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New York, Saturday, August 9,1862
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THE LATE MARTIN VAN BUREN, EX-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES,- PHOTOGRAPHED BY BRADY.
HARPER'S WEEKLY.
[AUGUST 9, 1862.
498
A PROCLAMATION.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF
AMERICA.
IN pursuance of the sixth section of the act of Congress entitled "An Act to suppress Insurrection, to punish Treason and Rebellion, to seize and confiscate the Property of Rebels, and for other Purposes," approved July 17, 1862, and which act, and the joint resolution explanatory thereof, are herewith published, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do hereby proclaim to and warn all persons within the contemplation of said sixth section to cease participating in, aiding, countenancing, or abetting the existing rebellion, or any rebellion, against the Government of the United States, and to return to their proper allegiance to the United States, on pain of the forfeitures and seizures as within and by said sixth section provided.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this 25th day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight [L.S.] hundred and sixty-two, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
By the President—
WILLIAM H. SEWARD,
Secretary of State.
THE SIXTH SECTION.
Annexed is the sixth section of the Confiscation act referred to by the President in the above proclamation:
Sec. 6. And be it further enacted, That if any person within any State or Territory of the United States, other than those named as aforesaid, after the passage of this act, being engaged in armed rebellion against the Government of the United States, or aiding or abetting such rebellion, shall not, within sixty days after public warning and proclamation duly given and made by the President of the United States, cease to aid, countenance, and abet such rebellion, and return to his allegiance to the United States, all the estate and property, moneys, stocks, and credits of such person shall be liable to seizure as aforesaid, and it shall be the duty of the President to seize and use them as aforesaid, or the proceeds thereof. And all sales, transfers, or conveyances of any such property after the expiration of the said sixty days from the date of such warning and proclamation shall be null and void; and it shall be a sufficient bar to any suit brought by such person for the possession or the use of such property, or any of it, to allege and prove that he is one of the persons described in this section.
HARPER'S WEEKLY.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 9, 1862.
A NEW MOVE ON THE EUROPEAN BOARD.
EUROPEAN politics are a queer puzzle. The latest news from Europe contains the statement that a new and close alliance has been formed between France and Russia. Simultaneously, we perceive that the Moniteur, the official organ of the French Government, has ceased to take the side of the Southern rebels, once more eulogizes the North, and even undertakes the defense of General Butler from British scurrility.
If Louis Napoleon really cherishes the desire to humble England—as Englishmen unanimously believe—events could not have shaped themselves more conveniently for the accomplishment of his purpose. His newspapers have encouraged the British to think that if England interfered in this country France would side with her. Acting on this belief the London press has pursued us with a brutal and blackguard malignity which has filled the American heart with the most intense hostility toward England. If, in carrying out the policy of the new Russo-French alliance the French Emperor should resolve to quarrel with England, he would thus have the entire civilized world—with, perhaps, the single exception of helpless Austria—on his side. Spain would want to regain Gibraltar. Italy is burning to avenge the wrongs of 1859. And this country, we are sorry to say, has been goaded to such a pitch of fury by the studied unkindness and steady hostility of the British people that we should certainly raise no hand on behalf of Great Britain.
It is a little remarkable that, at a late review of Volunteers in England, the Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, took pains to be present, and warned the soldiers—"with unusual and startling earnestness," as a reporter said—to be ready, when the time came, to perform manfully the work for which they had been organized.
TURNING OVER A NEW LEAF.
MAJOR-GENERAL HENRY W. HALLECK is now Commander-in-Chief of the armies of the United States, and the public may consequently feel satisfied, in the first place, that the various operations of our forces will be directed by a single mind; and secondly, that the directing mind will be that of a soldier, and not that of a lawyer.
It is impossible to exaggerate the mischief which has been done by division of counsels and civilian interference with military movements. General Halleck's rapid successes in the West merely increased the obstacles in the path of General McClellan, and enabled Jeff Davis to call to Richmond the ablest generals and possibly some of the troops of the Southwestern rebel army. Again, when General McClellan embarked at Alexandria for Old Point, it was with the distinct understanding that General McDowell would co-operate with him with 40,000 men from Fredericksburg; it was not till his campaign had actually commenced that the civilians
in authority at Washington discovered that a movement by McDowell on Richmond might leave Washington uncovered, countermanded their previous orders, and paralyzed the Army of the Potomac. If General McClellan had understood that he could not have the co-operation of McDowell his plans might have been very different, and the losses incurred at Williamsburg, Fairoaks, and the Chickahominy might have been spared. We have it on the best authority that when General McClellan first received intelligence from Washington that he must dispense with McDowell's army, he covered his face with his hands, and remained several hours plunged in sombre silence—to use the language of one of his aids, "with an awful expression." He saw that the carefully-laid plans which had been submitted to and approved by the civilian authorities at Washington had been overset by an after-thought of theirs; and that the result, which had been mathematically certain, was now rendered problematical. If General Halleck had been at Washington, with the powers of a Commander-in-Chief, Beauregard would never have been set free to go to Richmond, and McClellan would never have been allowed to depart on an expedition whose success could have been afterward defeated by civilian panic.
There has been much said in the papers about a rivalry between McClellan and Halleck. There is no foundation for any thing of the kind. General Halleck was suggested as Commander-in-Chief by General McClellan on 9th July, when the President visited Harrison's Landing, and was appointed as soon as Mr. Lincoln returned to Washington on 11th. They are old personal friends, thoroughly appreciate each other's genius, and will work together in perfect harmony.
It may not be amiss to refer briefly, in this connection, to the speech of Senator Chandler, of Michigan, on the subject of the war, and to the echoes of that speech in the press. Certain friends of General M'Clellan are vastly indignant that a speech should have been made criticising their hero. We do not share the feeling. In our opinion General McClellan has not committed a single error in the work intrusted to him, and has evinced qualities which place him in the highest rank among soldiers. History, we think, will place his movement from the Chickahominy to the James among the grandest military exploits on record; and will pronounce that others, not McClellan, are responsible for the failure of the Union army to take Richmond in July. At the same time we should be very sorry to believe that we had any soldier in the field who was not subject to criticism, or whose performance might not fairly be a topic of debate. Senator Chandler is entitled to his opinion of General McClellan, and entitled to express, as the Tribune and Herald are entitled to print it. It must go for what it is worth. General McClellan, we are satisfied, would be the last man to object to criticism. He is enough of a man to know that if it be unjust, his merits will shine all the brighter for his previous depreciation; if it be just, the sooner he is got out of the way the better for the country. Thus far Senator Chandler's attack seems to have merely intensified both the public and the President's confidence in McClellan.
