We have received New York papers of Monday, January 30th. Gold had gone up in two days from 198 to 220, but closed on Saturday at 212 1.2.
The Second mission of Blair to Richmond.
The
Herald has a column of telegraphic "news" about
Blair's second visit to
Richmond.
The correspondent knows nothing of the
Southern "commissioners" being
en route for
Washington; nor, indeed, does he seem to know what he is talking about at all.--The whole account is filled with just such falsehoods as a
Yankee Washington correspondent can invent.
He says:
‘
As I stated a few days ago,
Francis P. Blair, Sr., was sent for to return to
Richmond, and in obedience to that request made his second visit to the capital of the Southern Confederacy.
The message from there asking
Mr. Blair to return stated that he would be met at
Varina, on the
James river, by a flag-of-truce boat, and thus enable him to avoid spending a night in the camp of the army, which he was forced to do on his former journey to
Richmond.
Blair returned, and was met in accordance with the promise.
He arrived at
Richmond, and found it in a perfect hubbub, each faction denouncing the other, and charging each other with trying to betray the
Confederacy and sell out its interests for their own benefit.
They were, in fact, in the midst of alarm, with their jealous feeling aroused to the highest pitch, and to all appearances like a set of rogues quarrelling with each other, as has already been shown by the extracts published from the Richmond papers, although those articles give but a faint idea of the real extent of this feeling.--This was, no doubt, in part, owing to the fall of
Fort Fisher.
’
Blair was received there, by officials of all grades, with the most friendly feeling imaginable, and he found a universal desire for a settlement of the difficulties.
Nor is this all.
Mr. Blair had several interviews with
Jeff. Davis.
During those interviews, several suggestions were made by
Davis, by way of inquiry, as to what the United States Government would do under such and such contingency, after the manner of the inquiry made by the member of the
Cabinet during
Blair's former mission.
During these interviews the condition of the Southern Confederacy, and the dangers that existed, the trials that he (
Davis) was compelled to go through, were all talked over, as well as his desire to take some step to prevent further sacrifice of life and hardships of the people.
At the very time that these interviews were being held, the
Richmond press and the rebel Congress were denouncing
Davis, assailing him in every way possible, and, as he said, watching for every opportunity to pounce upon him and close his career as the
Chief of the
Confederacy.
The interview resulted, after favorable inducements were held out by Southern officials, in
Mr. Davis being afraid to take the responsibility of appointing commissioners to treat upon any other terms than recognition and independence at the present moment.
Davis feared that if he did, his opponents in Congress would seize upon it as a pretext to depose him, and thus place him where he could not carry out what he had initiated.
He was, therefore, unwilling to take the responsibility of entering upon negotiations upon any other basis than independence, unless an armistice of thirty or sixty days was granted on the start.
This, of course,
Mr. Blair informed him would not be acceded to by the United States Government.
Butler at Lowell — a good notice for Grant, the Butcher.
Butler arrived at
Lowell on Saturday, and that evening addressed his "fellow-citizens" at a public hall.
He rehearsed his services to the
United States since the beginning of his infamous career, and tried to clear up the
Wilmington failure by laying the fault on
Farragut.
As for what he did, he would do it over again under the same circumstances.
He said:
‘
He was here on a letter from the
Lieutenant-General to the
President; but no word of
Fort Fisher, no word of
Wilmington, was assigned as the reason for his presence.
What the true reason was, he had not received permission to divulge.
He had been called by some the hero of Big Bethel and
Fort Fisher.
He accepted the honor.
The General then spoke of the explosion of the
Dutch Gap canal.
It did not make, perhaps, so large a hole as the mine at
Petersburg,
but he had not filled it with American dead until it ran blood. He desired to have on his tombstone in that tittle enclosure where his remains would one day be laid, "Here lies the
General who saved the lives of his soldiers at
Fort Fisher and Big Bethel." He had criticised no man, no army man, but he had criticised, somewhat sharply, the froth which is always the accompaniment of lively porter.
General Butler then proceeded to discuss the prospects of the national cause.
He said that he was prepared for more endurance, more strife in the service of the country.
If at any time in the future the country needed his services, it would be freely rendered, as it had been in the past.
