Swingin Round the Cirkle Part 3

V.

The Effect the Proclamation of Secretary Seward produced in Kentucky.

CONFEDRIT ROADS (wich is in the Stait uv Kentucky), December 20, 1865.

At last! The deed is dun! The tiranikle government which hez sway at Washington hez finelly extinguished the last glimerin flicker uv Liberty, by abolishin slavery! The sun didn't go down in gloom that nite--the stars didn't fade in2 a sickly yeller, at wich obstinacy uv nachur I wuz considably astonished.

I got the news at the Post Offis (near wich I am at present stayin, at the house uv a venerable old planter, who accepts my improvin conversation and a occasional promise, wich is cheap, ez equivalent for board). Sadly I wendid my way to his peaceful home, dreadin to fling over that house the pall uv despair. After supper I broke to em ez gently ez I cood the intelligence that three-fourths uv the States hed ratified the constooshnel amendment--that Seward had ishood his proclamation, and that all the n.i.g.g.e.rs wuz free!

Never did I see sich sorrer depicted on human countenance--never wuz there despair uv sich depth. All nite long the bereaved inmates uv that wunst happy but now distracted home wept and waled in agony wich wuz perfectly heart rendin.

"Wo is me," sobbed the old man, wringin his hands.

"John Brown's karkis hangs a danglin in the air, but his sole is marchin on.

"It took posseshun of Seward, and thro his ugly mouth it spoke the words 'the n.i.g.g.e.r is free,' and there is no more a slave in all the land.

"Wunst I hed a hundred n.i.g.g.e.rs, and the men were fat and healthy, and the wenches wuz strong, and sum uv em wuz fair to look upon.

"They worked in my house, and my fields, from the rising uv the sun to the goin down uv the same.

"Wuz they lazy? I catted them till they wuz cured thereof; for lo! they wuz ez a child under my care.

"Did they run away? From Kentucky they run North, and lo! the Locofoco Marshals caught them for me, and brought them back, and delivered them into my hand, without cost, sayin, lo! here is thy n.i.g.g.e.r--do with him ez thou wilt (wich I alluz did), wich is cheeper than keepin dogs, and jest as good.

"Solomon wuz wise, for he hed uv konkebines a suffishensy, but we wuz wiser in our day than him.

"For he hed to feed his children, and it kost him shekels uv gold and shekels uv silver, and much corn and oil.

"We hed our konkebines with ez great a muchness ez Solomon, but we sold their children for silver, and gold, and red-dog paper."

And all nite long the bereaved old patriarch, who hed alluz bin a father to his servants (and a grandfather to menny uv em) poured out his lamentations.

In the mornin the n.i.g.g.e.rs wuz called up, and ez they all hed their koats on, and hed bundles, I spect they must hev heard the news. The old gentleman explained the situation to em.

"Yoo will," sed he, "stay in yoor happy homes--you will alluz continue to live here, and work here, ez yoo hev alluz dun!"

The n.i.g.g.e.rs all in korious, with a remarkable unanimity, remarkt that ef they hed ever bin introdoost to theirselves, they thought they woodent.

In fact, they hed congregated at that time for the purpose uv startin life on their own hook.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EFFECT OF THE EMANc.i.p.aTION PROCLAMATION IN KENTUCKY.]

A paroxysm uv pain and anguish shot over the old man's face. Nearest to him stood a octoroon, who, hed she not bin tainted with the accurst blood uv Ham, wood hev bin considered beautiful. Fallin on her neck, the old patriarch, with teers a streamin down his furrowd cheeks, ejackilated,--

"Farewell, Looizer, my daughter, farewell! I loved yoor mother ez never man loved n.i.g.g.e.r. She wuz the solace uv my leisure hours--the companion uv my yooth. She I sold to pay orf a mortgage on the place--she and yoor older sisters. Farewell! I hed hoped to hev sold yoo this winter (for yoo are still young), and bought out Jinkins; but wo is me! Curses on the tirent who thus severs all the tender ties uv nachur. Oh! it is hard for father to part with child, even when the market's high; but, Oh G.o.d!

to part thus--"

And the old gentleman, in a excess uv greef, swoonded away genteely.

His son Tom hed bin caressin her two little children, who wuz a half whiter than she wuz. Unable to restrain hisself, he fell on her neck, and bemoaned his fate with tetchin pathos.

