The Toleration Shown by the Abolitionists at home.
The New York
World thinks it quite strange that, under a free Government that claims to be fighting for liberty, paragraphs of the character of the following should be continually met with in the newspapers:
The Muskatine (
Iowa)
Journal says there was an exciting time at the anniversary exercises of Cornell College, at
Mount Vernon, June 26th. It seems that a dozen persons from
Marion appeared in the crowd with copperhead pins.
About two thousand persons were present, the exercises being held in a grove.
On the appearance of the secesh emblems all business was suspended by the tumult, and every copperhead badge was hastily taken from its owner, and he forced to hurrah for the
Union.
A gray headed traitor, who has been blatant for the Southern Confederacy, declared that he would not hurrah for the
Union; but a little choking brought him to terms.
One woman had on the
Southern badge, which was torn from her breast, clothes and all, by another young woman.
The latter had her bonnet destroyed in capturing the pin, and some young men raised eight or ten dollars instanter to replace the bonnet.
The copperhead pins being all "cleaned out," the exercises were resumed and passed off very satisfactorily.
The
Cleveland (O.) Democrat gives a description of a brutal assault upon a man named
Griffis, while attending the funeral there of
Lieut. Samuel Roland, 114th regiment Ohio volunteers.
It is one of those occurrences which will be looked back upon "when this cruel war is over" with a feeling of doubt that such brutality ever took place.
The victim wore a "copperhead" breastpin.
The
Democrat says:
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Near the close of the services, and during prayer, two or three persons approached him, one of whom took hold of his coat, opening it so as to expose the pin, and asked him what that meant.
Griffis replied that if meant honesty.
He was told by one of them that he must take off that pin, or they would tear it off for him. He declined to remove the pin, and told them that he did not want a disturbance; that he did not come therefore that purpose.
They immediately attacked him, with the intention of taking the pin from him. He kept backing away from them, insisting that they should let him alone, and finally told them if they did not he should be compelled to defend himself, and that some of them would get hurt.
His assailants crowded him back against the seats, when one of them hit him over the eye and knocked him down between the seats.
As he fell, and before the cowardly miscreants that were attacking him succeeded in getting on to him, he managed to get a single barreled pistol from his pocket, but, before he had time to use it, a half dozen or more of his assailants were on top of him, stamping and pounding him, some of them endeavoring to take his pistol from him, during which time, and while some of them had hold of the barrel of the pistol, it was discharged, wounding three persons.
One man was shot in the hand — wound not very severe — another had the ends of three fingers shot off, and a young woman, named
Merrill, was shot in the thigh, making a severe, but not dangerous wound.
During the time that
Griffis was down, a
Miss Bolin, at whose father's he had been at work for some time, forced her way as near to him as she could, and begged of his cowardly assailants not to kill him, at the same time telling him not to shoot.
A miserable and contemptible coward by the name of
Davis, struck her a blow on the eye, bruising her considerably, and which would have knocked her down had not the dense crowd prevented.--The shout was raised, "Kill him!" "Murder him!" "Hang him!" one of the officiating ministers, we are informed, joining in the shout — not the miserable, contemptible coward that struck the woman, but the young man who was being kicked and stamped to death by as many of the dirty, cowardly dogs as could get at him; and no doubt they would have succeeded had not the sheriff of the county and his deputy happened to be on the ground — and for no other offence than wearing a copperhead pin; for it is not pretended by any one that the young man was making the least disturbance, or that he held any conversation with his assailants previous to their attack on him. The sheriff commanded them to desist, and called upon all good citizens present to assist him in quelling the disturbance.
The deputy sheriff,
Mr. Belin, succeeded in getting to the young man, and attempted to take him from the mob, but failed.
The sheriff and another man forced their way through the crowd, and finally, after considerable exertion, succeeded in getting the young man clear of the mob, and started with him towards his buggy, which was standing a short distance off. The sheriff and his deputy, with the young man in custody, was followed by the mob, and before reaching his buggy they all received several kicks and thumps from the miscreants who were following them, threatening to hang all three of them, shouting that they were nothing but butternuts and traitors.
The sheriff managed to get the young man into his buggy, and brought him to the city and locked him up in the county jail.
On Monday some of the persons who had been engaged in the very landable undertaking of attempting to rob a young man of a copperhead breastpin, during the funeral services of one of the neighbors, came to this city with the intention of prosecuting the young man they had nearly succeeded in murdering.
They engaged a lawyer, who drew up an accusation against him for shooting with intent to kill, and placed it in their hands to procure a warrant, when they proceeded to the office of a justice of the peace.
But a new trouble then arose; none of them were willing to swear to the accusation.
They then called on their intended victim, who was still in the county jail, and proposed to him to drop the whole matter if he would agree to the proposal.
Mr. Griffis referred them to his lawyer, who very politely informed them that they could proceed with their prosecution, and that he intended to proceed with his; that he had not done with them yet, as they would find to their cost.
The person upon whom the above most infamous and unprovoked outrage was committed is between twenty-one and twenty-two years of age, of small size, and is admitted by all to be a quiet, industrious, and respectable young man; and bore himself like a brave man, who was conscious of being in the right, amid all the howlings and jeerings of an Abolition mob.
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