y,

ORPHEUS C. KERR.

LETTER LXXXVI.

TOUCHING UPON A LATE OVATION TO A PARENT OF HIS COUNTRY; GIVING THE
CONSERVATIVE KENTUCKY MAP OF ALL AMERICA; AND INTRODUCING A SECOND
NEW GENERAL OF THE MACKEREL ORGANIZATION.

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 8th, 1863.

I have been very ill, my boy--I have been very ill; and even now, the
hand which grasps the pen trembles with weakness, like the hand of the
wind upon a slender rush. I have been reminded of my latter end, and of
our Excellent National Democratic Organization, by an outrage upon my
Constitution and the Arbitrary Arrest of my health,--proceedings which
seem to prove that the well-known Southern Confederacy is entirely
right in this war, and that the North is chiefly composed of Honest Old
despots. (See proceedings of Democratic Organization, Resolution 290.)

As I lay sick in Strategy Hall the other day, so desolately lonely that
I almost wished to die, and without energy enough to finish reading the
greenback I had commenced that morning, there came to see me an affable
Democratic chap who had just recovered from a severe bilious attack
brought on by the Conscription Bill, and wished to consult me as to the
propriety of nominating Dr. Brandreth for President of the United
States in 1865.

"Why, my future Jefferson," says I, feebly, "what are you going to do
with McClellan, then?"

"Really," says he, just stepping across the ward to spit on a copy of
the Tribune, which served as a window-curtain, "really, I forgot all
about that manly form. Oh!" says the pleasant Democratic chap,
replacing the Constitution in his hat, from which it had just
fallen,--"Oh! what heroism do we find embodied in that youthful shape!
The voice of a assembled universe asks: 'Shall G. B. McClellan go
unrewarded?' There is no echo at the time. It asks again: 'Who, then,
shall be President of the United States in 1865?' And echo triumphantly
answers, General George Barnum McClellan!"

Here the affable Democratic chap took off his spectacles, my boy, and
beamed undisguisedly at a small black bottle on the table.

"But," says I, softly, "his name is not George _Barnum_ McClellan at
all. His middle name is not Barnum."

"Hem!" says the Democratic chap, with a severe aspect, "I don't know
that it is. Really," says the Democratic chap, hastily picking up his
umbrella and moving away, "really, I don't know that it is."

Mistakes, my boy, will happen in the best-regulated o