"Farewell, farewell, mother uv my children! Farewell faro, and hosses, and shampane--a long farewell! Your increase wuz my perquisites, and I sold em to supply my needs. Hed you died, I cood hev bin resigned; for when dead you ain't wuth a copper; but to see yoo torn away livin, & wuth $2,000 in enny market--it's too much, it's too much!"

And he fainted, fallin across the old man.

"Who'll do the work about the house?" shreekt the old lady, faintin and fallin across Tom.

"Who'll dress us, and wash us, and wait on us?" shreekt the three daughters, swoonding away, and fallin across the old woman.

My first impulse wuz to faint away myself, and fall across the three daughters; but I restraned myself, and wuz contented with strikin a att.i.tood and organizin a tablo. Hustlin the n.i.g.g.e.rs away with a burnin cuss for their ingrat.i.tood, I spent the balance uv the forenoon in bringin on em too. Wun by wun they became conshus; but they wuz not theirselves. Their minds wuz evidently shattered; they wuz carryin a heavy heart in their buzzums.

Wood, Oh! wood that Seward cood hev seen that groop! Sich misery does Ablishinism bring in its trane--sich horrers follers a departure from Dimikratic teechins. When will reason return to the people? Eko answers, When?

PETROLEUM V. NASBY, Lait Paster uv the Church uv the Noo Dispensashun.

VI.

A Conversation with a Loyal Kentuckian, who had Faith in the final Triumph of Democracy.

CONFEDRIT ROADS (wich is in the Stait uv Kentucky), January 6, 1866.

I see a lite. Democricy is not that dead karkis its enemies hoped for and its friends feared. My noomerious friends here insisted that ez I wuz growin into the seer and yaller leaf, I shood abandon Dimocrisy, and flote with the current. I cant. Ez troo ez the needle to the pole, so am I to Dimocrisy. Young wimmin flock to marryins, middle-aged ones to bornins, and old ones to buryins, which shows concloosively to the most limited intelleck wat the mind uv each cla.s.s runs upon. So it is with me. To me Dimocrisy is wife, mother, and child.

I hev diskivered many things sense I hev bin in Kentucky--things wich elevated my deprest heart ez yeast does dough, wich filled my shrunken soul ez wind does a bladder.

The people uv Kentucky wuz all loyal. Doorin the horrible fratrisidle war wich hez rent the proud temple uv liberty into twain, they preserved a strict nootrality. I hed a conversation with wun old patriarch, who a.s.shoored me that he hed never taken sides.

Upon his honor, he a.s.shoored me that, after battles, he rifled the corpses uv both armies, impartially. "Cood any boddy be more nootraller than that?" he asked. "My sons," sed he, "wuz in the confedrit army.

This fact wood hev turned the affections uv a week-minded man in that direction; but when I thot uv the boys, I alluz thot also uv that gellorious star-spangled banner, under wich I hed whipped my n.i.g.g.e.rs and sold their children; under whose shadder I hed men servants, and made servants, and home-made servants born unto me. That banner hed bin my shield. Ef my n.i.g.g.e.rs run off, who so prompt in their pursoot ez the Democratic marshals, wich alluz returned em to me ef it wuz possible?

The instooshun wuz guaranteed to me by solemn compermises, wich we cood hev ez often ez we desired. Compermises wuz our best holt. Whenever we wanted anything, all we hed to do wuz to ask for it. The Ablishinists wood object, the Dimocrisy wood draw up a compermise, wich inklooded, ez a rool, twice or 3 times wat we asked, and pa.s.s it to save the Union.

Sich a Union wuz worth havin, and I opposed all efforts to dissolute it.

Hed the South succeeded, I shood hev gone with em; for Kentucky alone--the only n.i.g.g.e.r State in the North--wood hev bin helpless.

Scaldin tears hev I shed when contemplatin the horrors uv war; but I cood do nothin to avert it. Kentucky wuz loyal, but nootral."

I find down here that the loyal citizens uv Kentucky who hev returned from the confedrit service are not at all discouraged; on the contrary, they are hopeful. Sed one to me (I bleeve he wuz a Kernel under Gen.

Forest; indeed, I think he told me he partic.i.p.ated in the glorious victory at Fort Piller),--

"Why art thou cast down? Things is workin eggsackly to our hand."

In a mournful tone, I retorted that I failed to perseeve it.

"I kin," sez he. "Lookye, my venerable friend. Is the Northern Dimocrisy still troo?"