The appointment of a resident Commander-in-Chief at Washington, and the Presidential orders directing the army to subsist itself on the enemy, and employ negroes in every fitting capacity, indicate that we are turning over a new leaf in the method of carrying on the war. The new orders from Washington command the hearty approval of all loyal people. It is time that the rebels should be made to feel, in their hearths and homes, the horrors of the war they have forced on us. And it is high time that, in prosecuting the arduous task before us, we should secure any allies we can—white men if they offer, but if not, black, brown, or yellow.
A number of well-meaning persons complain that the Government is too slow—that we should have had a million of men in the field—that the President ought long ago to have authorized our armies to subsist themselves on the rebels, and employ fugitive slaves. It is very easy to prophesy after the event—very simple for people who have had no responsibility to bear, to turn round upon the men who have borne the whole burden of public service on their shoulders and say, when disaster occurs, "I told you so."
History teaches us very plainly that revolutions are steadily progressive, and that a Government, to be safe and strong, must never be in advance of the people. If Mr. Lincoln had commanded our generals to seize the property of Southern men in May, 1861, three-fourths of the North would have protested against the act as needless and barbarous. If, at the same time, he had authorized generals to enlist negroes, at least as large a majority of the Northern people would have opposed him; numbers of army officers, who are now fierce abolitionists, would have resigned; and such excellent soldiers as General Lewis Wallace, General Ben Butler, General Hunter himself would have refused to serve. Mr. Lincoln was compelled to wait until stern experience had eradicated from the Democratic mind the old pro-slavery prejudices, which had been fostered for a generation. Let any one ask General Wallace what his views were when he raised the 11th Indiana Zouaves: he will say that, while he was for the Union, he
was heartily pro-slavery. Now he denounces those who oppose negro regiments as little better than traitors. Compare General Butler's letter to Governor Andrew, dated from Annapolis, in April, 1861, with his present dispatches: the progress is marvelous. In April, 1861, there was not a firmer supporter of slavery in the country than Major Dave Hunter, of Illinois, who has just raised the 1st South Carolina Regiment of Volunteers, consisting exclusively of negroes. It is possible that Mr. Lincoln may have foreseen, fifteen months ago, that we should be compelled to arm negroes and seize Southern property. But whether he did or not, it is more than probable that, if he had so far anticipated the progress of public sentiment as to inaugurate the war with these measures, we should have had—what the rebels fondly counted upon —a divided and powerless North.
So, again, with regard to the numbers of our forces. Why didn't the President call out 300,000 on April 15, 1861, instead of 75,000? Let any candid man recall his sensations on the morning when the call for 75,000 appeared and say, honestly, whether he didn't think the number excessive. Why, Illinois doubted seriously whether she could raise 6000. It was a new business. None of the young men knew any thing of war. The wisest could not tell whether the people of the North would fight en masse for the Union. If Mr. Lincoln had stated in a proclamation that 300,000 men were required, people might have replied that the game was not worth the candle. So in July, when he asked for 400,000 men and $400,000,000. The ex post facto critics shriek, "Why didn't he call for a million, and finish up the work?" Those very men, when the Message appeared on 5th July, believed and declared that it was merely an exaggeration intended to frighten the South. They didn't dream that 400,000 men would be wanted, much less raised, and found too few.
We do not wish to be understood as excusing the mistakes of the Government. It was a fatal blunder to stop recruiting last Fall. And it was an inexcusable error—one of the many absurdities for which Mr. Cameron has to answer —to allow a single regiment to march to the field without establishing a recruiting depot to fill up its ranks as they became thinned by the casualties of war. These are the stupidities into which peaceful nations always fall when they embark in the strange and unnatural business of war. But in the main, history will decide that the Administration of Mr. Lincoln raised as many troops and as speedily as the temper of the North would allow.
Three hundred thousand more men are now wanted, and they will probably be forthcoming without a draft. We trust that the President and General Halleck will not commit the unpardonable blunder of organizing them into raw regiments, so as to be useless, when they might be made invaluable by being distributed among veteran battalions. But it is possible that we may have this lesson, too, to learn by experience.
Meanwhile officials in each State are preparing the necessary registers for a draft. It is hardly likely that the war will be concluded without one. Even with 300,000 fresh troops, our armies will still be outnumbered by the rebels, who have 700,000 men in the field. But it is evidently wiser for the President to exhaust the voluntary system, and then fall back on drafting, rather than run the risk of rendering the war unpopular in the rural districts at the present critical moment by drafting men, if there be no absolute necessity for resorting to such extreme measures. By-and-by the public mind will be educated to the necessity, and then the wiseacres will shout aloud—We told you so! We told you so!
McCLELLAN UNDER FIRE.
GENERAL SCOTT, when, after the battles upon Manassas Plains (won so often not only before they occurred but since, by newspaper strategists), it became necessary to commit to some one the two-fold Herculean task of making a great army and planning a vast and complicated campaign, recommended McCLELLAN, not only because of the vigor and capacity which he had shown in Western Virginia, but on account of the gallantry, skill, and indefatigable energy which he exhibited throughout the campaign in Mexico. Into that campaign he entered in the lowest rank of commissioned officers—that of second lieutenant—but in the highest department of the service—the engineers—a position achieved by his graduating at West Point with the highest honors.
In Mexico he won not only reputation for skill and energy as a military engineer, but laurels for his gallantry in the field. He had been working night and day in the furtherance of SCOTT'S plan of attack upon the heights of Cerro Gordo, and so successfully as to elicit the commendations of the veteran commander, when he was detailed to PILLOW'S brigade in the general assault, and where he performed his duties under the fiercest fire of the day; that brigade, which moved upon the Mexican right, having been obliged to attack the enemy under such great disadvantages of position, and having met with such determined resistance that it was repulsed
with heavy loss—the field having been won by the carrying of the centre and left. In this his first battle he won the meed of special mention. At the battles of Contreras, fought on the 19th and 20th of August, 1847, McCLELLAN again distinguished himself by his daring and gallantry. Being detailed to General TWIGG'S division, he led its way to the attack on the 19th, and pushed a reconnoissance for the placing of batteries so near the enemy's lines that he and the topographical officer with him both had their horses shot under them. The battle coming on immediately, and the commander of the howitzer battery having been severely wounded, McCLELLAN sprang forward, took his post, and fought the battery with great spirit and ability until it became so disabled as to require shelter. General TWIGGS specially recommended him to the favorable consideration of General SCOTT for "efficiency and gallantry" in this affair; and he was immediately brevetted First Lieutenant of Engineers. Next came the battles of Churubusco—five desperate conflicts in a day and a night—throughout which McCLELLAN'S conduct commanded the admiration of every one. Then followed the assaults upon El Molino del Rey and Casa de Mata, outposts of the Castle of Chapultepec —fearful struggles; for although both positions were carried, it was with the almost unprecedented loss in killed and wounded of nearly one-fourth of the attacking three. In the midst of these bloody and apparently desperate fights McCLELLAN went imperturbably about his work, managing the guns and placing the batteries as if he were on parade. At the assault upon the Castle itself he was equally conspicuous, and won from General WORTH special mention for "gallantry and conduct," besides the commendation which he received for "signal service" as an engineer in the report of the commander of that corps. And finally, at Mexico, he was the first officer to push into the city, which he entered at the head of his sappers and miners at three o'clock in the morning, and where he encountered that most dreadful of all attacks, firing from windows and house-tops, which was kept up by two thousand released convicts; the Mexican regular army having fled. His previous services on the 12th of September had caused him to be brevetted Captain; but as he modestly declined the honor of a sword from Philadelphia last year because he "had done nothing to deserve it," so here he declined his captaincy; but when upon the taking of the city of the Montezumas he was again brevetted Captain "for gallant and meritorious conduct at Chapultepec and Mexico," he accepted the twice-won honor.
