Portland Gazette, And Maine Advertiser

The War

From the Wilkesbarre (Penn.) Gleaner of Aug. 5

Monday last was a day of unusual excitement in our village. The U S troops enlisted in the vicinity, were under marching orders. The parting of friends, and the separation of the husbands from wives was in no little degree affecting, and this painful feeling was in some cases heightened by the opinion, whether well or ill founded I pretend not to say, that some of the soldiers had not been very fairly attached to the service.
A sergeant by the name of Brack, conspicuous for his knowledge of discipline, and more so by his severity to the soldiers, in the course of Sunday, broke his sword over the head of Mr. Cook, a soldier, and severely wounded him in the arm. Brack was justly turned into the ranks-but the next morning restored to his shoulder knots and marched off with the troops as sergeant.
During the forenoon, after the troops had marched, the whole town was thrown into confusion. A man by the name of M'Wiggin was said to have enlisted. He protested he had not. Force was used to send him after the troops. He used his stick with such effect that he cleared himself, but was again taken, put on horseback under a guard, an officer by his side having two pistols, and marched off. To see a citizen thus compelled to march who solemnly declared he was not an enlisted soldier, awakened feelings in most bosoms that saw it, worthy of freemen. The citizens gathered around. A habeas corpus was obtained. The military was forcing the man along as fast as possible, when a number of spirited citizens stepped before the cavalcade and stopped it. The officer presented his pistol at their breasts and threatened to blow them through. One of them seeing Judge Fell, called upon him to interfere, that the man might have a legal hearing. The Judge, in the name of the commonwealth, ordered them to stop. The habeas corpus was served. The question was tried before Judge Gibson, and M'Wiggin discharged. Thanks to the firmness, independence and intelligence of the civil authority, our citizens cannot yet be dragged off against their will and impressed into the army.
Whether legal associations of the people to protect their rights will not be indispensable to the public safety is a question worthy of solemn consideration.
As Monday was a day of agitation and alarm-Tuesday was a day of fearful gloom and sorrow. A Mr. Dixon, a civil, inoffensive but feeble man, who had enlisted and was marching with the troops, was killed on the mountain by Brack. Dixon, it is said, complained of fatigue and lingered behind the rest. Brack sent for him and he did not come. Brack went back. cut him a stick, and beat poor Dixon on the head, and kicked him in the sides, till, as he afterwards complained, his toes were sore. Dixon was put in a waggon and died very soon after the people went after him yesterday to bring him in, but he was so bruised he had become too putrid. He has left a wife and four children to mourn for him.
An Inquest was held on the body-Ver. dict, "Wilful Murder." Brack is confined in jail.
That there are men in the community who will continue to approve of the War and its accompanying blessings, there is no doubt -but it will be those men who are rioting on the distress of the country, and who are reaping a rich harvest of the things of this world, in consequence of the war. We allude to the host of Collectors, Taxgatherers, army contractors and military officers, who infest every part of the country, and are more numerous than the locusts of Egypt-" By this Craft they have their wealth" Well may such men pretend to Patriotism and love of the people. But were they to be weighed in the balance of justice, they would be found wanting. Their patriotism consists in "feathering their own nests" and their love of the people is of the same species which Bonaparte had for the Americans. He fleeced us out of unnumbered millions -from pure love. They are pursuing the same game, and unless the people will abandon the " road to ruin" and unite in electing to office such men, and such only, as will adopt a different system of policy, we must expect Tax upon Tax, Loan upon Loan, disgrace upon disgrace, and peculation upon peculation.