Washington Items.
The Medical force.
Orders have been issued for the discharge of nearly all the volunteer
medical officers on the first of January.
Only about fifty will be retained.
Naval order.
The
Secretary of the Navy has issued an order forbidding officers of the navy from coming into the District of Columbia, unless they reside within it, without permission from the Department.
The residence of an officer is considered to be the
State of which he is a citizen.
General Land office.
Over five thousand five hundred acres of land were taken up in
Nebraska Territory during the month of November, 1865, the greater portion for homestead actual settlement; and the residue with agricultural college scrip and bounty land warrants.
In addition to which a number of cash sales were made.
Pardoned.
William L. Black, one of the
Panama steamship pirates, sentenced to be hung, and whose sentence was commuted by
General McDowell to imprisonment to ten years, has been pardoned by the
President.
Expedition against the Apaches.
General Carleton, commanding the district of
Mexico, has been ordered to organize an expedition in that Territory and
Arizona against the hostile
Apaches, who have been committing outrages in that section and interfering with mining operations.--
Star.
On Wednesday morning,
Mr. Bradly appeared in the Circuit Court and read his answer to the rule served upon him to show cause why he should not be punished for contempt of court.
He acknowledged that he had "offended against the dignity of a court of justice, the decorum fitting such a place, and the severe majesty of the law," but excused his retort upon the
Judge in calling him "a liar," by saying that the
Judge had first accused him of uttering an untruth. "It was," said
Mr. Bradley, "as if a blow had been aimed at me, which I returned." The
Judge reserved his decision for a future day. While the matter was up, the following conversation occurred, which is creditable to both parties:
Mr. Bradley.--All I state, if the
Court please, I state as if I were under oath.
I would make no sort of difference whether I was or was not sworn as to the truth of anything I might say.
The
Court.--I do not believe it would,
Mr. Bradley.
In the Senate,
Mr. Wade, from the
Committee on Territories, has reported favorably a bill giving the consent of Congress to the annexation of the counties of
Berkeley and
Jefferson, Va., to the
State of West Virginia.
A very appropriate committee for the purpose.
Negro suffrage in the District.
Mr. Morrill, from the
Committee on the District of Columbia, has reported favorably on the bill to regulate the elective franchise in the
District, with certain amendments, including one prescribing ability to read and write as a qualification for voting: a new section imposes a fine of five thousand dollars and imprisonment not exceeding one year for rejecting the vote of any person entitled to exercise the right of suffrage.
General Howard's report states that in
Virginia his subordinate officer's field has been exceedingly difficult, owing particularly to the great impoverishment of the
State from the war, the breaking up of every system of labor, and the peculiarly strong depression of the people at its close.
The aggregate dependents receiving rations in
Virginia at the end of last month was 11.622.
More than half of these dependents are in the first and second districts, including
Norfolk, Princess Anne, and
Prince George counties.
In these counties there were necessarily large accumulations of freedmen during the war. Every effort has been made by the
assistant commissioner to reduce these collections, and the great majority have had an entire or partial support, as the fruit of their own labor during the summer.
Soldiers' wives and families were left behind when the troops were transported from
City Point to
Texas.
As many of these as were willing to go were sent to
Texas at the public expense.
A colony of upwards of a hundred, signifying its wish to go to
Liberia, through a colored agent, was transported from
Lynchburg to
Baltimore, where the Colonization Society took the complete charge.
The last report gives to freedmen's schools, 195 teachers, 11,500 scholars.
The Congressmen are about carrying out the last card in the original programme of the disunion cabal.
It is to go home and agitate the
State Legislatures, that are about to sit, to antagonize the
President by instructions to
Senators and Representatives in Congress.
Mr. Newton,
Commissioner of Agriculture, is preparing to send seeds, &c., to the members elect from the
South.
There is certainly need enough of this policy, whether regarded upon grounds of right, or mercy, or charity.
A delegation of Friends, representing thirteen different States, waited upon the
President yesterday and expressed to him their confidence in his administration and general approval of his policy.
It would hardly be expected, of course, that that sect, if a class may properly be called a sect, which ever counsels peace, could do less than to sustain what shall substitute a peaceful sway for that of the sword.
Senator Sumner emptied his desk to-day of a voluminous budget of memorials, emanating from
Massachusetts, New York,
New Jersey,
Ohio,
Missouri,
Indiana,
Illinois and
Virginia, all in condemnation of the reconstruction policy of the
President, as being in opposition to the spirit and genius of republican institutions, and asking Congress to provide provisional governments for the late rebellious States, and keep the same in a territorial condition to such time as Congress can organize truly republican forms of government, by establishing equal civil rights in all respects.
These petitions were stated by the
Senator to be signed by whites and blacks (mainly "freedmen," and of course those engaged in teaching them, as the instigators).
What Mr. Sumner said of the South.
He dwelt upon the condition of the States recently in rebellion, and read letters from friends of his in the
South informing him that
Wade Hampton and
R. E. Lee were the most popular men in the country to the
Southern people, but that they prefer
Andrew Johnson for
President to
General Lee; that the feeling on the part of the former masters of the freedmen is most vindictive to the colored people of that section, and predicting that in five years they would either be in power or fighting us again. (
Mr. Sumner.--If the former. "God help
New England.") That the attempts on the part of the rebel communities to break down all truly loyal men are even more rabid than when the war was progressing; that protestations of loyalty may be heard upon every side, but when once they attain representation in Congress, and the power, they will pour out the vials of their wrath upon the heads of their opponents; that it is not safe for one to speak his sentiments there, and that there is more hatred towards the
Union men, both
white and
black, than there was one year ago; that the cruelties practiced upon the freedmen are of every conceivable shape, and horrible to contemplate, mentioning instances of whipping and branding by magistrates, and murdering, by outlaws, of the unprotected freedmen of the
South, and stating that there is an utter contempt expressed for the laws of the
Government, and a perfect disregard of all authority throughout all the
Southern States, predicting that unless these cruelties cease, they will goad the freedmen to that point when "patience ceases to be a virtue," and an insurrection will consequently follow.
President Johnson has ordered
Governor Holden to prohibit the sheriffs of
North Carolina from executing the provisions of the revenue law passed by the State Convention, which levies taxes on business transactions as far back as January 1, 1865, when a large portion of the
State was within our military lines, and all business was subjected to military taxes.
These prove nothing but the malignity of the author.
They will not be pressed to a vote; or if so, they will be defeated — provided the
President stands firm.
The first demands the trial, and the second the execution of
Jeff. Davis; which two things are presumed to follow one another inevitably.
The third demands the execution of as many more leading "rebels" as may be necessary to satisfy the requirements of justice; and the fourth wants a few more rebel necks as an expiation for other offences.
