To show that such were the wishes of the authorities and others, I quote the following passage from the Norfolk _Argus_, under date of February 9th, 1854. I quote the whole of the article here, though portions of it have reference to what occurred subsequently, as I may have, occasion to refer to the other passages. It is headed “Commonwealth _vs._ Mrs. Douglass,” and reads as follows: “We publish to-day the judgment of Hon. Judge Baker in the case of Mrs. Douglass, which has much excited our citizens. The first time within the passage of the act forbidding the teaching of slaves or free colored persons to read or write, has a case of this description come under the jurisdiction of our Court, and it was singular that this case should be a woman. The jury found a verdict of guilty, and the law had to be sustained. Sympathy was aroused for Mrs. Douglass. It was revolting to the citizens to have a woman imprisoned in our jail, and every inducement was offered Mrs. Douglass to escape the punishment. The Court was obliged to adjourn its judgment over, and although a _capias_ was awarded, yet it was the hope and wish of every one that she would leave the city. But no; ‘a martyr’ she ‘would be to the cause of benevolence;’ and to cap the climax, she brought her daughter, a maiden of some seventeen summers, who had obeyed the injunctions of her mother, as a child should, to try the stern realities of the laws, and, to use her own language in defending her cause, ‘to glory in works of benevolence and charity to a race down-trodden.’ Then sympathy departed, and in the breast of every one rose a righteous indignation towards a person who would throw contempt in the face of our laws, and brave the imprisonment for ‘the cause of humanity.’ “The decision of Judge Baker is cogent and pungent, and will be read with interest. The laws must be upheld. It is not for the Judge to set upon the constitutionality or justice of the law; it is for him a sacred duty to impose the punishment meted out in the code. Virginia must keep in restraint the wire-workings of abolition sentiments. We have in this town suffered much from the aggression of Northern foes, and a strong cordon must encircle our domestic institutions. We must preserve from discord and angry passions our firesides and homesteads. We must preserve inviolate the majesty of laws necessary for the protection of our rights; and there is no one of intelligence and foresight who will pronounce the judgment unrighteous.