Incendiarism in Charlotte, N. Carolina.
In the midst of the exciting events now taking place at the anticipated points of collision between the Northern and Southern Governments, the systematic and persistent efforts which have recently been made to burn up the town of Charlotte, North Carolina, on account of its strong secession sympathies, have not attracted the attention they deserve. An intelligent correspondent of the Charleston Courier gives a detailed account of the plot, which is full of interest. The first fire was on the morning of Friday, the 29th of March, evidently the work of an incendiary, which was only prevented by the greatest exertions from involving the surrounding dwellings.-- The next was on the succeeding Saturday night about 12 o'clock, which was followed by an attempt to fire the Methodist parsonage, at 4 o'clock the next morning. The church, adjoining the parsonage, took fire twice, but the citizens worried nobly, and succeeded in arresting the progress of the flames. Each of these places was in a thickly settled locality just where there was a number of old frame houses, so that their design was evidently to destroy the whole town. On the next night, every square was guarded; but on seven o'clock the next morning, a stable was fired, in the must of the inflammable out-houses belonging to the principal hotel and in such a location that, as soon as it was discovered, everybody exclaimed, ‘"Now the town must go !"’ With great labor, however, the fire was got under, and the town once more saved; but it did not prevent a similar attempt two days after. The citizens have discovered the incendiaries to be a band of white desperadoes, who are supposed to be Republican emissaries, employed to destroy the town. The object, it is said, cannot be plunder, for quite a number of valuable articles have been picked up, which were scattered about in carrying the furniture out of different houses, and in every instance they have been returned to their owners by both white and black. There is not the slightest suspicion of the slaves. The fire companies of Charlotte are composed principally of slaves, having regular uniform; and had it not been for their untiring labors and noble conduct, the whites would have been almost homeless. All those colored people who are not members of companies are so terrified that they seem afraid to leave their owners, for fear something terrible will happen to them.It is thus that unoffending communities of the South are harassed and imperilled, simply for peaceably endeavoring to extricate themselves from the "glorious Union" with the John Brown Government.
