Pomeroy weekly telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy, Meigs County, Ohio) 1860-1866, 1861-07-19
SECESSION DEsPor1smi1N VIRGINIA.

SECESSION DEsPoTIsMlIN VIRGINIA.
Col. Forney writes from Washington:
have just had an interview with a
Virginia gentleman, an intimate con-
nection, by blood and marriage, with
the first families of the Old Dominion,
but himself one of those outrageous pa
triots to stand by their country, come
what may The treatment of the loyal
citizens of Virginia by the men who
have usurped the authority of that
State, as described by him, recalls the
most extravagant pictures of European
despotism. Austria, in the worst phases
of her rule in Italy; France, under the
Bourbons, and even the religious wars
of the Old World, when Catholic at
tackled Protestant, and Protestant at
tacken Catholic; and when human beings
were compelled, for opinions sake, to
hide in caves, and forced to submit to
tho worst stortures--all4 4these4
of the depravity and cruelty of man
against man are fully paralleled by the
atrocities Of the Pro Slavery leaders of
Virginia. Every Northerner, male or
female, is driven out of the State upon
pain of death, unless indeed the odious
oaths Of this new monarchy are sub
scribed to. The working men, born in
the Free States, who dare to utter their
feelings in favor of the flag, are hunted
down like wild beasts; and poor school
mistresses, ladies by instinct and educ "a
ton, having been invited to Virginia
by the chivalry themselves, seek refuge
in secret flight, conscious that their
longer stay among those refined and
cultured people will subject them to
unimaginable horrors. But shameless
as the prescription is, conducted against
residents of Northern birth, the manner
in which the unconditional Union men,
born in Virginia and the South, are
bounded down, is still more shameless.
Old men of eighty, identified with the
history of the State; associated with the
leading families of Virginia; known and
beloved for their virtues, are denounced
as unworthy Of respect and even denied
the benefit Of the civilities, because
they will not bow down at the feet of
Letcher, Mason, Hunter, Wise and
Company.
Some of the purest citizens of Vir-
ginia are now refugees in Mary land and
the Free States, and many a fine estate
belonging to Southerners living in Del
eware, Pennsylvania, New York, and
New England, is despoiled and devasta-
ted, as a sort Of preliminary to its con-
fscation when the day of the traitors
triumph shall have arrived, if that day
shall ever come. The mails are mutila-
ted by subservient and cowardly post
masters, and no communica ton is per-
mitted between the Union men Of Mary
land and Virginia, no matter how closely
they may be related. My informant as
sured me that the only way he could as
certain as to the condition Of his vener-
able parents, who continued to live un-
der the terrorism Of these tyrants, was
by employing market woman to con-
vey his letter in her basket, and to con
sent to bring him back an answer. l
will not wonder if you should doubt
these state ments, especially when you
remember the many professions of devo
ton to honor and chivalry on the part
of the leaders in this new disunion.-
But if you could see and hear the men
who call upon me daily, from Virginia,
North Carolina, Maryland, and Tennes
see, you would doubt no longer.