Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1866-10-20
THE NASBY PAPERS,.
His Professional Visit TO the ClcvSlan
Convention.
Posi- ORFIs, CoNFEDRIT X Road, J
(State NV Kentucky) 7
Sept. 20, 1866.

Sept. 20, 1856.
waz sent for to come to Washington
from my comfortable quarters at the Post
Offs, to attend the convenshun of such
soldiers and sailors NV the United States,
ez bleeve in the Union of SO States, and
who hev sworn allegiance to flag with
36 stars onto it, at Cleveland. My es-
teemed and lifelong friend and co-laborer,
the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, wuz to
hev bin the chaplin of the convenshun,
but he failed us, and it wuz decided in a
Cabinet meeting that shood take his
place. l didn't see the necessity NV hav
in a chaplin at every little convenshun uf
our party, and so stated, but Seward re-
marked, with groan, that if ever there
wuz party, since parties wuz invented,
wich needed prayin for, ours wuz that
party and parson, said he, glancing at
a list of delegates, eff you hev any agoni-
zin petitions, any prayers of extra feryen-
cy, offer them up for these fellers. Eff
there is any efficacy in prayer, it's my
honest, unbiased opinion that there new
er was in the history of the world, nor
never will be agin, such magnificent
chance to make it manifest. Try your
self particularly on Custar-tho' after all,
contlnyood he, in musin, abstracted
sort NV way wich he's fallen into lately,
the telleris such trifing being that he
reely kin hardly be held 'sponsible for
what he's doin, and the balance NV 'em,
good Heavens, they are mostly druv to
1t by hunger-and the Secretary maun-
dered Oh suthin about 60 days and 90 days,
payin no more attention to the rest NV US
then ez eff we wuzn't there at all.
So, receivin transportashen and suffi-
shcnt money from the secret service fund
for expenses, l departed for Cleveland,
and after tejus trip thro', an Ablishn
country 1 arrived there My thots were
gloomy beyond expression. l he'd re-
Gently gone through this same country
ez chaplin to the Presidential tour, and
eyey stashon had its peculiar unpleasant
remembrances. Here wuz where the
cheers for Grant were vociferous, with
nary snort for His eggslency-There
wuz where the peasantry laft in his face
when he went thro with the regular rit-
ooel Nv presentin the constitooshn and
the flag with SO stars onto it, to district
assessor-there wuz-but why recount
my sufferings? Why harrow up the pub
lie bosom or lacerate the public mind !?
Suffice to say endoored it-suffice to say
that had strength to ride up Bank street
in Cleveland, the scene NV most awful in
suit the eggsecutive ever received. The
evenin arrived the delegates, sich ez
wuz on hand, held informal meetin' to
arrange matters so ez they wood work
smooth when the crowd finally got to-
gether. Gen. Wool wuz ez gay and fiis-
ky as though he RELY belonged to the
last generashun; there wuz Custar uf
Michigan, with his hair freshly oiled and
curled, and buzzin about ez though he
he'd cheeted hisself into the beleef that he
RELY amounted to suthin, and there wuz
seventy-eight other men who he'd distin-
guished themselves in the late war, but
who he'd never got their deserts, ceptin
by brevet, OWN to the fact that the Ad-
ministrashun was ablishun, wich they
wuzn't They were, in pecuniary pint
nv view, suthin the worse for wear, tho
why that shood hev bin the case Icoodcnt
see, (they hevin bin, to an alarmin extent,
quartermasters and commissaries and in
the recrooting service), till notist the
prevailin color NV their noses, and heerd
one NV them ask his neighbor ef Cleve-
land wuz blest with a faro bank? Then
| knowd all about it. There wuz another
pekooliarity about it wich for a time
amoozed me. Them ez wuz present di-
vided into 2 classes-those ez he'd bin re-
Gently appinted to posishens and them
ez expected to be shortly. noticed on
on the cOuntenances nv the first class
a look NV releef, sech ez hev seen in
factories Saturday night, after the hands
wuz paid off for hard weeks work, andon
the other class the mc st wolfish, hungry,
fierce expression hev ever Witnessed
Likewise, notist that the latter set NV
patriots talked more hefty NV the neces-
sity uf sustainin the policy NV our firm
and noble President, and damned the
Ablishunists with more emphasis and fer
vency than the others
One enthusiastic individual, who he'd
bin quartermaster two years, and he'd bin
allowed to resign .est after the battle,
mother wich, hevin his papers all destroy
ed, made setlin with the Government a
easy matter, wuz so feroshus that felt
called upon to check him. Gently my
friend, sed /, gently / hev bin 'thro'
this thing-I hev my commission. 1t
broke out on me jest ez it hez on yoo, but
yoo wont git yoor Assessorsbip mint
sooner for it.
1t amt Assesorship Iwant, sez he,