The daily Green Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1861-1865, 1863-01-17

SUI poIiotSudi llcbibutiOuSl IOm buG 4NOI
vandals, who are somewhat numerous on the
sacred soil. To be sure his rations might not,
In that event., have been in the most approved
Filth Avenue style, and his drinks might have
been of that kind VIII ich is more celebrated for
It's strength than for it's excellence, and he
might have found It more dangerous meeting
Northern mudsills in battle array on bis native
heather, than knocking over offending servant
girls, in quiet dining saloons but one cannot
for a moment believe that a chivalric child Of
the sacred soil would be Influenced by any such
comparison of personal advantages and discom-
forts, to forsake his bleeding mother in the day
Of her extreme peril. No, by no manner Of
means. And SO We are compelled to entertain
tue opinion that this " secesh Virginian - was
stopping in New York, to be in easy communi-
cation with those stern and uncompromising pa
t%riots, Horatio Seymour and Fernando Wood.
Having seen their light afar off be had come to
sit at their feet and become converted from a
" Maynard sister " int q reconstructed Dome
crat.
Standing as the case Of the State OF New
York Us. George Chapman seems to on the dry
statement of the telegraph, we are left wholly
In the dark as to the counsel who appeared tor
the defence, or the very able and lucid exposi-
ton of constitutional law which was urged in
favor of the respondent. Quite likely, if Geo.
Chapman had worldly store of goods, as he
m uak hQva TIA 1.-Two in snoh ariSfnopot io c,,arknra
as the Fifth Avenue Hotel, that distinguished
lawyer, Prince John Van Buren,, took a retainer
from the /" secesk Virginian," and made a brief
IN his behalf. With his charming simplicity
Prince John would have suggested that his
client, WAS a wayward brother, and should be
allowed to depart in peace. He would have
also shown that the respondent had, in this
alleged offence, been guilty only of transfer
ring to New York his plantation habit of strik.
ing his servants when and how he pleased
without danger from such New England notions
as statutes made and provided against such bat
teries, and unless he could be allowed to bring.
this Virginia custom to New York, it would be
quite idle to talk about living in peace and
brotherhood with him.. Hs would have told
the Court, with o burst of eloquence, that it
was idle to talk about confscating the property
of this brother, that this course would ONLY
exasperate him,-and that the true way was to
conciliate the i" secesh Virginian " and repea! the
laws of New York making it a crime to COM
NIT assault and battery. He would have added,
with great force, that the recent Democratic
victories in the North were only the expression
of the popular will against all violent methods
of restraining crime, and were the herald and
morning star of the day when the heathenish and
savage practices of Furnishing men for commit
ting crimes, would be all given upas the poorest
imaginable philosophy of government or religion.
And W can imagine him closing with a lofty
peroration, in which he would have shown how
the I" radical . course of the " servant girl :"
had provoked the wrath of this full. blooded
son of secesh Virginia, an left him no alter
native, but to remain dishonored in the sight of
the world or strike the offending female to the
floor. Here, exhausted, he might have sunk
back into his chair and rested his clients case.
1t is more than probable, from the report of
the case, that the judge, however, was vindlci
lively of the opinion that striking a servant girl
was a crime, and the good Of the public demand
ed that such offences should be visited with ex-
emplary punishment, whether committed by
socesh Virginians, or other evilly disposed per-
sons. 1t is also quite likely that he did Mt, in
that opinion, consult very much the prejudices
of the respondent. Geo. Chapman, was beyond
doubt, not conciliated at all by the decision aad