MR. SEWARD'S SPEECH.

mad a measure at this date, it would be impossible to execute it. Say what you will or what you may the States are already organized, in perfect harmony with our amended national Constitution, and are in earnest co-operation with the Federal Government. It would require an imperial will, an imperial person, and imperial powers greater than the Emperor of France possesses to reduce any one of these States with the consent of all the other States, into what you term a Territorial condition."

On the same day (February 22) a large meeting was held at New York to indorse "the general principles announced by the President in his Annual Message to Congress, and also his recent Veto Message." Resolutions were passed expressing an earnest desire to see the restoration of constitutional relations between all the States and the Federal tion Committee, as it is called, composed of fifteen mem"Congress," said Mr. Seward, "has had a ReconstrucGovernment; favoring the admission of loyal rep-bers, who have stopped the wheels of legislation three resentatives from the States lately in rebellion; ap-ent from that which is now on the eve of a happy conmonths to enable them to submit a process or plan differproving the course of the President, and pledging him "support in all proper measures for the restoration of constitutional government in all parts of the country." Apart from the influential character of those who took prominent parts in this meeting, it is of special importance from the fact that Mr. Seward, the Secretary of State, and Mr. Denison, the Postmaster-General, came from Washington expressly to speak at this meeting, indicating that a majority, if not all, of the Cabinet are in favor of the policy adopted by the President.

The general purport of Mr. Seward's speech was that "the difference of opinion that but too clearly reveals itself between the executive administration of the President and the legislative counselors of the nation" was not one of ends to be attained, but of means to accomplish those ends.

"Both," said Mr. Seward, "have got the Union restored as they originally planned it should be. They have got it restored, not with Slavery, but without it; not with secession, flagrant or latent, but without it; not with compensation for emancipation, but without it; not with compromise, but without it; not with disloyal States, or representatives, but with loyal States and representatives; not with rebel debts, but without them; not with exemp tion from our own debts for suppressing the rebellion, but with equal liabilities upon the rebels and the loyal men; not with freedmen and refugees abandoned to suffering and persecution, but with the freedmen employed in productive, self-sustaining industry, with refugees under the protection of law and order."

Mr. Seward apprehended no serious difficulty or calamity in this case; and this confidence arose from his conviction "that there never was and never can be any successful process for the restoration of union and harmony among the States except the one with which the President has avowed himself satisfied." The rebellion being dead, it follows that sooner or later all the States must be reorganized by loyal men, in accordance with the change in our fundamental law, and being so organized, must resume their places in the Union. "All the rebel States but Texas have done just that thing, and Texas is doing the same thing just now as fast as possible." Loyal representatives from nearly all of these States have been for three months asking to be admitted to seats in Congress. "So far as I can judge of human probabilities," said Mr. Seward, "I feel sure that loyal men from the now loyal States will, sooner or later, at this session or some other, by this Congress or some other, be received into the Legislature of the nation. When this shall have been done the process of restoration will be complete."

"Other plans," continued Mr. Seward, "have indeed been mentioned. They were projected during Mr. Lincoln's administration; they have been projected since. Briefly described, these plans have been such as this: that Congress, with the President concurring, should create what are called Territorial Governments in the eleven States which once were in rebellion, and that the President should administer the Government there for an indefinite period by military force, and that after long purgation they should be admitted into the Union by Congressional enactment. This proceeding was rejected by Mr. Lincoln, as it is rejected by the President. If it ever may have been practicable it is now altogether too late. If the President could be induced to concur in so

summation. And what have they given us? One proposed amendment to the Constitution, to compel the excluded States to equalize suffrage upon the penalty of an abridgment of representation. I do not discuss its merits. Either the amendment will or will not be adopted. The expectation is, that it will fail even in Congress. In any case it implies a full restoration of the Southern States. It is therefore no plan or process of reconstruction at all. proceeding, because they fall back upon a process not of The Committee prove this to be the true character of the restoration, but of obstruction. The resolution which they submitted Tuesday last, and which has passed the House of Representatives, directly declares that loyal representatives shall not be admitted from loyal States until Congress shall pass a law for that purpose-which law it would seem that every member who votes for it must know can not be enacted without the President's approval, which can not be consistently given in view of the opinions that he is known to entertain. This last concurrent resolution, then, is not a plan for reconstruction, but for indefinite postponement and delay by the concurrent action of the two Houses of Congress."