There remains but a word to be said to the profound strategists who would at once put him to school as a general, and degrade him in the eyes of the country as a man. It is, that although they may choose to disregard his subsequent services as an organizer at West Point, as an explorer at the West, and as a theorist in the Crimea, which gained him distinction in the records of the War Department, and, finally, his bringing order out of the chaos which succeeded Bull Run; and although he has not yet entered Richmond, it would be prudent for them not to attack a man for the lack of soldierly qualities who, by conspicuous gallantry and daring, as well as by professional skill, won his captaincy upon bloody fields before he was twenty-two years old.
THE LOUNGER.
KEEPING A GOOD HEART.
IN the prosecution of a great war two things are essential—money and spirit; and of the two the latter is the most important. That at least is a lesson which we ought long ago to have learned from the rebels. We were wont, in the early days of the trouble, to console ourselves with the reflection that they had no money, and no credit, and no food, and that they must very soon starve and surrender. But had we not an earlier lesson? Had we not Valley Forge in our history? People will go shoeless, and hungry, and cold. By all the logic of circumstances they will be beaten a dozen times, yet still fight desperately. Why? Because there is no shoe so stout, no dinner so satisfactory, no fire so warm, as an idea. Good or bad makes little difference. In the great religious wars the Protestants and Catholics fought with equal fury. It can not be denied that Philip II. was quite as much in earnest as William of Orange and the stout Hollanders.
Now we have plenty of money, but if we lack spirit we are beaten already. "Couldst thou not watch with me one hour?" Are we such faint hearts that, if success will not tumble from sheer over-ripeness into our arms, we will shake our heads dolefully and suck our imbecile thumbs in despair? We have a great work to do. It is of a kind that can not be done in a month or a year. We have to suppress an armed insurrection, and then establish and guarantee peace. It is a tremendous business. It demands men of robust hearts and strong arms and the most cheerful wills. It is precisely the kind of task that should be most welcome to a nation of our race and breeding. It is to educe order from chaos; to squelch a miserable semi-barbaric system of civilization, with its few enormously rich, and its hordes of wretchedly poor and abject, and establish a uniformity of right and advantage. It is to banish the hideous old night of Slavery with the jocund young day-spring of Liberty. (Next Page)
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THE ARMY OF VIRGINIA—SCENES ON THE MARCH.—SKETCHED BY MR. DAVENPORT.—[SEE PAGES 500 AND 503.]
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VOL. VII.—No. 330.] NEW YORK, SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 1863. [SINGLE COPIES SIX CENTS.
$3,00 PER YEAR IN ADVANCE.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the Year 1863, by Harper & Brothers, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York.
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ADMIRAL SAMUEL F. DUPONT, COMMANDING THE FLEET OFF CHARLESTON.—PHOTOGRAPHED BY GUTEKUNST, OF PHILADELPHIA.-[SEE PAGE 270.]
HARPER'S WEEKLY.
[APRIL 25, 1863.
258
TU GUVERNOR CANNON OV
DELAWARE.
HERE is a grate gun at last!
In the mold ov Freedum cast,
Made tu pat daown treeson. Ef so be these rebbels dare
Tu strut raound in Delaware,
He will know the reeson!
He don't feel a call tu grin
When fokes up and tawk agin
Lincoln's Administrashun; And refuse to stir a mite
Hail Columby's foes tu fite,
For tu save the nashun.
He thinks 'tain't much ov a joke
When fokes North begin tu croak
Fur the sake ov party:
He thinks Freemen shood unite Tu go in fur what is rite,
And support it hearty.
While the Suthern rebbels brag
That thav'll trample daown aour flag,
And proceed tu du it,
He thinks every Northern man Ought to strike 'em where he can, Or be made to rue it!
He's the gun tu make a noise!
Jest the kind ov metal, boys,
Thet we want fur traitors! When Columby is sot free,
She will kaount sich men es he
Es her liberators.
CHARITY GRIMES.
HARPER'S WEEKLY.
SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 1863.
OUR RELATIONS WITH GREAT
BRITAIN.
IT is not to be disguised that our relations with Great Britain have reached a most critical pass. The speeches of the Solicitor-General of England and of Lord Palmerston, in Parliament, on 27th March, indicate a determined purpose on the part of the British Government to persevere in the work of fitting out piratical vessels in British ports to prey upon our merchant navy, It was well shown by Messrs. Forster, Baring, and others, that the equipment of the Florida and Alabama was in violation of the Foreign Enlistment Act; and that other similar vessels—some say eighteen, others fourteen—are being constructed for the rebels at Liverpool and other British ports, without let or hindrance by the Government, and will soon be at sea, manned by British sailors, armed with British guns, and as thoroughly British in every respect as the Warrior herself. The only answer to these cogent facts was some legal quips and quibbles in the Nisi Prius style by the Solicitor, and a sneer from Lord Palmerston about "the Americans always picking a quarrel with England whenever they got into trouble."
Passing over the insolence of the latter speaker, who has been well said to represent the black-leg element in the British Cabinet, and the cheap erudition of the lawyer who was hired to defend the Government, the fact remains that we are practically at war with Great Britain without the power of reprisals. Every British dock-yard is now engaged in building steamers to capture and burn our merchantmen, to run our blockade, and to bombard our defenseless sea-board cities. The evidence points irresistibly to the conclusion that all the authorities and men in stations of influence in England are in the conspiracy against us. Lord Palmerston considers our complaints of the destruction of thirty odd American vessels by the British cruiser Alabama mere indications of our wish to pick a quarrel with England; Lord Russell sees no ground for arresting the Alabama until he has been assured she has got safely to sea, when he issues his tardy warrant; Member of Parliament Laird laughs—and the House of Commons re-echoes the laugh—at the objections which are made to his supplying the rebels with a navy; the Commissioners of Customs, with their ears stuffed with cotton and their pockets with the produce of Confederate bonds, are ready to swear off the most obvious Confederate steamer as a harmless craft intended for the Emperor of China; and the merchants, ship-builders, and newspapers of England all claim the right of furnishing the rebels with a navy, and denounce us furiously for objecting to their conduct.
