The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1867-12-19
VIRGINIA LETTERS.
Hostility to the Government Still
Notwithstanding Over Lost
0Ccupation-A Little htOry .
Union Men in Winchester.

There is no word in any English
Lexicon extant sufficiently express
i've to fifty describe the feeling preva-
lent among this people towards that
Government whose Christening hand
was laid so often and so heavily upon
them in the years of the late I'M
pleasantness." To say that they hate
it, no more conveys an adequate idea
of the actual sentiment entertained
than the soothing mildness of blue
SKINNED milk typifes the fiery
strength of "Old Cogniac" Loath-
ingl abhorrencel detestation! viii
either, or all of these, suffice? No.
This bitter, concentrated malignity,
as much transcends the common i'm
port of these terms as the force Of a
projectie from an 18-inch Dahlgren
exceeds that of a paper wad from
child's pop gun.
An American of respectable ante
cedents may learn to like lager and
Limberger. A Western tourist, shar-
ing the hospitality of the 9 noble red
men" may dine off roast dog, and
politely express a decided preference
for that savory dish. An mex
perienced swain may fall in love with
a red-haired damsel. A Democrat may
drink cold water. All these things
are possible, for there is no account
ing for tastes;" but the subjugated
rebels of this section of the "Old
Dominion will never learn to love,
nor forget to hate the Federal
Union. This hatred is their reli-
gion, their philosophy. and their
| politics. Their unreturning braves"
their unfenced farms; the ashes of
their barns and granaries, and, worse
| than all the rest, their bondmen freed
and endowed with the common rights
of manhood, are thorns in the flesh 4
that time cannot extract, wounds
that no balm can heal, perpetual re-
minders of their ''cruel wrongs" and
! the tyranny of "the internal Yankee
| Government"
They accept the situation" as the
felon accepts the dungeon or the halter,
per force of dire necessity, and yield
to "the stern logic of events with
curses mot loud but deep" Show
them the ghost of a chance for sue
cess and there is many a hand that
would light again the fires of civil
war as gladly as the demon maniac
hand of that other Virginian, old Ed
mund Ruffin, applied the match to
| the first gun of the war of the rebel
| lion
But these men, whose feelings I
i have vainly attempted to describe,
are not the ex-rebel soldiers. They
have had their fill of fighting, and
! have learned to respect the men whom
they fought. Those who kept their
| bodies out of range of Yankee rifles, |
and patriotically sacrificed their
wives relations are now the dis
turbing element.
Their greatest grievance is that |
their = occupation s gone" Raising
bipedal hook for the Southern market |
was a business in which they waxed |
rich before the new dispensation.
This city was then great nursery for |
rearing human chatels, and cor
rail- for all the slave traders who |
prosecuted the business in the |
surrounding country. [ visited the |
old Jail on Cork Street, this morning. I
where the negroes were formerly |
quartered and fatted, preparatory to /
being driven off to the Southern |
market It seems but yesterday since
[ saw drove fastened in couples to
a long chain, at the door of that very
building, and driven off under the I
lash, along the Stanton Pike. [ could /
introduce you to men here, If you |
cared to make their acquaintance. I
who built up princely fortunes in the
culture of fancy stock for the Charles |
ton and New Orleans markets The I
blood of many Of the best families In /
this city has been thus sold, that le-
Ultimate half sisters Of the victims I
might sp1urge at Northern watering I
places; and | could give you the +
name of a very prominent Southern T
gentleman" the expense OF whose +
education at old Harvard was par
1 TALLY betrayed by the sale of his half /
sister, a handsome and more intelli- I
gent girl than any of his own sisters,
TO New Orleans TOue.
/ Do you wonder that men despise |
and anathematize a Government that /
has reduced them from so noble a
profession to the necessity of vulgar |
labor or starvation? Can a man who 1
formerly cultivated hAman crop
that grew without the aid of hoe or
pillow, requiring only hog, hominy,
and an occasional application Of the /
cat BE content to sweat his iordly /
brow in the cornfeld or potatoe patch? /.
The blood of Pocahontas protests +
against such degradation
Are there no Union men IL tais +
/ section? is a question that may occur t
to the reader [ am happy to assure t
the querist that Uncle Sam, N all his