Year: 1866

! FRIEND DUNnAM: After a long absence
from an active participation in the exciting
civil contest now happily ended, there was at
least one of your old readers who hailed your
rcappearancc with delight. The "Van Buren,
Press had earned for itself awide reputation
as journal, whose conduct was characters
ed by ability and correct common sense. Ma
ny of your old friends in the county apply to
me regularly for the privilege of reading the
Press They yet feel too poor to subscribe,
but will doubtless do so, as soon as their cir
cumstanccs will allow. shall omit no Op-
portunity to assist you.


Werejoice to see you thus early lead off in
the advocacy of internal improvement in Ar
kansas. 1t is certain that nothing but the
completion of railroad from Memphis to
TT. Smith or Van Buren, thus penetrating the
heart of the State can ever advance us to a full
communion with the intelligent and enterpri-
sing spirit of the age. We are behind the
whole world. and the " star of empire in its
occidental march. seems not to have bestowed
one ray of its benignant light upon poor. be-
nirhted. bcwidered Arkansas. What is the
matter? The old State and Real Estate Banks
are the matter. In Western Arkansas, Col.
John j. Shoemaker is the matter. AT Little
Rock politics and the public crib are the mat
ter. And all over the State, doubt and sus-
picion, sloth and neglect, Independent, purse
proud wealth and pinching poverty, have all
conspircd to make us hold back, to benumb
our faculties, and to render us Indifferent. or
ignorant upon the only means by which the
people may become intelligent and wealthy,
! and the State made prosperous and powerful.
1t Is therefore, to be hoped that with the new
civilization that has caught us up in its cur
rent. we may take new start in the race to-
ward Destiny. Upon the press Of the State
must devolve the task ofarousing the dormant
energies of the people. Let us doff the old
habit and put on the new. Let the fields
laugh, and the hammers ring. Let the hidden
riches of our mountains be brought forth and
offered up Il smoking sacrifice and let the val
leys, touched by the tructifying hand of the
husbandman. grow big with fatness and yield
up the treasures of their wombs.


The condition of this part of the country Is.
under all the circumstances very encourage
ing. All of the old citizens who had fled
North and South during the reign of terror,
before and after the Federal occupation, have
returned to their homes and are now earnest
ly engaged in making crops. They have, by
the exercise of rigid economy, enough to live
on until the crops arc made, and as they have
no Bureau" in this country to go to. there
are, naturally enough. no drdrers. This Is a
happy circumstance for lis; for, from what
saw at Fort Smith and the surrounding coun-
try, during recent visit to that city, | am
persuaded that the Bureau Is an unmitiga-
ted nuisance. In this connection, may state
that the recent action of President johnson In
yctoing the Frcedman's Bureau Bill, meets
with universal and unqualified appreciation
from all classes. Both Loyal "and Recon
structed,' meet heartily together on that


plank. Politics are ratherin quiescent state,


yet 1t Is amusing to witness the awkward
e grmmaccs, the ill-concealcd mpatiencc and
= chagrin, and to hear the muttered curses of
=. the constructed" who fought for the preser-
ration Of the Union They would very natu-
! rally expect to enjoy the well-carned fruits of
e their labor. They Ito not understand their
:. exclusion from the participation in the gencr-


al government. do not pretend to under


stand 1t on any rational grounds, myself but
;, tits for them to solve the naughty problem.
Il You will agree with me that 1t Is time to
close. Popr.