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THE DIAMOND MIRROR, 
 
 REFLECTING 
 
 POLITICAL POINTS FOR THE PEOPLE, 
 
 WITH 
 
 A POmTED CEIsTTEll^I^IAL. 
 
 BY 
 
 PAULUS, 
 
 ONCE ONE OF " THE BOYS IN BLUE.' 
 
 cLyUcAJ-i-^i -^ 
 
 vjJUj-UjT^ 
 
 Toung America, see thyself. 
 
 V" 
 
 PHIL ADELPH I A: 
 187 6. 
 
 T 
 

 K5 
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by 
 
 LEWIS SYLVESTER HOUGH, ,^. 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 
 
\ 
 
 PEEFAOE, 
 
 When you have nothing to say, say nothing. 
 
 Franklin. 
 
 When you have something to say, say something. 
 
 Paulus. 
 
 (8) 
 
COl^TEXTS. 
 
 ALLEGORICAL HISTORY OF THE UXIOX. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 A famous marriage — The birth of a remarkable boy — He was named 
 Samuel — Two unsuccessful attempts to kill him — The boy afflicted 
 with a hereditary disease — Otherwise remarkably sprightly and 
 promising — The course of true love between his parents no longer 
 running smoothly — The woman asks for a separation — Refused — 
 She sues for a divorce — The law is adverse — She fights for a divorce 
 — The man did not wish to fight, but had to or lose a wife he loved 
 better than his own life — She shows great courage in the conflict — 
 Her chivalrous husband loves her all the better for the fine martial 
 qualities she displays — Considers her his " better half," and becomes 
 determined never to let her go, as a worse half without a better is 
 not good — He recourts his wife in the same way that Napoleon the 
 First courted the Austrian Princess — He gains his point — The boy 
 Samuel roughly used during the conflict — His sudden conversion — 
 The rough treatment breaks up and eradicates the hereditary dis- 
 ease, but leaves Samuel in an exhausted condition, and greatly 
 needing correct medical treatment — His treatment by successive 
 physicians, as Drs. Abram, Andrew, and Ulysses — Shocking mal- 
 practice ! — Poor Samuel bled and leeched almost to death — A true 
 diagnosis and prescription by the late Dr. Horace .... 7 
 
 AX ADDRESS TO AMERICAN CITIZENS. 
 
 Value and dignity of American citizenship — An American citizen 
 superior to a king, equal to a president, and much greater than a 
 president that steals, or patronizes oflBcial thieves — The preamble 
 and Constitution of the United States — Official oath — How the 
 president swears but does not perform — The difl'ereuce between a 
 common thief and a presidential thief— Political corruption and 
 official rascality generally— A brief review of secession in its legal 
 bearings — Its cause and consequences — The true way to a perfect 
 reconciliation between the North and South, and to lasting national 
 
 prosperity and happiness 18 
 
 1* (5) 
 
6 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 A FABLE, AND ITS APPLICATION TO OUE, PRESENT 
 NATIONAL POLITICS. 
 
 Brief history of the political parties — Proposed marriage of au Ameri- 
 can prince and princess 56 
 
 CENTENNIAL POINTS ADDRESSED TO THE PEOPLE 
 OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Our future prospects as a nation 60 
 
THE DIAMOND MIRROR. 
 
 ALLEGORICAL HISTORY OF THE UNION. 
 
 Lord North was married to Lady South about the year 
 1774. Both were of honorable European descent. Lord North 
 was of sturdy English blood, bold, self-reliant, and enteiprisiiig. 
 Lady South was of noble English and French blood combined. 
 She was a lady well educated, refined, and beautiful, and in 
 every way a suitable companion for Lord North. Both Avere 
 well adapted for developing the resources of the New World. 
 
 The crowned heads of Europe, with one or two exceptions, 
 viewed this promising match with great aversion and jealousy. 
 They did not like to see established in the New World a family 
 union possessing all the qualities of true nobility and royalty, 
 and yet discarding all the external signs of these qualities. The 
 American idea, embraced by Lord and Lady North, is that 
 nobility is within; the European, that it is without. Notwith- 
 standing considerable opposition, the marriage was accomplished 
 with satisfaction, at least to the two parties most concerned. 
 
 One pleasant Sabbath morning, as Lord and Lady North 
 were sitting in the parlor, she suddenly arose, and, taking from 
 a stand the old family Bible, handed it to Lord North, say- 
 ing, " History often repeats itself, and especially the promises 
 in this best of all books. Let us consider the first promise 
 you read as addressed to us." "Agreed," said Lord North. 
 He opened the book, and this was the first verse meeting his 
 eye : " And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her : 
 
8 THE DIAMOND MIRROR, REFLECTING 
 
 yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations ; 
 kings of people shall be of her." Genesis xvii. 16. "A won- 
 derful promise, truly !" said Lord North. " To have a son, and 
 become a mother of nations, is all republican enough ; but 
 ' kings of people' sounds rather anti-republican." " You do 
 not put the right construction on it," archly replied Lady 
 North : " ' kings of people' means a people or nation of kings. 
 It is the province of kings and queens to govern ; a people or 
 nation governing themselves are a nation of kings and queens." 
 
 To Lady and Lord North a son was born July 4, 1776. 
 Whether or not he was the boy promised, he certainly was a 
 promising boy. He inherited the sterling qualities of his father, 
 with the fine intellectual qualities and beautiful features of his 
 mother. The birth of the boy was announced from the State- 
 House steps, Philadelphia,, to shouting multitudes, and the old 
 Liberty-bell sent forth its merry peals. The boy was named 
 Samuel, after Samuel the prophet and king-maker of ancient 
 Israel. 
 
 Amidst all these rejoicings the British Lion roared. He, like 
 Herod of old on the birth of a kingly boy, resolved to destroy 
 liim. So the British Lion growled and showed his teeth. But 
 Lord and Lady North united their forces, raised the stars and 
 stripes over the bristling Lion, brought the American Eagle to 
 swoop down upon him again and again, till the Lion, fearing 
 the Eagle would pick his eyes out, turned tail to his foes, and 
 left the boy Samuel in peace. A few years afterwards the 
 British Lion again attempted to devour the growing boy, but 
 was again repulsed. 
 
 But it now becomes my painful duty to relate far greater 
 misfortunes that befell the boy Samuel and his parents. Lord 
 North and Lady South had inherited with their noble English 
 blood a certain scrofulous disease ; his blood was tinged, hers 
 charged, with it. Now, by the law of hereditary transmis- 
 sion, Samuel's constitution received a dangerous taint of this 
 disease. Concealed beneath a manly form and clear complexion 
 
POLITICAL POINTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 9 
 
 and fair features, was this deadly foe to health and happiness. 
 It tended constantly to make him irfitable, overbearing, and 
 insolent. Lord North watched these developments with great 
 anxiety, and urged the necessity of curative means to remove 
 the cause. But Lady Soutli invariably opposed every curative 
 process suggested : she was for indulging her son in all his 
 waywardness, and especially in refusing all curative means in 
 relation to his dangerous malady. 
 
 Lord North remonstrated in vain. She gave him plainly 
 to understand that, unless Samuel were let alone, he and she 
 were no longer 07ie, but two; and that, if they separated, she 
 would have Samuel, — at least her half of him. Lord North 
 replied, " How can you have half of him ? If you divide him 
 longitudinally you will kill him ; if you divide liim transversely, 
 as King Solomon proposed to divide the disputed baby, that, 
 too, will kill kim. If you dismember him, so as to get half, you 
 will have to lop off limbs enough to balance the remaining 
 trunk. In this case, the amputated parts would soon become 
 lifeless, and the trunk useless." So great was the absurdity of 
 Lady South's demands, that Lord North waxed exceedingly 
 wroth, and swore by the Eternal that Lady South should not 
 divide off so much as a toe-nail from Samuel ; that, as Samuel 
 was not begotten of her alone, she had no right to claim any- 
 thing but joint and undivided possession; that, however much 
 he had loved her, he would fight, sooner than see his beloved 
 son sliced like a beef, to be peddled out from a cart-tail. 
 
 "Well," says Lady South, " if I cannot have my share of 
 Samuel, I will have the whole of him!" "That," says Lord 
 North, " depends on which can fight the hardest and longest." 
 
 Thus this domestic brawl commenced. This formerly loving 
 pair broke into terrible discord. They marshaled their forces 
 for deadly conflict, simply because Samuel could not be divided, 
 and neither would yield him undivided. Many gallant hearts 
 espoused the cause of Lady South, determined to defend her, 
 right or wrong. Many stout hearts rallied around Lord North, 
 
10 THE DIAMOND MIRROR, REFLECTING 
 
 determined to keep Samuel undivided. It could be easily read 
 from the respective banners that it was d. family quarrel. On 
 each the stars looked like groups of angels, weeping in common 
 over the folly of domestic discord, while the bars and stripes 
 twisted into each other with hellish hate, like two suspended 
 cats, trying to scratch each other's eyes out. 
 
 Meanwhile, the young man Samuel began to be in a deplora- 
 ble condition. He was the bone of contention ; and, like a bone 
 in a dog's mouth, was constantly exposed to being cracked and 
 crushed into pieces. At first, Lady South got nearly full pos- 
 session of him ; but the forces of Lord North, rallying, seized 
 Samuel by his head and shoulders and drew him away with 
 such force that poor Samuel came near being pulled in pieces, 
 and leaving to his distracted parents only to pick up the frag- 
 ments. So tenaciously did the forces of Lady South hold on, 
 that Lord North had to rally force after force to rescue Samuel. 
 
 To such extremities was poor Samuel reduced, that the hered- 
 itary disease, the original cause of all their troubles, was finally 
 killed out; but, in killing the disease, poor Samuel was himself 
 almost killed. He had been hustled about and between cross- 
 fires so long, that he looked as if nearly ready to give up the 
 ghost ; he began to feel himself almost as much abused as the 
 son of a certain deacon, who, at the family altar, prayed thus: 
 " Lord, thou seest my unbelieving son John, now kneeling 
 before thee ! Lord, thou knowest what a sinner he has been ! 
 I earnestly pray thee, Lord, either convert him or hill him !" 
 Samuel was converted by the force of circumstances ; he began 
 t^ fear that he should be killed also. 
 
 After a long and strenuous war, in which many severe battles 
 were fought and great bravery displayed by both parties, Lord 
 North at length succeeded in rescuing Samuel entirely from the 
 possession of Lady South. After this rescue Lord North began 
 to relent towards Lady South. He began to reflect thus to 
 himself: She was formerly a very dear companion, and is the 
 mother of my only-begotten and well-beloved son. In the boy's 
 
POLITICAL POINTS FOR THE PEOPLE. H 
 
 infancy, lier forces, joined to mine, twice whipped' the British 
 Lion. It is true she was wrung in her ruinous course towards 
 Samuel. We have had a big fight over it ; I am victorious. 
 But a few more such victories would ruin me. I have been 
 fighting my own flesh and blood ; but I had to fight to save 
 Samuel. She plucked the apple of discord, and did eat. She 
 o-ave me also, and I did eat. The result has been considerable 
 dying on both sides. But, woman-like, she has acted more 
 from impulse than reason. She has been very tempestuous. 
 But, after all, a tempest is sometimes better than a duck-pond. 
 The former breeds commotion, the latter pestilence. The late 
 tempest has, at least, cured Samuel of that hereditary disease 
 which had long threatened his life. 
 
 Lord North also consoled himself with the thought that the 
 crowned heads of Europe, while they would rejoice and sneer 
 at the great folly of this domestic war, would have to entertain 
 a very wholesome respect for the great martial power displayed 
 on both sides. For, if they could fight so like the devil among 
 themselves, they could, when united, whip all creation outside. 
 
 Lord North, thus reflecting, felt in his heart some revival of 
 his former affection towards Lady South. He therefore wrote 
 the following note : 
 
 " North Mansion, Feb. 1, 1865. 
 
 " To Lady South : 
 
 " Sincerely regretting our late difficulties, I am desirous of 
 ascertaining some mode of complete reconciliation. 
 
 North." 
 
 ANSWER. 
 
 "South Mansion, Feb. 5, 1865. 
 
 " To Lord North : 
 
 "Your note is received, read, and considered. In reply, I 
 have to state that, as our difficulties began about Samuel, they 
 may also end with him. You insisted on treating Samuel Ibr 
 a disease which you acknowledge to have been hereditary. The 
 boy Samuel was certainly not to blame for inheriting a disease 
 
12 THE DIAMOND MIRROR, REFLECTING 
 
 any more than for inheriting his flither's eyes or liis mother s 
 features. He couldn't help it. The mode of treatment you 
 proposed appeared to me so radical that I would not consent. 
 I thought it would half kill him, or kill half of him ; and, as 
 I loved the boy, I wanted the half that was not to be killed, 
 and so I fought for a division. You have conquered. I sub- 
 mit. I was wrong in protecting the boy in all his wayward- 
 ness, and in resisting any reasonable mode of treating his 
 hereditary disease. But I acted as mothers too usually act. 
 Yet I was not exclusively to blame for alloy in a composition 
 yourself helped to mould. 
 
 " This domestic discord commenced about Samuel's disease. 
 It may all end in Samuel's health. He is cured of his heredi- 
 tary disease. In this I rejoice as well as you. But he is yet 
 sick. Effect a complete cure, and I am one with you again. 
 We have been divided over Samuel sick; we will be reunited 
 over Samuel well. South. 
 
 REPLY. 
 
 "North Mansion, March 4, 1865. 
 
 " My dear Madam : 
 
 " Your logic is a two-edged sword with a sharp point. It 
 has pricked me to the heart. Samuel shall he cured. I have 
 just re-engaged the services of Dr. Abram, my family physician 
 for the last four years. I am sure he will do all in his power 
 to restore Samuel to perfect health. Then we will be no longer 
 two., but one. 
 
 " Yours, affectionately, 
 
 " North." 
 
 Now, Dr. Abram w^as a man of very benevolent heart. He 
 had ever been true as steel to Lord North, and full of good will 
 towards Lady South. The stern path of duty led him to side 
 with Lord North, but he never bore aught of malice towards Lady 
 South, and the moment the contest ended he eagerly plucked the 
 olive-branch of peace, and waved it gracefully towards Lady 
 
POLITICAL POINTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 13 
 
 South, and saluted her in the fuHness of his heart. Dr. Abram 
 went to work in earnest to cure Samuel. He procured a huge 
 strengthening plaster, called Universal Amnesty. It was in- 
 vented and manufactured by Dr. Horace & Co., of New York. 
 It is composed of the cream from the " milk of human kind- 
 ness" and the balm of Gilead, in about equal proportions. Its 
 great superiority is that it imparts strength without causing 
 exhaustion. Dr. Abram, after consulting with Dr. Horace, was 
 pi-eparing this plaster for application, when a maniac, being out 
 of some asylum where he ought to have been, stealthily ap- 
 proaching the doctor from behind, shot him; then, flourishing 
 a dagger, fled, crying out, " Sic Semper Tyrannis," which 
 meant, on this occasion, "A great and good man shot by a 
 (s/t')k fool." 
 
 Loi-d North greatly deplored this sudden taking away of his 
 faithful servant, and Lady South deeply regretted that all the 
 stray fools running at large had not been locked up. But 
 something must be done to cure Samuel. So Lord North called 
 into service Dr. Andrew, who was supposed to be well qualified 
 to administer to Samuel. But, unfortunately for all concerned, 
 Dr. Andrew was both egotistical and extremely mulish. Al- 
 though no man more needed advice, yet he never took any. 
 Surrounded by good advisers, he stood like the ass between two 
 haystacks, starving because not knowing or making up his mind 
 to which to go. He would rather kill than cure by any otlier 
 mode than his own. His poUaj, or plan of curing, was law 
 supreme in his own mind. 
 
