Fayetteville (NC) Observer, “Revival of the Sedition Law,” June 13, 1861

REVIVAL OF THE SEDITION LAW. – We cut the following paragraph from one of the latest N. Y. Commercial Advertisers that have reached us. It appears that it is criminal now again, as it was during the times of the first Adams, to speak iil [ill] of the President of the United States: -

“A Secessionist in Trouble. – A merchant, doing business in Burling slip, was brought before Superintendent Kennedy this morning on a charge of using seditious language, and making scandalous assertions in regard to the character of the President of the United States and some members of his family. He claimed to be acquainted with the President and his family, and to speak from personal knowledge, but when brought before Mr. Kennedy he stated that his information was derived from Southern papers. He received a reprimand and warning, and was permitted to depart.”

“More of the Same Sort. – It is reported by the families of gentlemen employed in the Confederate Government just arrived here from Washington, that numbers of men and women are confined in the basement rooms of the Capital as suspected persons either from the South, or who sympathize with the South. The tyrant Lincoln has the citizens arrested without form of law, gives them no trial, and in some cases not even deigns to let them know the cause of their arrest. The despotism and terrorism of the worst days of the French Revolution did not exceed this. – Rich. Dispatch 11th.

We learn that letters have been received here from Washington city without signature, the writer stating that he had not dared to sign his name. His relatives of course knew from whom they came.