Political Rendering of Hamlet.

Hon. John Cochrane is 'some' at sensation making, He got off something in this line, in one of his speeches during the war, which—at one point at least seemed to bring down the house,' friends and opponents alike included. With characteristic vivaciousness of manner and expression, Mr. C. said:

stood shoulder to shoulder in the front, the people were standing shoulder to shoulder in the rear.

Cheers instead of a Speech.

A very cheerful little speech was given by President Lincoln, one afternoon, while a very large concourse of people was assembled on the grounds of the presidential mansion, listening to the charming musie of the Marine Band.

Upon yonder lines, at Windsor Pass, Vallandigham and his friend Horatio-I see the friend of Horatio grasping his The President, in the midst of the mucloak about him to screen him from the sical entertainment, made his appearance northern blast; and I also behold Marcel- on the balcony of the White House, and lus Wood. It is the peace platform on after conversing with a few friends, stood the Canadian line. They tread the stage up and looked very much like a man who and remind me of that scene conceived in was going to make a speech. The people the mind of nature's poet, composed un- took the cue from Abraham's countenance, doubtedly with reference to events now and instantly there was a general rush to transpiring. It was the melancholy Ham- the spot where he stood. Mr. Lincoln let-Vallandigham-his friend Horatio, smiled on the crowd gathered around him, and the officer Marcellus Wood, that occupied, upon a dreary night, a brief hour upon the peace platform at Elsinore. [Hisses and applause.]

Hamlet (Vallandigham)-the air bites shrewdly; it is very cold.

Horatio it is indeed, an unhappy and an eager air.

Hamlet-What hour now?

and understanding very well what they wanted, made a low bow and proceeded: "Ladies and gentlemen, I suppose you want a speech, don't you?"

"Yes, yes!" was the response on all sides.

"Well," said the President, "I propose in lieu of it to give three cheers for General Grant and the army under him.”

The cheers were given with a right good will, after which the crowd dispersed, thinking that old Abe had played a joke in pretending that he was going to make a speech. The little episode put everybody into the best of humor. The Presi dent knew well how to lead off with "three

Stirring Scene at the Polls.

Horatio-Methinks it lacks of twelve. Marcellus Wood-No, it has struck. Horatio-Indeed! I heard it not. Heard it not, Horatio? Heard you not Rhode Island, one? two, Vermont? three, Massachusetts? four, New Hampshire? five, Maine? six, California? seven, Wisconsin? eight, Illinois? nine, Pennsylva- and a tiger." nia? ten, Ohio? eleven, Maryland? and New York, twelve? [Uproarous applause, which lasted for some time, the At a town meeting held in Newton audience rising to their feet and cheering Massachusetts, a very black freedman wh en masse.] And there struck the last syl- came from Virginia to the former Stat lable of recorded time. If, Horatio, your about a year and a half previously, an auricular nerve was dead to that, it must who, for fourteen months, had been in th be the dull, cold ear of death with which employ of a gentleman in West Newto you are struck. The dead heard it, looked appeared at the polls for the purpose up and wondered at the miracle. The liv- voting. He had been assessed, his ta ing heard it and rejoiced, and as our army was paid, and he was all right on the re

ord, but he held a War ticket, and the "are making an effort to draw in the presiding member of the board of select- border States to their schemes of secession,

men at the time, who entertained opposite political views, refused permission for him

to vote.

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and I am too fearful they will succeed. If they do succeed, there will be the most terrible civil war the world has ever seen, "Upon what grounds?" asked a gentle- lasting for years. Virginia will become a man present. Because," said the officer, charnel house; but the end will be the "he is an escaped slave, and under the triumph of the Union cause. One of their fugitive slave law he ought to be sent first efforts will be to take possession of back." "But," said the gentleman, "we this capital, to give them prestige abroad, don't live under that dispensation now; but they will never succeed in taking it; the President's Proclamation has settled

all that, and the man has a right to vote and should be allowed to do so."

"The President had no right to make such a Proclamation; it is unconstitutional," said the selectman.

The gentleman replied: "It is for the Board to determine the man's right to vote, and I appeal to them;" and with the exception above stated all concurred that the freedman had the right to vote, and he accordingly deposited his first ballot with a grin of delight which was pleasant to witness.