These events have very naturally aroused a general and intense hostility to England among all classes in this country. There has never been a time when hatred of the English was so deep or so wide-spread as it is at present. There has never been a period at which war with England could have been more generally welcomed than at present—if we were free to engage in a foreign war.
Yet we do not believe that war is imminent. We can not afford the luxury. The struggle in which we are engaged taxes all our resources, and to carry it safely through to a successful issue will require our undivided energies. For this reason we do not anticipate that our Government
will declare war against England— though it has ample ground for doing so; or will even declare an embargo, or seize British property to recompense our ship-owners for the losses they are suffering through the piratical acts of British vessels.
Our cue just now is to suffer every thing from foreigners for the sake of concentrating our whole strength on the suppression of the rebellion. When this is done, we shall have time to devote to our foreign enemies.
So soon as the restoration of the Union has been achieved, we look to see energetic measures adopted by our Government for the settlement of accounts with England. We expect to see every man who has lost a dollar by the depredations of the Alabama paid in full, with interest, by the British Government. The amount can always be collected in the port of New York. Half a dozen British steamers and a score of British ships seized and sold at auction by the United States Marshal would go far to make a balance. And when England next goes to war, let her look out for retaliation. Though her antagonist be only some Hottentot chief, the ocean shall bristle with American cruisers bearing his flag, and England may rely upon it, that for every peaceful American trader that has been burned during this war by British pirates, ten British vessels will then be destroyed. The next war in which England engages will be the end of her foreign commerce. We mistake our countrymen greatly, if, at the end of twelve months, they leave a ship bearing the British flag afloat in any sea from the German Ocean to Behring's Straits.
But the watch-word now must be—Patience!
CHARLESTON.
THE attack on Charleston has been made, and has failed. Admiral Du Pont has withdrawn, after losing one vessel and three or four men, being perfectly satisfied that it was hopeless to renew the contest with the force he has. His opinion is shared by all who are acquainted with the facts. With an ingenuity and industry worthy of a better cause, the rebels have so obstructed the approaches to the port of Charleston that no vessel can enter until the obstructions — consisting of a combination of piles, stakes, chains, ropes, nets, and torpedoes — have been removed. Upon these obstructions the fire of the principal works commanding the harbor has been concentrated, so that a vessel engaged in attempting to remove them is exposed to a fire compared to which the feu d'enfer which destroyed Sebastopol was a mere summer shower. Over three hundred guns, carrying missiles of the largest and most destructive character—100-pound and 200-pound rifled shot, shell, and bolts—poured an incessant hail upon the eight gun-boats, carrying 16 guns, which vainly endeavored to bombard Fort Sumter on 7th inst. It is clear that, until we can devise means of blowing up or tearing away the artificial barrier which arrested our vessels under the combined fire of the rebel batteries on 7th, it would be useless to renew the attack.
Each person draws his own inferences and forms his own opinion of the affair, according to his hopes and views, and the temper of his mind. The most obvious of all inferences is that it insures an indefinite prolongation of the war. Had we destroyed Fort Sumter and occupied Charleston there would have been good ground for expecting the early collapse of the rebellion. As it is, the rebels will of course be encouraged to persevere in their rebellion, while we shall merely renew our preparations for another and possibly a more successful attack. It will, however, take several months to build more iron-clads, and develop new engines of warfare capable of overcoming submarine obstructions and torpedoes. The fine mind of Captain Ericsson and the ablest intellects in the service of the navy are already engaged on the subject, and we doubt not but they will succeed in inventing the article that is wanted. To a nation fixed and resolute in its purpose as this is, failure is impossible.
No one who watches the public mind can have helped observing the improvement which we are making in stoutheartedness. A few months ago a little defeat depressed us woefully, and depreciated the currency six to eight per cent. Now, the public accept defeats as well as victories as the natural incidents of war, and are neither excessively depressed by the one nor unduly elated by the other. Du Pont's repulse at Charleston, which was certainly not palliated or glossed over in the accounts in the papers, gave rise to no despair, to no abuse of Du Pont or the Government, and barely caused a flutter in the gold market.
This nation is being educated to its work. The race of ninety-day prophets—who did us so much harm at the beginning, and made us so ridiculous abroad—is about extinct. No one now undertakes to say how soon we shall crush the rebellion. But no one doubts that we shell do so sooner or later. We may meet with more repulses at Charleston and Vicksburg. General Hooker may be defeated, as General Burnside was. General Rosecrans, who has never yet lost a battle, may meet with trouble. We may lose territory as well as battles. But
none of these disasters will alter our purpose of going on with the work in hand until it is accomplished. There never was a time since the war broke out when the people of the North were more unanimous than they are at present in favor of the prosecution of the war, and against the division of the Union on any terms whatsoever. Whatever disappointments and delays the contest may involve, and whatever sacrifices we may be called upon to undergo—even though a foreign war be superadded to the civil war in which we are engaged—the firm, unequivocal, steadfast purpose of the people of the United States, in the face of defeat, as in the hour of victory, and in spite of all official shortcomings and administrative blunders and incapacity, is to proceed steadily with the war until the rebellion has been crushed, the entire territory of our fathers restored to the national domain, and the blessings of peace secured to our children forever.
THE "KEOKUK."
ANOTHER of our iron-clad fleet is gone. The Monitor succumbed to the storm; the Keokuk lived eleven hours with nineteen large shot-holes between wind and water, and after sustaining a fire which would have destroyed a wooden ship in ten minutes. Three important points were developed in her short life: 1st, that she was an excellent sea-going steamer; 2d, that she had attained a speed of ten knots an hour; and, 3d, that the ventilation was perfect without artificial aid. Her armor did not prove thick enough, but she was so small that she could not have supported thicker plates. On a larger vessel the armor might be increased.
THE LOUNGER.
THE ROTHSCHILDS AND THE UNION.
ON the 28th February an article upon "Antipathy of Race and Religion" appeared in these columns, and allusion was made to the Madrid house of the bankers Rothschild. In reference to that article we have received the following note from W. W. Murphy, Esq., Consul-General of the United States at Frankfort, Germany:
"CONSULATE-GENERAL OF THE U. S. A.,
FRANKFORT-ON-THE-MAIN, March 16, 1863.
"In your paper, Harper's Weekly, of February 28, you do a great injustice to the eminent firm of Rothschilds here, when you hint that they are like a certain Rabbi who held opinions that some men were born to be slaves. I know not what the other firms—and there are many of the Rothschilds, all related—in Europe think of slavery, but here the firm of M. A. Von Rothschild & Son are opposed to slavery and in favor of Union. A converted Jew, Erlanger, has taken the rebel loan of £3,000,000, and lives in this city; and Baron Rothschild informed me that all Germany condemned this act of lending money to establish a slaveholding government, and that so great was public opinion against it that Erlanger & Co. dare not offer it on the Frankfort bourse. I further know that the Jews rejoice to think that none of their sect would be guilty of loaning money for the purpose above named; but it was left, they say, for apostate Jews to do it.
