The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1863-11-14
The Franking Privilege.

The editor of the United States Mail
sends the New York Herald the following
for publication:
IMPORTANT POSTAL NOTICE.
There would seem to be a determination
on the part Of class of correspondents not
to understand the requirements of the pos
tai act of last March, respecting the frank
ing privilege and the forms to be observed
in addressing matter entitled by law to pass
free in the mails.
First-No private citizen, high or low,
can send letter or document of any kind,
or any other thing, to any officer or public /
man at Washington or elsewhere excepting
to members of the United States Senate and .
House of Representatives, the Secretary of
the Senate aud Clerk of the House of Rep-i
resentatiVes, without preparing the full
postage thereon whether such matter is up
on official business or otherwise. He must /
prepay letters to the President of the Uni- /
ted States, his cabinet officers and all others |
in public stations with the above exceptions. |
The ranking privilege of members of Con-
gress has not been materially changed, and
covers all correspondence to and from them
as heretofore.
Second-All persons employed in the |
government service may send official letters
free to the department at Washington with
which they are officially connected, and to
no other department provided they write or
print the words "oficial business on the
envelope of the letter, and also sign their
name and official designation thereto. III
these words and signature, or either ofthem,
be omitted, such letters must be sent to the
Dead Letter Office, which, we regret to say,
happens daily in all large post offices
Some of these unlucky missives and parcels
are addressed to President Lincoln, the Sec
rotary of the Navy, Secretary of War, Ad
iutant General, Quartermaster General and
other high officials. No doubt some of
them are written by private citizens (who,
| it has already been shown, must prepay
everything they mail, and others by pub
| lie officers, who, from ignorance of the law
or carelessuess, do not comply with the
prescribed modes of ranking, or fail to
con6ne their use of the frank to their own
department. An officer of the army, for
instance, cannot send free to the Navy De-
partmeut, nor post master to the Treasury
Department.
The publication Of the above information
has the authority of the Postmaster General.
General Butler on slavery and Recon-
StIuCI1OHs
The guns of Beauregard sounded the death
knell of slavery. Slavery has ceased to be
valuable in the South. But that is no rea-
son why we should trouble ourselves about
It here. Within the next six months Lou
isiaHa will be knocking at the doors of the
f, Union for admission without slavery. Re-
naat4o annIsus," We are not res ponsible
for this Var. They brought it on. I am
afraid we did not go far cough III bringing
it on ourselves. BIT what mas the war
done for the slave II mas [euuced ms
value because he has learned uLSie Is such
thing as liberty; that there is fgus &A
tween his master and somebody else He
has become 'demoraized and gone to fight
| ing. He may cut his masters throat. He
.stkerefore useless. l was told by men in the
Sou tn that the slave would not fight; that
one NJ with single gun, could hold two
hundred n egroes in check. Why so? Because
the NEGRO was never allowed to use a gun.
But when gave the negro a gun, he said
have the gun now. He has learned to
use arms, ard is not afraid of them now.
The war has not affected he va ue of labor:
the only thing tn2t IS destroyed IS the right
to take labor without C2r2pensation~
You may think it heresy, but for one
do not want this Union reconstructed on tht
old basis. Suppose you wake up to-mor-
row morning and learn for a fact that ali
the rebels had lain down their arms and
consented to return to the Union under its
condition in 1860. Honest Democrats say
they want the Union as it was. In such
case you would have to send to England for
Mason and Slidell, and put them back into
Congress; you would have to send to Rich
mond for Benjamin and put him back into
the Senate; you would have to send for
jeff. Davis and put him back in the Senate;
you would have to send for Gen. Lee and
put him at the head of his old regiment of
United States cavalry.
You might reconstruct it without
that says my honest Democratic friend.
All ! then you don't want it exactly as it
was 1.-THE Southern seceeding States were
to come back into the Union as it was, tens
OF millions ofdebts would be upon US, and
rebel scrip would have to he met by pay
ment as lawful money Therefore do not
shrink from me because l do not want to
see the Union exactly as it was. Do you
want Western Virginia with all her free in
situations, thrown back with Eastern Vir-
ginia Do you want Missouri in her orig
inal condition? Do you want to see the
men black in skin, who have fought so nobly
at Port Hudson, and Sumter, sent back in
chains to the cotton and rice fields again ?
If you do 1 don't. Cheers.
Frightful Tragedy.
For the last year bitter feud has existed
between the families of J. NJ Hands and J /