Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1889-02-28

snOukh 70 present myself IN one or
two respects e an example TO the
younger generation. ! never drank
enough Of any beverage to become the
least intoxicated, and never in my
long life Of eighty-two years have ]
taken for drink q single glass Of what
10 called spirisstoss liquor. I do and
will continue 10 boast Of this. .ey-
er INDUCED in the use Of tobacco bet
once. When about eight years old,
seeing some whom / considered g,eat
gentlemen pulling away. thought /
would be > gentleman too, and took
my black mammas pipe. filled it with
tobacco and went to work vigorously
upon it. You may readily infer the
effect it had when ! say I never in
dulged but that once in that very
fashionable habit. In these remarks
! wish to impress upon the young that
drinking liquor and smoking or chew
ing tobacco are not necessary attend
ants upon fun, frolic or amusement of
any kind whatever. / attribute my
unimpaired constitution and general
good health to having kept clear Of
these habits altogether. Indeed. my
health is 50 good that at present / see
no reason why I should not live as
leng as Moses. have had and still
have a lot Of trouble, but Moses had
many more; his chief trouble, howev-
er, was caused by his rebsllious Israe-
lites and ours by the much more re-
bellieus Yankees; the one set defied
the commands of God and the other
repudiated both Gods commands and
those Of the Constitution of the Uni
ted States. The curse of God fell
upon the first and it will as certainly
fall upon the latter, and they well
know it, unless they repent and relent.
You will observe then that, although
an octogensrian, / am sound in mind,
memory and body, but the estate is
greatly below par. and has Leen grow
ing more and more so from the time
of the raid of the Northern hordes
upon my property and that of many
of our fellow-cltizens. They have
made destructive assault land de-
signed too) upon the citadal of prop
erty which will assuredly rebound
upon them. The anarchists, socialists
aud strikers are in their midst and
can draw strong argument from
their unconstitutional and tyranical
course towards US. What sh II we do
when their fear cometh ?"-laugh or
be sorry?
| had fifty slaves. as well cared for,
as contented and faithful laborers and
kind friends as any laborers in the
Northern factories; they were by Con-
situations and laws my undoubted pro-
pertY; there were over four thousand
slaves in this county, owned and held
by the same tenure by which / held
mine. Who took them and carried
them into the camps Of the government
and into its possession Government
soldiers, by comman1 of government
officers, the chief in command acting
und .r the order and approval of Lin
coins administration, Gen. Benjamin
I. Butler. Could this be done by
authority Of law? I presume so, If
taken and appropriated for public use.
Ii taken for public use they must be
paid for according to the Constitution
Of the United States, which all those
who engaged in taking this property
swcre they would obey and support
Have they been paid for? Hundreds
of voices of sufferers answer emphati-
cally, no. Citizens of our State owned
eighty-seven Thousand slaves, which,
at $500 each, the sum at which the
government estimated slave in the
District Of Columbia, would amount
to $26. 100000. Most of these citi-
zens are really suffering for this mon
ey due them; the Treasury of the Un
tied States 10 OVERLOOKING; the credit
Of the United States is immense; will
then the government pay or not pay .
Ifas hope and believe they will pay or
secure to be paid-no one will or can
say that they have not complied with
their constitutional obligations in this
respect. Ifthey determine not to pay,
then the words of the Const tuition
"that private property taken for pub
lie use shall be paid for brands the
charge of robbery upon their escut.
cheon forever.
A friend sent me DR.. Talmace's SER
mon delivered on Thanksgiving day,
which / read and reserved for com-
ment on some future occasion; this is
the proper one. His congregation, it
seems. had gathered about bis pulpit
the specimens OF the productions of
all the various States of the Union by
name except Maryland, which State
is left out. / suppose they thought
poor impoverished Maryland had bet
ter Keep what she had for home con-
sumption. They were right. and Sen
ator German never committed 4 more
giaring error than when he declared
lately in one of his speeches in the
Senate that agriculture was in pros:1
porous condition in our State. This