 Now, Dr. Andrew took the strengthening plaster, and, in- 
 stead of applying it as prepared by Dr. Abram, he spread it 
 out on a table before him, and, taking a large syringe filled with 
 a strong decoction of mustard, red pepper, and North Carolina 
 pine-pitch, he drenched its whole surface, like a boy watering 
 a flower-bed with a squirt-gun. Then, taking the plaster, he 
 applied it hot as boiling mush to Samuefs affected side. Poor 
 Samuel cried out in agony ; but Dr. Andrew formed a circle to 
 
 2 
 
14 THE DIAMOND MIRROR, REFLECTING 
 
 keep him in, with the plaster sticking close. Samuel bellowed 
 like a mad bull, and, seizing the plaster, pulled it off with a 
 jerk, and with it slapped Dr. Andrew over the fiice. What a 
 sight ! All the skin that did not peel off with the plaster, was 
 left in a blister. The servants of Lord North had to interfere 
 to keep Samuel from kicking Dr. Andrew out of doors. 
 
 Whereupon Lord North concluded to dismiss Dr. Andrew. 
 lie then called into service Dr. Ulysses. This doctor had 
 shown a commendable zeal in rescuing Samuel, and therefore it 
 was thought that he might be useful in curing him. Dr. 
 Ulysses owned a beautiful cottage by the sea-side. He seemed 
 to have a sort of Byronic love for the deep blue sea. Here he 
 mostly resided, though sometimes he paid a transient visit to 
 the North Mansion. 
 
 When Dr. Ulysses received an invitation from Lord North 
 to become his family physician, he immediately repaired to 
 North Mansion to examine his patient. He looked at Samuel, 
 felt his pulse, made him run out his tongue, and passed his 
 hand over the affected side ; then stood back with both arms 
 akimbo, slightly cocked his hat on one side, lit his cigar, and 
 looked exceedingly wise, but said nothing. The next train 
 dropped him at his sea-side cottage. Here, having lit his 
 cigar, he walked by himself on the sea-shore ; and, as the 
 waves rippled and dashed at his feet, it reminded him of a pas- 
 sage from Shakspeare, — 
 
 "■ There is a tide in the affairs of men, 
 Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune." 
 
 Then he thus mused : " The tide is now in my favor. Lord 
 North wants me to administer to Samuel. I wish I understood 
 the case. If I was wanted only to fight for him, this I could 
 do ; but he wants me to cure him. If the forces of Lady 
 South were again trying to pull him away, I would hold on to 
 him like a dug to a root. I would break her bars and take her 
 stars. But here I am expected to cure him. It is a singular 
 
POLITICAL POINTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 15 
 
 case. One whole side smart as lightning, the other dull as 
 thunder. To cure the disease, I nmst understand it. Here is 
 the pinch. I understand killing, but curing is quite a diifer- 
 ent thing. The profession generally find it much easier to kill 
 than to cure. But here is the flood. If I mount the wave, it 
 will flow me on to fortune. But what can I do ? BltecUng I 
 understand. Cupping I once tried on myself, and it nearly 
 ruined me. Oh, I have the idea ! I will bleed Samuel, and 
 then apply leeches to the affected side." 
 
 Dr. Ulysses drew several heavy puffs at his cigar, hastened- 
 back to his cottage, entered his room, lit another cigar, sat 
 down at a table, and wrote the following note to Lord North : 
 
 "Long Branch, Nov. 30, 1867. 
 
 " Much-esteemed North : 
 
 " I accept of your kind invitation, with the understanding 
 that my duties at North Mansion shall detain me only occasion- 
 ally from my home by the sea-side. 
 
 " I have the honor to be 
 
 " Your obedient servant, 
 
 " Ulysses." 
 
 Dr. Ulysses then sent his surgeons to bleed Samuel, which 
 thing they did very copiously. Then he sent throughout the 
 North and gathered all the largest leeches he could find. These 
 he applied to all the large blood-vessels on Samuel's affected 
 side. The course prescribed on each alternate day was bleeding 
 and leeching, then leeching and bleeding. After pursuing 
 this course for nearly four years, Dr. Ulysses, becoming alarmed 
 at the symptoms of his patient, bethought himself of Dr. 
 Horace's Strengthening Plaster. Having somewhat modified, 
 without bettering it, he slapped it on Samuers affected side. 
 But the trouble now was that the patient had become so re- 
 duced by bleeding and leeching, and leeching and bleeding, 
 that there was not much left in the affected side to be strength- 
 
16 THE DIAMOND MIRROR, REFLECTING 
 
 ened. However, the alarming symptoms became somewhat 
 lessened. The patient began gradually to gain strength. But 
 as the alarming symptoms of disease began to disappear, some 
 few alarming symptoms of health began to manifest them- 
 selves. 
 
 Samuel, as he began to gain strength, finding himself sore 
 from head to foot in consequence of the terrible treatment to 
 which he had been subjected, began to show a strong inclina- 
 tion to set Dr. Ulysses up in the leather business. As Samuel 
 • felt that he had been considerably more tanned than cured in 
 the severe treatment he had undergone, he began' to think that 
 Dr. Ulysses might be much better at curing hides than curing 
 him. 
 
 Lord North began to suspect that his servants, and especially 
 his family physicians, had greatly abused his confidence ; that 
 instead of effecting a perfect cure on Samuel, and thus restor- 
 ing to him the aff"ections of Lady South, they were pursuing 
 such a course as to keep Samuel sick and Lady South alienated. 
 He began to think of changing his course entirely. Meanwhile, 
 he consulted Dr. Horace, who advised his old friend never to 
 retain a family physician over four years ; for two reasons : 
 1st. If a physician cannot cure a patient inside of four years, 
 he ought to be dismissed. 2d. H he does cure him within four 
 years, there is no need of his staying any longer. 
 
 As it has been, the physician would manage, by blistering, 
 bleeding, and other tom-foolery, to make and keep Samuel sick 
 for four years in order that he might get the chance of staying 
 another four years under the pretense of making him well 
 again. And this had been the policy of Dr. Ulysses. And by 
 having partially adopted or pretending to adopt, after nearly 
 four years of malpractice, the remedies prescribed by Dr. 
 Horace, he so far succeeded in retaining the flivor of Lord 
 North as to be retained in service another four years. 
 
 About this time, Dr. Horace, having been consulted about 
 Samuel's disease, gave the following 
 
POLITICAL POINTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 17 
 
 DIAGNOSIS. 
 
 " The whole of one side nearly paralyzed. Only exception 
 to complete paralysis is a feeble and irregular action of blood- 
 vessels most essential to life. Constant danoer of congestion 
 from engorgement of large blood-vessels on the side not para- 
 lyzed. Mucous membrane of lungs coated over with sediment 
 from which arises a strong odor of Havana cigars." 
 
 Also, Dr. Horace gave the following 
 
 PRESCRIPTION. 
 
 " Equilibrium of action must be restored. Equality of circu- 
 lation between the two halves of the system must be restored. 
 No more bleeding, blistering, leeching, and such like foolery. 
 Every part of the system must be brought into healthful action 
 by free exercise in air entirely clear of tobacco-smoke, and by 
 wholesome diet, etc. The bright arterial blood must flow freely 
 and equally to all the extremities, so as to restore equilibrium 
 of action to all parts of the system ; so much so that if Samuel 
 were shut in a dark room, and each great toe alternately jjro- 
 truded through a knot-hole and subjected to microscopic ex- 
 amination, it would be impossible to tell which is Samuel's 
 Northern great toe and which is Samuel's Southern great toe. 
 When this condition occurs, and not till then, will Samuel be 
 well, and Lord North and Lady South will be one again. 
 Samuel's ^ood qualities are yet mainly undeveloped, like beauty 
 in a rose-bud." 
 
 2* 
 
18 THE DIAMOND MIRROR, REFLECTING 
 
 AN ADDRESS TO AMERICAN CITIZENS. 
 
 Fellow-Citizens : 
 
 I see before me the native country of kings. Not such kings 
 as Europe makes with crown and sceptre; but such as God and 
 the American Constitution make with hrain and muscle. The 
 former are artificial kings, the latter natural kings. The lat- 
 ter are superior to the former in the same proportion that 
 natural light is superior to artificial light. God commenced 
 king-making nearly nineteen centuries ago, when a Prince of 
 the House of David began to whisper in the ear of the toil- 
 worn and oppressed, " Thou art a man." Manhood is equal to 
 kingship. A man who governs himself is a king. A nation 
 that governs itself is a nation of kings. Although the great 
 truth of royalty in manhood was thus divinely announced, yet 
 it was never fully recognized in a political creed till Jefferson 
 penned the immortal declaration, " All men are created free and 
 equal, and endowed with certain inalienable rights, such ^s life, 
 liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," 
 
 Sovereignty in the people is clearly set forth in the preamble 
 of the Constitution : 
 
 " We the people of the United States, in order to form a 
 more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tran- 
 quillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general 
 welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and 
 our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the 
 United States of America." 
 
 Kings and emperors had hitherto ordained and established 
 constitutions and laws. But here we the ijeople do ordain and 
 establish this Constitution, and thus claim and exercise the right 
 
POLITICAL POINTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 19 
 
 of sovereigns. And it becomes the people to behave as sov- 
 ereigns ; to know their rights, duties, and dignities, and so use 
 them as becomes a nation of sovereigns. These individual 
 sovereigns meet once in four years to choose one from their own 
 number to enforce the Constitution and to execute the laws. 
 The one selected is called President or Executive ; because he is 
 to superintend the execution of the laws. Here the President 
 is not to rule, but to execute the laws, and these rule. The 
 President civilly remains the equal of the individual sovereigns 
 who elected him. But officially he becomes their servant. He 
 enters into a contract with his brother sovereigns to serve them 
 four years for a stated price. 
 
 Article XII. Clause VII. U. S. Constitution : 
 
 " The President shall at stated times receive for his services 
 a compensation which shall neither be increased nor diminished 
 during the period for which he shall have been elected ; and he 
 shall not receive within that period any other emolument from 
 the United States or any of them." 
 
 Clauses VIII. and IX. : 
 
 " Before he enter on the duties of his office, he shall take 
 the following oath or affirmation : I do solemnly swear (or 
 affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of 
 the United States, and will to the best of my ability preserve, 
 protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." 
 
 Section III. Duties of the President : 
 
 " He shall from time to time give to Congress information of 
 the state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration 
 such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient. He 
 may on extraordinary occasions convene both Houses, or either 
 of them, and in case of disagreement between them with re- 
 spect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such 
 time as he shall think proper ; he shall receive ambassadors and 
 other public ministers; he shall take care that the laws be 
 faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the 
 United States." 
 
20 THE DIAMOND MIRROR, REFLECTING 
 
 Here is a plain contract between the President and the 
 sovereign people. He agrees to perform certain things, and 
 they agree to pay him a certain price for so doing. If he 
 performs, the money is his ; if not, the money belongs to the 
 people, or all that portion of it for which the people have 
 not received a fair equivalent in services rendered according 
 to contract. In stating the duties or services to be performed 
 I will not mention those which he may perform ; but only 
 those which he shall perform, and which he swears he will 
 perform. 
 
 1. He shall from time to time give to Congress information 
 of the state of the Union. 
 
 2. He shall recommend to their consideration such measures 
 as he shall judge necessary and expedient. 
 
 3. He shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers. 
 
 4. He shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed. 
 
 5. He shall commission all the officers of the United States. 
 
 6. He shall (according to his official oath) faithfully execute 
 the office of President of the United States. 
 
 7. He shall to the best of his ability preserve, protect, and 
 defend the Constitution of the United States. 
 
 The President lor doing these things is to receive a stated 
 salary. Washington and his successors received $25,000 per 
 year. President Grant since the great Congressional salary 
 grab has received yearly $50,000 ; having suddenly doubled on 
 all his illustrious predecessors. President Grant then has 
 agreed to perform the above seven important items of service 
 for the sovereign people of the United States for the sum of 
 $50,000 per annum, payable quarterly. There are 365 days in 
 a year, and 52 Sundays, which leave 313 worhing days. Out 
 of these, we will allow the President the Fourth of July, Christ- 
 mas, New Year, Washington's Birthday, Easter-Monday, and 
 Thanksgiving Day. We will allow our sovereign President these 
 holidays, because we, the sovereign people, usually get them 
 when we work for wages by the year. Six holidays out, leave 
 
POLITICAL POINTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 21 
 
 307 days for the President to earn his wages in. We the 
 sovereign people usually get from 50 cents to $5 per day, ac- 
 cording to occupation and smartness. Our fellow-sovereign, 
 the President, gets S159.74iff per day. 
 
 We the sovereign people have agreed among ourselves that 
 if any one takes money without rendering a fair equivalent in 
 labor or otherwise, according to contract, he is a thief, and 
 that we will lock him up till he can learn to behave himself 
 Now, I ask in all candor, why a rule good for the sovereign 
 people is not equally good for the sovereign President. If I 
 work for $921 per year, with Sundays and holidays out, I get 
 just S3 per day. Now, if on pay-day I " slip up" on my em- 
 ployer, and report ten days of service I never rendered, I get 
 $30 under false pretense. In other words, I genteelly steal 
 $30 from my employer. And if he finds it out and can prove 
 it on me, he can legally and justly lock me up. Now, if on 
 pay-day the President slips up on the treasury, and reports ten 
 days of service he never rendered, he gets $1 597.44^^1 under 
 false pretense. Or, in other words, he genteelly steals the above 
 sum from the United States Treasury, the people's big pocket- 
 book. Now, why not lock him up, or at least lock him out ? 
 He stole a bigger pile than I did. Why lock up me, one of 
 the sovereign people, for stealing $30, and let the sovereign 
 President run at large after stealing fifty-two times $30 ? This 
 is using odth., with a difi'erence greatly against the sovereign 
 people. 
 
 But my supposition is extremely moderate and modest. If 
 when quarterly pay-day comes the President had a conscience 
 to reckon up the exact number of days he has wasted at watering- 
 places, at horse-racing, and at sitting oblivious to the cares uf 
 state, with wreaths of cigar-smoke encircling his brow like thun- 
 der-clouds about the head of Jupiter, if he would add uj) all the 
 days thus and otherwise wasted, he would probably find the 
 amount over forty days out of the seventy-six days for work in 
 the quarter. In this case the amount fraudulently abstracted 
 
22 THE DIAMOND MIRROR, REFLECTING 
 
 from the people's pocket-book would be four times the sum 
 above named. 
 
 Let us now briefly consider some of the acts which the Presi- 
 dent shall do, in order to receive lioncstly his quarterly salary. 
 " He shall from time to time give to Congress information of 
 the state of the Union." Now, in cooking a rabbit, the first 
 thing is to catch him. He would not cook well running at 
 large ! So the first thing in giving information to Congress is 
 to get the information to give. Now, a President must be wide 
 awake to enlighten Congress on the state of the Union. He 
 will have to study late and early in order to give any informa- 
 tion to Congress. A President without habits of close study 
 and observation cannot give information, for he has none to 
 give. And how much more is this the case when a President 
 is not a close student and observer of events, and cannot become 
 so, because he loves fast horses, smoking, lounging, etc. ! What ! 
 he obtain information of the state of the Union with such 
 habits ! He might as well undertake to gain information of the 
 elements of Euclid by sucking at the bunghole of a cider-barrel. 
 
 And so it is on point second. In order to recommend any 
 measure to Congress, he must know something to recommend. 
 And how shall he know anything without study and observa- 
 tion ? 
 
 Caesar wanted to make his horse a Roman consul. If the 
 American people would only make all their fast horses senators^ 
 Grant, no doubt, could manage them to a charm. But now 
 it is otherwise. Some of the Senators think too much. And 
 probably, next to fast horses. Grant likes /a^ men, who are not 
 generally troublesome. 
 
 Cjssar. — " Let me have men about me that are fat; 
 Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights : 
 Tond' Cassius has a lean and hungry look : 
 He thinks too much ; such men are dangerous. 
 Would he were fatter. He reads too much. 
 He is a great observer, and he looks 
 Quite through the deeds of men." 
 
POLITICAL POINTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 23 
 
 It is "well for the American people that they have some Sena- 
 tors that think ; that the}^ have an Argus-eyed press to look 
 quite through the deeds of men, and especially of one man. 
 
 3. " He (the President) shall receive ambassadors and other 
 public ministers." 
 
 Shall receive them; where ? At Long Branch, or at a race- 
 course ? }yhere can they find you, Mr. President ? 
 
