The Mississippi Convention has declared the state's 1861 secession ordinance "null and void" after heated debate about whether to simply "abrogate" it instead. The controversy centered on whether condemning secession as illegal would unfairly stigmatize the intelligence and patriotism of those who supported it. Meanwhile, the paper reports that Camp Douglas in Chicago has ceased to be a military post by War Department order, and railroad communication between Washington and New Orleans is expected to resume "in a few weeks" via Virginia and Tennessee. Other notable items include a shocking murder confession from a Canadian woman named Perkins who admitted on her deathbed to poisoning six people - including two of her own children and her first husband - claiming she had "a mania for destroying human life." The Chicago Tribune also engages in a heated circulation war with the Chicago Journal, boasting that it returned sales of $153,600 compared to the Journal's $100,000 for the year ending May 1, 1865.

This September 1865 front page captures America in the messy aftermath of Civil War victory. The Mississippi Convention debate reflects the delicate balance President Andrew Johnson faced in Reconstruction - how harshly to judge the defeated South while trying to restore the Union. The resumption of railroad service between Washington and New Orleans symbolizes the literal reconnection of a fractured nation. Meanwhile, the transition from wartime to peacetime shows everywhere: surplus army beef is being exported to Britain due to cattle disease there, troops are being mustered out, and newspapers are expanding their coverage as normal commerce resumes.

• Philadelphia paid over $12.5 million in U.S. taxes for 1864 - a staggering sum that shows the North's financial capacity during the war
• The new Kansas State Penitentiary will contain just 50 cells and be located exactly five miles south of Leavenworth, with bids due September 17th
• The revenue cutter 'John Sherman' (named for the senator) made a 50-mile trial run from Cleveland with Senator Sherman himself aboard as a distinguished guest
• A Detroit soldiers' monument costing $100,000 will honor Michigan's fallen among the 91,000 soldiers the state furnished - and $10,000 was subscribed on the spot at Thursday's meeting
• The Memphis Bulletin has been enlarged to ten columns on a larger sheet than any other paper printed in the United States, with the Memphis Argus planning to follow suit

• The paper mentions Senator Sherman aboard the trial of the cutter named for him - this is John Sherman, whose younger brother William Tecumseh Sherman had just completed his famous march to the sea
• That Kansas penitentiary with 50 cells reflects the tiny population - Kansas had fewer than 110,000 people in 1860, making it one of America's least populous states
• The reference to Roman Catholic communion wafers being counted worldwide in 1864 to census Church membership was part of Pope Pius IX's ambitious effort to modernize Vatican record-keeping
• The cholera outbreak mentioned as approaching England would indeed arrive and kill over 14,000 people in Britain in 1866, leading to major sanitation reforms
• Camp Douglas, just closed as a military post, had been one of the most notorious Confederate prisoner-of-war camps in the North, with over 4,000 deaths among the 26,000 prisoners held there