The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1883-12-20
the Capitol and barricade the doors, making it
for the time being fortress.

While the train is whirling to Washington,
Monument Square in Baltimore is filled with q
bowling mob, cursing the Yankees, swearing
that not another Northern soldier should pass
through the city. Gone every Union flag. The
Union men are trembling for their lives Mar
shall Kane, chief of the police, who risked his
life in the morning while trying to protect the
soldiers, has become secessonist. This is the
dispatch which he sends over the wires to seces-
sionists in Virginia: Bring your men by the
first train; we will arrange with the railroad
afterwards. Streets red with Maryland blood.
Send express over the mountains and valleys of
Maryland and Virginia for the rifemen to
come without delay. Fresh hordcs win be
down npon Us tomorrow. We viii fight them
and whip them, or die
We want guns and cannon was the mes
sage sent from Baltimore to Richmond. Gov
ernor Letcher sent two thousand muskets.
James III. Mason, who had just resigned his
seat as Senator from Virginia, hastened to Bal
timore to help on the conspiracy.
Sustain Baltimore. We re-enforce yon,"
telegraphed Jefferson Davis to Governor
Letcher, and ordered that thirteen regiments Of
Confederate troops be forwarded at once Gov
ernor Letcher ordered that twenty heavy can
non be dispatched.
BURNING THE BRIDGES
Northeast of Baltimore, on the railroad lead
ing to Philadelphia is a long bridge across Gun
powder River, and on the road leading to
Harrisburg are several small bridges
Burn them! !" shouted the seeessionists, and
Mayor Brown issued the order to set them on
ire. The secessionists were delighted. No
more Yankee troops would enter the city.
Washington was cut Off. In few days Mary
land would be out of the Union, Abraham
Lincoln and his Cabinet prisoners, and the
Confederate flag waving from the Capitol.
IN RICHMOND.
While this is going on at Baltimore a scene
is enacting at Richmond The convention
called By the governor is in session in the cap
itol. The doors are closed, the proceedings
secret.
The vote is announced-the State of Vir-
ginia secedes. The Union members lay their
faces upon their desks and weep bitter tears.
Out in the streets a wild hurTah rends the air
Cannon thunder; ladies wave their handker-
chiefs from window. doorway, and balcony
1T night torches CLEAN, rockets stream sky
ward, crowds surge the streets, yelling their
JOY. In every town and city Of the South
bells ring and cannon flame.
Virginia walks out Of the Union like a
queen, are the words Of the Richmond Eram-
iaer the next morning.
IN Montgomery, jefferson Davis and the
members of the Confederate congress are
thinking Of packing their trunks for removal
10 Richmond. They viii make that city the
capital OF the Confederacy till they can take
Washington That it would soon be theirs
they do not doubt. This is what the Rich
nond Examiner said. From the mountain
tops and valleys to the shores of the sea there
is one wild shout OF fierce resolve to capture
Washington city at all and every human
hazard. That filthy cake of unclean birds
must and will assuredly be purified by fire.
1t IS not to be endured that this
flight of abolition harpies shall come down from
I..r- ~
the South, 10 defle and brutalize the land.
. Our people can take it,-they viii
take it,-and Scott, the arch traitor, and Lin
coin, the beast, combined cannot prevent it.
The just indignation of an outraged and in
jured people Will teach the Illinois ape to
repeat his race and retrace his journey across
the borders of the free-negro States still more
rapidly than he came, and Scott. the traitor,
viii BE- given the opportunity at the same time
to try the difference between SCOTS tactics and
the Siianghae drill for quick movements.
Great cleansing and publication are needed
and will be given TO that fostering sink of in
iquity,-that wailow of Lincoln and Scott
the desecrated city of Washington, and many,
indeed, will be the carcasses of dogs and catiffs
that viii blacken the air upon the gallows be-
fore the work is accomplished. So LET it be-
HARPERs FERRY ARSENAL.
Great events were taking place Never be-
fore was there such week in the history OF
the country.
At Harper's Ferry was the United States
arsenal which John Brown once captured and
held for a short time Lieutenant Jones was
in command. He had only a squad of men.
Three thousand Virginia troops are On their
way TO capture the arsenal !" was the startling
intelligence that came TO him on the evening
Of the 18th.
| The State of Virginia had not been twenty
four hours out OF the Union. The capture had
been planned before the State seeded, and the
military companies were making quick march
| from Winchester. They would seize it III the
night There were 1900 mnskets in the arse
nal. Lieutenant Jones determined that the
| Confederacy should not have them He piled
wood around them, saturated the floor with
/ oil, and sent men TO the carpenters shop to
/ bring baskets filed with sliaYings.
"Three hundred Of the troops are close at
hand. In twenty minutes they will be here,
| said messenger running into the arsenal
HSet the building on fire.
The soldiers run with their torches from
| building to building. In minute sheets OF
! fame were leaping from the windows and
| bursting from the roofs. Down the hill came
/ the Virginians. They could see the flames
| curling around the musl1cts standing in THEN
Tacks. They had lost the prize. Lieutenant
| Jones and his men we're beyond their reach
ASSktsit.H eSAOSS s1C OOC@&issC LII VI biS tASI
land hills.
! NORFOLK NAyY-YARD.
At Norfolk was the nayy-yard with its grea
| ship-houses and buildings filled with supple.
for the navy, with more than two thousand
cannon, a quarter of a million pounds Of POW
der, and thousands Of cart-loads of solid eto
and shell, with vessels On the stocks, and in thu
stream among them the new figatc Merrinac
carrying forty gunS-teu million dollars WORT
OF property. Captain McCaulcy WIS com
niander Of the yard
Remove the Merrinac to Philadelphia a
once" was the order that came from Washing
| ton. An engineer came TO run the engines
1t was Saturday, April 10; the cannon wer'
booming at Samter. Ii Captain McCauley wa
not himself q traitor he was surrounded b,
traitors, who persuaded him to disobey tn
orders. The fires were kindled, but lie ordered
them TO be put out He docs not comprehen,
that he has reached a supreme moment in life
that then aud there he might write his nanlt
large upon the scroll Of fame-so large tina
people viii read it through all coming time
IN the stream riding at anchor, is tie frigat
Cumberland, with tgenty-four guns, with
loyal crew on board. The military companie
Of Norfolk are drilling He hears their dram
beat. he knows that they are meditatipg til
seizure Of the navy-yard How easy for hin
TO say: The moment you attempt it [ vii
sweep the streets of Norfolk clean with graz,
and canister, and level it 10 the groand.D In
stead OF that, before Virginia sscedes he permit
Governor Ietcher to sink vessels across iii
channel TO prevent his taking away the Mcrri
mac
/ viii not remove any of the vessels. no