As he was doing this, however, a little

Irishman entered his protest, on the ground

Douglas.

but it will become a city of hospitals; the churches will be used for the sick and wounded, and even the Minnesota block (which afterward did become the Douglas hospital) may be devoted to that purpose before the end of the war."

that he could not read and write. "I beg the North will rise en masse to defend it; pardon," said the gentleman who acted the part of friend to the voter, "he can read and write. Since he came here he has been prepared for the duties of a free man, and he can read and write as well as a white man." "Well," said the little Irishman, "I don't care for that; niggers have no right to vote, any way," and so the matter ended.

"What justification is there for all this?" inquired General Stewart.

"There is," said Douglas, "no justification, nor any pretense of any. If they

General Stewart and Senator Douglas on the will remain in the Union, I will go as far

"Situation."

as the Constitution will permit to maintain A most remarkable prediction was made their just rights, and I do not doubt but a by Senator Douglas, in January, 1861. majority of Congress will do the same. Mr. Douglas was asked by General C. B. But," and this he said rising on his feet Stewart, of New York, who was making a and extending his arm, "if the Southern New Year's call on the great Illinoisian,- States attempt to secede from this Union "What will be the results of the efforts without further cause, I am in favor of their of Jefferson Davis and his associates to having just so many slaves, and just so divide the Union?" much slave territory, as they can hold at "The cotton States," Douglas replied, the point of the bayonet-and no more!"

Wilkinson's Veteran Minnesota Regiment.

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One of the richest scenes afforded by the United States Senate, during the war, was that in which Pitt Fessenden, of Maine, and Wilkinson, of Minnesota, were the principal actors. Wilkinson-a very clever Senator-had been indulging in a little abuse of the East." The East got everything, he said, and the West nothing. He alluded particularly to a veteran regiment from Minnesota, which from some informality had not yet received its pay, and an appeal was taken to Congress, which was not successful. From one thing to another, the discussion rambled, till at last the Senator (Wilkinson) began to ridicule the army of the Potomac in "Dunn Browne's" best style. He pictured that army swinging to and fro between Washington and Culpepper, and made eastern armies and eastern generals appear in a ridiculous aspect. Pitt Fessenden rose to defend the East.

"How is it," asked Fessenden, "about

the veteran Minnesota regiment, which Charleston and went to my consul's office, our friend has complimented so highly and inquired for the consul, he was told that here? To what army did it belong?" "To the army of the Potomac," replied Wilkinson.

"Indeed," quoth the Maine senator, "is it possible? Has this Minnesota regiment been swinging to and fro between the Potomac and the Rapidan?"

Wilkinson then explained that he did not allude to the soldiers of the army of the Potomac, but to its leaders. Mr. Fessenden took him up on that point.

"Who is the General-in-Chief?" asked Mr. Fessenden; "It is General Halleck, a western man. Who is the Commander-inChief, the man responsible for the leadership of all the armies? Is he not a western man?"

It was a most amusing colloquial debate, Fessenden coming out in his best style, and Wilkinson doing extremely well, too, but choosing to be in a weak position, he was compelled to throw up the sponge.

he was drilling his company. What company? inquired the captain of the ship. Why, one of the companies selected to march against Washington. The captain was greatly surprised, and mentioned the fact as evidence of the universal feeling of hostility which pervades Charleston."

Mr. Seward. What is the name of your consul at Charleston?

to deal with every Foreign Power and their | the time he was out of his wagon, and had representatives, whenever they interfere, been practising with his rifle at a mark, directly or indirectly, between us and the and had just loaded. The younger brother traitors in rebellion against our Govern- said: "I'm glad you're thinking about ment. The exequatur of your consul is your gun. You'd better join a company." recalled; and I sincerely hope that no im- "I have done so," was the calm reply. prudence on the other side of the Atlantic, "Whose?" "Captain's," naming the will compel me as summarily to terminate Captain of a company of Home Guards the very pleasant relations now existing that had been raised in that county. "Ah! with all the members of the Diplomatic that's what you are at, is it?" cried the Corps. younger brother-and, drawing a Colt's navy, he continued, "I've got something

to death."

