La sentinelle de Thibodaux. [volume] (Thibodaux, La.) 1861-1866, 1866-02-10
letter From Bill Arp, to
His Friend, John Happy.
(From the Nashville Banner, 3d.

Mr.. John Happy-sir: ! want to write
to you personally about som g things that's
weighin' on me. / look upon you as a
friend. and I feel like droppin a few lines
by way of unburthee min my sorrowful re-
fexions. For the last few years you have
travelled round right smart and must have
made a heap Of luminous observations.
hear you are now Twin in Nashville,
where you can seesall sides Of everything
and read all the Iapers ; where you can
study Paradise lost without a book and
see the Devil and his angels without
drawn on the imagination, and I thought.
may be you might ASSISTING in my troubled
feelings. | have nlways,M Mr.. Happy, en-
dcavored to see the bright side Of every
pikter if it had any. but there is one or
two spbiecks about which ! had mighty
nigh gin it up.
4 want you to- tell me if you can, about
what tirne are the black republicans goin
to quit persecutin our people? What
ale they SO everlastin mad with us about?
Old Skewball says its for Treason thsts
we've gone and done, and that / am the
slowest pereeivin man he eyer seed not
TO have found It out.
Now treason is q nifty big thing, any
man found guilty of treason ought tosbe
talked tobysa preacher right under a gall
lus, and then be allowed to stand on
nothin for q few hours blythe clock. Shore
enuff Treason / mean. Treason where a
man slips around on the sly in time of
war, and takes sides again his country.
just as though, for instance. I should
have worked agin my surviyin State after
she had seeded, and had stole her powder
or deserted her in time of peril, willie she
was dcfendin herself agin the combined
assaults of the world, the flesh and the
devil. I wouldn't have blamed nobody
for hangin me for the like. would you?
But Skewball says we ,ain't got no suv-
reen States-that the wal hay settled the
question agin us on that pint; I don't
think so, my friend. admit that we amt
nothin in partikler now but we did have
suvreen States before the war, and the
sword amt settled nor nnsettIed no great
principles. EThore amt no trial Of right
or wrong by wages Of battle now a days.
For mighty~nigh q hundred years this
country hay been d big debatin society on
the questions. From the time Of Hamil-
ton and Jefferson down to 1861, the right
Of q State to dissolve her own partnership
hay been argued bypowerful minded men,
anhthefel has been more for il than aginit.
More Presidents, more Senators, more
Statesmen, more. judges, more people.
Massachusetts and Connecticut were fur
it at n time, and belleNd round and
paved dirt amazin tu git out, but they
found ont Barcus was wiIlin and they
didnt so. i believe, however, that old
Nusmeg didistay out about two hours and
a half. -
Well, the Bputff went out nifty unwillin-
". Mi. Happy. as you know. She had
been mighty nigh kickedout for d long
time, and there was d big party that
wanted us to 60. ont and stay of,t. Every
body knows that we dident cit along III
peace. so We conolndea to do like Abrn-
ham and his brother in-law; to separate
ourNhouseholds. What theyzwanted to
keep us for, I never scoulassee, and can't
see yt. I wouldent have q niger or d.
dog to stay round me that / dident want
to. Some say they wanted us to strengths
en- EN- agin their Ell emnies III case Of d Turin
war. Does any man in his senses EXPECT
psto help,the black republicans whip any
body! Have we got any Herse enemies
than they-ar q. Theycant9nako lis fight
reckonif We don't want to. Nc.ee. foat
E1 - 1870 a EZEHEuEEAL ErHaEM