Whatever mistakes may have been committed by men at the head of affairs, we should not spare our efforts.
’
Do not, he said, be carried away by any delusive ideas of peace.
The time for peace has not come, and to talk of peace
until the army of Lee is either captured or whipped is vain. See that the
Union armies are kept filled up, that recruiting goes on. Of our ultimate success there could be no doubt.
A lasting peace would be finally established, provided we dealt fairly and justly with all men,
black and
white; but on no other terms.
Do everything you can to sustain the
Government, and the
President at the head of the
Government.
He is honest, patriotic and capable, and he will do all that he can.
General Butler said he would have them, however, as far as possible, by voice and vote, oppose the method of filling up our armies by means of large bounties.
Large bounties did not get the best men, and they were putting a great burden of taxation upon the laboring men, besides being in other respects a measure of questionable utility.
The General next referred to the proposition which he made just after the soldiers of the Army of the James had said to the mob of New York; "Peace, be still." That proposition was one of unconditional pardon to the rebels if they would submit to the laws.
It was objected to that this made no provision for the freedom of the negro.
Why not?
He regarded the emancipation proclamation of
President Lincoln as the law of the land.
If the rebels would not accept that proposition, he proposed, in filling up the
Union armies for a continued contest, to substitute for the large bounties now paid possession of Southern soil, taking it from those who made it a curse to the country instead of the blessing it was intended to be. In conclusion,
General Butler apologized for speaking at such length.
He was ordered to report at
Lowell, and he had now reported in full.
They had a right to know if their welcome was worthily bestowed.
He referred to the apparent prosperity of the people, and said that
General Terry would send them that from
Wilmington which would make all their spindles turn with the hum of industry.
The strength of the Confederate armies.
The
Herald publishes, with a great flourish, what it calls "a complete roster" of the Confederate army, with the names of regiments composing brigades, their commanders, etc. It sums up the strength of the army as follows:
| men. |
| army of Northern Virginia | 74,950 |
| army of Tennessee | 20,000 |
| army of Missouri | 23,000 |
Reserves.
| Garrison of Richmond | 1,000 |
| Garrison of Lynchburg | 1,000 |
| Department of North Carolina | 7,500 |
| Department of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, opposing Sherman | 3,000 |
| Department of Eastern Georgia, opposing Sherman | 11,500 |
| Department of Alabama, Mississippi and Eastern Louisiana | 14,000 |
| District of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona | 5,000 |
| District of West Louisiana | 3,000 |
| Garrison of forts on coast | 5,000 |
| Grand total | 168,950 |
Release of Prisoners held for Retaliation.
The following is an official order issued by
Stanton:
War Department,
Adjutant General's office,
Washington, January 18, 1865.
A proposal having been made by
Robert Ould, on the 22d of August last, to the effect that prisoners of war on each side be released from confinement, close, or in irons, as the case may be, and either placed in the condition of other prisoners or sent to their respective homes for their equivalents, which proposal was duly approved by the
Secretary of War, it is hereby ordered that all Confederate prisoners of war that come within the terms of said accepted proposal be released and sent to
Fort Monroe, there to be detained, subject to the orders of
Lieutenant Colonel John E. Mulford, Agent for the
Exchange of Prisoners, to enable him to carry the proposal into effect.
In executing this order the expression, confinement etc., will be constructed as meaning pricers confined in cells.
By order of the
Secretary of War.
A. ANichols,
Acting Adjut-General.
The Yankees find a re's Nest — Rich "Plot" Revealed.
A correspondent of the New York
Herald, writing from
St. Louis, gets up and furnishes that paper the revelation of a "plot," which will just suit the
Yankee palate.
He says:
‘
Some weeks since the Prov-
Marshal General of this department suspected, from a variety of hints, insin and innuendoes, that the rebel
General E. Kirby Smith has been negotiating with the Emperor Maximilian for transferring nearly the whole of the rebel army west of the
Mississippi river to
Mexico, to fight for the
French.
The same story is now current among the prominent secession of this city and is founded on private communications received larly from the Trans-Mississippi Department of rebeldom.