"I hope you will correct the statement you made about this firm. Yours truly,
"W. W. MURPHY."
THE PRESIDENT AND THE REPORT.
THE Report of the Committee upon the conduct of the war will be variously interpreted. But no thoughtful man will deny its emphatic testimony to the sagacity of the President. Clear common-sense in the conduct of all affairs, civil and military, is invaluable, and that the President unquestionably has. His mildness and forbearance are no less conspicuous. And it is impossible not to smile when you read the asseverations of patriotic orators of the Copperhead class about the fearful despotism under which we are suffering, and think of the patient waiting upon public opinion of President Lincoln.
Last summer when a friend, who knew and mentioned to the Lounger many of the facts in the report, was asked why the President, having lost confidence in McClellan, did not remove him, he answered rather tartly, "It is not the President's way." Fortunately it is not. This is a people's war. It can prosper only as the people support it. When public opinion fails to justify and continue it, then the nation will be conquered and the Government destroyed. From the beginning, therefore, the President has sought to conduct it in accordance with the public sentiment. He has not moved faster than the general opinion. He has seemed, indeed, to many to lag and linger behind it. The reasons for his course will be clearly enough stated in any proper history of the times, for they are very readily perceived. It may not have been the best conceivable way, but it was the only practicable way.
It is plain, therefore, that while a great political party was interested in McClellan as a possible instrument for future purposes—which was a notorious fact—and while many of all parties were of opinion that be should be allowed a trial of his capacity upon so large a scale and so broad a theatre that every body could see and be satisfied, it would have been extremely unwise in the President to have removed him until the results of the campaign had caused the country to share his convictions. So after Pope's disastrous campaign the temporary appointment of McClellan to the command of the army at Washington was doubtless the best thing practicable under the circumstances; from which the popularity of that General with the army and other Generals was plainly manifest.
In the case of General Burnside, his own frank and generous statement that there was hardly a general officer in his command who approved of his active campaign beyond the Rappahannock,
after the battle of Fredericksburg, was sufficient reason for the President to decline to consent to the movement without consultation. But in the matter of Burnside's General Order No. 8, which he considered essential to the discipline of his army, the President said that the General was right, but he wanted time to advise. Finally, he declined to confirm the order, but refused General Burnside's resignation, and relieved him of his command. It is perfectly clear that this noble and brave soldier, whom the hearts of his countrymen follow and bless, was caballed out of his command. It was clearly unwise to maintain him at the head of an army of which the general officers did not confide in his ability, or who were too deeply devoted to another to be just to him. But there is little doubt that the American people and history will differ in opinion from the general officers. No man's record in this war is more loyal, more able, more soldierly, more manly and spotless than General Burnside's.
The importance of the report as a part of the history of the war is incalculable. It deserves to be printed in a legible type, an honor which it has not yet achieved.
THE ARCHBISHOP ON THE CONSCRIPTION.
A COPPERHEAD newspaper at the West having declared that Archbishop Hughes favored the new Conscription law and "all the other outrageous acts of the Administration"— adds "Well, who cares? The Right Reverend Archbishop in the Church is good authority, but in politics he is of no more consequence than the humblest citizen. All his predictions and assertions about the war, so far, have been just as far from being fulfilled or sustained by subsequent events as those of the merest country bumpkin."
Thereupon the Archbishop writes to say that he has never had any political course except to fulfill the duties and obligations of a good and loyal citizen as implied in the spirit and letter of his oath of allegiance to the United States Government. He adds: "The Archbishop thinks that if a law of Conscription had been adopted twenty months ago in the North as it had been in the South, the results would be of more humane consequences to both sections than they are to-day."
The Archbishop is evidently of opinion that when the authority of a Government has been wantonly defied by armed rebellion, although up to that moment some kind of conciliation may have been possible, yet from that moment it must be assumed that every citizen is willing to defend civil order at any cost to himself. He shows his wisdom by taking so perfectly common-sensible a view.
GASCONADE.
WE have been two years at war. We have all been alternately laughing and swearing at the publicity given to military intentions and movements, and we are as childish as ever in doing the same thing. For many months an attack upon Charleston has been projected. Fleets and soldiers have been collecting. That the task was very arduous, every one knew. That the result was doubtful, every body saw. That the newspapers would agree, this time, to say nothing until they had something to say, we fondly believed.
But from the moment the expedition was known to have sailed it seemed to be a necessity to say that we had taken Charleston, that the rebels had very bad news, that the flag would fly again over Sumter upon the anniversary of its disgrace, that General Hunter and Admiral Dupont were in possession, that the back-bone of the rebellion had snapped again. It was telegraphed from Washington. It was surmised in well-informed circles. It was inferred from the want of a flag of truce.
It was reasonable from our preparations. It was, etc., etc., etc.
But ever since General Banks went up the Chowan or Rowan River, in North Carolina, with forty thousand men, and landed to co-operate with Burnside by falling upon Richmond from the rear, and ever since the Chowan or Rowan River turned out to be a prolonged mud puddle, and General Banks did not stop until he reached New Orleans, there has been a salutary distrust of startling information from our expeditions. When, therefore, we read in the morning's paper that we have probably taken Charleston, we are all very sure that we shall see in the first evening edition that the capture of Charleston is not confirmed. Why, thief, should the papers print what can not be believed, yet what can not fail to create an excitement? The editors know, and we all know, that it is not true. Ought we to wonder that every other nation sneers at our childish bravado and fierce gesticulation, unaccompanied by hard knocks?
Meanwhile, of course, let us hope that long before these lines are read Charleston may be ours. But we must remember that for a year the rebels have been engaged in strengthening the position by sea and land. And if you give an enemy time enough he can make almost any place impregnable. A year ago it was different. The Lounger has in his possession a letter written from Charleston upon the 18th of April, 1862, by "Yours sincerely, W. A. Hammond," to "Brig.-Genl. S. R. Anderson, comdg. So. Carolina Volunteers" in Virginia. Mr. Hammond says: "We have every thing prepared so that we can destroy our property (although I doubt the policy of it) on the first appearance of the Federal fleet."
Since that time the Lounger has seen other letters speaking of the constant passage of negroes from the back-country toward Charleston to work upon the fortifications. Thus the works from which fire and death are to be belched upon our brothers, sons, and friends are built under the lash and pistols of overseers to secure the perpetuity and ascendency of slavery. The capture of the city will be no easy task. It is a point of honor with the rebels to defend it. But Charleston is doomed as surely as Babylon. If we recoil now, it is that we may return irresistibly.