 4. " He shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed." 
 There is at least one very important law that has not been 
 
 faithfully executed, and that law is this : "Thou shalt not steal." 
 It is said that on one occasion Grant got his office-holders 
 together, and, taking his cigar from his mouth, told them to 
 obey this law. But they retorted, in the words of Paul, " Thou 
 therefore that teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? Thou 
 that preachest a man should not steal, dost tliov. steal ?" Grant 
 replied, in the immortal words of the youthful Washington, '' I 
 cannot tell a lie ; I did it." 
 
 5. " He shall commission all the officers of the United 
 States." 
 
 This Grant has faithfully done as he understood it. But, as 
 he looked at the sentence through a cloud of cigar-smoke, he 
 read it thus : " He shall commission all his personal friends 
 and relatives as officers of the United States." 
 
 6. " I will faithfully execute the office of President of the 
 United States." 
 
 On this clause also he put a smohy construction, and read it 
 thus : " I will faithfully enrich myself in the office of Presi- 
 dent of the United States." 
 
 7. "I will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and 
 defend the Constitution of the United States." 
 
 The Constitution is the beau-ideal of political truth. Its 
 object, as stated in the Preamble, is — 1st, to form a more perfect 
 union ; 2d, to establish justice ; 3d, to insure domestic tran- 
 quillity ; 4th, to provide for the common defense ; 5th, to pro- 
 mote the general welfare ; and 6th, to secure the blessings of 
 
24 THE DIAMOND MIRROR, REFLECTING 
 
 liberty to ourselves and posterity. The purposes for which 
 the sovereign people ordained and established the Constitution 
 are : 1, Union ; 2, Justice ; 3, Domestic Tranquillity ; 4, Com- 
 mon Defense ; 5, General Welfare ; 6, Blessings of Liberty to 
 us and ours. 
 
 The Union was born of States politically equal. Each of the 
 thirteen original Colonies was desirous of a separation from Great 
 Britain. But neither was able to eiFect it without all joining 
 for mutual aid and defense. A general convention of delegates 
 from the several Colonies was first called in September, 1774. 
 This Convention was called Continental Congress. They pre- 
 pared a Bill of Rights. In May, 1775, they declared the United 
 Colonies independent. This Declaration of Independence was 
 adopted July 4, 1776. The Colonies were declared to be free 
 and independent States ; not independent of each other, but 
 together independent of Great Britain. They fought, they 
 conquered, not as separate States, but as a Union of States. 
 
 The Continental Congress continued to be the National Gov- 
 ernment till March, 1781, when the Articles of Confederation 
 were adopted. These Articles continued in force till superseded 
 by the present Constitution in September, 1788. By the Con- 
 tinental Congress there was a union of the Colonies. By the 
 Articles of Confederation there was a union of the States. By 
 the Constitution there is a union of the people of the several 
 States into one General Government. The several States re- 
 tained each its own Government in all local affairs. But all 
 national affairs were committed to the General Government. 
 So that a man is locally a State citizen^ but nationally a United 
 States citizen. First, we were British Colonies. Second, we 
 were Colonies united under the Continental Congress. Third, 
 we were States united under the Articles of Confederation. 
 And, lastly, we are the people of the several States united 
 under the Constitution into one General Government. All our 
 blessings, as a nation, have resulted from union, and all our 
 woes from attempts at disunion or secession. It was union 
 
POLITICAL POINTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 25 
 
 that made us declare and gain our independence. It is union 
 that has made us a great and prosperous nation. 
 
 It is an axiom in law, that no contract can be annulled ex- 
 cept by the same authority that formed it ; and that if a 
 Legislature enact several successive laws on the same subject, 
 the last enactment holds good in preference to any of the 
 former. The last law may modify, alter, or annul any or all 
 of the former ones. If the last law is annulled, it revives the 
 one superseded by it ; and if this too becomes repealed, it re- 
 vives the one next back of it \ and so on. There is only one 
 kind of secession that can be legal^ and that is simply retrogres- 
 sion. 
 
 The people of the United States ordained and established 
 the Constitution ; and hence it is by their authority alone that 
 the Constitution can be annulled. No State, or number of 
 States, or all the States together while acting as States, can 
 annul the Constitution. But if all the people of the several 
 States should assemble in their respective districts and fairly 
 vote to annul it, then it would be annulled by the same power 
 or authority that called it into being. Such an act would 
 legally place us back under the Articles of Confederation. 
 Then the several States would be empowered to act. For the 
 Articles of Confederation were formed by the States, and not 
 by the people of the several States. When a State acts, it is 
 through its Legislature the people speak. AVhen the people of 
 a State act, it is by their direct vote, and not by intervention of 
 the Legislature. If the States, then, through their Legislatures 
 should annul the Articles of Confederation, then it would 
 bring us under a Continental Congress. If then the delegates 
 from the several States should vote to dissolve the defensive 
 union, we should be resolved into Colonies of Great Britain, 
 and become dutiful subjects of Her Majesty Queen Victoria. 
 For if we dissolve the Union, we must renounce all the results 
 of that Union. The process above mentioned would be legal 
 secession, or rather retrocession. But the kind of secession 
 
 n 
 
 B o 
 
26 THE DIAMOND MIRROR, REFLECTING 
 
 inaugurated by South Carolina was entirely illegal. It was 
 exactly similar to a case like tliis. Suppose some State Legis- 
 lature is in session. Suppose some member of that Legislature 
 is anxious to pass a certain law. But he knows that a majority 
 will be against him. He therefore calls together a half a dozen 
 or more that coincide with him. These watch their opportunity 
 and slip in sometime between the regular sessions, put one of 
 their number in the Speaker's chair, and pretend to pass the 
 law, and if the Governor refuses to sign it they slip in again 
 and pass it again by two-thirds majority, and then proclaim it 
 to the people as a law ! 
 
 The Legislature competent to alter, amend, or repeal the 
 Constitution is the people of the United States. South Caro- 
 lina contained but a small portion of this great Legislature, and 
 as a State had no right to act at all in the matter till the people 
 of the United States, assembled in their votive capacity, had 
 repealed the Constitution, and thus had thrown the several 
 States back under the Articles of Confederation. 
 
 Great Britain saw the ultimate results of secession. She 
 was delighted with the prospect of seeing our national manhood 
 resolved into a lot of British babies. Her bosom began to 
 swell, and the milk of kindness to flow. 
 
 But though secession in a line directly backwards, when 
 duly authorized by the people of the United States, would 
 have been legal, yet it would have been contrary to the course 
 of human events and to natural progress. Nations, like indi- 
 viduals, have their infancy, childhood, youthhood, and man- 
 hood. Onward the Star of Empire takes its way. Secession, 
 had it been legal, was a move backwards. It was a dangerous 
 political heresy, a great national absurdity. 
 
 Brother Jonathan had some faint recollection of having loved 
 Great Britain when he was himself a British baby. But the 
 idea, now in his manhood of being shced up into British babies, 
 was preposterous ! He was as much puzzled as Nicodemus was 
 to know Jiow he could be born again. Could he enter the 
 
POLITICAL POINTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 27 
 
 second time into the womb of Great Britain and be born ? lie 
 would have to reverse the national motto. Instead of reading 
 " E Pluribus Unum," it would have to read " Plurcs E Uno." 
 And these Plures would all be British babies. Jonathan had 
 no objection to Great Britain's getting all the babies she wanted, 
 in a hecoming way. But to tins way of getting babies he was 
 decidedly opposed. For two reasons : 1st. He wanted no part 
 of himself sliced off. 2d. He considered the parts desired to 
 be sliced off far too good material to be moulded into British 
 babies. So Jonathan concluded that there should be no slicing. 
 He then thoughtfully whistled " Yankee Doodle," and put him- 
 self in an attitude of defense. 
 
 Thus occurred the great American conflict. The North 
 fought for a good idea, the South for a had one. Both ex- 
 hibited great resolution and bravery in the contest. The North^ 
 finally prevailed. The question now occurs, How should the 
 South be treated? Why, treat her as a brave, vanipiished 
 foe ought to be treated, — with kindness. To fight for one's 
 country is manly, is noble ; but to trample on a fallen foe is 
 mean, is devilish. Alexander the Great once asked a conquered 
 foe, from whom he had met a stout resistance, how he wished 
 to be treated. " Like a king," said he. Alexander did treat 
 him like a king. He restored him his dominions and dignities, 
 and afterwards had no firmer friend than this same conquered 
 foe. King William III., when a few regiments of Highlanders 
 had raised a standard of rebellion, sent after them his faithful 
 Dutch warriors and quickly subdued them. When urged by 
 evil counselors to be severe with them, he refused. After im- 
 posing a mild punishment on a few of the leaders, he pardoned 
 them all, and restored them to service in his aimy. In the 
 oTcat Continental War that followed, those same Ilighhuulers 
 would have waded to their knees in blood in defense of King 
 William. 
 
 Bravery ought always to be respected, whether in friend or 
 foe. When I have met on the battle-field men barefooted, 
 
28 THE DIAMOND MIRROR, REFLECTING 
 
 clotlied in rags, nothing but parched corn to cat, yet holding 
 with determined grasp rusty muskets and old shot-guns, and 
 ever ready to make fight, I could not help exclaiming, '' Theij 
 are brave bo^s, though fighting in a bad cause." It reminded 
 me of an incident in Roman history. When Pyrrhus, King 
 of Epirus, invaded the Roman territory with a large army, 
 accompanied with well-trained elephants, Lasrinus, the Roman 
 Consul, was sent against him. Pyrrhus, by the aid of his 
 elephants, conquered. He captured eighty thousand Romans, 
 whom he treated with the greatest honor. When he saw those 
 who had been slain in battle all lying with wounds in front, 
 and with countenances stern even in death, he is said to have 
 raised his hands towards heaven and exclaimed, " With sucJi 
 heroes I could shortly conquer the world." Such material our 
 nation cannot afford to alienate. The qualities of a true soldier 
 all lie inside his skin. He may wear no epaulettes or gay uni- 
 form, he may be clothed in tattered garments, and even fight- 
 ing in a bad cause, and yet have within all the elements of a 
 good soldier. It is proper treatment such men want in order 
 to render them useful to the State. 
 
 Now, what sort of treatment have these brave but misguided 
 men received ? In answering this question, I must appeal from 
 President Grant to General Grant, as a woman once appealed 
 from Alexander drunk to Alexander sober. 
 
 When General Lee capitulated, General Grant gave him lib- 
 eral terms. This he could well afford to do ; for Lee and his 
 army were no common prize. In one respect, an army is like 
 a woman. If she is easily won, she is not generally worth the 
 wooing. Lee and his army were not easily won. We had tried 
 their mettle again and again, and invariably found the true sol- 
 dierly ring. In treating with such a foe, we could well afford 
 liberal terms ; and such were granted him, and every true heart 
 in the Union responded, Amen ! After the surrender, liberal 
 rations were issued to the famished Southern troops. This act 
 was the first brief smack of long-suppressed divinity ; for, in 
 
POLITICAL POINTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 29 
 
 the horrid darkness of war, it pointed to a rising star ! It was 
 the star of Bethlehem ! It sparkles forth its soft, healing rays, 
 and breathes the spirit of universal amnesty towards a brave 
 but fallen foe ! 
 
 But these principles of good will towards the South here 
 expressed by General Grant, have not been carried out by Presi- 
 dent Grant. When he walked away from the tented field, this 
 precious sentiment fell from his heart or his head into his heels. 
 And, as he walked into the White House, this sentiment evap- 
 orated from his heels and settled on the pavement. Here it was 
 trodden under foot, until God's glorious sunlight 
 
 Kissed it away in sparkling dew ^ 
 From off the rosy cheek of morn. 
 
 Some of the evils these brave but misguided men had to 
 endure, were the inevitable results of the war; others were 
 needlessly, injudiciously, and illegally inflicted by the govern- 
 ment. They returned to their homes, many to find their fields 
 wasted and their wives and children begging for bread ; many 
 found themselves disfranchised. They had thrown down their 
 arms, supposing themselves in the Union, but found themselves 
 virtually out. They were not to be molested. Is not disfran- 
 chisement molestation? By the terms of surrender, all the 
 soldiers of Lee's army, and of all the Southern armies, were not 
 liable to punishment for what was then past, but, while they 
 obeyed the laws of the United States, were to be free citizens 
 a2;ain of the United States. The civilians who had aided in 
 the rebellion were still liable to be tried and punished for treason. 
 But this could be done only by the Constitution and laws then 
 existing. But Congress got up a batch of new laws,— all ex 
 post facto, and therefore miconstitutional,—\m^o^m^ penalties 
 and disqualifications on the Southern people. President John- 
 son for months had his breeches- and coat-pockets stuffed with 
 pardons for ex-rebels ; yet not one of these rebels had ever 
 been tried or convicted on any law in existence at the time of 
 
 3* 
 
30 THE DIAMOND MIRROR, REFLECTING 
 
 the Rebellion. Congress had passed laws that, in English his- 
 tory, would be called bills of attainder, or, with us, ex post facto 
 laws, which are unconstitutional. The Constitution says, that, 
 " In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right 
 to a speed?/ and 2n(hlic trial;" yet the prince of rebels was held 
 over tico years in prison, and then released only on a heavy 
 bail-bond, signed by both Northern and Southern men. 
 
 The Southern people, disheartened, and in many cases dis- 
 franchised, soon became the easy prey of hordes of hungry 
 Northern office-seekers. Carpet-baggers took possession of their 
 State governments, and ran themselves into fortune and the 
 States into bankruptcy. The elective franchise was so regulated 
 and restricted as to deprive the Southern States of choosing 
 their own rulers, thus virtually abolishing republican forms 
 of government in the States, notwithstanding the Constitution 
 guarantees to each State a republican form of government. 
 Such treatment towards the South was neither just, generous, 
 judicious, nor legal. Did we forget in the hour of victory that 
 the South still claims with us a part of the glory of Lexington, 
 Bunker Hill, Saratoga, and Yorktown? Did we forget that 
 the South had given us a Washington, a Jefferson, a Henry, a 
 Marion, a Sumter, and a host of warriors and statesmen, whose 
 names shine on the page of American history like stars in the 
 firmament? During the late civil war, on many a battle-field 
 we found their martial manhood worthy their warlike sires ; we 
 found them foemcn worthy our steel, or of any steel on this 
 planet. A civil war is a national family quarrel, and the sooner 
 and easier made up the better for all parties. The North and 
 South are halves of one great nation. How can the North 
 prosper if the South is in adversity ? No more than a man 
 can be in health with one-half paralyzed. Any injury done to 
 either North or South is so much injury done to the nation. 
 Their glory is our glor}^ ; their iwosperity is our prosperity ; 
 tlieir injury is our injury. Therefore, any force used further 
 than merely to suppress the rebellion was all wrong, and in the 
 
POLITICAL POINTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 31 
 
 end injurious equally to North and South. With the South 
 fully restored under a correct administration of the general 
 government, the North and South, being thoroughly united, 
 have a glorious future. 
 
 Slavery, which had always been a great national evil and a 
 disgrace to our republican institutions, was, fortunately for the 
 ultimate welfare of both North and South, abolished by opera- 
 tion of the war and subsequent acts of Congress. Had we of 
 the North been educated under the influence of slavery, we 
 should probably have held to it as tenaciously as our Southern 
 brethren did. We were all originally involved in the same 
 great wrong. But when that institution had become unprojit- 
 able to us, we abolished it, and then claimed great credit for 
 conscience' sake, when that conscience was mainly fished up 
 from the depth of our pockets ! 
 
 We had, moreover, on the formation of the present Consti- 
 tution, inserted a clause under which slavery could be smuggled 
 in, — Article IV., Section II., Clause II. : " No person held to ser- 
 vice or labor in one State under the laws thereof, escaping into 
 another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, 
 be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered 
 up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be 
 due." In this clause, the persons referred to evideutlij include 
 apprentices, and, slt/ly, slaves also. But this sly reference to 
 slaves was subsequently cut oflf by an amendment to the Con- 
 stitution, Article V., clause in latter part of the article : " Nor 
 shall any person be deprived of life, liberty, or property, with- 
 out due process of law." 
 
