"Swingin Round the Cirkle."
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
E I "SWINGIN 6 F r ROUND THE CIRKLE." 1 s S BY / E PETROLEUM V. NASBY, M LATE PASTOR OF THE CHURCH OF THE NEW. DISPENSATION, i ti- HIS EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENT, AND ii CHAkAIN TO x+ P.AT CONFEDERATE X ROADS, KENTUCKY. U) '4 t f HIS IDEAS OF 1 j MEN, POLITICS, AND THINGS, 1; F. s- r' AS SET FORTH IN HIS LETTERS TO THE PUBLIC PRESS, DURING THE YEAR 1866. U)' z Illustrated by Thomas Nast. i BOSTON: SHEPARD. li LEE AND 1867. 6, 1: "l A t DEDIKASHUN UV THIS BOOK. TO ANDROO JOHNSON, THE PRIDE AND HOPE UV DIMOCRISY, Who hez bin Alderman uv his native village, Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by Guvner uv his State, LEE AND SHEPARD, Member uv the lower house uv Congress, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. And likewise uv the Senit, Vice President and President, and might hev bin Diktater, But who is, nevertheless, a Humble Individooal; Who hez swung around the entire cirkle uv oflishl honor, without feelin his Oats much; The first public man who considered my services worth payin for; AND TO 3 ALEX. W. RANDALL, POSTMASTER GENRAL, His most devoted Servant, Whose autograph adorns my Commishn ez Postmaster, This Volume STEREOTYPED AT -THE Is RESPECTFULLY DEDIKATED. BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY. 4 Spring Lane. I ~ C ON T E NTS. I T rAOG PREFIS, OR INTERDUCTRY CHAPTER, ... I. -- AFTER THE NEW JERSEY E LECTION, . 13 II. CONVERSES WITH GENERAL MCSTING ER;. 19 III. - A REMARKABLE DREAM..... 27 IV. -A CHANGE OF BASE-KENTUCKY,. 33 V. -- ABOLITION IN KENTUCKY,........ .41 VI. -A CONVERSATION WITH A KENTUCKIA N, . 47 VII. - A VISION - SPIRIT OF ANDREW JACKS ON, - 53 VIII. - A PLAN FOR UP-BUILDING THlE DEMO CRACY, 6o IX. - A VISION OF THE NEXT WORLD, 66 X. -A SONNET, ... .... .73 XI.- THE SITUATION-THE DEMOCRACY ARNED, 74 XII.- THE PRESIDENT'S 22D OF FEBRUARY SSPEECH, 79 XIII. - A WARNING,......... 87 XIV. - REFUSES TO SUPPORT THE PRESIDE NT, . .92 XV. -THE PATRIARCHAL SYSTEM, 98 XVI.-A DREAM, ... .. ... 105 XVII.-A KENTUCKY TEA PARTY, (.) II2 -a(5) 'r ,_ ,, " 6 CONTENTS. PAGE XVIII. - A CRY OF EXULTATION,...... 120 XIX. - A WAIL OF ANGUISH,....... 127 XX.- MOURNFUL VIEW OF THE SITUATION, '33 - XXI. - A PSALM OF GLADNESS,.... 138 PREFIS, XXII. - A DISCOURSE VPON THE NIGGER, 143 XXIII. - WORKINGS OF THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU, 150 OR XXIV. - PRESIpES AT A CHURCH TRIAL, 158 INTERDUCTRY CHAPTER. XXV.-MEETING TO INDORSE GEN. ROSSEAU, 164 XXVI. -PREACHES -THE "PRODIGAL SON," 170 XXVII. -A PLEASANT DREAM,......... '77 -THE REWARD. OF VIRTUE,..... K; XXVIII. 187 T HERE is a vacancy in the mind uv the public XXIX.- THE CONVOCATION AT PHILADELPHIA,. 196 for jist sich a book ez this, else it had never bin XXX.-THE GREAT PRESIDENTIAL EXCURSION, 205 published. There is a vacancy in my pockit for the XXXI. -THE PRESIDENTIAL TOUR CONTINUED, 214 _ }, . money I am to reseeve ez copy-rite, else I hed never ,, ~ XXXII. -END OF THE PRESIDENTIAL TOUR, 222 , ( - ''%F slung together, in consecootive shape, the ijees wich _ ' i XXXIII.-AT HoMiE AGAIN, . ...... 229 ' ,' ,s< a I hev from time to time flung out thro the public . C e XXXIV.-THE CLEVELAND CONVENTION, . , ; s 237 i - i=°tiz4 press, for the enlitenrment uv an ongrateful public t t+' Zf XXXV.-AN APPEAL TO iHE PEOPLE, .... 246 n¢; and the guidance uv an obtoose Dimocracy. ti" g3 _1 f XXXVI.-THE OCTOBER ELECTIONS,....'.... 254 = I didn't put these thots uv mine upon paper for ' y XXXVII. -MR. NASBY'S OPINION ON THE CAUSE OF U'S amoozement. There hezn't bin anythin amoozin in THE PRESIDENT'S DEFEAT, . 261 Dimocrisy for the past five years, and the standard- XXXVIII. - ANDREW JOHNSON PRESIDENT OR KING? 269 bearers, the captins uv fifties and hundreds, the XXXIX.- A CABINET MEETING,.... 276 leaders uv the hosts, hev hed a ruther rough time uv XL. - SERMON ON THE NOVEMBER ELECTIONS, 284 it. Our prominence made us uncomfortable, for we XLI. -A FEW LAST WORDS,....... 291 hey bin the mark uv every writer, every orator, ez 1 ( ) t f t ' ARE v f4 _ t . - ;j2 8 PREFIS, OR '.3t INTERDUCTRY CHAPTER. 