APRIL 25, 1863.]
HARPER'S WEEKLY.
259
FIDELIO.
IT was a severe test for Johannsen, the German Prima Donna, to appear upon the very stage on which Medori is achieving her triumphs. But her performance of Fidelio at the Academy was admirable and effective. There could hardly be a wider difference than that of the music of Norma or Ione and Fidelio. The Titanic passion and grandeur of Beethoven contrasts with the elegiac tenderness of Bellini, like a thunder-cloud with the soft cirrus vapors of a June evening; and it is some time before the mind and ear that have been listening to the graceful, facile melody of the Italian can adapt themselves to the rich and combined measures of the German.
Nor is it easy to comprehend at once the music of Fidelio. It lacks the melodies which hand-organs seize and boys whistle in the street. The voices are treated like instruments. The effect is not produced by airs which are accompanied by the orchestra, but by the combination of each, so that you applaud as if you heard a symphony. Yet the profound feeling and power of the Fidelio music are such that you must hear and hear again before its full force and significance are perceived. Johannsen is no longer young, nor has she any special prestige with the public, but her thorough comprehension of the character, her mastery of the music, and her conscientious and skillful singing, must persuade every hearer that no injustice is done to the great work.
That Beethoven had not the talent which is called "lyrical" is as true as that Milton had not dramatic genius. The symphony is the natural form of his musical expression, and the music of Fidelio has all the characteristics of such a work. But it is not rash to say that, while this is generally true, there is no scene in any opera superior as a musical drama to the prison act in Fidelio.
Every sincere lover of music will be grateful to Mr. Anchutz and Madame Johannsen for the ample hearing they have given the public of a great work so seldom heard.
KINGLAKE'S CRIMEAN WAR.
No reader will fail to ponder the "History of the Crimean War," by Kinglake, of which the two published volumes have just been issued in one by the Harpers. A taste of its quality was furnished in the April number of the Magazine by the publication of part of the historian's estimate of Louis Napoleon, which has produced so great an impression in Europe, and which recent circumstances have invested with peculiar interest in America. The work is hailed as a remarkable contribution to historical literature. The brilliant pictorial power of the author of "Eothen" is displayed with great effect upon its pages, and we shall return to its consideration when it shall have become familiar to our readers.
A GRECO-AMERICAN CITIZEN.
A YOUNG man now in Alexandria, Egypt, who signs himself a Citizen of the United States of America, and who is a subscriber to the Weekly, writes a letter of ardent sympathy with the national cause, "I was born in Greece," he says. "I am fellow-countryman with Themistocles, Leonidas, Miltiades, and many others; and fellow-citizen with Washington, Adams, Jefferson (but not with the ruffian Jefferson Davis, President of the Rebellion), Franklin, Fulton," etc. He adds that his father was educated in America, at "the Mount Pleasant, from 1822 to 1836, and in several other universities ....and he is now at Athens, because he was one of the commanders of the revolution. But both he and myself are citizens of the noble freedom's land."
Addressing his letter to the Editor of Harper's Weekly, Mr. Alexander C. Evangelides writes as follows:
"Every one who is a well-wisher for the prosperity of our country desires to hear that the Federal arms obtain the honor, of victory, and that the legions of the rebels are daily yielding before the star-spangled immortal banner of the Union. Since it is accompanied by justice, the frequent successes of the arms of the Union, it is to be hoped, very soon will establish peace.
"It greatly distresses me, dear Sir, to see that these persons, being our own countrymen, should be in the wrong. They too are also brave—for Americans they could not be otherwise. As often as I read the narrations of our battles, which so marvelously your elegant pen describes, I see that every soldier is a hero, and I envy the fate of those who fall in the field of honor crowned with the laurel.
"O! that the heroism of our brothers, that is so sacrificed now on the altar of civil war, and the great sums of money spent, serve shortly for the benefit of humanity; and may we soon see the stars and stripes waving over the whole continent of America!
"I am convinced that the destiny of America is to defend the liberties of all nations by the propagation of Christianity. All the world owe to pray for the happiness of that glorious land!—the land beneath whose brilliant sky were born those illustrious men who rendered their own country glorious, and enrich the rest of the other world by their wisdom—whose names are high above, adorning the heavens of America.
"Such prayers we here address to God, we who are far away from our dear country, living in the midst of nations who are still under slavery and barbarism.
"In Alexandria are many friends of America, and their sympathies are all in favor of the Federals. As a proof of it, is that Mr. 'William S. Thayer' is incomparably more beloved and more respected than his predecessor, both for his own personal worth as well his being a strict Federalist. So that we, the few Americans who reside in Alexandria, account ourselves happy having such a representative of our noble freedom's land.
"ALEXANDRIA OF EGYPT, March 2, 1863."
PORTLAND BALL FOR THE SOLDIERS.
THE managers of a Grand Bal Masque in Portland, for the benefit of sick and wounded soldiers, have honored the Lounger with a card of invitation. He acknowledges it with pleasure, as another indication of the interest which unites all loyal American citizens in the prosecution of the war and in care for the soldiers who are fighting it. Among them, as he has reason to know, there is but one feeling and one resolution—that the
country ought to conquer, and that it shall conquer. If it was right to begin the war, of which they have no doubt, it is right to continue it and to end it for the purpose for which it was undertaken; and whatever resists that consummation must be swept away. This is an old faith, and a very simple logic. But the faith is ineradicable, and the logic irresistible.
The Portland ball is over; but we will hope sincerely that its results will relieve, in many a worthy case, the consequences of balls of a very different kind.
LITERARY.
THE charming story of Mrs. Gaskell's which has been appearing in the Weekly for some time past, called 'A Dark Night's Wok," is just issued by the Harpers in a very legible and agreeable form. The lovers of "Sylvia's Lovers" will recognize the same earnest tone, the some vital interest, which mark all the stories of the friend and biographer of Charlotte Bronte.
A capital illustrated book for boys is Edgar's "Sea Kings and Naval Heroes," issued by the same house. It tells in the liveliest and most entertaining way the stories of Rollo, Sir Francis Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh, Admiral Blake, Prince Rupert, Rodney, Nelson, Collingwood, and many more; and at this time when every American boy is familiar by everyday hearing with the honored names of other heroes, Dupont, Farragut, Porter, Worden, and the rest, this little book has a peculiar interest. There are very few boys who will read with dry eyes Nelson's story ending with the words that have an almost unparalleled pathos: "Now kiss me, Hardy."
The Country Parson has written another of his chatty, pleasant books, the "Every Day Philosopher," published by Ticknor & Co., who also issue a very neat library edition of John Stuart Mill's "Essay on Liberty." It is a masterly treatise, which every one must read who would know the views of so noble a thinker. His "Representative Government," published by the Harpers, is a later work of especial interest to us. His suggestions upon the representation of minorities will not escape attention as a forward movement in the Republican system.
