Alexandria Gazette

TIMES IN GEORGIA.

Extract of a letter, dated

PERRY, (Ga.) May 9, 1842.

"The times are becoming appalling—really alarming. We have just returned from Sumter Superior court. Its first day's session was this day week. We took all our plain verdicts, entered up our judgments, attached the notes and put them back in the clerk's office that night. Some friends, it was not ascertained certainly who, but some six or eight must have been concerned, entered the Court House, carried off the clerks' desk, in which was contained every paper, docket, record book, &c., pertaining to the office, and consumed the whole by fire. There was nothing saved except the few cases the members of the bar happened to have in their hats and pockets. We lost every case but two where judgment had been taken. Notes are gone also. No traces left behind. The next day, being Sheriffs sale's day—and a great deal of property advertised, the court proceeded on with such cases as the bar had out, until sale hour arrived, when it suspended for the sale; and as soon as the Deputy Sheriff commenced; he was instantly seized by three ruffians and carried off to an adjacent swamp. The Judge repaired to the court room, made an address to the populace, commanded the principal Sheriff to summon the posse and pursue, bring back the deputy, and the men who carried him off. The Sheriff led the way commanding the crowd. of at least two hundred and fifty. to follow and aid him—the crowd went out, dispersed over the town, and not half a dozen would go. The Sheriff and three or four approached too near the place where the outlaws were, and a fellow came out with a double barrelled gun, and told the Sheriff there were twenty-five or thirty men in the swamp, well armed—that he might advance, if he did he would do it at his peril—that fifty millions of armed men could not capture the outlaws. The Sheriff had no arms and could get none to put into the hands of the friends of the law. We tremble for the country, for the perpetuity of the government. Mobocracy stalks abroad in noon day sun, with impunity, and without a blush. God save the country and destroy the spirit of mobism"