9 well ez uv every egg-thrower, in the country. When money cz wuz nessary to my existence, preferrin to that gileless patriot, Jeems Bookannon, retired to pri- squander it upon bread and clothes for the children, vate life, regretted by all who held ofliceunder him, - twict, I say, I wuz pulled into the servis, and twict Dimocracy felt that she wuz entrin upon a period uv I wuz forced to desert to the Dimocrisy uv the south, darknis and gloom. The effort our Suthern brethren rather than fite agin em. When finally the thumb made for their rites, rendered the position, uv us uv my left hand wuz acksidentally shot off, owin to Northern Dimocrats eggstremely precarious. We my foot becomin entangled into the lock uv, my gun, coodent go back on our friends South,. for, known ..i wich thumb wuz also accidentally across the muzzle that peace must come, and that when it did come we thereof, and I wuz no longer liable to military dooty wood hev to, ez ita the olden time, look to them for and cood bid Provost Marshels defiance, I only support and maintenance, it behooved us to keep on, steered clear uv Scylla to go bumpin onto Charybdis. their good side. This wood hev bin easy enuff, but I coodent let Dimocrisy alone, and the eggins - the alars! there are laws again treason, and two-thirds ridin upon rails -- the takin uv thc oath - but why uv the misguided people north hed got into a way shood I harrow up the public buzzum? I stood it uv thinkin that the Dimocrasy South had committed all till one nite I wuz pulled out uv bed, compelled that crime,. and they intimated that ef we overstepped to kneel onto my bare knees in the cold snow, the the line that divides loyalty from treason by so much extremity uv my under garment, wich modesty for- ez the millionth, part uv a hair, they'd make us suffer. bids me to menshun the name uv it, fluttrin in a the penalty they hoped to mete out to them, but Janooary wind, and by a crowd uv laffin soljers wich, owin to Johnson, they dident, and wat's more, competed to take the oath and drink a pint uv raw, can't. Halleloogy! undilooted water!1 That feather broke the back uv But I anticipate. Twict I wuz drafted into a. ser- the camel. The oath give me inflamashen. uv the vice I detested -twict I wuz tgrn from the buzzum brane and the water inflamashen uv the stumick, my family, wich I wuz gittin along well enough,. uv and for six long weeks I lay, a wreck uv my former even ef the wife uv my buzzum wood occasionally e self. Ez I arose from that bed and saw in a glass git obstinit, and refooze to give me sich washin the remains uv my pensive beauty, vowed to wage .' ffh Io0 PREFIS, 4R INTERDUCTRY CHAPTER. I I " yJ, a ar9 unceasii war on the party wich caused sich havoc, minds, whenever they git into argument with any- and I hey kept my oath. body, ef the individooal gits the better uv them, they I hev . .. G+7 bin in the Apossel biznis more extensively to-wunst shoot him cz a disturber. Hence Massy- than any man sence the time uv Paul. First I I.-yn choosits can't disturb us here; the populashen is established a church uv Democrats in a little oasis I unanimously Democratic, and bids fair to contin- diskivered in the ablishn state uv Ohio, to wit, at yoo so. C Wingert's Corners, where ther wuz four groceries,- r e1''r. Here I hope to spend the few remainin years iv a but nary church or skool-house within four miles, eventful life. Here in the enjoyment uv that end uv MS and whose populashen wuz' unanimously Dimo- "p., f the hopes uv all Democrats, a Post Offis, with four ic 7kS'' cratic, the grocery keepers hevin mortgages on all well-regulated groceries within a stun's throw, and the land around - em 4 but alars! I wuz forced to klt a distillery ornamentin the landscape only a quarter leeve it after the election of Linkin in 1864. Noo uv a mile from where I rite these lines, with the Gersey bein the only state North wich wuz on- ( I;, * i3pt ruins uv a burnt nigger school house within site tiv rf squelched, to her I fled, and at Saint's Rtest (wich is Rr my winder, from wich rises the odor, grateful to a in Noo Gersey) I erected another tabernacle. There Democratic -nostril, and wich he kin snuff pfar off, I stayed, and et and drank and wuz merry, but and say ha! ha! to, uv a half dozen niggers wich Ablishnism pursood me thither, and in the fall uv 'SWa wuz consumed when it wuz burned, wat more kin I '65 that state got ornery and cussid, and went want? I feel that I am more than repaid for all my 1blishn, and agin, like -the wandrin Jew. I wuz- suffrins, and that I shel sale smoothly down the forced to pull up, and wend my weary way to Ken- stream uv time, unvexed and happy.