 Now, if slaves were 'persons in the first clause, they must 
 also be persons in this last clause. And yet four millions of 
 persons were deprived of liberty, property, and sometimes of life, 
 not only without due process of law, but without any process 
 of law, being doomed to hopeless and helpless bondage year 
 after year. This last clause, when enforced, would most un- 
 questionably restrict the meaning of the first clause to appren- 
 
32 THE DIAMOND MIRROR, REFLECTING 
 
 tices, and such as had, by due process of law, been condemned 
 to labor for crime. So, when we come " down to dots," slavery, 
 ever since the adoption of Article V. of Amendments, has been 
 miconstitutional. No State had a right to make or continue any 
 law in conflict with the Constitution. Indeed, the 13th Amend- 
 ment, introduced since the late war, is but an enforcement act 
 of Article V. of Amendments. 
 
 President Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation as 
 a war measure. This, as Comm.ander-in-chief of the United 
 States Army and Navy, he had a right to do. Let us now see 
 whether Congress had a constitutional right to enforce this 
 Proclamation by appropriate legislation. Under Section VIII. , 
 certain powers are granted to Congress. These powers are 
 enumerated in seventeen clauses. Then follows Clause XVIII. : 
 " Congress shall have power to make all laws which shall be 
 necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing 
 powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the 
 Government of the United States, or in any department or 
 officer thereof." 
 
 Section II. Powers of the President, Clause I. : " The Presi- 
 dent shall be commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy of 
 the United States." Here the Constitution vests the power of 
 supreme command over the army and navy in the President. 
 Therefore, in case of war, the President had a right, as a war 
 measure, to proclaim the slaves free. During the war, the mas- 
 ters had mostly been in the field, while their slaves had remained 
 at home, to raise cotton, corn, and bacon, thus supplying the 
 sinews of war. The President, therefore, as commander-in- 
 chief, had the same right to free the slaves, and thus snap the 
 sinews of war, as he had to seize any contraband goods. And 
 Congress, by the clause above quoted, had a right to make all 
 laws necessary and proper to carry into execution the above 
 power vested in the President. 
 
 " Congress shall have power to make all laws which shall 
 be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the fore- 
 
POLITICAL POINTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 33 
 
 going powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution 
 in the Government of the United States, or in any department 
 thereof." "What other powers besides those enumerated in the 
 seventeen clauses? All powers vested in the Government of 
 the United States, or in any department or officer thereof. 
 There are three departments of the United States Government, — 
 Legislative, Executive, and Judicial ; all called into being by 
 the Constitution, ordained and established by the people. Con- 
 gress, therefore, has a right to make all laws necessary and proper 
 for carrying into execution any power vested in any department 
 or in any officer thereof. These powers, evidently, are all such 
 as come within the scope of the purposes of the Constitution 
 asset forth in the Preamble. The third purpose therein named 
 is, " To insure domestic tranquillity." Domestic here evidently 
 means no particular family fireside, but the nation's fireside. It 
 means directly the opposite oi foreign. 
 
 Forty years of painful experience, culminating in the late 
 civil war, had proved most conclusively that while slavery 
 existed there could be no domestic tranquillity. For Congress, 
 therefore, to legislate to do away with this cause of everlasting 
 discord between the free and slave States was acting within the 
 scope of the Constitution. But when Congress went beyond 
 this, and legislated so as virtually to disfranchise and oppress 
 the South, they committed a most ungodly violation of the 
 Constitution, a most egregious error, and most deplorable mis- 
 chief. It was wrong to oppress the black man, and equally 
 wrong to oppress the white man. True philanthropy, true 
 statesmanship, and the American Constitution forbid cither. 
 Every true citizen of the United States forbids either. And 
 every short-sighted politician who heeds neither voice, might as 
 well " step down and out." 
 
 Constitution, Article XII., Clause VIII. : " The President 
 shall, at stated times, receive for his services a compensation, 
 which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the 
 period for which he shall have been elected • and he shall not 
 
34 THE DIAMOND MIRROR, REFLECTING 
 
 receive within that period any other emolument from the United 
 States or any of them." If the President renders the services 
 ao-reed upon, he is entitled to receive his stated salary in quar- 
 terly payments during four years, and no other emolument. 
 According to Webster, emolument is profit arising from office 
 or employment. By the Constitution, which he is sworn to 
 obey, the President can receive no other profit arising from 
 office than his stated salary. " From the United States or any 
 of them" must mean from the citizens of the United States, 
 or from the citizens of any of the States. For it is the citi- 
 zens that make the State, and not the State the citizens. If it 
 means citizens acting through their legislature, it even then pro- 
 hibits gift-taking by the spirit, if not the letter, of the law. 
 For gifts, whether bestowed by citizens through their legisla- 
 ture, or collectively or individually, are the same pernicious 
 means of weakening or destroying official integrity. No man 
 who receives valuable gifts ought ever to be made President. 
 Gifts tend to blind the eyes, pervert the judgment, and blunt 
 the sensibilities much worse than even cigar-smoke. 
 
 Here are several citizens each with a big pile of money, and 
 each wishing to make his pile bigger. They look about, and see 
 a distinguished citizen that they believe will be elected Presi- 
 dent. They, knowing the value of official patronage, wish to 
 secure the favor of the prospective President. They assemble. 
 Mr. Greedy-of-gain is elected chairman. Mr. Hard-cheek, Mr. 
 No-conscience, as committee on resolutions, present the follow- 
 ing, which is immediately adopted : 
 
 " Whereas, our fellow-citizen is highly esteemed, and 
 
 his services to the country are highly appreciated, we, there- 
 fore, the subscribers, in testimony of our esteem and apprecia- 
 tion, agree to pay the several sums annexed to our names for 
 the purpose of purchasing a mansion appropriately furnished, 
 and valued at $100,000, and to present the same in fee-simple 
 to our distinguished citizen." 
 
 Subscriptions. — Greedy-of-gain, $10,000; Hard-cheek, 
 
POLITICAL POINTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 35 
 
 $10,000; No -conscience, $10,000; Ketcli-penny, $5000; 
 Fleece'm, $5000; Know -something, $15,000; Over-reach, 
 $5000; Sure-of-office, $20,000; Fearful, $1000; Know- 
 nothing, 50 cents ; Doubtful, 50 cents, etc., etc., till the desired 
 amount is secured. 
 
 Time passes on. The distinguished citizen is elected Presi- 
 dent, The first scene was in Philadelphia ; this one in Wash- 
 ington, White House, Reception hours. King at the bell. 
 Page answers, " Your card, sir." Sends up his name, " Greedy- 
 of-gain." Page returns, politely bows, and conducts him to his 
 august master. " Very happy to see you, sir, etc. What can 
 I do for you ?" " Well, would rather like an appointment; I 
 mean one that will pay," " My dear sir, you shall have one. 
 Here is one that will pay $3000 per year, legitimately^ but can 
 be made to pay three times that amount." " I understand, sir ; 
 it will do ; all right, Grood-day, Mr, President." 
 
 Another ring ; page attends, and carries the card of Mr. 
 Hard-cheek ; returns, and conducts Hard-cheek to President, 
 " Grlad to see you looking so well, Mr. Hard-cheek ; what can I 
 do for you?" " Would like a position as Collector of Public 
 Revenue ; one that will pay." " This collectorship is not worth 
 over $2000 per year, but can be made to pay five times that 
 amount," "I see, sir, I see; all right. Good-day, sir." 
 
 Mr. No-conscience was introduced in a similar manner, and 
 with similar results. Likewise, Mr. Ketch-penny ; but he ob- 
 tained a position worth only about half that of the first three. 
 
 Next came Mr. Fleece'm, and made his application. Presi- 
 dent — " I hardly know what to do with you, Mr. Fleece'm. I 
 know that you are a good Republican. But the valuable po- 
 sitions are mostly taken up. Would really like to aid you." 
 Fleece'm — " Could you not send me South ?" President — 
 " Southern States devilish poor since the war ; still, money can 
 be made there. Possibly I could so arrange matters as to get 
 you elected Governor ; salary but $1500, but a shrewd man 
 can make it worth ^t;e times that amount." Fleece'm — " All 
 
36 THE DIAMOND MIRROR, REFLECTING 
 
 rifflit : send me." Mr. Fleece'm was soon seen at ticket-office, 
 carpet-hag in hand, purchasing a ticket for Florida. 
 
 Mr. Know-something next made application, and received an 
 appointment which, with stealings annexed, was worth over 
 $10,000 per year. Mr. Over-reach then applied, and was 
 soon seen, with carpet-bag in hand, purchasing a railroad ticket 
 for Savannah, Ga. Mr. Sure-of-office then applied, and ob- 
 tained a foreign mission. Mr, Fearful then applied, but re- 
 ceived a rather lukewarm greeting, but finally obtained a clerk- 
 ship ($800), with no stealings. 
 
 Next came Mr. Know-nothing and Mr. Doubtful. They 
 sent up their cards. They were quickly returned, with word. 
 President hiisy ; call on Postmaster-General. They went, and, 
 after long waiting, obtained a hearing. They came away each 
 master of a country post-office worth about twenty-five cents 
 per year. 
 
 The above is mainly true as an illustration of the modvs 
 operandi of office-seeking and of office-giving under the present 
 Administration. It seems to have been reduced almost to an 
 exact science, and worked by the Rule of Three, in which the 
 fourth term, or answer, varies according to the given quantity. 
 
 But it may be said that the President received the $100,000 
 mansion he/ore his official term, and that therefore he did not 
 violate the law. Yet it was a tacit understanding between the 
 donors and donee that in case of his election (which at the 
 time was about as sure as thunder after lightning) it was to be 
 paid for by official patronage. For men always do something 
 for something. He receives the gift before, but pays for it 
 during his official term. In so doing he violates the spirit if 
 not the letter of the Constitution. But suppose the President 
 is fond of a variety of residences, and either before or after his 
 official career he accepts of half a dozen mansions in various 
 cities of the Union, all to be paid for in a similar manner : who 
 does not see that in such a case the President sells himself and 
 the people are sold ? that the stated Presidential salary is but 
 
POLITICAL POINTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 37 
 
 a drop in the bucket compared to what the President gets by 
 his power of official patronage ? This is receiving emoluments 
 besides his stated salary, and therefore is a violation of the 
 Constitution. 
 
 The successful applicant for office must have Mammon 
 standing out on his brow as plain as letters on a cook-stove. 
 Honesty and capacity are kept entirely in the background, 
 and, like the quirks in a pig's tail, are more for ornament than 
 use. 
 
 If $600,000 is made up in mansions and other property, 
 then the President becomes bound over, under the above sum, 
 to keep the peace with office-seekers and office-holders. The 
 present Administration is, beyond all preceding ones, distin- 
 guished as a money and military one. These seem to be its 
 motive power. Grant has one trait which was very good for a 
 general^ but very bad for a President, viz., tenaciousness : for 
 this reason, that a general is to command, but a President is to 
 obey the voice of the people. The tenaciousness of Grant and 
 his soldiers won battles and subdued the rebellion, and enabled 
 the North to conquer the best troops in the world. Had he 
 remained in military life it would have been much better for 
 his own fame and the welfare of the American people. The 
 war was over. The people no longer needed a general, but 
 wanted a President. They chose a President, but got a 
 general. 
 
 Military government and despotism are twin-brothers. In 
 each one controlling mind rules. This is necessary in conduct- 
 ing military movements. A republic engaged in war has to 
 adopt this one-man power. An unlimited monarchy or des- 
 potism has not to adopt it, for it already has it. In war or 
 peace it is the one-man power. A republic, although it has to 
 throw its forces under the one-man power in war, is expected, 
 in jieace, to return immediately to its ordinary state of govern- 
 ment by the people. It chooses officers to enforce the laws 
 according to the will of the people. But suppose the people 
 
 4 
 
38 THE DIAMOND MIRROR, REFLECTING 
 
 happen to choose a chief-magistrate who has become so stereo- 
 typed in the one-man power that he will have his own way 
 in everything, without regard to the wishes of the people. 
 Then we have a republic in form, but a monarchy in mode of 
 action. 
 
 Here is a republican coach ; there is an aristocratic coach. 
 The driver of the first is instructed and accustomed to wait on 
 the people. On their beckoning, he stops his coach and has 
 them comfortably seated. The driver of the aristocratic coach 
 is instructed and accustomed to drive about and pick up here 
 and there a hig hug, and of course pays no attention to the 
 wants of the people. Suppose you stand at a corner waiting 
 for a coach. The aristocratic coach comes along. You expect 
 nothing from it, and therefore do not hold, up your hand. But 
 the republican coach comes along, and you do expect something 
 from that. You hold up your hand again and again ; you call 
 out, but no attention is paid to you. What can be the cause ? 
 It is the republican coach. From it you see the stars and 
 stripes streaming. Oh, I see now 1 It has the wrong driver. 
 That driver belongs to the other coach. He drives just as he 
 is used to driving, after big bugs, and not for the people. And 
 this is the condition of the American people under the Admin- 
 istration of General Grant. We have a republican coach, but 
 an autocrat driver. 
 
 Military glory is not the highest glory of a nation or indi- 
 vidual. The glory of peace excels the glory of war as much 
 as sunlight excels lamplight. 
 
 " The camp has had its day of song; 
 The sword, the bayonet, the plume, 
 Have crowded out of verse too long 
 The plow, the anvil, and the loom. 
 
 "Oh, not upon our tented fields 
 
 Are Fi-eedom's heroes bred alone; 
 The training of the workshop yields 
 More heroes true than war has known. 
 
POLITICAL POINTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 39 
 
 " Who drives the bolt, who shapes the steel, 
 May with the heart as valiant smite 
 As he who sees a foeman reel 
 
 In blood before his blow of might. 
 
 " The skill that conquers space and time, 
 That graces life, that lightens toil, 
 May spring from courage more sublime 
 Than that which makes a realm its spoil. 
 
 ''Let Labor, then, look up and see 
 His craft no path of honor lacks ; 
 The soldier's rifle yet shall be 
 
 Less honored than the woodman's axe." 
 
 This is beautifully true of all aggressive war, or war for 
 conquest, but not of the temjwrary soldier ^vho, from true 
 patriotism, takes his rifle to defend his country. Here the 
 woodman drops his axe and takes his rifle, and both deserve 
 equal honor. 
 
 Cincinnatus, from the plow, ruled Eome far better than 
 Caesar from the tented field. The former subdued corn-fields ; 
 the latter, Gaul, Germany, and Britain. The former, by his 
 course of strict justice, made all the Roman citizens love him. 
 The latter, inflated by military pride and glory, carried himself 
 so much above the level of Roman citizenship as to cause many 
 to hate him and conspire to destroy him. 
 
 Cassius to Brutus. 
 
 " Why, mar, he doth bestride the narrow world 
 Like a Colossus; and we petty men 
 Walk under his huge legs, and peep about 
 To find ourselves dishonorable graves. 
 Upon what meat doth this our Cajsar feed, 
 That he is grown so great? Age, thou art shamed ! 
 Eome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods ! 
 When went there by an age since the great flood. 
 But it was famed with more than with OXE man ? 
 When could they say, till now, that talk'd of Rome, 
 That her wide walls encompass'd but one man ? 
 
40 THE DIAMOND MIRROR, REFLECTING 
 
 Now is it Rome, indeed, and room enough. 
 When there is in it but one only man. 
 Oh ! you and I have heard our fathers say 
 There was a Brutus once that would have brooked 
 The eternal devil to keep his state in Rome, 
 As easily as a king." 
 
 In minds not imbued with strong common sense and patriot- 
 ism, the constant tendency of military glory is to inflation. It 
 swells the recipient beyond the dimensions of true manhood. 
 In this case sometimes he bursts things generally, and some- 
 times he bursts himself Alexander the Great, after bursting 
 the world, burst himself over a goblet of wine. Julius Caesar, 
 after slicing the Gauls, Germans, and Britons, got himself 
 sliced in the Roman senate. Napoleon I,, after bursting nearly 
 all the nations of Europe, burst himself at Waterloo. Napo- 
 leon III., after bursting the French Republic, tried to burst 
 Austria and Prussia, but burst himself at Sedan. General 
 Grant, after bursting the Southern Confederacy, has come 
 wellnigh bursting himself and the great American Republic, 
 by one of the most profligate and corrupt Administrations 
 that ever stained the pages of history. With the exception 
 of Bristow and a precious few like him, honest men in the 
 present Administration are as scarce as righteous men were in 
 Sodom after Lot left. The late pure-minded Vice-President 
 Wilson was officially shoved into such bad company, that the 
 angels took him away; a clear case of angelic deliverance from 
 official contagion ! 
 
