Lewistown gazette. [volume] (Lewistown, Pa.) 1843-1944, 1861-03-14
Effects of Secession.


/ Letter from Judge Lyon, Of South Carolina,
10 Friend ia Ierds.
I The following letter from Judge Robert
Lyon, of Abbeville Court House, South
/ Carolina, published in the Waco Texas
Gazette, speaks for itself:
/ ABBEyILLE C. H., Thursday Jan. a, 1861.
Dear !Sir:-I desire you to procure for me
, and send by mail. Texas Almanac. Six
months since | felt perfectly willing TO re-
main here in South Carolina; but / can re-
! main here no longer. At the election of Lin
. coin we all felt that We must resist. In this
! move / placed myself amongst the foremost,
! and am vet determined to resist him TO the
/ bitter end | had my misgivings at first of
the idea of separate secession, but tn hought it
would be but short time, and at small cost.
I In this matter, together with thousands OF
/ other Carolinians, we have been mistaken
Everything is in the widest commotlon. My
bottom land on Long Crane for which could
have gotten $50 per acre. now cannot sell at
any price. All our young men nearly are In
and around Charleston. Thither we have
sent many hundreds of our negroes have
sent twenty to work. Crops were very short
last year, and it does now seem that nothing
will be planted this coming season.
All are excited to the highest pitch, and
not 4 thought Of the future is taken. Mes
sengers are running here and there, with and
without Governors orders. We have no mon
ey. A forced tax is levied upon every man.
| have furnished the last surplus dollar have.
l had about S27 900 in bank. ! first gave a
check for ten thousand, then five thousand,
then the remainder. 1t is now estimated that
we are spending S25, 900 per day, and no
CE fhns 2
our full understanding when we went out of
the Union that we would have a new Govern
ment of all the Southern States. Our object
was to bring about collision with the au-
thOrities at Washington, which all thought
would make all JOIN Us. Although We have
sought such collision in every way, we have
not yet got fight, and the prospect is very
distant.
/ want the Almanac in order to see from il
what part of Texas may suit me. | want to
raise cotton principally, but must raise corn
to do me. l will need about thousand acres
of good land. My force is increasing; many
young negroes are coming on. | can send TO
the field sixty FIVE, big and little. | shall
make no crop here this year. shall start
my negroes from here to John Brownlee, at
Shreveport, about the first of April. will
leave my lands here to grow up in pines
When We all get TO Shreveport. John Brown
lee says he will 20 with me all over Texas
| cannot live here and must get away. Many
are leaving now at least ten thousand negroes
have left already, and before long one third
of the wealth of South Carolina will be in the
West. | desire you to look around and help
mo get home. As ever, yours,
ROBERT LYON.
1t appears from this that South Carolina
is "shearing" its citizens to some purpose;
if the Judge goes to Texas the land pirates
there will probably take his hide and tai
low.
A Southern gentleman who resides in
Augusta, Georgia, writes thus:
"If the South were merely let alone for
six months, we would probably try at the
next general election to get back. The new
tariff will open both eyes and pockets 3 to
cents per pound on cheese, to 5 cents on
butter, 2 to 2! on sugar, 2! to 25 cents on to-
bacco, affect every one, and that sensibly.-
Prices have advanced and are still ascending.
Our regular army has no enlisted in this
city, and as many in Savannah, Nine-tenths
of the youth go constantly armed, and the
common use of deadly weapons is quite dis
regarded NO COhIEOl can NC cAeIClseu ONeE
a lad after he is fourteen or fifteen. lie be-
comes Mr. So and So and acknowledges no
master. While our free trade doubles our
tariff cur postal facilities will also be increas-
ed. Letter postage will probably be raised
to ten and twenty-five cents, and off the i'm
mediate line of railways there will probably
be as much as one mail week. Of course,
therefore, we will like Secession the better as
we become the better acquainted with it."