34. XXXIV.
TAKES A RETROSPECTIVE VIEW.
Church uv the Slawterd Innocents }
(Lait St. Vallandigum), December the 11th, 1863.
Yisterday I heerd a Ablishnist remark, “The world moves.”
The observashen (wich I hev heerd frequently uv late) set me
into a trane uv refleckshen. My comprehensive mind sprang
back into the misty days uv the past, and I wuz a boy agin.
Twenty-six years ago I wuz a splittin my symetrikle throte a
hollerin for Van Booren. Them wuz the pammy days uv
Dimokrasy. Androo Jaxon hed left us his name ez capital for
us to do biznis on wile he wuz out uv the way, and coodent
interfere with our steelin, wich wuz comfortable. We wuz
beaten, but wuz still strong and viggerous, knowin that we
cood manage to live doorin Harrison's reign on wat we hed
stolen doorin Van Booren's, the facilites havin been unlimitid.
O, them times! Ther wuz Cass, and Davis, and Dickinson, and
Calhoon, and Tooms, and Bill Allen, and Duglis (who wuz jest
comin in), and Ritchy, and Benton, and Isaer Rynders, and
Wise, and Yankee Sullivan — a gloreous galaxy uv intellectooal
and muskuler Dimokrasy, sech ez the world never seed
afore, and never will agin. Wuz Abolishnism tolratid in them
happy daze? Not enny. O, with what ardor Lovejoy wuz
shot at Alton! How viggerusly the Dimokrasy laberd to throw
his press into the turbid waters uv the Missisipi! Wood, O
wood that we cood hev sunk his doctrines with his press!
Did we allow Abolishn talk? Nary. These stalwart arm hev
hurled baskitfuls uv unsavry eggs at the pedlers uv polittikle
heresy, and my skill in eggin Abolishn lecturers wunst made
me justis uv the peese in my native township.
In the South, every hill-side wuz dottid with the carcasses
uv Noo Ingland skoolmarms, who, hevin bin suspected uv
teechin niggers to rede, wuz justly hung; and the pleasant
crack uv the whip wuz heard all over the land. O, them
Arcadian days, wen it only took 20 minits to arrest, try, sentence,
hang, and divide the close uv a Yankee skool-teacher!
But, alas! heresies crep into our ranks, and ther wuz confooshun.
Van Booren bolted and beat Cass; and, notwithstandin
he repentid afterwards, the Abolishn pizon he interdoost
into the Dimekratik body pollytik, remaned. It broke
out in ugly sores in Ohio in 1848, in the shape uv the feendish
Free-sile party. Then Chase and Brinkerhoff sluffed orf, and
jind with our anshent enemies. Jest afterward the Anti-Nebrasky
excitement, cuppled with No-nothinism, whaled us,
and it wuz only by sooperhooman eggsershens that we electid
Bookannon. Since, it hez bin nothin but disaster. Bookannon
and Duglis got by the ears; Duglis refoosed to cave to his
Suthrin brethrin; Linkin wuz electid; war ensood; and now
wat do these old eyes behold? Cass, and Ben Butler, and
Logan, and Dix, and Dickinson, and Dave Tod, strikin hands
with Josh Giddins and Horris Greely! It is a singular fact
that every leader we used to trust is now agin us. And wuss.
Abolishn papers is bein publisht in South Karliny, in Tennisee,
Kentucky, and Loozeaner, and a million uv men, led by the
ghosts and ghostesses uv them hung schoolmasters and schoolmarms
aforesaid, assisted by John Brown's soul, wich is
litterally a marchin on, is enforcin a proclamashen freein all
the niggers at wun stroke, and the Dimokrasy, bein sum
hundreds uv thowsands in the minority, is powerless to
prevent it.
Trooly, the world moves. It hez moved the Dimokrasy
from the pedestal uv power it wunst okepide, and laid it
prostrate. It hez elevatid men we despised, and adoptid idees
we scoft at.
Yunger men may shift and git into the tide agin, but ez
for me, I cant. I shel make wun more effort, and if we fail —
why, then, I shel withdraw from public life, and start a grocery,
and in that umble callin will flote peecefully down the stream
uv time, until my weather-beten bark strikes on the rocks of
death, gittin my licker in the meantime (uv wich I consume
many) at wholesale prices.
Petroleum V. Nasby,
Paster uv sed Church, in charge.