 They hurried him away from that official bower, 
 To save him from a fire-and-brimstone shower ! 
 
 So great has been the venality of the present Administration 
 that the offices, dignities, and franchises of the great American 
 Republic have been almost like the diadem of the Caesars in 
 imperial Rome, for sale by Praetorian Guards to the highest 
 bidder. A State Legislature, regularly chosen, because known 
 
POLITICAL POINTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 41 
 
 not to be subservient to tbe will of the President and liis 
 creatures, has been dispersed at the points of Federal bayonets. 
 The worst European despot might come and learn new lessons 
 in his art. Well might we say, with Cassius, — 
 
 "Now is it Rome, indeed, and room enough, 
 When there is in it but one only man ! 
 Oh ! you and I have heard our fathers saj" 
 
 there ivas a time when it was proclaimed that all men are free 
 and equal, and when our sires would have "brooked the eternal 
 devil" to keep their state, as easily as kings ! American citizens 
 are kings, and will not be unkinged by one who is officially 
 their servant. We want no king of kings in free America. 
 And this is what any President assumes to be when he sets 
 himself above the free sovereigns who elected him into service^ 
 and ncit into a kingdom. He was horn into all the kingdom he 
 can have or ought to have. His election is to serve^ not to 
 rule. The free sovereigns of the United States can do the 
 ruling. 
 
 God, the Great Author of worlds and of equal rights, has 
 ordained that the one-man power and conquest and military 
 glory and ambition shall be restricted. In the deep wisdom of 
 his providence He has said, '' Thus far shalt thou go, and no 
 farther." In the moral and political machinery of the world, 
 as in a system of railroads, certain brakes are inserted. AVhen 
 danger threatens, the order, '-'■Down hrakes,^^ prevents break- 
 downs. When the one-man power gains a dangerous ascendency, 
 and is driving the National Car to sudden ruin, somefhiug hap- 
 pens to arrest that power, diminish the speed, and save tlie 
 National Car from a general smash. Thus, Alexander had his 
 wine-cup ; Julius Caesar had his Bnjtus ; Charles the First 
 had his Cromwell ; George the Third had his Washington ; 
 Napoleon had his Waterloo ; and Grant has his — American 
 Press and Common Sense of the People. 
 
 A Delaware fajmer once said that he never had a tenant, 
 
 4* 
 
42 THE DIAMOND MIRROR, REFLECTING 
 
 either bad or good, stay over tico years ; for, if he did stay 
 longer, lie forgets that he does not own the farm. Now, if a 
 President stays over tico terms, will he not be very apt to 
 forn-et that he docs not own the Government ? Grant seems to 
 have forgotten that he did not own the Governmental Farm soon 
 after his first Inaugural. Have not the great Washington and 
 venerable custom already made an unwritten Law of the Re- 
 public against third presidential terms? Grant has already 
 ridt'd (instead of served^, one term and a part of another ; and 
 his tenaciousness inclines him strongly for a Third Term. If 
 entered on that, he would have passed the Rubicon of Ameri- 
 can Freedom. Twice has he been before the people for their 
 suffrages. Each time his competitor had more statesmanship 
 in the ends of his little fingers, than Grant had in his whole 
 body, boots, and breeches. The first time the people were 
 spell-bound by military success ; and hence his distinguished 
 and worthy competitor had no fair show before the people. The 
 second time the people were pa?-;i«/(y spell-hound, but MAINLY 
 office-hound; and hence another distinguished and worthy com- 
 petitor was defeated. So, our American Caesar has triumphed 
 over two competitors, — Seymour and Greeley, — each in sterling 
 qualities of head and heart an American Fabricius. Now, will 
 Grant and his ofiice-holders try a Napoleonic trick on the Amer- 
 ican people by attempting a Third Term ? If successful, the 
 National Escutcheon hereafter should be a huge cigar, with 
 fire at one end and a fool at the other ! What ! Grant a fool ? 
 By no means. Grant would be the Jire^ and the Great Amer- 
 ican Republic would be the/ooZ. 
 
 The Spartans said, " If Alexander wishes to be a god, let 
 him be a god." But they could not have said, with the same 
 complacent contempt. If the Grecian States wish to make them- 
 selves fools by voting divine honors to Alexander, let them be 
 fools! So, if Grant wishes to smoke himself into an imagi- 
 nary divinity, let him smoke! But let not the people of the 
 Boveral States stultify themselves by voting him third-term 
 
POLITICAL POINTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 43 
 
 honors ! So far Grrant has smoked the people ; he has smoked 
 the nation almost into political blindness and bankruptcy. Now, 
 if they turn and smoke him, by going it blind on a high-press- 
 ure, third-term movement, it will prove that the fools in the 
 nation have a smoking majority ! and that it is the delight of 
 fools to smoke their own folly into a destructive blaze ! 
 
 King Pyrrhus once remarked of a noble Roman, " That is 
 Fabricius, whom it would be more difficult to turn from honrsft/ 
 than to turn the sun from his course." We had an American 
 Fabricius in Horace Greeley. But the angels took hinj, — he 
 rests in Ab»-aham's bosom, with Washington, and other Pater- 
 nal Spirits of the American Republic. The nation now needs 
 to find among its individual sovereigns another Fabricius, that, 
 when another presidential election arrives, honest citizens may 
 have an honest man to vote for and elect. In the next presi- 
 dential election, the agricultural sovereigns of this nation in- 
 tend to have some attention to their interests and wishes. If 
 they find among their number an American Cincinnatus, let 
 them bring him out ; he shall have a fair consideration from 
 the people. But, whenever Si proper man is determined on, let 
 the people vote as American citizens or sovereigns, and not as 
 Republicans or Democrats. Let honesty and capacity be the 
 only criterion for office. For candidates possessing these quali- 
 ties let the people vote both in the National and State Govern- 
 ments, without regard to party association. Party ties should 
 be untwisted, and the ties of princijyle be the only twist. When 
 the elective franchise is thus conducted, the political horizon 
 will clear, and let in the sunshine of National prosperity. Let 
 there be a people's party, and let that be apr/?Yy of principle, 
 pure and patriotic. Let the crafty politician, whose only prin- 
 ciple is his pocket, become a thing of the past, and, like some 
 strange fossil organisms of the old geologic creations, be looked 
 upon and regarded only as an extinct monstrosity. If every 
 political party and politician that diverges a hair's breadth from 
 the straight course of honesty, is hurled immediately from 
 
44 THE DIAMOND MIRROR, REFLECTING 
 
 power by the united voice and vote of American citizens, the 
 political horizon will ever keep clear. By such a course of 
 action the voice of the people would become the voice of God, 
 and would have the same effect on our National politics that the 
 voice of Christ had on the man possessed of devils ; it would 
 at once expel the devils, and leave a glorious, purified National 
 manhood. The illustrious spirits of the great "Washington, Jef- 
 ferson, Lincoln, and Greeley would look down and rejoice over 
 a renovated republic. Then would our Government become 
 practically what it is theoretically^ — the best on the face of the 
 earth. " 
 
 Why should any differ on names, especially on two names 
 which, etymologically, mean precisely the same ? Democracy, 
 from two Greek words, — de7nos, the people, and cratein, to rule ; 
 Republic, from two Latin words, — res, affair, and puhlica, pub- 
 lic, or commonwealth ; or a republic, in which the people rule. 
 Principles, and not party, should prevail. Did not the Repub- 
 licans and the national Democrats act shoulder to shoulder in 
 saving the nation from its great peril ? Should they not still 
 be co-laborers in making that salvation sure ? 
 
 It is a remarkable fact in the history of our nation, that the 
 antagonism between the two great political parties has been 
 more imaginary than real, and that their names and professed 
 aims have been so nearly identical in their significations. At 
 first the two parties were called Federalists and Republicans. 
 The Federalists held that a strong General Government is es- 
 sential to the highest welfare of the nation. The Republicans 
 held that strong State Governments are essential to the same 
 end. Both were right and both were wrong. The Federalists 
 were right in holding that a strong Central Government is 
 essential to the highest welfare of the nation. The Republi- 
 cans were right in holding that strong State Governments are 
 essential to the same purpose. But both Federalists and Re- 
 publicans were wrong in supposing antagonism between the 
 two conditions. 
 
POLITICAL POINTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 45 
 
 The people are citizens of the United States in all national 
 affairs, and also citizens of the several States in all local affairs. 
 They owe allegiance to the General Government in all national 
 affiiirs, and allegiance to the States in all local affairs. And as 
 all the attributes of sovereignty were vested by the people in 
 the General Government, and denied to the States, and as the 
 regulation of all matters merely local was vested in the several 
 State Governments, and denied to the General Government, there 
 can be no antagonism or even friction in the constitutional 
 working of the several State Governments with the General 
 Government, and the reciprocal obligations are such that the 
 well-being of each depends on the well-being and harmonious 
 action of all. Consequently, a strong General Government 
 tends to render the several State Governments strong, and 
 strong State Governments tend to render the General Govern- 
 ment strong. 
 
 The people have a double citizenship, — State and Federal. 
 And these so dovetail into each other as each to strengthen the 
 other and make a citizenship as strong as a well-made, sound 
 live-oak ship. 
 
 If the people are strong in their State Governments, they 
 will also be strong in their General Government ; and if they 
 become weak in one, they will also become weak in the other. 
 So it ill became the Federalists to fear too strong State Govern- 
 ments, or the Republicans to fear too strong a General Govern- 
 ment ; for while each acts in its own sphere, the stronger the 
 one the stronger the other, and the stronger both arc, the better. 
 The several States are members of one body politic, and that 
 body is the General Government ; now, where would the body be 
 without the members ? or where would the members be with- 
 out the body ? Shall the head, or hand, or foot, or any organ, 
 set up for itself and act as the whole body without that body ? 
 or shall one member boast over another and act to its injury? 
 Shall the muscular organs fear too strong a brain, or the brain 
 fear too strong muscular organs ? Do not great brain-power 
 
46 THE DIAMOND MIRROR, REFLECTING 
 
 and great muscular power go together in the order of nature ? 
 Weak muscles will sooner or later produce a weak brain, and a 
 weak brain will ultimately produce weak muscles. But when 
 both brain and muscles are exercised in harmony, the vital 
 forces rapidly accumulate in each, and diffuse over the whole 
 body great power and pleasure; and this is all true of the 
 General and State Governments in their reciprocal action and 
 relation to each other. 
 
 Afterwards, the Federalists, finding that their name began 
 to exhale an aristocratic stink, dropped it, and assumed the 
 name of Whigs, so odoriferous of popular rights. The Repub- 
 licans, fearing that their name began to have too strong a French 
 odor, dropped it, and assumed the name of Democrats, having 
 the celestial ring of popular rights, though sometimes, since, by 
 gross perversion, having smacked strongly of popular wrongs. 
 Thus the two great political parties, organized with new names, 
 commenced anew their political warfare and struggle for power. 
 
 We see in this view the futility of so much harping on State 
 rights. It has long been a staple article of false political ora- 
 tory ; it is a most mischievous political puff ; when pricked by 
 the needle of truth it collapses like a blown bladder — burst. 
 It brings to mind a Revolutionary legend. It is said that 
 when Lord Howe was posted on the Hudson River, one morn- 
 ing his whole army was thrown into violent commotion by 
 the discovery of a lot of large kegs, or barrels, floating down 
 the river. The British supposed that every barrel contained a 
 live Yankee bent on mischief, so they blazed away at this ter- 
 rible navy of floating kegs ! The bullets flew thick and fast, 
 whizzing, zipping, hitting, nipping, slitting, splitting, tipping, 
 dipping, dashing, smashing, splashing, in all directions ! Many 
 a poor keg floated out of the contest with bruised heads and 
 broken staves, completely disabled and unseaworthy! The 
 British won a complete victory. In the action there was no 
 devil-up-ment of live Yankees, but only evidence of excessive 
 aggressive stupidity I 
 
POLITICAL POINTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 47 
 
 Now, all this contention about State rights is but the battle 
 of the kegs repeated. It is simply cmjoty brains firing at empty 
 kegs, these two vacuums being mutually antagonistic, — that is, 
 an empty brain hates an empty keg, and, as it cannot fire vp on 
 such a keg, it fires at it. And, as an empty keg is favorable 
 to a full brain, it is of course hostile to an empty one, and hence 
 the mutual hostility of these two empties ; and hence, also, an 
 empty barrel sounds the praises of a full brain, while an empty 
 brain sounds the praises of a full (whisky) barrel ! and as the 
 empty brain approaches the full barrel, the fullness of the one 
 imparts to the emptiness of the other till there is an equilib- 
 rium produced. But whenever empty brains come in contact 
 with empty kegs, a conflict is inevitable, and mutual repulsion. 
 There is no antagonism whatever between State rights and 
 United States rights. If it were so, the States would not be 
 united. Jefferson was too wise a statesman to tie the matri- 
 monial knot between the Federal and State Governments in any 
 such loose, bungling way as to allow either party to slip away 
 from that reciprocal obligation. What God and Jefferson have 
 joined together, let no man put asunder ! especially on such an 
 empty pretext as that of antagonism between the State and 
 Federal Governments. We therefore advise politicians with 
 loose tongues and empty brains to fill up that brain-vacuum by 
 a thorough, faithful perusal and study of the Constitution of 
 the United States. Then let them tie their tongues to wise 
 heads, and thus render themselves useful to the commonwealth. 
 Without such reform, such politicians are like the devil with 
 his cloven foot wishing to cleave God's harmonious creation into 
 warring, distressful fragments, thus attempting to kick the uni- 
 verse into the model of his own cloven, kicking foot ! These 
 politicians aspire to be, not rail-splitters, or party-splitters, but 
 nation-splitters ; but in the end they will be more apt to split 
 themselves, as Judas did. 
 
 The Whigs, under a new organization, afterwards assumed the 
 name of Ilepublicans. Thus the Democrats suddenly found 
 
48 THE DIAMOND MIRROR, REFLECTING 
 
 their own former name stolen by tlieir political enemies ; but 
 as the Democrats had never secured a copyright to their former 
 name, and as they had long ceased to use the name Republican, 
 they attempted to blacken it, and let it go to their political foes. 
 But there was magic in that name, for it had been baptized into 
 the spirit of Jefferson ! But they not only stole the old name 
 of the Democrats, but they stole also the political thunder and 
 lightning of that party (popular rights), and therewith succeeded 
 in electrifying the masses, and thus advanced themselves to great 
 political power. But the only steal for which the Democrats ought 
 to thank them, was when the Republicans stole General Grant. 
 As a general, Grant was good steel, but as a President he was 
 the worst steal ever made. For he became the positive pole of 
 the great national magnet, that drew and clustered about it 
 all the great stealers of the nation, while the penitentiary, or 
 negative pole of the national magnet, drew to itself all the small 
 stealers. The difference between the two clusters is, those 
 gathered about the presidential pole are positive stealers, while 
 those gathered about the penitentiary pole are negative stealers. 
 Add the positive and negative quantities together, and the 
 amount is the true algebraic difference. The positive and 
 negative stealers are of the same kind, but only affected by 
 opposite signs. The positive are official, gai/, festive, and ?/m- 
 form. The negative are sub-official, serving, sad, and semi- 
 uniform ! Spirit of Oliver Cromwell, look at the positive! 
 Sj)irit of the great Howard, look at the negative ! Honest citi- 
 zens, look ! See the official head of our nation, so near its sub- 
 official tail, that the nation in its giddy whirl is like a cat 
 chasing its own tail ! But the head does not quite catch the 
 tail, as it ought to, when both are so near each other in fugitive 
 Siud furtive action! Poor pussy! Poor nation!! Yet the 
 nation is not poor, but rich, if it will rightly use its own 
 resources, instead of wasting its energies and exhausting its 
 treasures in this everlasting chase of head after tail ! — Nature's 
 order reversed ! Let the nation get a straightforward, level 
 
POLITICAL POINTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 49 
 
 head, then it will have a straightly sequent, decent tail, and all 
 between in honor and prosperity. 
 
