The
Toronto (Canada) Leader publishes a long letter from E. F.
Loveridge,
Esq., editor of the Troy
News, a Democratic paper, published in
Troy, N. Y., who was driven away by mob violence from that city and forced to take refuge under the protection of the
English flag.
Mr. Loveridge is a New Yorker, who had, however, resided in
Texas, where he married, and had thus possessed an opportunity of viewing the civilization of the two sections with an impartial eye. Upon his return to
Troy,
Mr. Loveridge urged through his journal, the
News, ‘"No coercion — no civil war — the recognition of the
Confederate States inevitable — no Protective Tariff — the
Monroe doctrine must be carried out by both Confederacies — the States are sovereign — their rights must be guaranteed."’ The news of the bombardment of
Sumter set the multitude of
Troy, like that of other Republican holes, mad with rage, and as the only retaliation in their power they commenced a bombardment of newspaper offices.
The mob assaulted
Mr. Loveridge and threatened to kill him, but he turned upon them gallantly, and for a time kept them at bay, the cowardly ruffians showing as usual that the bark of a mob is worse than its bite.
The
Mayor, however, to prevent the evident murder that was designed, arrested
Mr. Loveridge and had him conveyed from the scene of danger, advising him to remain away till the excitement had cooled.
He is now under the shelter of the
English flag.
Who could have believed a year ago that citizens of the U. S. would have been compelled by the ‘"party of freedom"’ to fly from the ‘"free North"’ to the dominions of a monarchy for having exercised the right of ‘"free speech?"’
Mr. Loveridge concludes his letter as follows:
‘
"Facts like these show conclusively that this war is the
French Revolution, with the additional horrors of the servile element.
A suspected man is unsafe.
To keep your mouth shut will not do. You must endorse the war. You must obey the mob.
"Perhaps I am the first of the emigrants from the other side of the line, but I shall not be the last.
This excitement must run its fearful length.
It is no longer a question between North and South alone, but between freemen of the same section.
"It is not pleasant to be an exile, but it is better than to be the slave of the mob. If 'to thrive with the time, men must look like the time,' then all I can say is, I cannot look like these days of blood.
I had rather have free speech, and bear a free heart, even though under the protection of a throne, than feel I was a coward, the tool of the vilest of all despotisms, that of a frantic, vicious mob, who seize on times like these to wreak their coarse hatreds on truer and better men."
’