Carleton believes in books that will create a "sensation." Of this kind is Mrs. Edwin James's "Wanderings of a Beauty," which owes its success to the name of the author, and to certain personal portraitures. He also publishes the second series of Orpheus C. Kerr's "Sketches," which, if as good as the first, are very ludicrous. The "Prisoner of State" is a book which it is a pity any loyal man should have published, because no loyal man could have written. It is intended to show under what a deplorable despotism we are living, and succeeds in proving that no great nation at war was ever so magnanimously tolerant of traitors, rebels, and pernicious citizens, as this. It is a book without interest, without talent, with nothing noticeable but feeble spite. "If I can't whip you, I can make mouths at your sister," is the spirit of this performance.
THE HALF-WAY ROCK.
WHEN I was a little child
(It seemeth long ago)
Our school-horse stood from father's
A half a mile or so.
It seemed a long, long journey
For little ones to take;
The burning sun above me,
And pebbles 'neath my feet.
But well do I remember
A large old granite rock,
Dividing that long distance,
Beside a sparkling brook.
"The half-way rock" we called it,
And seldom passed it by;
'Twas wide enough to found a house,
And taller some than I.
I loved to climb the lowest side,
To hear the waters rush,
And see the fishes playful glide
Below the alder-bush.
And after the long summer hours,
When tired of books and fun,
Oh, how I longed to reach that spot,
And think 'twas half-way home!
I'm older now than I was then—
Can scarcely stop to rest,
Yet full half-way the path of life
My weary feet have press'd.
"Threescore and ten the years of man,"
And am I half-way home?
My soul! hast found a Rock of rest
As wearily ye roam?
Ah! I have found the Living Rock
A shelter from the heat,
A covert from earth's wildest storms
That on me fiercely beat.
And I love that pleasant symbol
That broad old granite rock,
That stands half-way from father's
Beside a sparkling brook.
HUMORS OF THE DAY.
AN Irishman on board a vessel, when she was on the point of foundering, being desired to come on deck, as she was going down, replied, that he had no wish to go on deck to "see himself drowned."
A TENANT WANTED.—To let, with immediate possession, a ten-roomed house, situated in the vicinity of some pyrotechnic mills. The house has been entirely rebuilt and beautifully decorated Since the last explosion, when the tenant was ejected without notice.
A young lady, who affected toward matrimony, wrote on a pane of glass some verses expressive of her determination never to enter into the holy state. A gentleman, who doubted the lady's resolve, wrote underneath:
"The fair whose vow these scratchy lines betoken,
Wrote them on glass—she knew it would be broken!"
A merchant at Berlin, having failed to obtain the hand of an opera singer, purchased two dresses and sent them to her to make her choice, saying he would call to know her decision. Shortly, however, before the hour when he had intended to set out on this errand, the merchant received from his beloved a billet-doux to the following effect: "Of the dresses you have sent I like one quite as well as the other. I will, in fact, keep both, so that you have no need to call at all!"
"You see, grandmamma, we perforate an aperture in the apex, and a corresponding aperture in the base; and by applying the egg to the lips, and forcibly inhaling the breath, the shell is entirely discharged of its contents." "Bless my soul," cried the old lady, "what wonderful improvements they do make! Now, in my younger days, we just made a hole in each end and sucked."
The orator who carried away his audience is affectionately and humanely requested to bring it back."
"Why, Sambo, how black you are!" said a gentleman, the other day, to a negro waiter at a hotel: "how in the world did you get so blacks?" "Why, look a-here, massa, the reason am dis—de day dis chile was born there was as eclipse."
Marriage must be favorable to longevity; an old maid never lives to be more than thirty.
In the reign of Henry VIII. there was struck a small silver coin, of little value, called a dandy prat, "which," observes Bishop Fleetwood, "was the origin of the term dandy, applied to worthless and contemptible persons."
A VULGAR ERROR CORRECTED.—The absurd story about the Phenix grew out of the fact that Phenixes always roosted in ash-trees, and hence when they took wing they were said to "rise from their ashes."
"Well, if this ain't mean! Here's this feller been goin' about with this here yeller chain, and when I pulls it out —there's no watch on the end of it. The conduct o' these here flashy clerks is enough to break the heart of a poor fellow like me, as has to depend on his trade tor a livin'."
Nosey.—A musician, whose nose had become distinctly colored with the red wine he was wont to imbibe, said to his little son one day at table, "You must eat bread, boy; bread makes your cheeks red." The little fellow replied, "Father, what lots of bread you must have snuffed up!"
"I say, Higgins," said a fellow to that aspiring but as yet unappreciated tragedian, "I met a rich old gentleman in the city, who declared he would give a hundred pounds to see you perform 'Hamlet.'" "You don't say so?" "Fact, I assure you; and, what's more, I'm positively sure the old chap meant it." "By Jove, then, it's a bargain!" Higgins cried; "I'll play it for my benefit. But who is he?" "Ah! to be sure, I didn't tell you. Well, he's a blind man." Higgins never spoke to the wretch again.
When at sea you look out for breakers; but on a railroad the breakers look out for you
A lady well advanced in maidenhood at her marriage requested the choir to sing the hymn commencing,
"This is the way I long have sought,
And mourned because I found it not."
Why is a cow's tail like a swan's bosom?—Because it grows down.
The following witty and satirical epitaph was proposed to be placed in Bath Cathedral:
"These walls, adorned with monumental bust,
Show how Bath wraters serve to lay the dust."
Why are railways like laundresses?—Because they have ironed all the country, and have occasionally done a little mangling.
A merchant who died suddenly left in his desk a letter written to one of his correspondents. His clerk, a son of Erin, seeing it necessary to send the letter, wrote at the bottom: "Since writing the above I have died."
A female begging impostor, importuning a gentleman to give her a "copper," the benevolent gentleman said she should have one, if she would only leave off begging and take in washing.
A country doctor announces that he has changed his residence to the neighborhood of the church-yard, which he hopes may prove a great convenience to his numerous patients.
In the olden times divines argued on "How many angels can dance on the point of a needle?" An interesting inquiry of a similar nature would be, "How many lawyers can stand on a point of law?"
A dancer once said to a Spartan, "You can not stand on one leg so long as I can." "Perhaps not," said the Spartan, "but any goose can."
An old toper, who had attended the Polytechnic, where the learned professor caused several explosions to take place from gases produced from water, said, "You don't catch me putting much water in my liquor after this. I had no idea before that water was so dangerous, though I never liked to take much of it."
The man who undertook to walk against time has given up, but time is still going ahead.
What net is the most "likely to catch a handsome but vain woman?—A coro-net.
Those who court disgrace are sure not to be jilted.
DO YOU GIVE IT UP?
