The Van Buren press., 1861-04-17
Agents for the Press.
Letter from Washington County
FATETTEvILLE, ARK, April 8. 1861.

FAYETTEVILLE, ARK, April 8, 1861.
DEAE DUSHAx: believe that You have throw,
the scabbard of your sabre avay-burnt your ship
taken the Hannibal oath against the enemies O
your eountry-in a word, that heneeforth you'll d,
TO tie to-
Your paper. last week. was eomely to look upon
had imagined before that, wrongly. perhaps, thai
you secretly longed for the flesh pots Of Egypt
am now certain that you will face the desert viii
Promised Land next August.
All the foregoing is merely preliminary. The
following will be attempt to talk about the
doings here. last Saturday. Well, it would be
very unjust and untrue to say that our mountains
laboured then: because. if they had. they would
have produced mouse-s secession fag-but
troops of the children Of Freedom. But secession
flag cas raised here. Last Saturday and q hard ef-
fort made for . secession display. If the result
was gratifying encouraging to those who brought
it about, it is direct proof that they who
delighted in disasters and ajversities.
Ever since the reception of Lineolns inaugural,
it has been constantly noised that Unionists were
changing in great numbers and the seeessionists
must have thought 50 else Why the day set for
the show Of strength At any rat., whether they
believed it or not last Saturday appointed for
the rearing of a new banner above the people,
banner of large dimensions and with new and
strange devices
The day came the Secessionists came and the
banner was raised on q high, white pole. The ex-
act height do not know, and as there has been
some dispute about it, am willing that the seces-
sionists should con.der it ten thousand feet high
four times higher still, il they wieh As to the
width aad length of the banner, envy need not re-
fuse large figures ; let it be admitted if desired
that it was thousand miles long and two thousand
wide But in all these figures. the Unionists.
though they be 81 Devils" should have their due
Their flag was higher and larger than the secession
flag. And if the great orators with whom the
Unionists threatened, don't believe it. let s,em
when they come around, see for themselves.
As to the number Of people beneath the respect
i've banners the proportion or rather the dispropor-
ton, was manifested in much higher degree. Be
fore the secessioniss gathered to the stand hear
their orator they formed a PROCESSION The
number of them-boys and men-you may learn
from citizen of Your town. who was in this place
at the ume,-a man whom no honest man believes
ever told lie Others--many o.hers-cOunted,
as the column filed past and not that we heard
report, made the voters many q hundred and
forty. But If this enumeration be unsatisfactory
let 1t be granted that there forty thousand Sc
cessonists In ranks. Justice then, would REQUIRE
the admission that the Unionists had two hun
dred thousand. for they numbered five to one of
their opponents. 1t was not contemplated before
hand by the People-for this term best describes
the Uniouists. and will be Aeresfter used in con-
tradistiaction to secessiou to make q formal
showing Of their Strength SID6t when they beheld
the little squsd before them, they couldn't keep
back the natural fun of humanity, and concluded
they would procession some too
In looking upon that little squad one could not
help feeling that his country was net ye. ruined
Ii at secession was only thing of noise. and the
vapOrings of the diseontented. Persons when
very earnest, but in . very ridiculous position.
funny beyond telling about There were men
In that process:on(of l30 odd who tried by their
solemn, austere looks to impress upon their behol-
ders that they were then breaking up the United
States Government Defeated candidates were
Ion right, per as the infamous John TYLER would
say Col Wilson, one of the few men in the coun-
ty who possesses military acquremeats or has cor
rect ideas Of military department and clever gen
temAn-one worthy of being in . better cause
rode pacing horse up and down the few steps of
the line Nov. Col. W. knows it is against all
propriety, To ride pacing horse upon occasions of
display. He has no idea how his horses tail wig
gled, when he was marshalling the weakness be-
fore him II he was in for pacing horse, he could
have had John Ph9nix-A small, brown pony star
in forehead, short coupled, etc. Every secession
ist and the multitude of spectators, instead of OBJ
serving only the wiggling of the tail. would have
looked on with admiration, and exclaimed " La
what pretty pony p
No sooner had the secession SQUAD got out of
sight. which only required the time necessary for
few men to turn a corner. than the cry was rails
ed, " Fall in !Bnionists fall in fall in ~ and in
less than no time the square was girdled with a
column from two to ten deep. They had no music
but the music Of the U-ion, and they kept step 70
that The secessionists had engaged the band fos
their own benefit 1t is needless to say thai Yam
kee Doodle and the Star Spangled Banner were NOT
heard during the day.
After the secessionists got back to their pole.
Maj Reagan made them . speech. At one point
when he was most impressive and emphatic, the
effect he made was heightened. by helping friend
on the palings, just back Of the stand. The Majos
was Deliberately propounding the questions
"whar do You get your cotton ,"
'-Whar do you get your rice 2"
"Whar do you get your sugar.? ;"
when the helping friend, with the same intonation
of voice. and much like the Major that the
crowd thought it was he, enquied
+" Whar do you get your whiskey ."
In the evening, Col. Gunter delivered q speech 70
the people in the Court House-and never had
that building been crowded before. 1t vas an i'm.
provsed, powerful speech in reply to M.j Reagan
effort. and te the charge against the Union members
generally. He told them of the means that had
been resorted TO to force them to vote for seeessoo
He vindieated his party from all aspersions, snd
closed in uimph- The whole day 1as triumph
The Unionists had the highest pole. the largest