“Mrs. Douglass’s time will run out this week, and we have heard it stated from good authority, that her imprisonment will be a pecuniary reward to her. We hope that our citizens will prevent by all possible means any attempt to aid this woman, but let her depart hence with only one wish, that her presence will never be intruded upon us again. Let her seek her associates at the North, and with them commingle, but let us put a check to such mischievous views as fell from her lips last November, sentiments unworthy a resident of the State, and in direct rebellion against our Constitution.” My readers will perceive two important concessions in this article; first, that mine was the first case that had ever been tried under that peculiar act since its passage, and that public sympathy was strongly excited in my favor: and secondly, that it was the hope and wish of every one that I should leave the city, and thus enable them to escape from the dilemma in which they were placed. Now, I submit to my readers whether it was not asking a little too much of me, that I should voluntarily allow myself to be branded as an escaped fugitive, and subject myself to be advertised as such in every newspaper in the country, have a price set upon my head, and be hourly liable to arrest by any officer, who thought it worth the trouble, wherever I might be. No, I was no coward; and, rather than place myself in such a position as that, I would have suffered my right hand to be cut off. It must be said, however, that neither I, nor any one else, ever supposed for a moment, that I should receive any further punishment for my offence than the infliction of the nominal fine already fixed by the verdict of the jury. Justice did not require it, nor the cause of morality. My character was such that there was no cause to fear that I should break my pledge, and attempt to renew my school; and common gallantry alone should have led any gentleman, much more a dignified Judge, in whose sole discretion the matter rested, to have dealt with a woman as leniently as the strict letter of the law would allow. I rested in perfect security until the 10th day of January, 1854, when I was called before the Court, and received from Judge Baker, not only an unnecessarily long and discourteous reprimand, but a sentence to an imprisonment of one month in the city jail! So astounded were the whole community at the shameless impudence of such a sentence, from a Judge whose own family had been engaged in the very same acts for which I was punished, that a number of the most respectable members of the Norfolk bar requested a copy of Judge Baker’s decision for publication, which correspondence, with the decision as then published, I here give entire:-- COMMONWEALTH vs. MARGARET DOUGLASS. HON. RICHARD H. BAKER: