greate loue for ye Union, alwaies hoping firstly for ye Union politicall, and secondlie for ye wedding union of hertes and ye union of handes, whych is nedeful, that ye countrie shall not perishe for lacke of sturdie urchins to growe upp into soldieres.  And thatt theye aye all thus become goode wives and brave mothers, and bee bleste and happie in alle thynges, is ye heartes prayer of

    CLERKE NICHOLAS.

* * * * *

The following extract from the Washington correspondence of the Philadelphia Press is significant: 

’As pertinent to these questions, let me ask if you have ever gone back to the time when most of the Breckinridge papers in the free States were in danger of being mobbed and torn out after the fall of Fort Sumter?

’I will not ask why these demonstrations occurred, but I will ask if you can point to any one of these journals that is not now filled with strong denunciations of the Administration and its friends, and timid reproaches of the rebels in arms?  Are they not all clamorous for the reoerganization of the Democratic party?  Are they not all against any combination of patriotic men under the name of a Union party?  Their object is as plain as their early treason was notorious, and the end of their victory will be the recognition of the armed rebels, or their full forgiveness.  The armed rebels are watching their movements with eagerness and joy.’

That they are doing so, is amply evidenced by the recent ‘democratic’ and treasonable movements in Washington.  In time of war, and especially of such a war as this, there can be, as Mr. Douglas said, ’but patriots and traitors.’  Away with all parties—­till the enemy are ours, the only parties should be those of the North and South.

* * * * *

The municipal authorities at Nashville met Governor Johnson’s appeal, urging them to take the oath of allegiance, by a prompt refusal—­falling back ‘for reasons’ on State rights.  There should be, in these times, but one way of dealing with all such State rights gentlemen—­arrest as traitors, and trial under military law.  This is no day for dilly-dallying and quibbling about ‘State rights.’  There is only one right in such cases—­the right of the Union, and fidelity to it.  This rebuff is generally spoken of by the press as ‘the Nashville Snag.’  There be such things as snag-extractors, and we trust that our Government is free enough from red-tape do-nothingism and circumlocution, to make short work of these insolent rebels, whatever they be.

    Boston, April 1st.

    DEAR EDITOR:  I jot down the following as one of the most
    melancholy results of this wicked and cruel war: 

The Captain at our house believes in General Butler.  The Lawyer don’t.  Such is the state of parties at our table.  As I said before, the hand of brother is uplifted against brother, and either may become a fratri-cider—­as the fellow did when he squeezed his brother to death in the press, among the apples.

    The captain said, the other day, that Butler had a great deal of
    dash.