What ladies with a grace may feign,
And when you dust looks well again;
What many a man who has a wife
Submits to for a quiet life.
Any thing.
Why should people who wish to live a peaceable life never go to small evening dancing parties?
Because hops produce great bitterness.
If Cupid insists upon coming to a lady's door, how would she like him to come?
With a ring, but not without a rap.
Found long ago, yet made to-day,
I'm most in use when people sleep,
What few would with to give away,
Nor any one desire to keep.
Bed.
Why is a man who carries a watch invariably too late for his appointments?
Because he is always behind time.
Where did Charles the First's executioner dine, and what did he take?
He took a chop at the King's Head.
DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE.
FOR an account of the attack on Charleston see page 269.
AFFAIRS AT VICKSBURG.
We learn from the Richmond papers that the Union forces are being withdrawn from the peninsula, at Vicksburg, that four transports have gone up the river filled with our troops, and that the levee has been cut through by our forces and the water turned into our old camping ground. A dispatch from Jackson, Mississippi, says that Admiral Farragut is still above Port Hudson with three vessels. The Government stores of the rebels at Bayou Sara have been destroyed by the flag-ship Hartford. The same authority says that the "lower fleet"—part of Banks's expedition we presume—has opened fire upon the batteries, but that they were out of range. The Petersburg Express of the 8th indicates that some terrible preparations are being made by the rebels to destroy Farragut's ships, the Hartford and Albatross.
THE "SWITZERLAND" REPAIRED.
The ram Switzerland has been repaired of the injuries she received in passing the rebel batteries at Vicksburg, and has been sent up the Red River.
CAPTURE OF RICHMOND.
General McClernand took possession of the little town of Richmond, Mississippi, on the 30th ult., with a small force, driving the rebel cavalry from the place after two hours' sharp fighting.
DEFEAT OF VAN DORN.
We have an official account of the defeat of the rebel Van Dorn at Franklin, Tennessee, by General Granger's forces. The rebels numbered 15,000, and lost three hundred in killed and wounded. Our lots was only one hundred. General Stanley made a magnificent charge with his cavalry, capturing a battery and several prisoners, whom, however, he was unable to hold, owing to the nature of the country.
SITUATION OF GENERAL FOSTER.
The reports front General Fosters expedition to Washington, North Carolina, are not favorable. He appears to be completely hemmed in by the enemy, and all efforts to reinforce him from Newbern have, so far, been unsuccessful. The repulse of our fleet by the batteries on Pamlico River, and the grounding of the Miami on the Swash while proceeding to Washington, rendered the arrival of assistance impossible for the time. It seems evident from all the movements of the rebel forces that the destruction of General Foster's expedition is resolved upon. News from Richmond indicate that a vast concentration of rebel forces has taken place between Petersburg and Suffolk, while the bold movements of Generals Hill and Longstreet, in threatening the latter place, points unquestionably to a settled intention on the part of the rebels to prevent reinforcements from reaching General Foster.
REBEL ADVANCE ON SUFFOLK.
Letters from the Blackwater give an account of the rebel advance upon Suffolk, the capture of several of our outposts, and the flight of the women and children. The object of this attack it to prevent reinforcements from reaching General Foster in his perilous position at Washington, N. C., and to cut off our forces at Suffolk from communication with Norfolk, which latter place, no doubt, the rebels intend to invest. Intelligence reached Fortress Monroe on the 13th that the enemy had retreated four miles from Suffolk, and that the gun-boats sent to Foster's assistance had succeeded in running the rebel batteries.
ANOTHER STEAMER LOST.
The armed transport George Washington was destroyed by the rebels in Coosaw River, near Port Royal, on 8th inst. She remained behind for special service under Colonel Hawley, who was acting as post commandant at Hilton Head while the forces were away. General Saxton, who was in command at Beaufort, sent for the Washington to make a reconnoissance around the island. In company with the gun-boat Hale she went up the Coosaw River, was attacked by a rebel battery, which sent a shot through her magazine and blew her up. The crew were fired upon while attempting to escape, and several of them killed and wounded.
BREAD RIOTS AT THE SOUTH.
There have already been five bread riots in the South, all of which were instigated and participated in principally by famishing women, who were goaded on by the cries of their children for food, while husbands and fathers were in the rebel ranks. The first of these took place on the 16th ult. at Atlanta, Georgia, where all entreaties could not deter the it omen from their riotous intentions until their demands were satisfied. The next occurred at Salisbury, North Carolina, on the 18th ult., where the rioters armed themselves, and by force succeeded in accomplishing their purpose. The third was in the city of Richmond, where the operations of the mob were not fully made public, owing to a combined understanding among the Richmond paper, to suppress the details. The fourth took place at Raleigh, North Carolina; and the fifth at Petersburg, Virginia.
FOREIGN NEWS.
ENGLAND.
LORD PALMERSTON'S VIEWS
LORD PALMERSTON, who has just been installed as Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow, delivered two speeches in that city—one to the students and the other to an assemblage made up for the most part of working-men. He alluded briefly to the American war, and defended the policy of the English Cabinet in maintaining what he continues to term a strict neutrality toward the belligerents. He said that some Englishmen supported the cause of the North, others that of the South; but "it was not fitting or becoming that the British nation, as a nation, should take part in that contest," although the contending parties "sued them like rivals who sue a fair damsel" to do so.
THE SEIZURE OF THE "PETERHOFF."
The report of the seizure of the British steamship Peterhoff, by order of Admiral Wilkes, United States Navy, produced an excitement in England second in intensity only to that caused by the news of the overhauling of the Trent. A remonstrance had been addressed to Earl Russel on the subject. He stated that the matter had been referred to the law officers of the crown for immediate consideration. On the Stock Exchange, on the 27th of March, the markets closed under considerable depression, owing to reports of coming war difficulties with the United States in consequence of the capture of the Peterhoff. In the House of Commons, on the same night, Mr. Layard stated that as soon as the opinion of the crown lawyers was obtained the Government would address such representations as they might think fit to the Government of the United States.
POLAND.
THE REBELLION.
The news from Poland is not favorable to the success of the popular movement. The papers give details of the defeat and surrender of Langiewicz. Although the English press consider the Polish insurrection virtually at an end, yet the Revolutionary Committee appeals to the Polish people to continue the struggle.
LANGIEWICZ.
Langiewiez, the Polish leader, is still confined in the fortress of Cracow. He applied for leave to retire to England, but was refused. The latest reports say that the insurgent chiefs had given up the contest with Russia as hopeless.
THE KING OF GREECE.
The National Assembly of Greece has decreed Prince William George of Denmark King of Greece, under the name of George the First. Prince George is the third child of Prince Christian of Denmark, brother of the Princess of Wales, and nephew of the King of Denmark. He was born on the 24th of December, 1845, and is a cadet in the Danish navy.
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