’
While the country was in expectancy and anxiety concerning the movements of
General Sherman in
Georgia, a rebel courier was captured near Morganzia Louisiana, with a duplicate of an order, signed by.
General Cooper,
Adjutant-General of the
South, ordering
Kirby Smith to immediately transfer twenty thousand men to the command of
Dick Taylor, at
Meridian, Mississippi.
The order was a duplicate, marked "
Duplicate No. 3," and is now on file in the War Department.
The information was kept secret, but was transmitted to headquarters in this city for the guidance of
General Rosecrans.
It was dated
Richmond, November 22. The order was peremptory; but had never been obeyed, and never will be, because the troops under
Kirby Smith were merely enlisted for service west of the
Mississippi — a fact which transpired in the course of a previous attempt on the part of
Jeff. Davis to transfer troops to the relief of
Hood pending the siege of
Atlanta.
[This is the sort of news with which the
Yankee authorities are trying to stimulate the tired people to hold out for one mere campaign.]
The draft to take place in New York city--a punishment for its Presidential vote.
The New York
Herald has a lamentation over the fact that the Lincolnites have determined to live another draft in that city.
It says:
‘
The quota of this city has been increased by the
Provost-Marshal-General.
He has refused to reduce it upon the remonstrances of Supervisor
Blunt; and all that we can do is to enlist all the men possible and stand a draft for the balance.
But, at the same time, we protest against the flagrant and outrageous injustice which has been shown to this city both in the enrollment and apportionment.
For no reason that we can discover, except the fact that the city voted for
McClellan, we have been made to endure four times our fair proportion of the hardships of this conscription, while other and more favored portions of the
State and country profit by our unequal burden.
New York city has done more to sustain the Warthen any half a dozen of the loyal State.
Her men and her money have been it the service of the
Government whenever required.--She will furnish her quota now; but she will not forget those whose unpardonable ignorance or gross favoritism has caused her to be thus imposed upon at this time.
’
Seward determined to have submission.
Any enthusiastic peate monger who thinks the
United States has any idea of giving the
Confederacy any "terms" save abject submission, may read the following with some profit:
‘
At a meeting of the Christian Commission, held on Sunday night in the hall of the House of Representatives, at
Washington, the
President and members of the
Cabinet were present.
Secretary Seward presided, and in his address gave a brief review of the commencement, progress and decline of the rebellion, and said that now "we wait only at the hands of the rebels
for the submission which, however delayed, necessarily follows military defeat and overthrow."
’
The
Herald, alluding to a suggestion which has been made to acknowledge the independence of the
Confederacy if it will assist to drive the
French out of
Mexico, thus disposes of it:
If the rebels seriously imagine that we will let them go in the hope of seizing
Canada and
Mexico, they are very decidedly mistaken, and we must disenchant them.
We would not let them go if they could give us a bond for
Canada and
Mexico, and throw the whole of
South America into the bargain.
There are no possible terms upon which we can acknowledge their independence, and as they have rejected all terms for re-union, according to their own
canard, nothing remains but to fight it out.
Miscellaneous.
New York was agitated on Sunday morning by the report that the city of
Charleston had fallen before
Sherman, and that an arrangement for the immediate attainment of peace had been agreed upon between
Lincoln and
Davis.
A letter from
Nassau, dated January 16th, states that eighteen blockade-runners were taking in cargoes of arms, ammunition, clothing and medicines for
Wilmington.
Eight vessels left there between the 12th and 16th to run the blockade.
One vessel took four 100-pounder Armstrong guns.
There were over two and a half million pounds of bacon stored at
Nassau awaiting a chance to be carried through the blockade.
Much of the bacon is from the
Northern States, sent there to run the blockade.
There were also thirty thousand
Enfield rifles stored in one ware-house, belonging to the rebel Government.
Over one hundred and forty men, nearly all soldiers, were killed by the boiler explosion on board the steamboat
Eclipse, in the
Tennessee river, near
Johnsonville, on last Thursday.
North Carolina has been added to the department of
Sherman, and
Ohio to that of
Thomas.
The
Charlotte,
Blenheim and
Stagg, all blockade runners, have been captured off
Wilmington.
