Texas stay law has been pronounced
unconstitutional.
How to cure business inactivity is being
discussed in all the papers.
A smiling countenance is “The happy
mien.”
Spoon says the best capital to begin
with is a capital wife.
llow is the South related to the North ?
By blood !
A woman gave birth to a child in one of
the Loudon police courts.
A county in Wisconsin sends a specimen
of shingles to the Paris exposition.
California is supplied with oysters from
Shoalwator Bay, on the Columbia river.
A man in Philadelphia is so foolish as
to advertise a lost umbrella.
. Brown colored children are called “frac
tions of republican currency.”
The wheat trade of Minnesota last year
amounted to 3,300,000 bushels.
Prentice says, great I- Forney, and thir
ty thousand a year is his profit.
Mr. Tilton says there wore no snow
storms in Euen. llow docs he know ?
English critics go into raptures over
Dickens’ Christmas story.
Tho banking capital of Nashville is
$590,000.
The Cincinnati uoalcrs in soap-grease arc
at loggerheads.
Secretary Stanton is spoken of by an ex
change as “The Belshazzar.”
Nearly a half million of dollars were spent
in Chicago for holiday gifts.
A daughter has been born to the Sultan
and she is named the Princess Eminco.
A Missouri woman has applied at the
pay department fur pay ,as a cavalry sol
dier.
The youngest son ol' Bulwer Lytton,
Henry Bulwer, has written a work on Tal
leyrand.
A Boston man was recently choked to
death by a piece of meat while bolting his
dinner.
“The streets of Boston” is the subject
chosen by a lecturer, lie must be a man
of narrow views.
The acquitted Fenian prisoners think of
claiming damages against the British Gov
ernment for false imprisonment.
A crazy fellow in Illinois proclaims that
he has been commissioned by Heaven to
kill all the women and children.
The editor ofthe Louisville (Miss.) Hub
let in is the keeper of the jail, and lives and
prints his journal within the walls of that
• establishment.
The fathers of Generals McClellan,
Grant, Sherman, Sedgewick, and Mans
field, were horn in Connecticut.
J. B. Magruder, late General in the
Confederate army, has arrived in New
York from Mexico.
Thirty 7 thousand marriages took place in
Ohio during the past year—six thousand
ujore than during any previous year.
Lee Tuoker, a notorious horse theif,
escaped from the Dinwkhlie (Va.) jail on
Christmas day-
The burial corps, at work about Fred
ericksburg, Va., received wages to the
amount of $11,600 last Saturday.
Printers can hardly he classed with work
men. They more resemble the “bour
geoise” type.
Lytton Bulwer has boon introduced to
William Cullen Bryant at one of Mrs.
Bigelow’s receptions in Paris.
“The Ancient Female Spiritualist” at
End«r was the subject of a sermon recent
ly preached by the Chaplain ofthe United
States Senate.
Miss Annie Thomas has written another
novel’ with the slang title of “Played
Out.”
Mr. Robert Browning has in press anew
poem, founded on a mediaeval Roman
story.
A newprima donna, a Miss McCullough,
lias appeared in an opera in New York, un
der Mr. Marctzck’s auspices.
The cabalistic cipher which appears up
on the title pages of all the publications of
Mr. (Jarlcton, of New York, and in many
of his advertisements, is said to be the
Syriac symbol for books.
“All the delicacies of the season in
hyms” is not yet a lvcrtiscd.
The Cincinnati city government is waging
war on gamblers.
Printers’ types are now made from vul
canized India rubber.
More than a thousand new buildings
were put up in Baltimore last year.
A famine in Montana this winter, proba
bly.
James Barron Hope, Esq., editor of trie
Norfolk Day Book, is confined to his room
with a serious affection of the eye.
It appeared in evidence in a photograph
case before the circuit court at Washing
ton, last Friday, that twenty-five thousand
cartes de visite of General Robert E. Lee
were sold in Washington immediately
after that commander’s surrender.
A number of Right Honorable,' in Lon
don have couie to the conclusion that edu
cation is necessary for the working classes,
Maximilian is said to be fully establish
ed at Puebla, where the City Council have
presented him an address welcoming him
to the city.
A correspondent from Munich says that
il the rumored alliance between Bavaria and
Prussia is true, it Is like the lying down of
the lamb and the lion together, only that
Bavaria, the lamb, would iie down inside
of the lion, Prussia.
.1 lie Du'! Mall Gazette says of ladies’
dresses : “The robe that is destined to be
the hante mode this present winter is the
robe a queue, with its straight, narrow
skirt clinging close to the figure, and with
along, sweeping train.”
Here is Bunch's illustration of self-re
spect. The Missus: “Oh, Jem, you said
you’d give me.your photograf. Now let’s
go in and get it done.” Jem: “Oh, I
dessay ! an’ ’ave my ‘ Carte de Wisite ’
stuck up in the winder along o’ all the
bully-gals and ’lgh Church persons? No,
Sairey!”
. At the special elections hold for Supe
rior Court Judges and Solicitors, on the
2d inst., Hon. (J. B. Cole was elected
Judge in the Macon Circuit, and lion.
Wm. B. Fleming Judge ok the Superior
Court of Chatham county—both with
out opposition.' A. B. Smith, Esq., was
elected Solicitor for the Chatham Court,
also without opposition. In tic Macon
Circuit, the race for Solicitor appears to lie
between Messrs. Bass of Bibb, and Sim
mons of Crawford.
A prosy lay member of the church rose
j in meeting and said : “My friends, the
devil and I have been fighting for more
than twenty minutes. He told me not to
speak to-night, but I determined that I
would. lie even whispered that I spoke
too often, and that nobody wanted to hear
me ; but I was not to be put down that
way —and now that I have gained the
victory I must tell you all what 1 have in
my heart.” Then followed a tedious
harangue. Coming out of the session
room, the good paster inclined his head so
that his mouth approached the ear oi the
brilliant member, and whispered:
“Brother, I think the devil was right.
The Court of Appeals, oi'N'ew York, in
affirming the constitutionality of the excise
law of that State,’declare that “it is a bold
assertion, at this dav. tnat there is any
thing in the State or United States Consti
tution conflicting with, or setting bonds
upon the legislative discretion or .action in
directing how, when and where a trade
shall bo concluded in articles intimately
connected with the public morals, or public
safety, or public prosperity ; or indeed, to
prohibit and suppress such traffic alto
gether, if deemed essential to effect these
great ends of government.” The Court
also says : “A law prohibiting indiscrimi
nate traffic in intoxicating liquors, and
placing the trade under public regulation
to prevent abuse in their sale and use,
violates no constitutional restraints,” and
that it is a groundless pretext, therefore,
that the act in question conflicts with any
provisions of the Constitution of the United
States, or of this State. It falls within
the legislative power, exerted not for the
first time, but unremittingly since the origin
ol the Government.