Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1865-11-21


py hit in letter to Artemius Ward, has
written the following in the same strain on
the state of the country:
| [FxoN THE Roo.E CoURIER.l
Bill Arp on the State or the Country.
''Sweet land of Liberty, Of thee sing.";
Not much don't, not at this time If
there's anything sweet about liberty in this
rpart Of the vineyard, can't see it. The
lands good cnuf and 1 wouldn't mind hearin
ahyme or two about the dirt live on, but
as for tiEdin sugar and liberty in Gcorgy soil,
it's all q mistake. Howsumever, I'm hope
ful. I'm much calmer and sereeuer than 1
was few months ago. begin to teel kindly
towards all people, exsept some. I'm nov
endeaverin to be great national man. I've
taken up mott0e of no North, no South, no
! East, 70 West; but let ne tell you, my
! friend, III bet on Dixie as long as I've got a
dollar. Its no harm to run both skcdules.-
In takt its highly harmonious to do So I'm
q good Union rcb, and my battle cry are
| Dixie and the Union.
But you sec, my friend, we are gettin rest
less about some things. The war had bekum
nifty heavy on us, and after the big collapse,
we thought it was over for good We had
killed folks and killed folks until the novelty
OF the thing had wore off, and we were mighty
nigh played out all over.
Children were increasin and vittels dimin-
ishin. BY . close calculashun it was pur-
sccved that we didn't kill our enemies as fast
as they was imported, and about those times
l thought it was pity that some mirakle of
grace hadn't cut off the breed of furriners
some IS or 20 years ago. Then you would
have seed a far fight. Gen. Sherman would mt
have walked over the track, and Ulysses would
have killed more men than he didE-of has
o'cn side. I have always thot, that General
ought to be pcrtIkler which side he was
sacriisin.
We'll, if the war is over, whats the use of
| til!n up our towns and cities with soldiers any
longer Where's your Reconstruction that
the papers say is going on so rapidly?-
| Where's the liberty and freedom? The takt
is, General Sherman and his catterpillars
made such a clean sweep OF everything, l
don't see much to Reconstruct. They took
SO many liberties around here that there's
nary liberty left. l could have Reconstructed
thousand sich States before this ANY
body could. There wasn't nuthin to do but
| jest to go off and let us alone We've got
| plenty yStatesmcn-plcnty men for Governor.
Joe Brown aiu't dead--he's waitin-
Standin ut the door with his hat off Then
what's the soldiers here 1or--what good are
they doin-who wants to see 'em any logger.
| Everybody is tired Of the war and we don't
want to see any more signs of it. The Mig
gers don't want EN-. and the white men don't
lya1t SeHs and as. for the sYimen -whooaee-
I go1Iy! Wen, there no use taiking-when
the stars fall agin maybe the wimen will be
harmoni2cd. That male business that oath
about gttin letters! Gec-tiger. They always
was jealous about the males anyhow, and
that order just broke the camcls back
Well, must confess that it was powerful
small concern. I would try to sorter s.noothe
it over if knowd what to say, but don't.
If they was afeered of the wimen why didn't
they say so. If they s'nt what do they
make 'em swear for. Jest to aggrevate 'em?
Didn't they know that the best way to har-
monize n man, was to harnOnize his wife
first? What harm can the wimcn do by re,
ceIvin their letters oath free? They can't
vote, nor they can't preach, nor hold offs,
nor play soldier, nor muster, nor wear pants,
nor ride straddle, nor cuss, nor chaw terbacker,
nor do nuthin hardly but talk and write let
tcrs. l hearn that a valcnt kernel made o,
Woman put up her fan bcka,lse it had plkte,:
| Of BOrygard 'p6n it. Well, she's harmon
lied, Iecl;on. Now the trouble of all sic'h
is that after tkesa bayOucts leave here and so
home, these pettycoat tyrants can't come baC X
| any more Better let the wimcn alone
| Then there is another thing I'm waitin f]r.
| Why don't they RECONSTRUCT the niggcrs if
they are ever goin to! They've give 'enl
| powerful site Of freedom, and very little else
Here's the big treedmcn's buro, and the little
| burOs all over the country, and the papers
arc full Of grand orders and special orders.
and paragrats, but III bet a poSsum some of
| EN- steals my wood this winter or freezes to
| death. Frccdmcns buro treodmcn's hum
! bug, [ say. Jest when the corn needed
! plowin the worst, the buro rung the bel end
tolcd all the niggcrs to town, and the farmers
| lost the crops; and now the freedmen is yet
tin cold and hungry, and wants to 90 back,
! and there amt uuthin for them to 20 to
! But freedom is big thing. Uur raw for
freedoms burO Sweet land of lib erty, of
thee l don't sing! But it's all right I'm
for freedom myself. Nobody wants any more
| slavery. If the aboishunists had left US
alone VIC would have fixed it up right; a long
time ago, and we can fix it up now. The
burO amt fixed it, and it aint a goin to. It
don't know anything about it. Our people
have gCta heap more tcelin for the oor Mig
ger thar any abOllshurist. We are as poor
as job, brt III bet dollar we can ra ise more
money in Rome to build a niger churck
than they did in Bostown. The papers say
that after goin around for three We eks, the
Bostown christins raised thirty-seve dollars
to build a niger church in Savannah
They are powerful on theory, but mighty
scace in practice.
But its 70 use talkin. Everybody will
know by waitin who's been foold. Mr. John
son says he's gwine to experiment, that's all
he can do row-its ell any body can do. Mr.
Johnson's heads level. I'm for him, and
everybody ought to be for him-only he's
powerful slow about some things. 1 amt q
worshipPin him. He never made me. ]
hear folks hollowin hurraw for Andy John.
son, and the papers say, oh he's for US, he's
all right, he's our friend. Well sposc he is,
L l.. l. l