FUGITIVE SLAVE CASE IN ALEXANDRIA.
We take the following particulars of a slave case in Alexandria, Virginia, from the News of June 24:
John Hunter, a citizen of Prince George county, in the State of Maryland, applied to Lewis McKenzie, a justice of the peace of Alexandria county, Virginia, for a warrant to arrest certain slaves of his, supposed to be in this city. Having taken and subscribed the following oath, required before the magistrate would grant a warrant:
State of Virginia, Alexandria County: I, John Hunter, of the county of Prince George, in the State of Maryland, do solemnly swear that I am a true and loyal citizen of the United States, and that I will support the constitution thereof as the supreme law of the land; and that I will, to the extent of my abilities, uphold and maintain it. I will, to the utmost of my power, give information of every danger which may threaten it, so help me God.
JOHN HUNTER.
Sworn to before me this 21st day of June, 1862.
LEWIS McKENZIE, J. P.
A warrant was accordingly granted, and one of Mr. Hunter’s negroes, on Saturday last, was apprehended, and the officers were conveying him to the ferry boat for transportation home, there being no doubt of its being Mr. Hunter’s servant from the evidence of parties present, satisfactory to the magistrate. Not pleased with the summary proceedings of the parties executing the warrant, the negro refused to accompany them, when they essayed gentle “coercion.” This not meeting with the approbation of the negro, was creating some excitement, and promised to lead to serious difficulty, when some of the provost guard interposed and carried the case before Colonel Gregory, the Provost Marshal, who retained possession of the negro until the 23d, when a decision was rendered. After receiving the statements of Mayor McKenzie, Mr. Hunter and his friends, the negro and others, in connection with the report of the guard, the Marshal refused to acknowledge the claim of Mr. Hunter, and released the man, stating that he would not permit the arrest of any fugitive from labor while in command of this post, thus setting aside the lawful authority of the State of Virginia. The case will be reported to the President at an early day.
A SECESSIONIST.
A friend in this city tells us of a little boy, a neighbor of his, who took great pleasure in a beautiful play-ball painted with our own national colors. While enjoying his play on the sidewalk recently, the ball accidentally rolled into a neighbor’s basement. It was returned to him after a while, with the red, white and blue washed off, and a Secesh flag painted on instead. Comment is needless.
A gentleman from Chicago relates a remarkable fact in connection with the Rebel prisoners at Chicago. The Rebel prisoners number about eight thousand, and, of course, there are among them men of intelligence and education, but the great numbers are deplorably ignorant. Colonel Mulligan has these Rebels in charge, and as they have considerable leisure time he has established a Yankee school for their instruction. The educated prisoners were assigned as teachers, and the work is progressing rapidly.
Two discharged members of the fourteenth regiment of regulars, who have just arrived at Syracuse, New York, from Perryville, Maryland, state that about the first of last February the Rebel sympathizers in that town poisoned the wells, from which the men were in the habit of procuring their drinking water, and that, as a consequence, two hundred members of the regiment died, and of the remaining seven hundred, hardly one has recovered his health.
Mr. Wm. P. Wood, superintendent, informed us this evening that the prisoners here will be removed to Fort Delaware on to-morrow.
July 4th. Captain Higgins and Lieutenant J. Miller have treated us since our confinement here with comparative kindness, and all the prisoners have become somewhat attached to them on that account. Their conduct towards us has been a pleasing contrast with the uncouth bearing and tyranny in petty things of other officers. The following will explain itself.
At a meeting held this morning, in room No. 3, the following preamble and resolution were unanimously adopted:
“Whereas Captain Benjamin D. Higgins and Lieutenant J. Miller (as officers connected with this prison) have by their gentlemanly, courteous and soldierly bearing towards us, won our esteem and respect,
Therefore, be it Resolved, That it is with regret that we part with these gentlemen, inasmuch as they have exemplified that urbane and respectful bearing, even in our present relations with each other, is not incompatible with the faithful discharge of a soldier’s duty.”
Captain E. Pliny Bryan was called to the chair, and a committee of three was appointed to hand these resolutions to the above named.
About half past 10, A.M., we started in charge of Lieutenant J. B. Mix, of “Scott’s nine hundred,” for the depot, where we were detained an hour. United States soldiers and citizens crowded around the cars. Beyond the expressions of a few intoxicated men, nothing insulting was said to us, but great anxiety was manifested to converse with us, which, in every instance, was prohibited. Several persons, however, stepped up under the windows of the cars, covered their mouths with their hands, and said in an under tone, “I’m Secesh, and sympathize with you.” One, while he did this, dropped two gold dollars into the hands of a prisoner, enquiring audibly, “How are you, brother Jim?” A lady requested the officer in charge to allow her to speak to her cousin, and she was permitted to do so. Her cousin, Lieutenant S., then received from her a card, on which was written the name of a lady he had known in Charleston, South Carolina, In return he handed her a card, on which was a likeness of President Davis, and she seemed delighted at the exchange. On the departure of the train from the depot, the prisoners vociferously cheered for Davis, Beauregard and Johnston. Arrived in Baltimore at 2, P.M. As we moved along the streets in the same cars, drawn by horses to the Philadelphia depot, the prisoners sang Southern songs, and cheered for Davis, while men and women, concealed behind obstacles and windows, were seen to waive handkerchiefs at them. Notwithstanding the array of bayonets and swords, down-trodden Southern feeling was thus made apparent. At this time a Confederate Lieutenant hallooed for Beauregard, and a Yankee officer replied, “D—n Beauregard, I wish he was in h—ll, where you ought to be.” As we advanced towards Philadelphia, we found the Secession feeling growing less. Passing a small town in Pennsylvania, a “Louisiana Tiger” cried out, “Hurrah for Jackson,” and a woman replied, “Go to h—ll.” At Havre de Grace, in Maryland, the “tiger” above mentioned, displayed a small Confederate flag, whereupon an overgrown inebriated fellow said, “I can whip the man that showed that flag if the officer in charge will let us have a fair open fight.” The officer took the flag away from the “tiger,” and told the man, in a joke, that he might “have a fair open fight,” but the man, I suppose, thought discretion the better part of valor, for he declined to accept the privilege. Lieutenant J. B. Mix, the officer in charge, proved himself a very clever gentleman, and did all he could to make us as comfortable as circumstances would allow. We arrived in Philadelphia at 12 o’clock at night. As late as it was a small crowd had collected at the depot, and there was a great disposition manifested to talk with us—some few seemed inclined to talk rationally and calmly, while others made this an occasion to vent their venom freely, which latter invariably recoiled upon them with “good measure pressed down, heaped up and running over.” Had not an officer interfered, they would have torn a Louisianian “to pieces,” as they said. An old woman remarked, “My husband and three sons are before Richmond, and I wish I had more to send. I wish they would let me kill them rebels. Why don’t they kill ’em?” Many loose remarks were made, such as “they have no free schools, and are so ignorant,” “they want a monarchy,” &c., &c. Lieutenant Mix went to get us something to eat at a restaurant, but was refused, the keeper saying he would sell nothing to rebels, and he hoped we would starve. Some of the people said that the “Southerners” treated their prisoners very badly, which was stoutly denied. Mr. Olden from Aldie, Virginia, told them that he was kept four days handcuffed without anything to eat, and the crowd agreed that “he ought not to have had anything to eat—any man that would turn traitor to his country.” In a conversation with a Federal officer the latter was frank enough to say that he wished we had peace; he was tired of the war; would resign if he could do so without disgrace; that if the North backed down now, they would be a ruined and a disgraced people, and that they were fighting for their very existence.