There was no chance, Mr. Seward thought, of the success of this system of obstruction. The history of the country had settled three things: First"No State can keep itself out of the Union, or keep itself in a Territorial condition under the Union." Second-" The States which are in the Union can not be taken or kept out of its limits; and this is the great lesson of the rebellion." Third"The States which are in the Union can not keep any States that are outside from coming in." The conflict between the President and Congress in reference to the Freedmen's Bureau Bill Mr. Seward thought of importance, mainly because it had revealed the differences between the President and Congress. These differences were thus stated:

He ve

"Both the President and Congress agree that, during the brief transition which the country is making from civil war to internal peace, the freedmen and refugees ought not to be abandoned by the nation to persecution or suffering. It was for this transition period that the Bureau of Freedmen was created by Congress, and was kept and is still kept in effective operation. Both the President and Congress, on the other hand, agree that and the harmonious relations between the States and the when that transition period shall have been fully passed, Union fully restored, that Bureau would be not only unnecessary but unconstitutional, demoralizing, and dangerous, and therefore that it should cease to exist. The President thinks that the transition stage has nearly passed, and that the original provision for the Bureau is all that is necessary to secure the end in view, while the bill submitted by Congress seems to him to give it indefitoed it for that reason....I agree with the President in nite extension in time of peace and restoration. the hope that the extraordinary provision which the bill makes will not be necessary, but that the whole question may be simplified by a simple reference to the existing law. The law of March 3, 1865, which created the Freedmen's Bureau, provides that it shall continue in force during the war of rebellion and one full year thereafter. When does that year expire? In the President's judg. ment, as I understand the matter, the war of the rebellion has been coming and is still coming to an end, but is not yet fully closed. It is on this ground that he maintains an army, continues the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, and exercises martial law, when these things are found to be necessary in rebel States. The existence of the rebellion was legally announced by Executive procla mation in 1861. The end of the rebellion ought to be, and may be expected to be, announced by competent declaration of the President and of Congress, or of both. For all practical purposes the rebellion will, in law, come to

must patiently bear and endure for a season with quiet and repose; we may get well, may get once more cn eur feet again. One thing is certain, that bad humor, ill temper, exhibited either in restlessness or grumbling, will not hasten it.

an end if the President or Congress, one or both, officially | inconveniences and privations. All these, however, we announces its termination. Now suppose this announcement to be made by the President and by Congress, or by either of them, to-morrow. In that case the Freedmen's Bureau is continued by virtue of the limitation prescribed in the act of March 3, 1865, one year after such proclamation shall have been made. Thus the Freedmen's Bureau would continue, by the original limitation, until the 22d day of February, 1867-a very proper day on which to bring it to an end. If Congress should then find it necessary to prolong its existence it can at once take the necessary steps, for it will at that date have been in session nearly three months.

"Ought the President of the United States," said Mr. Seward, in conclusion, "to be denounced in the house of his enemies-much more, ought he to be denounced in the house of his friends for refusing, in the absence of any necessity, to occupy or retain, and to exercise powers greater than those which are exercised by any imperial magistrate in the world? I trust that this fault of declining imperial powers, too hastily tendered by a too-confiding Congress, may be forgiven by a generous people. It will be a sad hour for the republic when the refusal of unnecessary powers, treasure, and patronage by the President shall be held to be a crime. When it shall be so considered the time will have arrived for setting up at the White House an imperial throne, and surrounding the Executive with imperial legions."

SPEECH OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.

Next to this, another great duty we owe to ourselves, is the exercise of a liberal spirit of forbearance among ourselves. The first step toward local or general harmony is the banishment from our breasts of every feeling and sentiment calculated to stir the discords of the past. On no occasion, and especially in the bestowment of office, ought such differences of opinion in the past ever to be mentioned either for or against any one otherwise entitled to confidence. Let all differences of opinion touching errors or supposed errors of the head or heart on the part of any in the past, growing out of these matters, be at once in the deep ocean of oblivion forever buried. Let there be no crimination or recrimination on account of acts of other days-no canvassing of past conduct or motives. Great disasters are upon us and upon the whole country, and without inquiry how these originated, at whose door the fault should be laid, let us now, as common sharers of common misfortunes, on all occasions consult as to the best means, under the circumstances as we find them, to se cure the best ends toward future amelioration. Good gov ernment is what we want. This should be the leading desire and the controlling object with all.

