At last! The deed is dun! The tiranikle government which hez sway at Washington hez finelly extinguished the last glimerin flicker uv Liberty, by abolishin slavery! The sun didn’t go down in gloom that nite—the stars didn’t fade in2 a sickly yeller, at wich obstinacy uv nachur I wuz considably astonished.
I got the news at the Post Offis (near wich I am at present stayin, at the house uv a venerable old planter, who accepts my improvin conversation and a occasional promise, wich is cheap, ez equivalent for board). Sadly I wendid my way to his peaceful home, dreadin to fling over that house the pall uv despair. After supper I broke to em ez gently ez I cood the intelligence that three-fourths uv the States hed ratified the constooshnel amendment—that Seward had ishood his proclamation, and that all the Niggers wuz free!
Never did I see sich sorrer depicted on human countenance—never wuz there despair uv sich depth. All nite long the bereaved inmates uv that wunst happy but now distracted home wept and waled in agony wich wuz perfectly heart rendin.
“Wo is me,” sobbed the old man, wringin his hands.
“John Brown’s karkis hangs a danglin in the air, but his sole is marchin on.
“It took posseshun of Seward, and thro his ugly mouth it spoke the words ‘the nigger is free,’ and there is no more a slave in all the land.
“Wunst I hed a hundred niggers, and the men were fat and healthy, and the wenches wuz strong, and sum uv em wuz fair to look upon.
“They worked in my house, and my fields, from the rising uv the sun to the goin down uv the same.
“Wuz they lazy? I catted them till they wuz cured thereof; for lo! they wuz ez a child under my care.
“Did they run away? From Kentucky they run North, and lo! the Locofoco Marshals caught them for me, and brought them back, and delivered them into my hand, without cost, sayin, lo! here is thy nigger—do with him ez thou wilt (wich I alluz did), wich is cheeper than keepin dogs, and jest as good.