Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1864-11-01
a Soldiers Letter-No. II.

(Which was considerably less than thousand
years ago. remember at Court tima IN our
little village, when trial of moro than common
interest was before tho Court, aad everybody
was eager to know tho result, tho old BARRON
used to be tho principal place Of rcsor,, where
tho matter was at oil times thoroughly can
yassed All the probabilities were here taken
into account long beforehand, tho evidence given
IN, aad likely to be given IN, and It's airing
on tho cgso minutely discussed-lnd tho whole
result ciphered out aud predicted, long before the
case at Court was fairly opened. loaiers, f.
lto,s, spectators and the shrewd guesssrs gcncr-
ally would have the whole case laid bare, and
with marvellous prophetic accuracy render d
VERDICT Of their own that would aimos. alwaJ7
accord Slyh the yar let at Court and 40 bar
room gossip achieved an importance Of IT'S osn,
and the DAr-room decision was looLei % rs
a pretty sure index OF the docIsl2n to be iaallJ
and legally made
Now We here in tho army have 10 bar rooms,
exactly, nor grocery stores in which to meet
and gossip, but wo have many places that an
swor every purpose. +" Down 20 the Spring ~
IS one. llolr man telling interesting nevis
and you ask him how he knows Ga hoard
Of it down to the Spring will most likely be
his answer. In the summer tlmo 4 crowd
collects at the Spring, because it is a cool place
to BIT and talk, and ut any time the takers are
almos, sure to collect there W discuss tie topic
Of the hour, however important or unimp0rtant
tina! topic may be. " Dom to the Spring 10
queer place, and have been amused anl in-
tctcstol great many times in listening to tho
DISCUSSIONS, arguments, and small talk generally
OF this miscellaneous asscmbage. O5iieys
never chi )yed discussion better THAN md the
other day " down to the Spring when The
parties concerned were discussing lhc pres.den
tai election and the Chicago propositions for
peace. was 50 mach Interested myself that
was sure il would interest others, though ii
would be impossible for ms 10 give apythIn.
Ike true iIe4 Of II with pea saI lk, 10 the
ordinary limits Of q newspaper article. Abla.
ham Lincoln hal plenty Of defend rs. aad Me
CleiiAn hal few. rhs Mg-io.lu men wtt.
noisy and defiant, and their arguments were oil
the Old stereotyped order the um and su5stanc,
Of which usually il Damn ihl nigsers Two
Of tho l0ulaat talking McClel,aniios there gJald
vote for him because thy wore Tor peace, and
because they liked Mcclellan TI3ral5um-nls
and opinions are not worth r9sJsi.ls bIs we
will give them fair play 04s VI ,len would
vote fJ- Mcclellan because be was tho best Gen
era The world ever produced, and had been 3.
sham9ully abused The Pres laat, his General
in Chief, his Secretary Of War, aud The creator
portion Of Congress, he said, had been" down 80
on him, because they were afraid VI him, and it
would DO his sjul good TO see him raised 20 the
supreme control Of our Affairs. The FIRST thing
he wanted to sec him DO then, was to put old
Abe and Stanton and Horace Greedy, and few
other abolition criminals into. Fort Lalaye;S
loog list Of other grievances were enumerated,
which no hoped MeCle.lan's sta'c,manship
would discover some WAY to punish, and lie wan
ted 10 should do it with vengeance.
The other Mcclellan man was for peace. All
/ his hoIes Of cur ultimate success had faded
out, if indeed be ever had any. Peace would
come If Mcclellan was elected, and peace was
what he wanted. have been out here long
enough, - he said, and nov raus to 90 home,
and 90 do YOU The war had las:cl !oaf
enough and 1t was time to have the trouble
s'tted. lie had seen all the fighting he wished
to see land let folks say what they would, be
should vote to have the war stopped. A fellow
by his side siid he wanted peace to) bui j. was
no Mcclellan peace that no wanted. Ito had
served one three years already, and had begun
on his second three. lie was as anxious to 20
home as any man coulilbo, bus no didn't want
to 90 till the rebels we're whipped out clean and
smooth lie said ho had always stood up for
Mcclellan, was q Mcclellan man clear TO tho
bone, bu; no couldn't vote for him on the
Chicago platform. Rather than have peace by
surrendcring to tho rebels, he would let lie
I bones manure the soil Of Virginia. " Bully for
you, " was the response oil around. One io low
said every man in his company was fer Lincoln
and johnson, aud several Others said it vas tie
same 10 theirs. Upon this, Mcclellan man No.
l declared that more than half OF his company
was for Mcclellan, and Mcclellan man No. ?
said lie should vote for him if ho had to DO it
all alone Another man from the same company
told him he would probably have chance to
provo his cxclusiyeness when election day came
I Just then well dressed fine looking Orderly
Sergeant, from the l39,h Pennsylvania regiment,
came along AMI mingled freely, ia the conycrsa-
ton. Ills ideas appeared to DO well digesicd
and being the ranking man, his opinions had
greater weight with Us than those oil any other
one 10 the crowd. lie believed the war was
about ended, that the South was about ready 10
yield. They were proud and obstinate people,
and Of course would hold out as long as posst lie.
They have studIousy concealed from us, so Gar
as they could, their true situation, that we
might never hnow how sorely we had pressed
them. How deeply ohagrned We soldiers
would feel he said, " to surrender to tho South
now, and find that had we held out little
longer, tho whole rebellion Nou have tott,rod
TO the ground" lie proved that cessation Of
hostilities could mean nothing less than
recognition oil tho Southern Confederacy. II
We are willing to stop the war for the sake Of
talking this matter over with the South we
reeogu1s them at once. II We are willing 10