"And the brother shall deliver up the brother for you," and fired. The ball lodged in the breast of the elder brother, who staggered A man named C-e, lived in Missouri, and fell with the violence or suddenness of about fifty miles from the Kansas border. the shock. Recovering himself, however, His family, originally from the South, had for a moment, with superhuman energy, he settled in southwestern Missouri. When got upon his knees, and seizing his rifle, the war broke out his two brothers avowed pointed it at his murderous brother, who their disloyalty to the Government, joined turned and fled, but the rifle-ball in his spine arrested the course of the rebel forThe family of the Union man gathered a few of their effects hurriedly, and fled with him in a wagon-at last reaching Kansas, where, though severely wounded, he slowly recovered.

"And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death."

ever.

Female Traitors making Ashes of the Glorious Flag.

In the earlier stage of the rebellion, four young gentlemen stopping in Alexandria, engaged apartments there of a highly respectable lady living in Prince street, with her daughters, the latter aged respectively sixteen and eighteen. Although the lady and her daughters were avowed secessionists, the former having two sons in the rebel army, the new-comers were nevertheless not quite prepared to hear them speak so contemptuously and bitterly of the the secession army, and they urged him to Union. The young gentlemen, it appears, do so too. But he was true to his allegiance took it into their heads to hoist the Stars to the Union and its starry ensign. Hesi- and Stripes on the top of their dwelling, tating, and with the ties of kindred to dis- one day. The lady and daughters, when tract him, he remained a passive witness they discovered it, raised such a storm of of events until all the man that was in him indignation that the gentlemen were afraid at length induced him to take his place in to approach them. One of the young ladies the great struggle. A few days after a clambered to the roof of the house, at the younger brother rode up to his house. At risk of life and limb, and, with the spirit

prisoner of war. Grant treated him kindly, invited him to his private apartment, and extended to him the courtesies of personal friendship. After he left, the General sketch of the rebel's former

of a tigress, tore down the flag, trampled it beneath her feet, and finally threw the fragments into the stove. Not content with this disrespect to the glorious emblem of the country which had protected herself gave a little and family from their birth, this young trait-life to the members of his staff. He also ress took the ashes of the burnt flag and said, that when the rebel major was in his pitched them contemptuously into the room and he was talking to him about being in the Confederate service, the major replied:

street.

Merited Rebuke of a Secessionist by General
Dumont.

"Grant, I tell you I ain't much of a rebel, after all, and when I am paroled, I will let the d-service go to the mischief."

Dr. Cottman in Butler's Hands.

There is a story of General Butler's ad

A good anecdote is told of how a violent secessionist at the Tennessee capital got a merited rebuke from General Dumont. A famous physician's female household deported themselves so rudely to our soldiers, once or twice actually spitting in their ministration in New Orleans which does faces, that the General ordered the house not appear in his excellent biography. By to be put under guard, with orders to let direction of the President, an election for no one pass in or out. The Doctor, who Congressmen was held in the First and was in the country at the time, was greatly Second districts. Dr. Cottman engaged incensed on finding his access to his own to be a candidate, and was thereupon sent house debarred by a guard of soldiery on for by General Butler. his return, and forthwith went to headquarters, boiling over with rage. On hear ing the Doctor's representation, the General calmly replied that he was not aware of giving any order to put the complainant's house under guard. The latter insisted, however, that the fact was so, and pointed to his residence, which was in sight and near at hand, as evidence, for the guard could be plainly seen.

The General, after inquiring whether it was really true that the Doctor was a candidate with his own consent, and receiving an affirmative answer, read the oath which he would be required to take before entering upon his Congressional duties-a pretty stringent covenant by the way, declaring that the deponent had never given aid or comfort to the internal or external enemies of the Republic, never held or sought

"Is that your residence?" inquired the office under the pretended government of General, blandly.

the Confederate States, or in any way countenanced the great rebellion. Having thus called the attention of the Doctor to the terrible ordeal which awaited him, the General drew forth a large fac-simile of the Ordinance of Secession, and pointed to the signature, Thos. E. H. Cottman, which appeared thereon in a fair, round, schoolmaster-like hand.

"Now," asked the General, "how can you take that oath after having signed that treasonable document?"

"But I did not assent to it. I opposed separate secession all through."