Maryland free press., 1862-11-28
RICHMOND, "WEDNESDAY, Oct. g.


"The spirit of liberty in the Southern States is
moro high and naughty tbnn in the Northern
In the Caroliuas and Virgns they have vast
multitude of slaves. Where this is the case in
anv part of the world, those who are free are by
far the most proud and je lous OF their freedom.
Freedom is to them not only an enjoyment, but a
kind of rank and privilege. ~-.L.
These pesple of the Southern colonies are much
more strongly and with higher and more stub
born spirit attached to liberty than those to the
northwsrd. Such were all ancient common
wealths su. b were our Gothic ancestors such
In our days the Poles; srch will be all masters Of
slaves.
rHE DRAFT.
Az for tha draft In Maryland, il will be much
worse than farce. There are few able.bodied
men left, and of those who remain how many will
tight for the Uuion7 If any such there be, and
they are ever led into action By Federal officers,
how msny of those officers viii survive the first
melee which they share with their disaftcted
troops7 Along the Potomac there was, eighteen
months ago, a very large proportion OF the popu-
lation averse to secession, reluctant to embark
upon it, aud loyal to the old fsg. But with the
war came the Federal troops, squ uattipg first upon
Maryland soil and preying upon its entrails, with
out Offering one farthng in compensation for cat
tie and sheep, hogs and poultry, maize and wheat,
oats and hay, indiscriminately seized and devour-
ed, to say nothing of horses stolen, houses and
fences torn down and burnt, havoc and rapine
scattered broadcast over the land. Next came
virgina's turn. Starting from Fortress Monroe,
and running westward to Winchester, scarcely a
house within fifty miles of the Potomac but bears
oe nd In
nearly every county the court-house, in which
the assizes for each county used to be held, is
ruaely demolished, doors and windows torn down
while within, upon the white W Ills, in every shape
Of handwriting, are recorded the autographs of
the vandals whose handiwark surrounds the be-
holder. Stories upon stories have reached me de-
failing how the wives of Federal officers, repre-.
sented by my exasperated informants as having
usually "hailed from" detested New England,
forced their way behind the Federal troops into
the fine family mansions Of the Old Dominion,
and personally superintended the abstraction and
transmission nortbward of old family china silver,
glass; pictures, books, furniture and piano
A Virginian lady, who demonstrated with one of
these Yankee hen-harriers, engaged in packing up
valued family china, was met with the rejoinder.
"You are rebel, and have no rights that am
bound to respect; your property, therefore, Is
minep' ....
PROSPECTS OF RESTORING THE UNION.
The upshot of this system of restoring the
Union will readily suggest itself to the reader
/ have Travelled far and wide through Virginia; I
have conversed with mems women, stripings, and
children, in that State and in Mary land; l have
seen men, formerly substantial and thriving,
whose every thing has been devoured BY the Fed
erals; but never in one single instance have
heard word of regret by reason of tho war, a
tmid note sounded in regard to its irsue, a sigh
breathed over the departed Union, ghost of
desire expressed in favor of compromise or recon-
struction. On the contrary, one universal chorus
echoes through the length and breadth of the
land. "The net is broken, and We are deliveredT'
Mr.. EVERETT and bis votaries, who still believe
in imprisoned loyalty as existing In the South,
night as we'll search IN the British isles for man
Eho desired them TO be annexed to France. So