Objects of Secession.-Whatever differences of opinion existed before the late fury of the war, they sprung mainAlexander H. Stephens, Vice-President of the ly from differences as to the best man to be used and the best line of policy to be pursued to secure the great conlate Confederacy, delivered at Milledgeville, Geor-trolling object of all, which was good government. Whatgia, on the 22d of February, a speech on the present condition of affairs, especially as they relate to the State of Georgia. This speech has special importance from the fact that Mr. Stephens was chosen, against his wish, Senator in Congress; that the Speech was delivered at the express desire of the Legislature of Georgia, and has been officially sanctioned by that body. It may therefore be considered as an exposition of the sentiment of the people of that State, and in a measure, at least, of that of the thinking portion of the entire Southern people. We quote, abridging when possible, a few of the leading portions:

The Situation-We have reached that point in our affairs in which the great question before us is to be or not to be; if to be, how? Adversity is a severe school, a terrible crucible, both for individuals and communities. We are now in this school, this crucible, and should bear in mind that it is never negative in its action; it is always positive, is ever decided in effects, one way or the other. It either makes better or worse, either brings out unknown vices or arouses dormant virtues. The first indication of its working good is the manifestation of a full consciousness of its nature and extent; and the most promising grounds of hope for possible good from our present troubles, or of things with us getting better instead of worse, is the evident general realization on the part of our people of their present situation, of the evils now upon them, and of the greater ones still impending. Can the evils upon us, the absence of law, the want of protection and security of person and property be removed; and can those greater ones which threaten our very political existence be averted?

Duties. The first great duty I would enjoin at this time is the exercise of patience. Patience requires of those affected to bear, to suffer with fortitude, whatever ills may befall them. This is often the case, and especially is it with us now essential for their ultimate removal by any instrumentalities whatever. We are in the condition of a man with a dislocated limb or a broken leg, and a very bad compound fracture too, at that. How it was broken should not be with him a question of so much importance as how it can be restored to health, vigor, and strength. The knitting of the bones and the granulation of the flesh requires time. Perfect quiet and repose, even under the severest pain, is necessary; it will not do to make too great haste to get well; an attempt to walk too soon will only make the matter worse. We must, or ought now, therefore, in a similar manner, to discipline ourselves to the same or like degree of patience. I know how trying it is to be denied representation in Congress while we are paying our proportion of the taxes; how annoying it is to be even partially under military rule, and how injurious it is to the general interest of business of the country to be without post-offices and mail communications, to say nothing of divers other matters on the long list of our present

ever may be said of the loyalty or disloyalty of any in the late most lamentable conflict of arms, there was, on the part of the great mass of the people of Georgia, and of the entire South, no disloyalty to the principles of the Consti tution of the United States. With us it was simply a question as to where our allegiance was due in the maintenance of these principles; which authority was paramount on the last resort, State or Federal. As for myself, I can affirm that no sentiment of disloyalty to these great principles of self-government recognized and embodied in the Constitut.on of the United States, ever beat or throbbed in breast or heart of mine. It was with this view and this purpose that secession was tried. That has failed. Instead of bettering our condition, instead of establishing our liberty upon a surer foundation, we have, in the war that ensued, come well-nigh losing the whole of the rich inheritance with which we set out. Wars, and civil wars especially, always menace liberty-they seldom advance it, while they usually end in its entire overthrow and destruction. Ours stopped just short of such a catastrophe. Our only alternative now is either to give up all hopes of constitutional liberty, or retrace our steps and to look for its vindication and maintenance in the forums of reason and justice, instead of on the arena of arms; in the courts and halls of legislation, instead of on the fields of battle.

Means to be adopted.-Our surest hopes, in my judg. ment, of these ends are in the restoration policy of the President of the United States. I have little hope for liberty, little hope for the success of the great American experiment of self-government, but in the success of the present efforts for the restoration of the States to their former practical relations in a common Government under the Constitution of the United States.

