friends,  and  were  proud  to  march  under  the
same  political  banner.
During  the  late  Rebellion,  when  Pennsyl-
vania was  invaded,  the  advance  of  Lee's
army  reached  the  Susquehanna  river  opposite
Harrisburg,  causing  the  most  intense  excite-
ment in  the  city.  The  capital  of  the  State
was  thought  to  be  the  objective  point  of  the
rebel  movement,  and  that  an  attack  upon  it
would  certainly  be  made.  The  archives
of  the  Commonwealth  were  hastily  packed,
and  many  of  them  shipped  to  a  point  of
safety.  Troops  assembled  from  all  quarters
to  resist  the  advance;  but  a  retrograde
movement  was  ordered  by  Lee — the  tide  of
war  drifted  to  another  scene,  and  the  beau-
tiful hills  of  the  Susquehanna  were  not
drenched  with  fraternal  blood.
The  State  capitol  buildings  are  of  plain
red  brick,  without  external  ornament  of  any
kind,  but  they  are  well  constructed,  and
occupy  a  beautiful  position  in  the  midst  of
ornamental  grounds  overlooking  the  majestic
river.  Interiorily  these  buildings  present
many  attractions,  and  a  visit  to  them  cannot
fail  to  prove  interesting.  The  halls  of  the
Senate  and  House  are  well  arranged.  The
State  library  is  a  splendid  room,  well  filled
with  books — many  of  them  valuable.  It
is  claimed  that  the  la,w  department  of  this
library  is  the  only  one  in  the  Union  con-
taining full  sets  of  all  the  law  reports  of
the  various  States.  In  the  Executive  apart-
ments a  complete  set  of  the  portraits  of  the
governors  of  Pennsylvania  is  preserved,  and
the  walls  and  tables  are  decorated  with
many  quaint  documents  and  curiosities,  such
as  old  English  charters,  treaties  between  the
colonial  authorities  and  the  Indians,  signed
by  the  latter  with  rude  hieroglyphics,  and
other  mementoes  of  the  State's  early  history.
