Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1862-12-25

in all respects. returned South. just be-
fore freeing, pro-slavery man, probably
alarmed at seeing so much property thrown
away, offered him $4,000 for them.
How few men should we find, even if we
look among the Public Functionaries OF
the land, whom such a glittering price
would not buy over to the abandonment
of principle
About the period of the first breaking
out of rebellion, Gen. Z. S. Grant was
here in town, few days. He declared
himself in the most emphatic terms, as
opposed to the whole slave system, but
stated that he was the owner of planta-
ton and lot of negroes, in the South.
He had then returned from there, and up
on leaving he called the negroes around
him and told them that if they thought
they could do any better for themselves
to leave him, and look out forthemselves,
they had his permission to do SO, and he
pledged them his word that he would
never pursue or reclaim them. Whether
they availed themselves of this, to gain
their freedom, | do not know.
One cold raw day about month ago,
a family of emigranns looking the very
picture of squalidity and poverty, though
attended by some forty head of cattle and
horses, made their entry into the village.
Bystanders gathered around and doscov-
cred in the way-worn, half-clad wanderers,
an old acquaintance, and crowded around
to take him by the hand. And who is
this returning traveller? Let us inquire
as to his history. 1t is Mr. Isaiah Nc
Williams, for II years a citizen of this
county who was strong pro,slavery man
and of course Democrat. He had such
veneration for the institution that he
emigrated to Missouri to live and flourish
beneath its protecting wing, IN. B. The
secesh sympathizing Democrats of the
present day would do we'll to 60 and do
likewise.) At the outbreak of the war
he tried to keep neutral, and, like most of
his neighbors, though he loved slavery,
he was secretly firm for the Union, an
other hint for said secesh sympathizers)
But to the rebels, neutrality implied guilt,
hence he was prosecuted as an Abolition
ist and plundered, insulted and threaten
encd in the most approved style of Chiv-
airy. At one time band of seventy
men camped on his farm and robbed him
of every thing they could use, from house
or farm, including II loads of corn and
nine horses. Abont the 10th of June he
with his son, aged fifteen, were forced to
leave to save their lives. They engaged
to serve as Union scouts. Upon this the
rebels, who both hated and feared him,
placed guards about his house who watch
ed three weeks, night and day, to kill
him on his return but he never return
ed to his splendid farm Of 720 acres, of
the best of land, in the finest of climate.
His wife and children with the help of
neighbors, managed to get up an OK team
and escape to the Union lines in the month
of August, and there met her husband.
They then pushed on, guarded by the
army, from one of its posts to another,
for two hundred miles, until they emerged
upon free soil once more, and after three
months of toll and privation, reached
their old home; poor, but not discouraged
Mr.. NJ. is now thorough admirer of Jim
Lane, and his whole policy of subduing
the rebels, and is satisfied with nothing
short of that When asked what treat
ment they deserved, he replied; " Var
to the bitter end, and no compromise as
such people can never be trusted again.
He manifests the bitterest hatred toward
the rebels, and their cause, as would any
man who has felt the iron heel of theil
persecution, but he expresses the deepest
contempt of the traitorous lickspittles o.
the North, who still blaspheme of North
ern oppression and of Southern Constitu
tional rights. Yours, &C.,
A. w. B.
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Edwin II. Read.