 No more shall presidential wings 
 Spread, brooding, hatching whisky rings ! 
 And rings of every fraud that's out, 
 To fasten each official snout ! 
 To keep in line the party hunt, 
 That none will even dare to grunt ; 
 To feed upon the nation's wealth, 
 And fatten fast, by fraud and stealth. 
 No longer then the nation's smoker 
 Take sea-side rest and play at poker! 
 But 71010, he sips his ready toddy. 
 Regards the people as but shoddy, 
 Yet cries, to spur them on the faster, 
 " Emergency" and " great disaster !" 
 So buy me for a third-term master ! ! 
 
 Had there been just and equal restrictions at each pole of 
 the national magnet, the nation would have been well purged of 
 stealers. But, as it is, the body politic needs the action of a 
 powerful emetic, to equalize that of a wholesome cathartic, as a 
 sure preventive of impending cholera ! 
 
 " Emergency" and great disaster 
 
 Can come but through the nation's master : 
 
 They have come, evils now extant j 
 
 Take, as emetic, U. S. Grant! 
 
 Take him ! " emergency" instanter ! 
 " Similia similibus curantur." 
 
 So the Republicans, in stealing General Grant for President, 
 acted as foolishly as did the Trojans when they stole the great 
 wooden horse from the deserted Grecian camp. The horse was 
 graceful and passive without, but full of martial life and fraud 
 within. They thought they had a gift from the gods, but 
 drew into their midst concealed elements of sudden ruin. But 
 the Republicans in so doing stole a march on the Democrats. 
 All the stealing thus ftir was rather modest and moderate, and 
 c 6 
 
50 THE DIAMOND MIRROR, REFLECTING 
 
 comparatively innocent. For a political name, political thunder 
 and lightning, a major-general, and a march might all be stolen 
 in a political frolic or colic without malice aforethought, or 
 malicious injury to the people. Had the stealing only stopped 
 here, it would have been a glorious thing for the Republican 
 party and for the welfare of the nation. But the trouble was, 
 they got in the habit of stealing, and, as they could steal nothing 
 more from the Democrats, they commenced stealing from the 
 people. And this they have kept up so briskly that it seems, 
 if not prevented by the people, the stealing will stop only when 
 there is nothing more to steal and the nation is run into bank- 
 ruptcy and ruin. This is true only of the dishonest portion 
 of the Republican party, which portion, unfortunately for the 
 American people, are mainly in oflBce. To the honest portion of 
 that party, as well as to the honest portion of the Democratic 
 party, we appeal to save the nation from impending dangers and 
 to restore healthful action through all its departments. 
 
 In the history of our nation the political parties §ind their 
 litigation seem to have stood thus: I 
 
 Federalists against Republicans. ; 
 
 Whigs against Republicans alias Democrats, i 
 
 Republicans against Democrats. ' 
 
 . But to put the nation right the case must now stand thus: 
 
 The People against all Ofl&cial Rascality of an?/ party. 
 May the illustrious spirits of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, 
 and Greeley inspire the people and baptize the nation, so as to 
 render their suit against political corruption triumphant and 
 lasting ! 
 
 The truth is that the principles of both the great political 
 parties are much better than their iwactice. When either 
 party las become triumphant and continued long in power by 
 a wrong use of its prosperity, it gathers corruption. It attracts 
 to its folds many reckless politicians whose only principle is 
 their pocket. These politicians will change either way or any 
 way, in the twinkle of an eye, on the shine of the almighty dol- 
 
POLITICAL POINTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 51 
 
 lar or show of its representative. The clifFcrence between these 
 politicians and rag money is this : they are promises to do, and 
 paper money is promise to pay. And when the paper money 
 is not based on metallic currency, it is a perfect image of the 
 sham politician. In the mirror of truth, one is the reflection 
 of the other. They both deceive and cheat the sovereign 
 people. The sway of such politicians will ruin, and ought to 
 ruin, any political party that harbors them. And the sway of 
 any such political party will sooner or later ruin any nation. 
 
 Since things are so, any party that has become corrupt by 
 the wrong use of its own prosperity should at once be put out 
 by the sovereign people. No American citizen should be tied 
 to the tail of any political party. Such a tie is derogatory to 
 the dignity of his citizenship. The citizens should lead the 
 party, and not the party the citizens. And when any party 
 becomes incorrigibly vicious, let it go its own way to destruc- 
 tion. But save the nation by cutting it loose from the lead of 
 such a party. Let invincible integrity and ability be the only 
 tenure of office to any politician or political party. 
 
 Any political party that will not expel all known dishonest 
 politicians from its ranks deserves to be expelled from power. 
 And if not thus expelled, the nation swayed by such a party 
 must sooner or later be expelled from power and national great- 
 ness and respectability. Now, which is the most important, the 
 nation or the party? the citizens or paltry party politicians? 
 In ancient times, to be a Roman citizen was more than to be a 
 king ! Is not American citizenship of equal or greater value 
 and dignity tlian lloman ? Oh, my countrymen ! how long 
 before you will properly appreciate the value and dignity of the 
 civic crown you wear ? How long will you allow heartless 
 politicians to pluck the diadem of individual sovereignty from 
 your brows, and throw about your necks the chains of party 
 servitude? Are you American sovereigns, or party slaves? 
 Are you freemen, and yet meekly hold out your hands to 
 receive the party shackles? If so, which shall I say? — House 
 
52 THE DIAMOND MIRROR, REFLECTING 
 
 you, freemen ; or, rouse you, slaves ? God knows you were born 
 free; and if slaves, you have become so by your own act, and 
 by your own act you must break the chain. Do not sell your 
 birthright for a mess of pottage, and that so rascally salted as 
 to bite the tongue and scratch the throat like carpet-tacks. 
 
 Office-holding in this nation has grown, like an untrimmcd 
 hedge, into the dimensions of an unsightly, rascally nuisance ! 
 Let the people trim it down to the dimensions and beautiful 
 proportions of strict official integrity, thus lapping off all excess 
 of salaries and sinecure positions. Let the watchword of all 
 political action now be, Trim, Trim, TRIM. Let the honest 
 citizens of all parties unite in one great party of NATIONxlL 
 TRIMMERS ! The elective franchise is the trimming instru- 
 ment. This kind of sheai-s is of good steel, and if rightly used 
 will effectually trim off the national stealers and leave in the 
 hedge only the healthful and beautiful growth of official in- 
 tegrity and ability. 
 
 We are told in Plato's " Republic,*' or his ideal of a perfect 
 commonwealth, "that the form of government is an image of 
 the character of the citizen ; that whatever may be said of the 
 democracy or the oligarchy, applies as strictly to the democrat 
 and the oligarchist ; that there are as many shapes or species of 
 polity as there are types or varieties of the human soul ; that 
 as the most perfect commonwealth is only public virtue em- 
 bodied in the institutions of a country, so every vice generates 
 some abuse or corruption in the State, some pernicious disorder, 
 some lawless power incompatible with national liberty." In 
 this view how vastly important to elect only true and able men 
 to office ! Our great republic stands before the world in the 
 character of those administering its government. An official 
 thief reflects his own image on the republic, and unless when 
 discovered immediately dismissed and punished, ambrotypes his 
 furtive features before the national mirror. This reflects many 
 duplicates of the hateful picture to be hung up in all the 
 rogues' -galleries of the world. The nations will sneeringly 
 
POLITICAL POIXTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 53 
 
 ask, Is this your boasted republic, administered by thieves and 
 rascals? But elect only true and able men to office, then they 
 will have to respect and admire us, even if we draw from them 
 their most useful subjects. Democracy purified and rightly 
 administered will hold its way, excel and outlast all other kinds 
 of government on the face of the earth. Official integrity and 
 ability are the only tests of true democracy or true republican- 
 ism. According to Plato, one is a reflection of the other. 
 
 The contest between the two great political parties has been 
 in many cases as absurd, if not as destructive, as was the War 
 of the Roses in England. Like that unhappy contest between 
 the Houses of York and Lancaster, let it end by a union of the 
 just claims of both parties. Let the honest portions of both 
 parties unite, and, by one grand stroke of state, harmonize all 
 conflicting claims. Let one party bring forward the American 
 Prince Able, and the other bring forward the American Prin- 
 cess Honest. Let them on the soundest principles of state policy 
 enter into matrimony, in order to secure an indisputable heir 
 to the American Empire. This would be like the Lancastrian 
 Prince espousing the York Princess, and the consequent union 
 of the red rose and white in one line of imperial inheritance. 
 
 We wonder if the authorities at Washington have ever 
 heard of the above American Princess ? If they have, we fear 
 that such is their own innate crookedness that they do not love 
 that Princess, and would greatly mourn her advent ! Never- 
 theless, the rule of the American Empire by Divine right 
 belongs to Prince Able and Princess Honest, and to their heirs 
 in a straight line forever. Yet, by a long and serpentine course 
 of state-craft and rogue-craft combined, this noble Prince and 
 angelic Princess have been kept out of their just possessions. 
 They have even been thwarted in their course of true love. 
 Their marriage has long been deceitfully and maliciously post- 
 poned, for the real, though concealed, purpose of preventing the 
 conception and birth of a true heir to the American Empire. 
 
 Let us now have a great national wedding, to which every 
 
 5* 
 
54 THE DIAMOND MIRROR, REFLECTING 
 
 honest man, woman, and child in the United States is invited. 
 Let this wedding be such as becomes the nation and the im- 
 mortal Declaration. Let it not be such as sometimes occur in 
 the so-called higher social circles, where the bridegroom is 
 attended by all the pomp and circumstance of a foreign prince ; 
 where the bride has her form beautifully concealed in French 
 flounces, foreign laces, and all the et csetera of outside show ; 
 where are piled in princely profusion costly gifts, often wrung 
 from the sweat of the toiling million ; where American monkeys 
 dance to the tune of European princes and despots ; where 
 republican simplicity of manners is made to blush at the studied 
 oping of the swells of European aristocracy. But let us have 
 a wedding worthy the creed of the Great Western Kepublic. 
 
 Let Prince Able stand forth in the majesty of true manhood, 
 clothed in the garments of home industry, and bearing on his 
 breast, as an emblem of life and beauty, a red rose. Let Prin- 
 cess Honest stand forth, her beautiful form adorning her grace- 
 ful dress, and bearing in her bosom, as an emblem of purity, a 
 white rose. Let them join hands, and the Right Reverend 
 Truelove marry them. From the union of so healthful a Prince 
 with so beautiful a Princess, will be produced a true heir to the 
 American Empire, and ultimately to the Empire of the World. 
 Such a match would be made in heaven and descend to earth 
 like the New Jerusalem ! while most matches are made on earth, 
 and some further down, judging from the sulphurous fumes 
 produced by the least friction. 
 
 The first son born from this royal match is to be called 
 Honest Able, after his mother. The second son is to be called 
 Hopeful ; the third, Faithful. The first daughter is to be named 
 Charity, the second, Hope, and the third. Faith, and the remain- 
 der after the nine Muses or Graces. With such a royal family 
 we would not exchange with Queen Victoria, even with her 
 crown and the Prince of Wales thrown in. Only think of our 
 Great Republican Empire being ruled by Prince Honest Able, 
 the eldest son of Prince Able and Princess Honest, and nephew 
 
POLITICAL POINTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 55 
 
 to " Honest Abe" of blessed memory, and cousin to the Prince 
 of Rails. It seems almost like the vision of the New Jerusa- 
 lem descending from heaven to earth. But, in order to realize 
 this glorious vision, we must prepare the way by a general clear- 
 ing away of official rascality ; otherwise they would be breaking 
 up, with sledge-hammers, the solid gates of pearl, and tearing up 
 the golden pavements to manufacture into finger-rings, bracelets, 
 and other ornaments to weigh down fingers, etc., otherwise light. 
 As thing's now are, it would be a terribly hazardous experi- 
 ment to let down the New Jerusalem anywhere near Washing- 
 ton, unless strongly guarded at every gate by flaming swords 
 of seraphim, flashing lightning-strokes in all directions ! Boss 
 Shepherd, and the blessed Babcock, with their fast presidential 
 friends and associates, would go through the Golden City like 
 rats through a cheese ! not leaving gold enough to make a 
 breast-pin, or pearl or diamond enough to reflect a stray sun- 
 beam ! Yet to these precious, grinning rogues there would be 
 a ready Grant of certificates of moral character freshly written 
 and dashed with gold-dust recently gathered by bearers from 
 the streets of the once golden, but now honeycombed city ! 
 
 He says, " Let not a guilty one escape ;" 
 
 But icrites to help each out the scrape! 
 
 And thus by shifts he ever tries 
 
 To throw the dust in people's eyes. 
 
 And where should be a storm of wrath, 
 
 Profusely strewn with flowers their path ! 
 
 And where a penitentiary stroke, 
 
 We find but presidential smoke ! 
 
 And where religious peace should reign, 
 
 Religious mar is now the strain ! 
 
 Our Caesar sold his warlike steed, 
 
 Now rides Religion in his need. 
 
 Bend low your necks, ye Bishops wise ! 
 
 He'll ride you downward from the skies, 
 
 With break-neck speed, but rather civil, 
 
 He'll ride you to the very devil ! 
 
 Then, like his faithful war-horse stout, 
 
 As cheap as dirt he'll sell you out ! 
 
56 THE DIAMOND MIRROR, REFLECTING 
 
 Such fate impends whatever Caesar rides, 
 
 So help hiin on his third-term strides ! 
 
 God help the nation ! bishops turned to tools ; 
 
 And proved, beyond a question, precious set of fools ! ! 
 
 Thus onward, soon accelerated speed 
 
 Will sell the nation, as his warlike steed ! 
 
 For sale ! He holds the nation by the collar ; 
 
 Who bids? Now going, gone! for just one dollar ! 
 
 Impending crisis ! Closing up account ! 
 
 Gil' Bishop, hold the stirrup, help him mount ! 
 
 But stand all ready for a great rebound ; 
 
 As Caesar goes up, toe all go quickly down ! 
 
 Adown so far, so deep and dark a dell ! 
 
 Another step, the nation is in hell ! 
 
 So, Gilbert, hold ! nor push us any further 
 
 In that direction, lest you scorch your feather. 
 
 These third-term fools must all go down together. 
 
 
 A FABLE. 
 
 "An ass "having put on the skin of a lion, terrified men and 
 beasts, as if he had been a Hon. But, by chance, as he moved 
 himself too quickly, his ears stuck out. Hence, being known, 
 he was drawn into a mill, where he suflPered punishment for his 
 insolence. 
 
 " This fable marks as fools those who flourish themselves in 
 honors not their own." 
 
 The lion is a noble animal ; he possesses great strength, but 
 uses it in harmony with the laws of his nature ; he never destroys, 
 only when necessity demands ; he is said to spare such as pros- 
 trate themselves before him ; he is very honorable in his treat- 
 ment of small animals ; he would disdain to injure a small dog 
 or kitten within his grasp. This honorable use of his great 
 power has caused him to be selected from all other animals to 
 denote true majesty. 
 
POLITICAL POINTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 57 
 
 Even the Prince of the House of David was called " The 
 Lion of the Tribe of Judah." That Great Prince of Peace, 
 as he moved in the majesty of truth through the world, dropped 
 a Parchment for the guidance of his followers. On that Parch- 
 ment are written such sublime truths as these : " Love thy 
 neighbor as thyself"; "All things whatsoever ye would that 
 men should do to you, do ye even the same to them." 
 
 From that time down to the present, parties have been 
 formed, changed, and dissolved ; but these great principles of 
 truth remain the same. Parties perish, but principles endure. 
 On these principles is based the political doctrine of Equal 
 Kights. Parties that act out these principles remain and flour- 
 ish ; parties that violate them pass away. Principles are to 
 parties what the soul is to. the body. The former are enduring 
 as the everlasting hills ; the latter often are as transient as the 
 morning dew. 
 
