The Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1859-1865, 1861-11-21
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Interesting correspondence.

M dear Charles In these days of
fratricidal strife, when brother is arrayed
against brother, and everything around
and about US smacks of sulphur and salt
petre, it is truly refreshing to doff the
more cumbrous Of my military trapPings,
and. forgetting for brief season the tolls
and cares incident to my responsible posi-
ton, to hold small confab with you. For
I make no Idle assertion when say that
there is not within the limits of what Was
ancently known as the Federal Union,
single man or woman, for whom [ enter
tain more tender regard than for your
self Our acquaintance dates back many
years, and during all that period nothing
ever occurred to mar the harmony of our
amicablo relations. OF truth, we never
differed in or about anything, except this
II was always a Southern man with
Southern principles, while you were al
WAYS Northern man with Southern prin-
ciples and this difference is so small
in itself, that | might not even now refer
to it, were it not for the magnificent fact
that it is ever source Of pleasure to speak
of those things with which we are most
familiar / feel, nevertheless, that [ am
amply justified in adverting to it if for no
other reason than to illustrate how infin
itesimal is the difference between tweedie
dunn and tweedle dee. And thus much
in the shape of few prolegomenary OBJ
servations.
You are fully co2nizant, my precious
Charles, of the change-the great change
that has come over the spirit OF my
dream. Of a verify, things have changed,
and is it strange that I, even |, should
have changed with them? We have in
deed fallen upon evil times. | assert this
as self-evident proposition. There was
a time when we all got along swimmingly
under the old Federal regime. Our patri-
otto ancestors had done and suffered much
to establish our free institutions, and they
had left US rich legacy in the shape Of
the Union. To preserve the latter was to
perpetuate the former, and this whilom
agreeable task pre-eminently devolved
upon what we used to call the Democratic
Party I had the honor to be member
Il am too modest to say a pTonatne't
member-of that venerable, though now
defunct institution. It was coeyal and
identical with the Union itself. To talk
of the one existing without the other
would simply be giving utterance to po-
htical monstrosity. l loved that party as
the apple of my eye, and even now revere
its memory. Many were the favors it
showered upon nay devoted head, and
many more would it have showered there,
had it not been cut off (not my head, but
the narty) in its career Of usefulness and
glory. f5 sa
But as a serpent entered into Eden, so
worse than serpent found its way into
the peaceful garden Of Democracy, and
from thenceforward Otheilos occupation
was gone. It is true we existed In name
but our substance was ponderous nonen-
tity. The last great victory which our
organization achieved-and it uas victo-
yY-was in the election Of myself to the
Vice Presidency, and that elegant old
public functionary, j. BUCHANAN, Esq,
TO the Presidency. That triumph indeed
was something to be proud of-out it was
Ike the last big kick of a strong man in
the agonies of final dissolution. The seeds
OF destruction had already been sown in
our glorious cid party, aud the grim mes
seneer had marked il as a distinguished
victim Itwas doomed to die. | did not
know it then, but [ discovered it soon
after, and resolved to prepare myself for
the worst.
This is not fitting time for elimination
or recrimination. | have no desire to in
Weigh against either the authors, aiders or
abettors of Popular Sovereignty, or Squat
ter Sovereignty as i: is sometimes poetical-
" termed But the truth must be spoken,
and While I admit our success in 1856
with that odious doctrine in our Platform,
ys. feared the informal herosy from the