Swingin Round the Cirkle (Illustrated Edition)

200 Pages·2009·3.56 MB·English

by  Petroleum V. Nasby

Swingin Round
the Cirkle

Petroleum V. Nasby

Illustrated by Thomas Nast

Swingin
Round the Cirkle.
BY
PETROLEUM V. NASBY,
LATE PASTOR OF THE CHURCH OF THE NEW DISPENSATION,
CHAPLAIN TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENT, AND P.M.
AT CONFEDERATE × ROADS, KENTUCKY.
HIS IDEAS OF
MEN, POLITICS, AND THINGS,
AS SET FORTH IN HIS LETTERS TO THE PUBLIC PRESS, DURING
THE YEAR 1866.
Illustrated by Thomas Nast.
1867.

DEDIKASHUN UV THIS BOOK.

TO
ANDROO JOHNSON,
TH E P R I D E A N D H O PE U V DI M O C R I S Y ,
Who hez bin Alderman uv his native village,
Guvner uv his State,
Member uv the lower house uv Congress,
And likewise uv the Senit,
Vice President and President, and might hev bin Diktater,
But who is, nevertheless, a Humble Individooal;
Who hez swung around the entire cirkle uv offishl
honor, without feelin his Oats much;
The first public man who considered my
services worth payin for;

AND TO

ALEX. W. RANDALL,
POSTMASTER GENRAL,
His most devoted Servant,
Whose autograph adorns my Commishn ez Postmaster,
This Volume
IS RESPECTFULLY DEDIKATED.

CONTENTS

PREFIS, OR INTERDUCTRY CHAPTER
I. AFTER THE NEW JERSEY ELECTION
II. CONVERSES WITH GENERAL MCSTINGER
III. A REMARKABLE DREAM
IV. A CHANGE OF BASE—KENTUCKY
V. ABOLITION IN KENTUCKY
VI. A CONVERSATION WITH A KENTUCKIAN
VII. A VISION—SPIRIT OF ANDREW JACKSON
VIII. A PLAN FOR UP-BUILDING THE DEMOCRACY
IX. A VISION OF THE NEXT WORLD
X. A SONNET
XI. THE SITUATION—THE DEMOCRACY WARNED
XII. THE PRESIDENT’S 22D OF FEBRUARY SPEECH
XIII. A WARNING
XIV. REFUSES TO SUPPORT THE PRESIDENT
XV. THE PATRIARCHAL SYSTEM
XVI. A DREAM
XVII. A KENTUCKY TEA PARTY
XVIII. A CRY OF EXULTATION
XIX. A WAIL OF ANGUISH
XX. MOURNFUL VIEW OF THE SITUATION
XXI. A PSALM OF GLADNESS
XXII. A DISCOURSE UPON THE NIGGER
XXIII. WORKINGS OF THE FREEDMEN’S BUREAU
XXIV. PRESIDES AT A CHURCH TRIAL
XXV. MEETING TO INDORSE GEN. ROSSEAU
XXVI. PREACHES—THE “PRODIGAL SON”
XXVII. A PLEASANT DREAM
XXVIII. THE REWARD OF VIRTUE
XXIX. THE CONVOCATION AT PHILADELPHIA
XXX. THE GREAT PRESIDENTIAL EXCURSION
XXXI. THE PRESIDENTIAL TOUR CONTINUED
XXXII. END OF THE PRESIDENTIAL TOUR
XXXIII. AT HOME AGAIN
XXXIV. THE CLEVELAND CONVENTION
XXXV. AN APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE
XXXVI. THE OCTOBER ELECTIONS
XXXVII. MR. NASBY’S OPINION ON THE CAUSE OF THE PRESIDENT’S
DEFEAT
XXXVIII. ANDREW JOHNSON PRESIDENT OR KING?
XXXIX. A CABINET MEETING
XL. SERMON ON THE NOVEMBER ELECTIONS
XLI. A FEW LAST WORDS
PREFIS,
OR
INTERDUCTRY CHAPTER.
There is a vacancy in the mind uv the public for jist sich a book ez
this, else it had never bin published. There is a vacancy in my pockit
for the money I am to reseeve ez copy-rite, else I hed never slung
together, in consecootive shape, the ijees wich I hev from time to
time flung out thro the public press, for the enlitenment uv an
ongrateful public and the guidance uv an obtoose Dimocracy.
I didn’t put these thots uv mine upon paper for amoozement. There
hezn’t bin anythin amoozin in Dimocrisy for the past five years, and
the standard-bearers, the captins uv fifties and hundreds, the leaders
uv the hosts, hev hed a ruther rough time uv it. Our prominence
made us uncomfortable, for we hev bin the mark uv every writer,
every orator, ez well ez uv every egg-thrower, in the country. When
that gileless patriot, Jeems Bookannon, retired to private life,
regretted by all who held office under him, Dimocracy felt that she
wuz entrin upon a period uv darknis and gloom. The effort our
Suthern brethrin made for their rites, rendered the position uv us
Northern Dimocrats eggstremely precarious. We coodent go back on
our friends South, for, knowin that peace must come, and that when
it did come we wood hev to, ez in the olden time, look to them for
support and maintenance, it behooved us to keep on their good side.
This wood hev bin easy enuff, but alars! there are laws agin treason,
and two-thirds uv the misguided people north hed got into a way uv
thinkin that the Dimocrasy South had committed that crime, and
they intimated that ef we overstepped the line that divides loyalty
from treason by so much ez the millionth part uv a hair, they’d make
us suffer the penalty they hoped to mete out to them, but wich, owin
to Johnson, they dident, and wat’s more, can’t. Halleloogy!
But I anticipate. Twict I wuz drafted into a service I detested—twict I
wuz torn from the buzzum uv my family, wich I wuz gittin along