Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1862-05-23

IHE REgEL RETREAT FROM WILLIAMS BJ RCH
/ Nr. Raymond Of the y. Y. Times thus des
cri5es the line Of the rebel retreat from VII
lilmsbursh
As We vadei, plunged and fouudereI along
{ the road evidences Of the panic Of the rebel re-
b treat accumulated. Blankets abandoned, KNAPP
sacks thrown away, muskets flng aside, camp:
a5lndonei with all their equipasc, artillery
broken up and left in the road, wagon after wagon
stuck ia the mud or buried by the side Of the
/ hi-hwly,-horses dead or dying half buried be-
I fore lie had left them in the deep ihick mud Ia
which ,heir dying bodies were imbedded, all
these things bore emphatic testimony 10 the haste
md hopeless recklessness Of the rebel fsht. 1t
reminded me Of Bull Run but I am bound to say
that the comparison was favorable 20 the rel els.
They seemed to have saved everything except
what the mud aud bad roads rendered it imp0ssi-
be 20 save. We were told in town that as the
men went through they seemed ready 20 drop dead
in their tracks with fatigue. We learned that they
bad hsca On hiif r1fions f4r 70 u0Hfi,-but they
could get almos; nothing to eat in Williams5urgb
and that as they Gcd 10 terror before the pursuing
iou they seemed utterly unable 70 drag one leg
after another. But they did get along somehow
and comparatively few Of them threw away their
muskets or abandoned anything else which al
mitttcd of being carried. Nevertheless, we
counted 10 the space of Eve og six miles ffg t-aJ-
o1s, stuck in the mud and LEFT o their fate, aad
other thing in proportion.
The PElHBuI0S or SLAvERT IS IHL TER
EIaIEs.-To day, May l., in the House. the
bin prohibiting slavery in territories came
up. After consultation with friends of the
bill, Mr.. L0vei1y determined 10 strip the
measure Of all those feature which would
subject it to legal criticism and effective op
position. Accordingly he moved sutsti-
tutc, which iorbids slavery forever in all
Federal territories now existing and all which
may be hereafter formed or acssired. This
WAS in the spirit Of the ordinance Of l7S7,
which received the support Of Washington
and jefferson and the other great statesmen
Of revolutionary fame. The cotton democrats
were touched By this evidence Of true con-
servatism in the Illinois "abOlitiOnist,n a.
they are accustomed u call him il removed
a peg on which they had hung great expec-
tatiOns, and down they tumbled. On Sat
uVday, in pseudo conservative caucus,
(meanlng a caucus for the conservation OF
slRyery,) one Of these gentlemen had predict
cd that ''in twelve month there would not
be Republicans enough in the halls OF Con
gress for Il respectable roll-call.' To-day
another of them in his agony was lugubriOus-
ly acetiOus, and proposed to christen the
bill as ''an act to abolish slavery and dissolve
the Union. Just as if the Union Is to be
preserved, only by extending the curse Of
slavery TO virgin territories. But that was
the old idea Of the cotton politicians, and
rebellion has not yet knocked it out of them.
Cox Of Ohio (dem. moved to table the reso-
luton as modified by Lovejoy, ayes 70, con-
sisting of representatives of slave States and
Northern democrats nays 81. The bill was
finally passed, by ayes SIS, noes 50. The Re-
publicans gave a clean vote Tor the bill but
am sorry to add that a few, elected as dem
ocrats or Union men who have usually acted
with the republicans, filled on this bill
Ell. Cor H'ah0n's JOp