The Van Buren press., 1866-02-17
Bill Arp Addresses His Constituents.


on this occasion with profound admi
ration for the great consideration and the
nice discrimination which caused you to
honor me by your votes with seat in the
Seat of the Senate of Georgy. For two
mOmentOus and inspiring weeks the Leg
islature hav been in solemn session, one
of whom / am proud to be which. For
several days we were engaged as scouts,
making II sOrter rekon0ysance to see
whether GeOrgy were State or a Ihjun
territorv-whether we were in the old
Union or out of it--whether me aud my
foxes, and you and your foxes were some
body or nobody, and lastly, but by no
means leastly, whether our poor innocent
children, born during the war, were all IL
legal, and had to be born over again or
not This last pint are much unsettled,
but our women are advised to be calm
and screen. a-r .... -Aa F.
Nv friends, our aim hav honestly been
to Git you all back into the folds OF the
glorious old Union. Like the prodygal
son, We had nuthin to live on, and feelin'
lonesome and hungry, hay ben bowin and
scrapin and making apologys for five or
six months. We have ben seen standin
afur off for weeks and weeks, but durn
the caf do they kill for us. They know
we've got nuthin, for they eat our sub
stance, and as for putin rings on our
fingers, we couldn't expekt it until they
bring back the jewelry they carried away.
l cannot say, in the langwidge of the po-
| it, that our labor hav been labor of love.
for we've had monstrous poor encourage
ment to be shore; but we had all set our
heads towards the stars and stripes, and
We jintly determined that come weel, come
wO, sink or swim, survive or perish, thun
der or litenin, we'd slip back, or sneak
back, or git back somehow else, or we'd
stay out forever and ever amen, and be
hanged to them, 50 called, / golly.
Up to this time 1t hev been an up hill
bisness. The team was good one, and
the gear all souud, and the wagin greas
ed, but the road are, perhaps the ruffest,
rottinest cordyroy in the wurld. It's pull
up and scotch, and ever and anonymous
the skotch slips out, and the tung runs
round, and away we go into the gully
Andy Johnson is driver, and he says ''go
Slow" and he hOllers, "Wo VIC" !" and
loses the rode, and then we have to go
back to the fork till he blazes the way.
He seem to be doing his best. but then
thar is Sumner and Satan, and Stevens
and Davis, and other like gentlemen who
keep hollering at him, and crackin his
whip, and confusin his idees SO that sum-
times we don't know whether he's gein'
Or hawin. My friends, about them fellers
l don't know what l ort to say. If you
do, or if anybody does, wish they would
say it. don't encourage cussin in no
body, not at all, but eff you know of a
man that can't be cured Of it durin his
material life, it mont be well to hire him
by the year. If ther is in all history a
good eXkuse and proper subjeck, it is
upon them heartless, soulless, gizzardless,
fratisidel, suisidel, parasidel sistelsidel,
abominabul, contemptibul, disgustible in
divduals, ! sometimes think Of 'em till
my brain gets somewhat added, and |
feel like becomin volunteer convict of
a lunatic asylorum. Charity inclines me
to the opinyun that old Sumner are era
zy think he has ben CROWN wurse,
ever since he took Brooks on the brain,
and it do seem that the disease has prov
ed contagious. If they are for peace, it
must be the peace that passeth all under
standin, for we can't tathom it in these
regions. They fout us to free the poor
niger, but didn't keer for the Union
The Western boys fout us for the Union,
and didn't keer for the Niger. BY dou-
bic teamin on us, they licked us, and we
give it up; but now the one don't want
our niggars, and the other don't want t
our Union, and it's the hardest skedulc
to please them both that poor vanquish-
ed peopul ever undertook. Its the most
hardest war to wind up that history re-
kords. Sumner, Satan and Company are
still fnssing and fumin about the everlas-
ting nigga want him to vote, make laws,
and squat on q jewry, and want to per-
hibit us rebels from dOin the same for
thirty years to come. Jerusalem ! where's
the cussin man !? They say it's albright
for niger not to vote in Connecticut,
bekus there amt but few Of em thar, and
it's all wrong for EN- not to vote in Geor-
gy, bekause there's heap of EN- here,
and they take Lpgik and Retorik amazin
to prove it, Well, haint got q whole