Meigs County telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy [Ohio]) 1848-1859, 1859-12-06
The nscIsp Of Terror i'm virginia.

The Cincinnati Gazette" of the cath
inst. says:
ga glance at our Washington letter
will satisfy the reader that the Old Do
minion is no place for freepen. .'Neces'
sity, the tyrant's plea, or, perhaps, rath-
er, the less honorable apology Of fear, is
leading to the arrest Of peaceful citizens
in all parts of the State. Men, whose
only fault is that they dare think for
themselves, and thinking. have courage
to speak, are hurried to Jail in company
with negro thieves, and felons OF every
grade. Reports of insurrection. imagi-
nary or real, almost daily agitate the pub
lie mind, and the apprehension Of a res
cue of prisoners at Charlestown is. said to
be the pretext of an oraer to massacre
them in.their cells should an escape from
the gallows seem possible. 1
| We have heard of like things in Rome
and Naples, and have shuddered at them.
Are they less criminal when they occur
,athome2"4 e. "a lr9"p 'n4
/ The" "Gazette" need not limits its COM
ments TO The Old Dpminiop. Through
Eout the whole South a "rei9n of Terror
not only prevails now, but has done SO fol
years. The Harper's Ferry affair has but
called the attention Of the country to The
fact in. a more notorious form. t,,s+ aiggl
/ i Thete has not been a+day for rathe las
Fifteen years in which a free man in the
South could express the sentiments, held
and cherished by Washington, Jefferson
and Franklin, except at the peril of his
life. A despotism more absolute has
reigned there than ever prevailed in Rome
Tor Austria, and thousand times more
cruel and vindictive; for the despotisms o.
1.-THE old world are carried out through the
forms of law, which furnish some re.
straint, however feeble, to the passions o
the tyrant rulers. But the Despotism O
Democratic slave drivers dou't often trou
ble itself with legal FORMS Acting, as il
does, through mobs and lynch communi.
ties, its brutal and ferocious passions have
found no restraint. n ,sr,
Poor, servile sycophants in the NORTH
have abjured their manhood, and with the
brand of slaves upon their brows, have
lent themselves as mercenary hirelIngs to
sustain the pretensions of their masters
With blindness which stupidity alone
could induce, they have insanely supposed
that they could trample on the inherent
rights of others, and reap personal profit
to themselves. But the great truth,
taught alike by revelation and reason, as
wellas all history, is beginning to force
itselfupon the minds ofmen, that "What-
soever man" or a nation "soweth, that
also shall he reap" b" a'..
This "reign of terror" which is now
commanding the attention of the world,
is but the Legitimate fruit of villa. has
preceded its the harvest of The seed
sown. Tyrants are proverbially towards
who live in perpetual fear of the just ven.
geance of those whom they oppress. This
fear begets cruelty as lis natural offspring
and the intolerable expressions thus in.
hicted, by the law of an internal neces-
sity, in the end, recoils upon the heads o
those who practice it. And every days
report from the South shows that this law
is now working Quits legitimate results
The frantic panic now pervading Virginia
is but manifestation of this truth. ,g