Tests of Loyalty.-Another one of our present duties is this: we should accept the issues of the war, and abide by them in good faith. This, I am fully persuaded, it is your purpose to do, as well as that of your constituents. The people of Georgia have in Convention revoked her ordinance of 1861, which was intended to sever her from the compact of union of 1787. The Constitution of the United States has been reordained as the organic law of our land. Whatever differences of opinion heretofore existed as to where our allegiance was due during the late state of things, none for any practical purpose can exist now. Whether Georgia, by the action of her Convention of 1861, was ever rightfully out of the Union or not, there can be no question that she is now in, so far as depends upon her will; and I deem the whole United States there. fore is now without question our country, to be cherished and defended as such by all our hearts and by all our arms. The Constitution of the United States, and the treaties and laws made in pursuance thereof, are now ac knowledged to be the paramount law in this whole coun try. Whoever, therefore, is true to these principles is now recognized as loyal, as far as that term has any legitimate use or force under our institutions. This is the only kind of loyalty, and the only test of loyalty that the Constitu tion itself requires. All therefore who accept the issue of the war in good faith, and come up to the test required

by the Constitution, are now loyal, however they may have | be received with great allowance. heretofore been.

The Freedmen.-But with this change comes a new order of things. One of the results of the war is a total change in our whole internal policy. Our former social fabric has been entirely subverted. The relation heretofore, under our old system, between the African and European races, no longer exists. Slavery, or the status of the black race-their subordination to the whites, upon which all our institutions rested-is abolished forever, not only in Georgia, but throughout the limits of the United States. This change should be received and accepted as an irrevocable fact. It is a bootless question now to discuss whether the new system is better for both races than the old one was or not. Our present duty in regard to this subject is not with the past or the future. It is with the present.

This duty of giving this new system a fair and just trial will require of you, as legislators of the land, great changes in our former laws in regard to this large class of population. Wise and humane provisions should be made for them; ample and full protection should be secured to them so that they may start equal before the law in the possession and enjoyment of all rights of personal liberty and property. Many considerations claim this at your hands. Among these may be stated their fidelity in times past. They cultivated your fields, ministered to your personal wants and comfort, nursed and reared your children, and even in the hour of danger and peril they were in the main true to you and yours. To them we owe a debt of gratitude as well as acts of kindness. This should also be done because they are poor, untutored, uninformed, many of them helpless, liable to be imposed upon, and need it. All obstacles, if there be any, should be removed which can possibly hinder or retard the blacks to the extent of their capacity. All proper aid should be given to their own efforts. Channels of education should be opened up to them; schools and the usual means of moral and intellectual training should be encouraged among them.

The Union. My only hope is in the peaceful re-establishment of good government; and its peaceful maintenance is the restoration of the old Union, and with it the speedy return of fraternal feeling throughout its length and breadth. Let it not be said of us in this day, not yet passed, of our country's trial and agony, that there was a party for Caesar, and a party for Pompey, and a party for Brutus, but no party for Rome; but all patriots, by whatever distinction heretofore styled, rally in all elections. Every where to the support of him, be he whom he may, who bears the standard with Constitution emblazoned on its folds. President Johnson is now, in my judgment, the chief great standard-bearer of these principles, and in his efforts at restoration should receive the cordial support of every well-wisher of his country. In this consists really my only hopes. Should he be sustained, and the Government be restored to its former functions, all the States brought back to their practical relations under the Constitution, our situation will be greatly changed from what it was before. A radical and fundamental change, as has been stated, has been in that organic law. We shall have lost what was known as our peculiar institution, which so entertwined with the whole frame-work of our State body politic. We shall have lost nearly half the accumulated capital of a century, but shall have still left the essential of free government contained and embodied in the old Constitution, untouched and unimpaired, as they came shines on that offers better prospects under these contingencies. The old Union was based on the assumption that it was for the best interests of the people of the United States to be united as they were, each State faithfully performing to the people of other States all their obligations under a common compact. I always said that this assumption was founded on broad, correct, and statesmanlike principles. I think so yet. It was only when it seemed to be impossible further to maintain it without hazarding greater evils than would perhaps attend a separation that I yielded my assent, in obedience to the voice of Georgia, to try the experiment just resulting so disastrously to us. Indeed, during the whole lamentable conflict, it was my opinion that, however the pending strife might terminate, so far as the appeal to the sword was concerned, after a while when the passions and excitement of the day should pass away, an adjustment or arrangement would be made upon constitutional principles, upon a general basis of reciprocal advantage and mutual convenience, on which the Union was first established.

from the hands of our fathers. I know of no land the sun

SOUTHERN AMERICA.