 Sometimes a party is formed with correct principles. Al- 
 though meeting with opposition at first, it finally prevails, — it 
 becomes popular. Then, by political prosperity, and the con- 
 sequent in-rush of men with no principles but their pockets, 
 that party gradually becomes corrupt. In such a case, honest 
 men seek first to purge the party. If this cannot be done, they 
 get out, and, carrying the principles of the party with th(nn, 
 they form a new party, or rather a new edition of the old 
 party. Now, which is the true party ? The advanced one, 
 acting out the principles which gave all the real value and pros- 
 perity to the old party, or the old party, i^rofessing the same 
 principles, but 2^^'(^icticinff very different ones ? Evidently the 
 old party is hke the ass in the lion's skin. The lion's heart 
 is not there. Outside he looks the lion. Should he keep from 
 braying, he might run a whole street, and every beholder think 
 that he is a lion ; but, in some sudden turn, his ears betray him. 
 
 The Administration men claim to be the Ecpublican \rdvty. 
 They denounced Greeley as a sjylitter of that party. But hoio 
 did he split it ? He, and those acting with him, denounced 
 
58 THE DIAMOND MIRROR, REFLECTING 
 
 the abuses and departures that had beeu made from the princi- 
 ples of true republicauism. He spht the part}' in the same way 
 that forked Hghtning spUts pestilential air, — to purify it. The 
 truth proclaimed was as a magnet, to draw forth and cluster about 
 it all the particles of true metal from both parties. It is proposed 
 to draw all the steel to the new party, and leave all the stealers 
 in the old party. It is proposed to act out true republicanism 
 and true democracy, and let Grant have all the mere-shams. 
 
 Grant has tanned a lion's skin with all the hair on. He and 
 his have drawn it nicely over the rag-shag and bob-tail of the 
 old Republican party, and swear it is the Republican lion. But 
 why look for the living among the dead? The soul of the old 
 Republican jiarty has left that organization, and assumed a 
 resurrection-body. This body is composed of true Republicans 
 and true Democrats, who mean honestly to carry out the prin- 
 ciples of the Constitution. 
 
 There are now but two parties in the field, — the lion party 
 and the lion-shin party. I earnestly exhort all who wish to see 
 the nation protected^ to support the lion party. All who are 
 willing to see the nation skinned, will, of course, support the 
 lion-sI:in party. 
 
 Our glorious Constitution, as it now stands, is all right ; the 
 machinery of government is well constructed and of good mate- 
 rial. The machinery is right, but the management is wrong. 
 Our Constitutional track is of good steel, but unfortunately 
 under the control of great stealers. Constitutionally, our thir- 
 teen original cars, and all the new ones attached, are in fine 
 running order. Under proper management, the train may 
 safely and pleasantly run to National glory and immortality. 
 But we have a most reckless and boorish conductor ; he exacts 
 double fare from the passengers, and, while collecting it, puffs 
 cigar-smoke full in their faces ! For engineers, we have a set 
 of perfect dare-devils. In their breakneck speed they seem to 
 forget that they are not driving the conductor's team of fast 
 horses ! For brakemen, we have a precious set of scamps, who 
 
POLITICAL POIXTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 59 
 
 keep a sharp lookout for unguarded pockets and loose valuables, 
 and who often imitate their superiors by muddling their brains 
 with brandy and other strong drinks. 
 
 Now, is it safe to run thus ? Then put every rascal of them 
 out, and put honest, sober, efficient men in their place, and 
 thus save the Grovernmental Train from constant danger of a 
 general smash ! The price of National safety is eternal vigi- 
 lance over those intrusted with National power. Is it possible 
 that, among so large a majority of sober, industrious, intelligent 
 American citizens, there cannot be made a selection of candi- 
 dates for office without taking tadpole-loafers, wind-broken, 
 pocket-gaping, self-seeking, wine-bibbing, brandy -drinking, of- 
 fice-itching politicians and reckless sharpers ? If so, let us own 
 up to the Darwinian theory, only reversed, our ancestors being 
 the men and we the monkeys ! Let us consider all the glorious 
 past of our National history a fable, — a fiction, — invented to 
 point a lack of morals and adorn a monkey's tail! Is our age 
 so bare of able and honest statesmen as to force a selection from 
 the tail-ends of moral Degradation ? Never, never, NEVER. 
 
 Our true politicians and real statesmen are mostly in the 
 condition of the poet's gems and flowers : 
 
 " Full many a gem, of purest rav serene, 
 
 The dark, unfathomed eaves of ocean bear; 
 Full many a flower is born to blush unseen. 
 And waste its sweetness on the desert air." 
 
 But our false politicians and sham statesmen often rise and 
 float on the surface, just as balloons rise and float in the air 
 from theu' own gaseous expansion. 
 
 Full many a rogue, with all his ways serene. 
 Though dark and crooked as a winding stair, — 
 
 Full many a such, without a blush, are seen 
 To waste the nation's treasures everywhere ! 
 
 Our National Politics have become terribly demoralized ; but 
 the remedy is with the people. "Will they use it, and secure 
 immortality to the Great Republican Empire ? 
 
60 THE DIAMOND MIRROR, REFLECTING 
 
 CENTENNIAL. 
 
 It is now one hundred years since the bu'th of our nation. It 
 was born, not from rebellion, but from true loyalty to the princi- 
 ples of the British Constitution. The Revolution of 1776 was no 
 more rebellion than was the English llevolution of 1 CSS. A revo- 
 lution is a rolling about. When the roll is from right to wrong, 
 it is rebellion ; when the roll is from wrong to right, it is loyalty 
 of the highest kind. Of this kind was each of the above-named 
 Revolutions. In that of 1GS8, James II. had violated the 
 plainest principles of the British Constitution. The English 
 people arose in their might, and put James II. out, and put 
 the Prince and Princess of Orange in. By deviating slightly 
 from the law of hereditary descent in bestowing the crown on 
 William and Mary, they saved and secured the far more impor- 
 tant laws of civil and religious freedom. And when a less law 
 comes in necessary conflict with greater and far more important 
 laws, true loyalty always directs to obey the greater. 
 
 In the Revolution of 1776, our ancestors adhered strictly to 
 the principles of the British Constitution. The colonists had 
 emigrated under a royal promise that they should each enjoy all 
 the rights of British subjects. One of these rights was taxa- 
 tion only through the representatives of the people. This right 
 George III. and the British Parliament persisted in violating, 
 and in so doing violated the plainest principles of their own 
 law. They taxed the colonies while unrepresented in Parlia- 
 ment. Our Fathers adhered strictly to the good old English 
 law of taxation only by representation, and for this adherence 
 they had to fight. Now, who were the rebels, those fighting to 
 obey the law, or those fighting to break the law ? George III. 
 and the English Parliament were the real rebels. 
 
 George III. was two-thirds tyrant and one-third fool ; and 
 the English Parliament, with a few honorable exceptions, were 
 
POLITICAL POINTS FOR THE PEOPLE. Gl 
 
 very mueli like their master. Our ancestors bad to excom- 
 municate both King and ParHament, and substitute in their 
 place a President and Congi-ess, and finally a Constitution. 
 This last contains all the excellencies of the British Constitu- 
 tion, without its defects. 
 
 As iEneas and the fugitive Trojans bore away from burning 
 Troy the valuables of the Trojan nation, so our ancestors bore 
 away from Britain all the excellencies of her government, 
 and incorporated them in our own Constitution and laws, so 
 that we are in fact a new edition of the British Empire, an 
 editlo expurgata. The old edition will do for the old fogies of 
 the Old World to read, and the old fogies may read with great 
 advantage the old edition, for it will show Great Britain tar 
 in advance of most of the other nations of Europe ; but the 
 new edition is for the wide-awakes of both hemispheres to read. 
 And here we are, on this glorious centennial, open to be read 
 of all nations. We wish to be read, and to all the people of 
 the earth we send greeting, and cordially invite them to come 
 and read this new edition of the British Empire. And truly we 
 may trace our national ancestry with no Darwinian blush. Our 
 nation derives its origin from no race of monkeys or dandies, 
 but from a race of sturdy, liberty-loving and God-fearing Eng- 
 lishmen. England's march from barbarism and despotism to 
 being highly civilized, liberalized, and christianized, is our his- 
 tory. Her poets, her orators, her statesmen, her divines, her 
 literature, are all ours. We claim them all by hereditary right. 
 We are indeed proud of the old edition of the British Empire ; 
 and we will venture to hint that if the year 1776 had found 
 the British Empire under the rule of her present gentle queen 
 and her present enlightened and liberal statesmen, there might 
 have been no new edition. 
 
 But we have long since cordially forgiven England for the 
 way her crazy George and mulish Parliament treated us. And 
 well we may ; for their tyi'anny and violation of British rights 
 caused the pangs that gave our nation birth. We came, we 
 
62 THE DIAMOND MIRROR, REFLECTING 
 
 saw. we conquered. We excommunicated King and Parliament, 
 but not England. She is yet ours in all that is good and noble 
 and true. Her laws, her literature, her progress, her philan- 
 thropy, are yet models for the world's imitation. The Anglo- 
 Saxon ideas of the old and new edition of the British Empire 
 are yet to rule the world. " Rule Britannia," and especially the 
 new edition ! And this edition we invite the world to read. 
 Note our increase : We have grown from three millions to 
 forty millions, or thirteen and one-third per cent., in one hun- 
 dred years. If we increase in this ratio to our next centennial, 
 we shall be five hundred and thirty-three and one-third millions, 
 far outnumbering the present rate of the Celestial Empire. 
 
 See our extent of surface — from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 
 from the frozen regions of the old-edition Britain on the north 
 to the Gulf and sunny regions of Mexico on the south, including 
 the climates and productions of all zones. What nation has a 
 more valuable extent of country than ours ? 
 
 "No pent-up Utica contracts our powers; 
 The boundless continent is ours," 
 
 or at least enough to give us the continental control. 
 
 See our rivers — how numerous, large, extensive, and valu- 
 able for internal transportation and domestic commerce. Look 
 at our numerous and extensive railroads, with iron bands bind- 
 ing all parts of tlie country together. See our telegraphs, 
 pressing the lightning into service of human thought. See 
 our mountain systems, forming the backbone and ribs of the 
 continent ; compared to some other mountains in other countries, 
 how well behaved they are ! Etna, Vesuvius, and other volca- 
 noes frequently fall into convulsions, and, as if they had the 
 colic or cholera, belch forth their liquid vomit on all the sur- 
 rounding plains : 
 
 From throes deep down, their fiery craters spout, 
 And pour their lava, like hell emptied out ! 
 
POLITICAL POINTS FOR THE PEOPLE. G3 
 
 while our mountains embrace tlie clouds, and kiss the floating- 
 vapors into rain-drops, and send them in refreshing showers on 
 the plains below. Oh, how much better is a shower of rain 
 than a shower of fire and brimstone and scorching cinders from 
 the yawning jaws of a heaving volcano ! How much better the 
 springs, streamlets, streams, rivulets, and rivers that come oozinn, 
 dripping, flowing, rippling, gushing, rushing, leaping from oui- 
 mountain tops and sides to enrich and beautify our valhys and 
 plains, than those rivers of lava that flow with dark, sullen roll 
 and sudden ruin from volcanic mountains ! These are internally 
 feverish, restless, rolling, and rakish, like i\\Q degenerate in- 
 habitants of the surrounding plains ; while our mountains stand 
 forth cool, majestic, peaceful, and continent, and look down upon 
 an energetic and moral population. Truly every American heart 
 should love God and his mountains and pity all volcanic 
 neighbors ! 
 
 See interspersed through the land churches, academics, col- 
 leges, and universities. See the whole empire dotted over with 
 public school-houses, where young American ideas sparkle like 
 diamonds in the sunbeams. 
 
 Read our Constitution, and consider the glorious principles of 
 civil and religious freedom therein set forth. See millions of 
 freemen sworn to maintain those principles inviolate. Let those 
 principles be once seriously encroached upon, and ten thousand 
 swords will leap from their scabbards, a million of bayonets 
 will glitter in the sunshine, ready to pierce the violators of 
 principles held dearer than life. 
 
 Americans never fight except to maintain the right. Fighting 
 for conquest is entirely out of our line. We expect to make 
 all our conquests by spelling-books and Testaments, and keep 
 our shot and shell exclusively for those who violate our rights. 
 Self-defense is the first law of Nature. God has written it 
 out on all the lower orders of animal creation, by investing 
 all with means of self-defense. The letters of the law are 
 horns, hoofs, tusks, shells, scales, stings, etc. They stand out on 
 
64 THE DIAMOND MIRROR, REFLECTING 
 
 Nature's brow as plain as the letters on a new casting. If a 
 man lias eyes, he can readily read them ; if he is blind, he may 
 feel them. The letters of this law are also inscribed on all the 
 extinct orders of ihQ old geologic creations, as is proved by the 
 testimony of the rocks. 
 
 Eut when men and nations learn to obey the laws of God, 
 which are eternal right, there will be no need for fighting in 
 self-defense ; for no rights will be violated, the whole world 
 will be at peace. To this end our great Republic tends : so 
 that we may truly say, "The empire is peace." It is moral 
 suasion first, and shot and shell last, when all other kinds of 
 suasion have failed. But some may say such language in rela- 
 tion to a Christian nation is too belligerent. In reply, I ask, 
 Who can understand Christianity better than its divine Au- 
 thor ? Christ says, " Think not that I am come to send peace 
 on earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword," etc. That 
 is, although his kingdom is peace and everlasting righteous- 
 ness, yet, it being in antagonism to a corrupt world, its intro- 
 duction would necessarily cause divisions, strife, struggles, and 
 war. 
 
 When this great struggle between right and wrong was about 
 to commence, Christ said to his little band of followers, " He 
 that hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one." 
 When the traitor Judas led forth a band of roughs to capture 
 Jesus, he sneakingly approaches his noble Master and salutes 
 him with a kiss. And, as the rabble gather about him, Peter, 
 drawing his sword, " smote .the high-priest's servant, and cut 
 oiF his right ear." Good ! Three cheers for Peter ! His was 
 the first blow for freedom ! On this occasion the rock in Peter 
 cropped out gloriously, though soon after it was for a time 
 crushed out of him. After facing the roughest opposition in 
 the field, at the Hall he quails and melts before a soft, rosy- 
 cheeked, bright-eyed, quizzing Jewish maiden ! No wonder 
 Peter had to curse and swear over such a base surrender! 
 He sold out principle for personal safety. It was indeed a 
 
POLITICAL POINTS FOR THE PEOPLE. G5 
 
 dam(Ti)-sell, but one to wliicli poor fallen hunum nature is ex- 
 tremely prone. His manly tears of bitter repentance, and his 
 subsequent faithful adherence to his Master's cause, fully re- 
 deemed his credit. 
 
 He stood forth a bold champion of the truth. At first, 
 Peter was marble in the rough ; afterwards, marble chiseled 
 into curves of beauty. The old sword he used should be bap- 
 tized in joyful tear-drops, and suspended in the Temple of 
 Freedom as an everlasting trophy, while the beautiful epistles 
 he wrote should be known and read of all lovers of freedom 
 throughout the world. 
 
 But it may be said that Peter was commanded to put up his 
 sword. In like circumstances, any commander wisely brave and 
 justly prudent would have done the same. What chance was 
 there for twelve men, with only two swords, to successfully 
 resist such a crowd, backed up by the power of the whole 
 Jewish, nation ? They needed a good battery, with grape and 
 canister, to scatter the rascally Jewish rabble. E.esistance would 
 have only increased and complicated surrounding difficulties. 
 And yet it was brave and noble and true in Peter to attempt it 
 against such odds. But his bravery, and yet prompt obedience 
 to his Master's order, proved him of good soldierly qualities. 
 If I were a major-general, I would like to have Peter at the 
 head of my staff of officers. I should be sure that he would 
 stand the shock of battle like a rock. But I should want him 
 to keep clear of the dtimsels. These melt even rocks some- 
 times. 
 
 But if it is claimed that Christ never approved of physical 
 force, how came he to make a whip of small cords and lash the 
 rascally money-changers out of the Temple? (The same way 
 official money-grabbers of the present day ought to be served, 
 that our beautiful Temple of Freedom may no longer be made 
 a den of thieves !) Had not Christ made the order to desist 
 from further force, there would probably have been more than 
 one ear cut off, and perhaps some heads ! Peter was a rock, and, 
 
 6* 
 
66 THE DIAMOND MIRROR, REFLECTING 
 
 had the fight proceeded, some of the rabble would have felt his 
 rou2;h edsres. 
 
