The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1863-08-29
CONSCRIPT,S EPISTLE TO JEFF.
DAVIS.

The following quaint epistle has been fur
nished for publication by member of the
Mounted Rifles. who picked it up in de-
serted rebel camp on the Chowan river,
about thirty miles from Winton. while out
on scouting expedition last spring. The
letter was addressed in this wise
Read, if you want to, you th;eving scalp
hunter, whoever you are, and forward, post
paid. to the Lord High Chancellor Of the
DEVILS exchequer ~ on earth,
JEFF. DAVIS, Richmond, Va.
HEADQUARTERS "SCALp HUNTERS, F."
Camp Chowan. N c., Jan. H.
ExoELLENCY DAvIs-It is with feelings
of undeveloped pleasure that an atfeeGonate
conscript enirusts this sheet of coni=cated
paper to the tesder mercies Of a Confeder
ate State mail carrier, addressed, as it shall
be, to Yourself, o. jeff, Red Jacket of the
Gulf, and Chief of the Six Nations-more
or less. He writes on the stump of shiv
cred monarch of the forest, with the "pine
trees wailing round him, " and ''Endy miom's
plant rising in the air. To you, o! Car
of all Chivalry, aud Khan Of Cotton Tartary,
be appeals for the privilege Of seeking. on
his own hook, a land less free--a home
among the hyenas of tie North. Will you
not halt your "brave columns" and stay
your gorgeous career for a thin space? and
while an admiring world takes brief gaze
at your glorious aud God -forsaken cause,
pen for the happy conscript Through with
out end? Do so, and mail it, if you please
to that city the windy, wandering Wigfall
didn't winter in, called, for short, Philadel-
phia.
The Eiysian winds sweeping down the
defles of the Old Dominion, and over the
swamps of Suffolk, come moaning through
the pines of the Old State laden with the
music and sigh themselves away into sweet
sounds of silence of the far-off South.
Your happy conscript would go to the far
away North, whence the wind comes, and
leave you to reap the whirlwind, with no
one but your father, the Devil. to rake and
bind after you. And he's going.
1t is with intense and simultaneously proud
satisfaction that he gazes for the last time
upon our holy fag-that symbol and sign
Of an adored trinty--cOtton, niggers and
chivary. He still sees it in the little camp
on the Chowau, tied to the peak of its pal
metto pole, and floating out over our bound
less Confederacy, the revived relic of ages
gone, banner of our king of few days and
full of trouble. And that pole in its taper
ing uprightness testifying some of The
grandest beauties Of our nationality; It's
peak pointing hopefully toward the tropical
stars, and its biggest end run in;o the
ground. Relic and pole-goodbye. IT'S
best the conscript goes; has claim to chiv-
airy has gone before m. Behind he leaves
the Legitimate chivalry of this unbounded
nation centeTed in the illegitimate son of q
Kentucky horse;hief
But few mora words, ilustrious Presi
dent, and he is done-done gone.
Elevated by their sufferings and suffera
ges to the highest office in the gift of grea
and exceeding free people, you have held
your position without change Of base, o.
purpose of any sort, through weary month:
of war, and want, and woe; aud though ev
cry 'conscript would unite with the thou
sands of loyal and true men in the South ii
a grand old grief at your downfall, so too
will they sink under the calamity of an ex
quiste Joy when you shall have reachec
that eminent meridian whence all progress
is perpendicular.
And now, bastard President of pollica
abortion, farewell.
"Scalp hunters," relic, pole, and chival
rous Confederates in crime, good bye. Elk
cept it be in the army of the Union, yol
will not again see the conscript,
NORM HAROLD,
of Ashe county, North Carolina.