From Mexico we have only accounts of isolated guerrilla contests, and these are so colored by the medium through which they pass that they must

Thus we are

told that on the 23d of January Mendez, a Juarist commander, captured near Tampico a train of merchandise worth half a million dollars, besides a thousand mules; and that subsequently he was attacked by the garrison of Tampico, and defeated, with the loss of 850 men, the Imperialists losing only 100. Another General Mendez, an Imperialist, is said to have gained a victory in the State of Michoacan, over the Republican commander Regules, killing many and capturing 600 prisoners, and all of the enemy's artillery and ammunition. The Imperialists claim several other successes in various parts of the country. On the other hand, it is said that the whole State of Sinaloa, with the exception of Mazatlan, is in possession of the Republicans. Simultaneously with the intelligence of the probable withdrawal of the French troops from Mexico come reports that the Emperor of Austria has offered to furnish his brother Maximilian with any number of Austrian troops, provided that he will pay them-a condition with which the present condition of the Mexican finances will render it hard to comply.

Chili and Peru have entered into an alliance, offensive and defensive, and Peru has declared war against Spain, and a Peruvian fleet has gone to unite with that of Chili. Meanwhile the Spanish fleet had concentrated near Valparaiso, and made an attack, in which they were repulsed, upon the garrison at Caldervilla.

FRANCE.

The session of the Legislative Bodies was opened on the 22d of January by the speech of the Emperor. It was much longer and more elaborate than is usual with royal speeches. Passing over the portions which relate to the internal affairs of the Empire, we notice briefly those which pertain to foreign affairs. Peace, says the Emperor, seems every where assured, for means are sought to overcome difficulties by friendly methods, instead of resorting to arms. The meeting of the French and English fleets in the same ports has cemented the accord between the two nations. With respect to Germany, the Emperor does not intend to meddle with questions in which France is not directly concerned. With respect to Italy, which has "affirmed her unity by inaugurating her capital in the centre of the Peninsula," there is reason to rely on "the indispensable maintenance of the power of the Holy Father." The most important paragraphs for us are the following, which relate to this continent:

"In Mexico, the Government founded by the will of the people is becoming consolidated; the non-contents, vanquished and dispersed, have no longer any leader. The national troops have shown their worth, and the country has found guarantees of order and security which have developed its resources and raised its commerce with France alone from twenty-one to seventy-seven millions. According to the hope which I expressed last year, our expedition is approaching its termination. I am coming to an understanding with the Emperor Maximilian for fixing the period for recalling our troops; so that the return may be effected without compromising the French interests which we have to defend in that distant country.

"North America, after having victoriously issued from a formidable contest, has re-established the old Union and solemnly proclaimed the abolition of slavery. France, which forgets no noble page in her history, forms sincere wishes for the prosperity of the great American Republic, and for the maintenance of amicable relations, now of nearly a century's duration. The emotion produced in the United States by the presence of the French army on the Mexican territory will subside before the frankness of that our expedition, in which we had invited them to take my declarations. The American people will understand part, was not opposed to their interests. Two nations,

Editor's Drawer.

car

UR town is located on Bass River, at the mouth of which, where it empties into Boston Bay, lie the "Lobster Rocks," troublesome to the fishing-boats in former days. Captain Pried on the fishing business in those days, and had in his employ a droll old man, well known by the name of Old Goudy," who on a certain occasion had come to grief on these same rocks, when returning from a fishing trip, much to his chagrin, as it disturbed his laurels as a successful skipper.