 But the same great Divme Teacher has said, " Render not 
 evil for evil;" "Love your enemies," etc. But it is not ren- 
 dering evil for evil for a nation to resist oppression ; but, on 
 the other hand, it is rendering good for evil. Take one ex- 
 ample. Had not our ancestors resisted Great Britain, and 
 manfully sustained their rights, the?/ would have grown into a 
 nation of tyrants, and *we into a nation of slaves. They would 
 have despised us, and we cordially hated them. Now, instead 
 of scorn and hate, there is mutual respect and love. The best 
 way to love an encroaching enemy is to thrash him well till 
 he learns better behavior; then feed him, and give the hand 
 and heart of friendship. Thus there is produced mutual love 
 and respect. Both parties are put in a mood highly satisfactory 
 and Christian. 
 
 Striking in malice or revenge is a very different thing from 
 striking in self-defense or to maintain the right. If I receive 
 a malicious blow on one cheek, rather than return a malicious 
 blow it is better to turn the other cheek for another blow. For 
 if I strike back in malice, I act from the same base motive that 
 prompted the first injury; but if, before receiving the blow, I 
 see my enemy approaching, and dexterously ward off the blow, 
 and, if need be, chastise him severely, not in malice, but in 
 order to teach him better manners, then I act from motives 
 highly philanthropic, and therefore truly Christian. Malice 
 and revenge are devilish ; but self-defense and defending the 
 right and correcting the wrong, are divine. They spring from 
 the noblest impulses which God has implanted in the human 
 heart. This same principle of individual action applies also to 
 nations. For one nation to submit tamely to wrong from an- 
 other nation is a great injury to both ; but a prompt and patri- 
 otic repelling of wrong is a great benefit to both. It effectually 
 prevents national tyranny and slavery, and all the terrible 
 evils invariably following in their train. It teaches a whole- 
 
POLITICAL POINTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 07 
 
 some lesson to all nations to cease to do evil and learn to do 
 well. It glorifies God by enthroning the right and dethroning 
 the wrong. 
 
 Ancient Rome fought for power ; we have fought for prin- 
 ciple. Rome used her accumulated power for conquest; we 
 have used ours for protection and improvement. Rome's civi- 
 lization was Pagan ; ours is Christian. Her civilization was 
 high for Pagan ; ours is higher, but not that " excelsior" its 
 Christian type demands. Her literature was grand, solid, 
 stately, and beautiful ; ours (trash excluded) is grandeur, solid- 
 ity, stateliness, and beauty, all melted into utility and bap- 
 tized into Christianity. Her laws, her language, being dead, 
 yet speak in the laws and languages of modern civilization. 
 Thus the better part of Rome lives. Thus she erected a 
 monument more enduring than bronze or marble. 
 
 While Rome remained frugal, and saved up her strength to 
 grapple with obstacles in her way to glory, she prospered, she 
 triumphed. But when she came into east/ circumstances, and 
 became wealthy, insolent, corrupt, and tyrannical, then she 
 began to fall. When luxury, licentiousness, and greed of gain 
 began to prevail, she lost her former prestige of victory. Nero 
 began her death-dirge when he commenced fiddling over flaming 
 Rome. Her profligate emperors and sub-rulers reveled in her 
 squandered treasures. It took Rome three hundred years to 
 die. Her death-struggles were severe and prolonged in exact 
 proportion to the greatness and intensity of her former national 
 life. 
 
 From the decline and fill of this great empire let our Re- 
 public take warning, lest some future historian may have to 
 record the mournful exordium, " Columbia fuit." If we fall, 
 our death-struggles will be severer, as our advantages have been 
 greater. If we, under the widely-spread rays of the Bible and 
 science, still give ourselves up to the vices of ancient Rome, 
 our guilt and fall will be fir more terrible than hers. She died 
 from external forces, which her 'internal vices rendered lier 
 
G8 THE DIAMOND MIRROR, REFLECTING 
 
 incapable of resisting ; but our dying would be suicidal. It 
 our young Republic, like Samson shorn of his locks of strength 
 and beauty by having fallen into the lap of false, deceptive 
 pleasure, should be snared and taken and enslaved, and have 
 both eyes (the Bible and Science) put out, yet the again- 
 accumulated forces, in agony, would soon pour through the 
 muscles of the enslaved giant sufficiently to enable him to bow 
 between the huge pillars of the National Temple, and bury 
 himself, with his tormentors, in the falling ruins ! 
 
 To avoid such a fate, let our nation avoid the errors sure to 
 produce such a fate. Never "go it blind," as Samson did. 
 Never surrender the rule of State to Christless politicians and 
 ungodly demagogues. Vote only for pure men, able and 
 honest statesmen ; and if any politician anywise doubtful so- 
 licits suffrage, first swear him on the eighth commandment. 
 See, first, that he manages his own affairs well ; for if a man is 
 not capable and honest in the management of his private af- 
 fairs, how can he be so in that of public affairs ? Be surd and 
 scratch his name if he has the office-?Yc/i. If the scratching 
 does him no good, it will ease the Bepublic of a contagion far 
 worse than seven-years' itch ! 
 
 It is not generally hardships that ruin men and nations ; but 
 it is the easy-ships that cause the ruin. And, unfortunately for 
 the American people, these easy-ships are the only ones office- 
 holders usually sail in. How many of our present office-holders 
 have any idea of rendering a fair equivalent in services for the 
 money they receive from the people ? Not they ! If you begin 
 at the first rung of the official ladder, and proceed upward, you 
 will find it worse and worse till you arrive at the Presidential 
 top, where there is as little attention to official duties as there 
 is attention to moral duties by a chief of a band of robbers ! 
 Since things are so, let the American people arouse, and, 
 breaking away from the shackles of party, come into the free- 
 dom of principle, and vote only for honest, capable men to 
 manage the extensive machinery of our great Western Empire. 
 
POLITICAL POINTS FOR THE PEOPLE. C9 
 
 And what more favorable time to begin than on this centennial 
 of our nation's birth ? Then our next centennial will number 
 two hundred years from the birth, and one hundred from the 
 regeneration, of the Republic. 
 
 God, the great author of individual and national life, has 
 ordained that all power and all accumulations of power .^^hall 
 be used as he uses hia power. He exerts his power through 
 the universe for the welfare and happiness of his creatures. 
 For this he creates suns and worlds, and swings them whiiliiig 
 in their spheres through infinite space. For this he has nicely 
 balanced all their motions. No jarring, no discord ; but har- 
 mony, the music of the spheres, everywhere prevails. Let us 
 now suppose a break in this music. 
 
 " Let earth unbalanced from her orbit fly, 
 Planets and suns run lawless through the sky, 
 Let ruling forces from these spheres be hurled, 
 Being on being wrecked, and world on world, 
 Heaven's whole foundations to their centre nod. 
 And Nature trembles to the throne of God!" 
 
 Now, in the moral world, as in the natural, God has established 
 laws or fixed modes of action. Under these laws all human 
 actions are held by the grasp of Omnipotence. A departure 
 from these laws by human beings or nations will sooner or 
 later produce destruction. It must do so, as sure as God is. 
 Such departures from moral law produce in the moral world 
 confusion and ultimate ruin similar and as certain as these sup- 
 posed by a break in the natural world. Obedience to law is 
 the harmony of the universe, and disobedience is confusion 
 worse and worse confounded till ultimate ruin. A nation in 
 order to live and prosper must imitate God in the use of its 
 power. The government of that nation must promote and pro- 
 tect the welfare of the people. The inalienable God-given 
 rights of the people must be secured. And this can be done 
 only by filling the ofiices of government with just and true and 
 able men. 
 
70 THE DIAMOND MIRROR, REFLECTING 
 
 The moral law was given by Moses to the Jewish nation. 
 It has a preamble, and is in ten articles, usually called the 
 Decalogue, embracing all the moral duties of human nature. 
 Afterwards the Great Teacher condensed this Decalogue into 
 a Duologue. This compendium of all moral duties and beauties 
 is supreme love to God and equal love to one's neighbor and 
 self Now, if a man loves his neighbor as himself, his own 
 mind is brought into such a condition as, like a mirror, to 
 reflect the image of God so clearly to his moral perception that 
 he cannot help loving God supremely as the sum of all moral 
 perfection and beauty, and thus worshiping him in spirit and 
 truth. 
 
 But who is my neighbor ? This question has been already 
 so beautifully answered that it needs but a reference. Who was 
 neighbor to the man who fell among thieves? Was it the 
 adjacent priest or Levite that looked on him and passed by on 
 the other side ? Or was it the distant and despised Samaritan 
 who " when he saw him had compassion on him, and went and 
 bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine," etc.? He was 
 neighbor who showed mercy on him. His moral qualities made 
 him neighbor, and not his locality or nationality. Like loves 
 its like, and seeks its like by a law as invariable as that which 
 points the trembling needle to the pole. 
 
 A moral nature possessing good qualities loves every other 
 moral nature possessing like qualities. If I am a true man, 
 every other one possessing true manhood is my brother; and 
 every one possessing true womanhood is my sister ; and both 
 are neighbors whom I am required to love equally with m^^self. 
 
 But if any one supposes that I am required to love as myself 
 a robber, a thief, a rascal, or a hypocrite, because he is locally 
 near me, he makes a suj^position both hard and false. It is 
 hard because it is impossible, and for the same reason it is 
 false. No true man can love qualities, personified in the de- 
 faced outlines of a man, which are in themselves hateful, and 
 which God hates. He may love even the faintly-traced out- 
 
POLITICAL FOISTS FOR THE FEOFLE. 71 
 
 lines of a man as soon as those outlines no longer inclose such 
 hateful qualities. If he can persuade or chastise or in any way 
 cast out the bad qualities and see the man repo.<sessed with 
 good qualities, then he becomes neighbor again to be loved as 
 one's self. But to love a being while possessed of hateful 
 qualities, and acting under them, is impossible. And as all truth 
 is possible, and as the supposition is not possible, it is therefore 
 not true, but false. Love exercised towards objects worthy of 
 love is the sum of the moral law. This force in the moral 
 world is like the gravitating force in the natural world. " It 
 binds, connects, and equals all" on whom it acts. It is eternal 
 right, and protection and favor to all according to moral worth. 
 It is true moral freedom, and finally has given birth to civil 
 and religious freedom as embodied in the immortal Declaration 
 and Constitution of the United States. Read the first sentence 
 of the Declaration and Preamble of the Constitution. See 
 every word sparkling with moral truth like diamonds reflecting 
 sunbeams ! Jeflferson, the Great Apostle of Political Truth, 
 there speaks as if by inspiration, reflecting essentially the same 
 sublime truths taught more than eighteen centuries ago by the 
 great, though humble, Xazarene. Well might the Emperor 
 Julian exclaim, ••Q Galilean ! thou hast conquered," when the 
 sublime truths he taught so soon spread through the ancient 
 world, obscured in their brightness the diadem of the Caesars, 
 swept through all opposition, shone through the chaos of the 
 dark ases, brous-ht the world ao;ain to a resurrection of light, 
 and finally breathed the spirit of civil and religious freedom 
 into the American Constitution. That sacred instrument is 
 indestructible. Even if tyrants could tear it into atoms, they 
 could not tear it from the American heart. There it is so 
 indelibly written that it can fade away only as that heart heaves 
 its last crimson tide ! 
 
 Our Constitution stands before the world as the beau ideal 
 of political truth, based on moral and religious truth as revealed 
 in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament. As God in 
 
72 THE DIAMOND MIRROR, REFLECTING 
 
 his providence raised up the Jewish nation to enlighten and 
 bless and renovate the ancient world, so he has raised up our 
 nation to illustrate and disseminate the blessings of civil and 
 religious freedom to the modern world. How sacred the trust ! 
 Let it never be betrayed. Let us never, like that nation, prove 
 false to our mission and pull down the beautiful temple of 
 freedom on our own heads. 
 
 And let all the world know that by Divine aid we will " hold 
 the fort." We will " trust in Grod and keep our powder dry." 
 And let all encroaching tyrants know that our nation stands 
 forth in the attitude of the minister preaching to a congregation 
 of rowdies, with Bible open and braced on each side by a six- 
 shooter ! We say to them, " Bibles or bullets ?" " Choose ye." 
 We advise and hope that you take Bibles. These will do you 
 far more good than bullets. But if you are too thick-headed 
 and hard-hearted to take Bibles, and you persist in wronging 
 us, take bullets. They may soften your hard hides, and thus 
 do you some good. They will at least do the world good by 
 protecting the right and crushing the wrong. 
 
 The perfection of human legislation is to harmonize with 
 divine legislation : the less with the greater. The higher-law 
 doctrine is no political heresy ; but William Seward was^ not 
 its first expounder. Peter taught it when he said, " We ought 
 to obey God rather than men." It is beautifully described by 
 Hooker, as " That law whose seat is the bosom of God, and 
 whose voice is the harmony of the world." Sir William Black- 
 stone taught it when he said, that " If the British Parliament 
 enact a law contrary to the law of God, no one would be bound 
 to obey it." Jefferson inferentially taught it in the first clause 
 of the Declaration ; for no law can hold against an inalienahle 
 right. Common sense teaches it. Suppose a legislature should 
 pass a law that on the first day of each month every man should 
 whip his wife and spank all his children ! What an outrage to 
 wives and light infantry ! Who would feel obligated to obey 
 any such law ? The only obligation felt would be to kick out 
 
POLITICAL POINTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 73 
 
 the legislative fools who had passed any such pretended law. 
 Blackstone's definition of law sustains the higher-law doctrine : 
 " Law is a rule of action prescribed by the supreme power of 
 the State, commanding what is right and prohibiting what is 
 wrong." But suppose it commands what is wrong and pro- 
 hibits what is right, then it is no law. A legislature might as 
 well attempt to legislate the earth out of its orbit as to legislate 
 wrong into right. In the one case, the earth moves right along, 
 nicely balanced in her sphere ; while in the other the right 
 moves evenly along in her eternal orbit, discharging thunder- 
 bolts of divine wrath at such as are foolhardy enough to attempt 
 to disturb her motion. The legislator who puts himself in 
 opposition to the higher law, is in a position as unfortunate as 
 that of the belligerent bull, that, having got on the iron track, 
 and there bracing himself, shakes his curly pate at the advancing 
 locomotive. 
 
 Clear the track, the world is waking, 
 Night is gone, and day is breaking. 
 Seek the right in legislation, 
 Thus secure the State's salvation. 
 Only tyrants are opposing ; 
 These the people are deposing. 
 Forward, then, our youthful nation ! 
 God and freedom be our ration ! 
 Clear the way, the States are waking, 
 O'er the night the day is breaking. 
 See the King of day arising, 
 In his golden chariot riding; 
 See the stars before him fleeing ; 
 See the mists of darkness leaving; 
 See yon archway all a-glowiug, 
 O'er the earth such beauty throwing; 
 See the Monarch now ascending, 
 Lowly from his chariot bending, 
 Kissing dew-drops pure, adorning, 
 Prom the rosy lips of Morning! 
 
 So may the glorious Sun of Righteousness, having risen upon 
 the earth, and especially upon our nation, continue to shine till 
 D 7 
 
74 THE DIAMOND MIRROR. 
 
 the mists of error and ignorance shall flee away, leaving un 
 obscured the sparkling- diamonds of truth. Then ria-hteousness 
 and peace will have kissed each other. Then the nations will 
 have to learn war no more, for the might and the right will at 
 last coincide. 
 
 When all human laws become conformed to the higher or 
 Divine law, then the kingdoms of this world will have become 
 the kingdoms of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and He 
 shall reio-n for ever and ever, and our earth, instead of being 
 '' Paradise Lost," will be '' Paradise Regained." 
 
THE DIAMOND MIRROR, 
 
 REFLECTING 
 
 POLITICAL POKTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 
 
 WITH 
 
 A POi:XTED CEXTEXXIAL. 
 
 BY 
 
 PAUL US, 
 
 OXCE OXE OF "the B0V5 IX BLrE." 
 
 Young America, see thyself. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 187 6. 
 
I 
 
''The Diamond Mirror" will he sent, postage 
 paid, to any address on receipt of 20 cents 
 by mail. 
 
 AMERICANUS JUNIUS, 
 
 Chatham P. 0., Chester Co., Pa. 
 
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