The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1858-05-14
NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN REPRE-
SENTATIVES IN CONGRESS-.

SENTATIVES IN CONGRESS-.
The Philadelphia North American, jour
nal which is as decided in its opposition to
slavery and TO the South, as any Of the re-
cognised organs of the Black Republican
party, in recent article lakes occasion to
compare the representation Of The free and
slave States in Congress, and says:
"The South, as \ general rule, is better
represented in Congress than the free States.
| The best men in the South are willing to go
to Washington and to look after the inter-
ests OF their section, and their constituents
keep them there as long as they are desirous
to serve. But it really seems as if, in many
cases, the North picked out third rate men
Intentionally to represent them. II is quite
notorious that very many who go to one or
the other branch of Congress from the free
States are men without education, with only
a superficial smattering of knowledge on u
few common topics, picked up in way them.
selves cannot explain, and who have never,
until they found themselves Ia high place,
associated with persons of good breeding
| Their only arts are those of the demagogue
of the trickster. They are utterly incapable
of rising to any commanding views of nation
al policy, or comprehending in its full signfi-
cance our Constitution, and the principles Of
our government. The intrigues and manage
ment OF the petty politician are alone within
| their scope.
awe have always maintained that it is
wrong to Judge the North, either intellectual
ly or politically, by its representatives in Con-
| 81 =, ,h.a =
listed in the professions, and in mercantile,
manufacturing, and sometimes mechanical
pursuits. There is there no class of large
landed proprietors, with means and leisure TO
devote to the studies and duties of states
| manshp. The necessities of most men of
talent require them to avail themselves of
those rewards which the bar and other profit
able pursuits, hold out to intellect and energy.
Few men go from the North to Congress,
who are able to earn a livelihood in any other
| way. The great men remain at home, and
are rarely heard Of outside their own limits
The Horace Binneys of Philadelphia, the
Charles Corners of New York, and other in
tellectual giants, are unseen by the nation,
because they walk in the lowly vale of pri-
vate life, whilst political "pigmies, perched on
Alps" at Washington, "pay such fantastic
tricks before high Heaven, as might make
angels weep" 1t is consoIing to reflect that
| whatever madness may rule the hour in Con
gress, there is strange reserve of intelli-
gence and common sense in the country to
fall back upon in the hour Of need"
The SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILRoAD.-Up to
the present time ten routes have been sur
yauaA tn thu Dooifn cnotipy tha mi
immense sums, which has resulted in estab-
fishing the fact that two are wholly impract-
cable; and of the remaining eight, that on the
32d parallel has been preferred by the officers
of the Typographical Bureau, MS the most
advantageous for constructing a railroad from
the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Ever since the superiority Of this route has
been acknowledged by the Government, the
advocates of other routes havo sought by
gross Misrepresentation to bring it into dis
favor.
The New York Times, journal of COM
manding influence, and one Of the most con-
servative at the North upon political ques-
| tions, advises the Government to abandon the
| Memphis and Ell Paso route, and transmit the
overland mail to California via the St. Louis
and Salt Lake and the New Orleans and Ari.
|
zona routes.
The route of the Southern Pacific Railroad
being the shortest, cheapest, and consequent
| " the best, we are not surprised that the
North should present imaginary obstacles to
its progress But we know that here in the
| South there is great unanimity in its favor,
and that its construction is progressing with
great rapidity. The Surveyor-Gensral has
filed in the Comptrollers office the bond re-
quired by law TO enable the Company to To-
cate 256,0O0 acres of land, and we have as.
surances from very high source that the
road will be vigorously pushed forward to
| FL Paso.
We do not urge this road upon sectional
grounds, but we are glad the South has the
best route, and one surest of construction, OF
all that are contemplated as great national
highway to the Pacifc.-Memphis Enquirer.
DEACON BRrcGs.-Old Deacon Briggs is as
remarkable for his closeness as was Dickens
man Barkis. His name has come to be n
proverb in our region fo- such an economy
as ever makes a man the subject Of ridicule
and contempt. One bitter cold morning a
few falls ago, he made the boys drive togeth-
er all the pigs that were to be fattened for
the market, into the little yard just at the
house. A pig was caught by one of the
youngsters; the Deacon, with pair of pinch
ers in one hand, and a sharp knife in the
other, seized the unfortunate by the tail, and
cut it close up. So on through The whole
|
herd, leaving not pig with stump of tail.
Cort, who worked for his grandfather, stood
by in amazement-his hands in his pockets,
his body wrapped into crescent by the
cold, and his teeth jawing against the outrage
with prodigious cIatter. At last he stutter.
ed out:
"Grandpa! What are you cutting off those
tuils for!"
Sober and solemn was Deacon Briggs as
he replied:
"You will never be rich man, for you do
not know what it is to be savin'. You ought
to know my child, that il takes a 6ustel Of
corn TO tdtten an inch Of tall"
Cort has gone to the west and. in the
corn growing bottoms of Michigan, has Ia
ken to he raising Of talless porkers.
EATISG.-The great law Of nature is "eat
and be eaten" The spawn-eater swallows
the worm, and the shark swallows the spawn
eater; the hawk pounees on the chicken, the