In

Captain P was a member of the "Great and General Court," and some insinuations had been thrown out, in Goudy's hearing, that the honorable members thereof were fond of long sessions. securing a "Fare" Captain P- found a very poor and lank fish, which he held up to Goudy's notice, and remarked, "Goudy, this chap looks as though he had been starved on the Lobster Rocks." Goudy winced under the effects of the "shot," and, eying the fish, retorted, "It's a plaguy sight more likely he has starved sitting in your old gineral cort!" None laughed more heartily, or told the story with greater glee afterward, than the worthy Captain P

ON another occasion, in those "dear old times" when it was the fashion to "carry the jug," and the custom for the "Conscript Fathers" to assemble at the "store" to tell stories and moisten the inner man, old Goudy arrived with his jug and faced the "respectables," who regarded him (in the matter of joking) as "fair game." An "old liner," in a rather important manner, greeted him with that quotation from Job: "And Satan came also among them." Old Goudy looked from one to another, and after measuring the "Fathers" with his twinkling eyes, retorted: "Yes, yes; and presented himself before the ungodly!"

and brag down every thing. His first chance occurred at an exhibition of paintings, where a picture of a snow-storm attracted general admiration. "Is not that fine?" asked a John Bull. "Could you show any thing as natural as that in America ?" "Pooh!" answered the free-born American, "that is no comparison to a snow-storm picture painted by a cousin of mine a few years since. That painting was so natural, Sir, that a mother, who incautiously left her babe sleeping in a cradle near it, on returning to the room, found her child frozen to death!"

From that time onward the American had the "freedom of the city."

A MAN not a thousand miles from New York once asked another whom he liked the best to hear preach. "Why," said he, "I like Mr. Johnson best, because I don't like any preaching, and his comes nearest to nothing of any that I ever heard."

OUT in Michigan a number of farmers were sitting in front of a country store at the close of a sultry day, and telling stories about their work, and so on, when one of them took the rag off the whole of them by relating his experience:

"I say, you have all told whopping big yarns now; but I'll just tell you what I done once in York State, on the Genesee Flats, and on my father's farm. He owned a meadow just a mile long, and one morning in June I began to mow-sun about an hour high-and mowed right along the whole length of the field. The grass was so heavy that I had to mow down to the lower end of the field, and walk-or, as we say, 'carry my swath.' Well, I worked on till sundown, and then quit. I just thought, as the meadow was exactly a mile long, I'd count the swaths, and I did, and there was one hundred! That, gentlemen, is what York State folks call a big day's work!"

"So you walked two hundred miles that day, did you?" asked one farmer.

"And mowed all the while you were walking?" said another.

IN King William III.'s time a Mr. Tredenham was taken before the Earl of Nottingham, on suspicion of having treasonable papers in his possession. "I am only a poet," said the captive, "and those papers are only my roughly-sketched play." The Earl, however, examined the papers, and then re- "So it seems," replied the great mower. "I tell turned them, saying: "I have heard your state-you the facts, and you can make as much of it as ment and read your play, and, as I can find no traces of a plot in either, you may go free."

you can."

BARON ROTHSCHILD once complained to Lord A VERY Veracious contributor writes: Brougham of the hardship of not being allowed to The wild pigeons of the State of Indiana seem take his seat in Parliament. "You know," said just now to be holding a mass convention near the he, "I was the choice of the people." To which town of Bedford. Every Western man knows that the ex-Chancellor, with his usual causticity, rethere are some pigeons at a pigeon roost. A youngplied, "So was Barabbas." Nimrod, out after the said pigeons, it being very dark, hitched his horse to a tree loaded with pigeons. When he fired his gun the pigeons flew off the tree, which, having been before bent down by the mass of birds, now resumed its erect position, and lifted the horse high in air. How the horse was got down is not stated, but we presume it was done after the manner that the Baron Munchausen recovered his horse when he hitched it to the church-steeple during a heavy snow.

AN American lately in London, who was badgered by the English on almost every topic, at last determined to go on the Mississippi steamboat style,

GEORGE IV., in the latter part of his life, was in the habit of quoting the Iron Duke as a witness to the statement that his Majesty had led in person the decisive charge at Waterloo. Wellington's answer on such occasions invariably was: "I have often heard your Majesty speak of that before."

CAPTAIN WARD was an eccentric of the first water, and one of his peculiarities was that he never gave the desired answer to a direct question. An amusing instance of this evasive habit is related:

One morning four of his friends, who were aware of this trait in his character, observed the Captain