Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1866-02-01
rsill Arp TO His Old Friend.

] MIR. JOHN l1APPN-SuR! i want to
write to you personally about some things
that's wcighn on me. look upon you as
a friend, and feel like droppin few lines
by way of unburthenin my sorrowful reflex
tions. For the last few years you have trav-
eled round right smart and must have made
a heap of luminous observations. | hear
you are now lvin in Nashville, where you
can see all sides of everything and read all
! the papers where you can study Paradise
Lost without book, and see the Devil and
4 his angels, without drawing on the imagi-
nation, aud thought maybe you might as
sist me in my troubled feelings. have al.
ways, Mr.. Happy, endeavored to see the
bright side of every pikter if it had any,
but there is one or two subjecks about which
| had nigh gin it up.
want you to tell me if you can, about
what time are the black republicans gon to
quit persecutin our people? w hat are they
SO everlastin mad with us about ? Old
Skewball says its fortreason that we've gone
and done, and that | am the slowest per-
secvin man he ever seed not to have found
it out
Now treason is nifty bad thing and any
man found guilty of treason ought to be
talked to by Il preacher right under gaus,
and then be allowed to stand on nuthin for
a few hours by the clock Shure enuftrc
son mean. Treason where a man slipes
around on the sly in time Of war and takes
sides agin his country. Just as though for
instance, | should have worked agin my
suvrin State artcr she had seeded, and had
stold her powder or deserted her in her time
Of peril, while she was defcndin herself
against the combined assaults Of the world,
the flesh and the devil. wouldn't have
blamed nobody for hanein me for the like,
would you? But Skewball says we aint got
no suvrean States-thnt the war hay settled
| the question agn Us on that pint. ! don
| think so my friend. | admit that we aint
nothin in partikler now, but we did have
suvrecn States before the war, and the sword
ant settled nor unsettled no great princi-
| pies There aint no trial Of right or wrong
by wager Of battles nova days. For nifty
nigh huslred years this country have been
a dcbatin society on these questions. From
the time Of Hamilton and Jefferson down to
1861, the right of II State to dissolve her
own partnership have been argued by
powerful minded men, and there has been
more for it than agin it. More Presidents
i more Senators, and more statesmen, more
judges and more people. MASSACHUSETTS
and Connecticut were for it at one time,
and bcllcred round and paved dirt amazin
to get out but they found out Barcus was
willn and they didn't go. believe, how
ever, that old Nutmeg did stay out about
two hours and half
Well the South went out nifty unwilling
ly, Mr.. Happy, as you know. She had
been nifty nigh kicked out for Il long time,
and there was u big party that wanted rs to
go out and stay out. Everybody knows we
ddn t get along in peace, so we concluded
to do like Abraham and his brother in law;
to separate our households. What they
wanted Us for never could sec, and cant
see yt. ! wouldn have n niger or dog
| to stay round me that didn't want to. -
Some say they wanted us to strengthen en-
agin their enemies in case ola furrin war.
Does any man in his scnces expect us to help
the black republicans whip anybody? Have
we got any worse enemies than they are p
They cant make US fight if we don't want to.
Il We've fout cnuf and made nothing by itbut
glory, and we amt going to jinc in another
war to crafty other people. Dodds says
before he 'dpulla trigger for Thad. Stevens,
he Il have his soul tranSmgratcd to bench
!, leg d liste, and bark at his daddy's mules
1000 years. ! wonder if the experience of
the last four years alnt satisfied these fellows
. that our boys are dangerous set to be
turned loose in time Of war. Wouldn' you
think, that, AS II matter Of policy, they
would sott-soddcr Us little and quit their
sanderin, 1--WE do fight for en-, there is
one thing ccrtain-thcy must be put where
p David put Uriah, and our boys mout con
sent to make charge or two behind EN- at
, the pint Of the bagnct
But want you to tell me, John, if | am
/ right about the history of this business. -
1t aint a long story aud I'll tell it the way
see it. Old Pcwrytan went otfonc day with
r some ships, and took a few beads and .iusc-
harps and brought up lot of captured mig
, gers from the ilOtentots or some other tots,
and stole a few more from the coast of Afii-
, ky and brought EN- over and educated en-
, to work III the field, and cut wood, and skccr
bars and so forth, but not includin votin nor
muStcrin nor the jury bisncss nor so forth.
Wen, after a while, they found that the
cold winds and Goldfish airs of New England
dident agree with the niger, and so they
begun to slide EN- down South as fast a,
! possible. After they had sold en- and got
, the money, they lined the church and got
Sanctllied about slavery, sorter ike the wo
man that got converted and then give all
, her novels away to her unconvcrtcd sister
= Well, the Old Dominion aud sich of hei
: sons as Washington, and Jefferson, and
- Madison, and Randolph, bought EN- ant
worked EN- to satisfaction, whcreupon old
/ Pew got jealous and began to preach agin i
. to break 1t down. The fikt l., they would
=. cnt work gals in their iaktoricS if it waren
50 profitable, for they are conScientiou,l,
= opposed to everything that don't put money
n IN their pockets. After while they went
: into the striped alamanak bisness, makir
bloody riktcrs of poor laSeratcd niggerS get
tin hundred lashcS for nuthcn, and mourn
IL for the first born because they were not
Then they started the stealth program, and
while We were tryin all the big courts ant
y little courts to cit back one silky mellattc
by the name of Drcd Skot, they were stealth
, from five to fifty day, and coverin thei
l carcaS>cS all over with nlgccr larceny, ant
; smugin the Constitution into an abolShur
muSh. They built fence around the insii
tuition rs high rs HamanS galluS, and hem
med it in, and laid Segc to it Jest like AT
army would bcSeSc city to Starvc out the
inhabitants They kept peggin at us unit
we got mad-Sho enuif mad-and we resolv
ed To cat loose from mand paddle our own
CanOo.
, Now, all this time we had some good
friends among em-Some who swore We
We're imposed upon, and said we had good
, cause to dissolve the partnership. They
said if We did Sccedc and the adjustment:
made war upon Us, they would stand by II,
q and throw their lives and fortunes and thci