Refuses to Support the President, having no Confidence in Him.--Again
warns the Democracy.
CONFEDRIT × ROADS
(wich is in the Stait uv Kentucky),
March 12, 1866.
The politikle sky is orecast with friteful clouds. Darkness is on the
face uv the waters. The waves is a rollin mountin high, the litenin
flashes ominous thro the gloom, and the deep-mouthed thunder mutters
angrily in the distants. Ez a sentinel on the watch-tower, I look out,
and what do I see? I see the old ship uv State loaded down with a
valuable cargo uv Post-offices, Collectorships, and sich, a laborin in
the trough uv the sea, her bowsprit cove in, her top-gallant lanyards
bustid, her jib-boom a flutterin in the gale, her capstan spliced, and
her sheet anker torn to ribbons. (Not hevin bin a sailor, only ez a
driver on the Wabash Kanal, it is possible my nautikle terms may not be
altogether correct. But it makes no difference in the interior uv
Kentucky.) She is strivin to make her harbor, and is workin manfully.
Close behind her is the long, low, rakish skooner Dimocrisy, with all
sale set, a tryin her best to overtake her and board her. For a time it
seemed ez tho she wood be successful, but alas! she is fallin astern,
and every minnit the distance between em is a widenin, widenin, widenin,
and at present writin there ain't the remotest prospect uv their gettin
within hailin distance uv each other.
To drop mettafor (wich, by the way, I kin jerk when I feel so
disposed), the prospect isn't ez encouragin ez it wuz, and I fear, in
fact I feel certain, that the short cut to offis wich the Democrisy
thought it had found through Androo Johnson's veto, is reely the
longest way round. I cannot understand what indoost the Dimocratic
leaders, our chosin standard-bearers, to make sich egrejus asses uv
theirselves ez to place enny dependence on Johnson at all. What cood
they hev bin thinkin uv? Wuz not our experience in 1864 sufficient to
deter em from makin any experiment wich involved abandonment uv any uv
our principles? Didn't we, in the hope uv ketchin Abolition war votes,
nominate MickLellan, and didn't the war men jeer us, and flout us, and
say, "Behold, we hev better war men uv our own; why shood we leave home
to find that uv wich we hev a plenty?" When Androo Johnson, in a fit uv
temporary indignashun, split on Sumner, why did our people, like
idiots, pick him up, and endorse him without givin the matter matoor
considerashun--without waitin for the fax? Didn't they know that Sumner
wuz a sort uv a dose uv calomel, wich worked on the President's liver,
and necessitated the discharge uv all the offensive matter wich hed
accumulated doorin his long term uv Dimocrisy? Uv course it wuz, and
to-day Androo Johnson, hevin in that speech got rid uv the last
vestidge uv Dimocrisy wich infected him, comes up a stronger man agin
us than ever. We made two errors: On the 4th uv March, 1865, at his
inoggerashun, when he made a spectacle uv hisself, we murmured gently
to ourselves, "It's all right! he's yet wun uv us." And we sed the same
after the splurge uv the 22d uv February last. Oh, my friends, they wuz
both fatal errors. Them spasms wuz the efforts uv a noble nacher a
tryin to git rid uv Locofocoism, and from the fact that he immejitely
after commenst a missellaneously apintin Abilishnists and Republicans
to offises, and hezn't showed a sine uv a disposition to extend his
hand to a single confidin Democrat, it's my opinion he's succeeded.
We bet too heavy on the fight atween the President and Sumner. Sumner is
ordained to alluz hev a gong uv sum kind, which he is also ordained to
keep perpetually a poundin. He's bin for several years amusin hisself a
poundin the Dimocrisy, and when there wuzn't enuff uv that to make it
interestin, he turned on Johnson, and he'll pound at him till suthin
else excites his wrath. He's a Spanish bull, possessin sharp horns, and
a immense amount uv strength and agility, which he is continooally a
wastin by jumpin at sich red flags ez are mischeevusly waved afore him.
He's jest ez apt to gore his frends ez his enemies, and his lungin at
Johnson wuz no sign that Johnson had gone back on Ablishnism.
But enuff uv this. Sence it hez become a fixed fact that the boorish
tailor, who now by accident okkepies the place uv the marter Linkin,
made vacant by his untimely death by the hand uv a vile assassin (whose
only redeemin trait wuz that he wuz a stanch, uncompromisin
Dimocrat),--now, I say, that it's plain that this drunken sot ain't
agoin to distribute the patronage amongst us who need it so much, I ask,
in indignashun, wat is it that we are asked to endorse?
He proposes to continue the Freedmen's Buro bizness.
He refooses to withdraw the military from the Dimokratic States.
He refooses to restore to our sufferin brethren uv the Dimocratic States
the habis corpusses wich the tyrant Linkin wrested from them.
He keeps Jefferson Davis a pinin in a loathsome dungeon, and only
refooses to bring him to trial becoz, 4sooth, he haint yet got things in
the right shape to hang him.
I cood enumerate other insults and opressions he hez piled upon
Dimocrats, but I forbear. I might, if I wuz disposed to harrow up the
Dimocratic sole and lasserate the Dimocratic bosom, state how I wuz
treated, when, on the 24th uv Febrooary last I made a delegashun uv
myself, and went to Washington for the purpose uv layin before him the
necessity uv the removal uv the postmaster at the Corners, and the
apintment uv myself in his stead. I found that his speech had reached
all other parts uv the Yoonited States ez soon ez it hed Kentucky, for
there wuz suthin over a hundred thousand stanch Dimocrats there, all
with petitions noomerously signed, wich they hed held over from
Bookannon's administration, recommendin uv em to places. How wuz we
reseeved? How did Androo Johnson treet us? I mite say how emphatically I
wuz shoved out uv his room, and with what reckless profanity I heerd him
remark that Washington had stunk with secesh ever since he vetoed the
bill; that that foolish speech had acted on the whole country like a
puke, and that each State had spewed its foulest material onto
Washington, and that the atmosphere wuz heavy with their breath, et
settry, et settry, but I forbear.
Suffice it to say that the few Democratic members uv Congress had hard
work borrowin money enuff to git the most spectable uv the crowd home
agin, and even then thousands uv em who wuz drawed there by that speech,
shoor uv apintments, wuz obliged to _walk_ home ignominiously, uv whom I
wuz which.
Androo Johnson may be worthy uv Dimocratic support, but he hez a queer
way uv showin it. I know not wat others may do, but ez for me and my
household I'll run after no strange gods. Ef he wants us, let him call
on us in language wich we kin understand.
PETROLEUM V. NASBY,
Lait Paster uv the Church uv the Noo Dispensashun.