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(Previous
Page) the people of the
Confederate
States, each State acting in its sovereign and independent character, in order
to form a permanent federal government," etc., etc., " do ordain and establish
this Constitution for the Confederate States of America."
Here the rebels say exactly what
they mean, and what the people of the United States, who made the Constitution,
neither meant nor said. This instrument is the bond of a league of sovereign
States, or federation. Ours is the act of people residing in several States
creating a nation. Now the war justifies itself, in the rebel mind, upon the
ground that the Union is not a nation, but a federation ; and the deplorably
confused condition of public sentiment at the time the secession movement began
was greatly owing to the loose way in which this nation had been called a
federation or a confederacy. If it were only that, there might be some question
as to the power of the Federal or Confederated Government. If it had, on the
other hand, always been our care to speak of ourselves as a nation, and we had
properly regarded the powers of the Government as national and supreme, we
should have escaped much of that panic of wonder and hesitation during which the
national Government might easily have been overthrown.
The difference between nation and
confederacy is vital. If we had been a federation, undoubtedly Mr. PENDLETON and
his peace party are correct in saying that it is neither lawful nor desirable to
resist secession by force. In that case, also, the word federal properly
describes the Government, and therefore it is used by the rebel organ in the
city of New York, and by all our foreign enemies. But why should generals who
are fighting for the nation against a Confederacy to be created from a part of
the fragments of the nation, and orators who are pleading for it, and editors
who are writing for it, persist in using a word which merely expresses the rebel
theory of our Government, and is in itself a partial palliation of their conduct
? As we are not a confederated group of States but a nation, a rebellion against
the Government must either overthrow it or be utterly over thrown. Since we mean
nation, let us say nation.
THE
SOLDIERS' REST.
EVERY traveler by the New York
and New Haven Railroad has had occasion to observe the total want of a Soldiers'
Rest, or comfortable quarters for the soldiers constantly going and coming by
that route, where they can have a pleasant shelter and simple refreshment.
Especially now when the railroads seem to be pretty much worn out, and when the
connections are seldom made, there are many soldiers daily arriving from the
East and going to Washington, who frequently find themselves with four or five
hours on their hands ; or coming from Washington, homeward bound, ill perhaps,
or wounded, or weak in early convalescence and for all these there is no kind of
adequate provision. The New England rooms are devoted to other purposes, and
there are other institutions which serve other ends.
The subject has enlisted the
sympathy of many who always bear the soldiers in mind, and two or three weeks
since the project of founding such a Rest was discussed among several gentlemen,
who instantly subscribed several hundreds of dollars ; and GEORGE BLISS, Jun.,
45 William Street, temporarily took charge of the subscriptions and publicly
invited more. He has engaged the only suitable place near the station of the New
Haven Road ; and it is hoped that, by the time this little notice is printed, a
responsible committee will assume the care of the whole subject.
Meanwhile, as we understand
subscriptions may be sent to Mr. BLISS.
" The army and navy forever,
And three cheers for the red,
white, and blue."
FROM
AN ENGLISH FRIEND OF
AMERICA.
ONE of the most intelligent and
serviceable and conspicuous of our friends in England, who has yet doubted
whether our Government could re-establish itself without some sacrifice of its
intrinsic character, writes upon hearing of
SHERMAN'S progress and of
Thomas's
victory :
I am beginning to believe in what
until very lately, though I always wished it, I always doubted the feasibility
of restoring the Union Government over the length and breadth of its former
dominions of restoring it, I mean, without danger to constitutional government
and free institutions. The resources which Democracy has developed, both for
military enterprise and civil administration its wonderful power of adaptability
to circumstances, a power even more wonderful, I think, than its tenacity of
purpose and thorough going devotion to an end once fairly resolved on all this
has, I confess, altogether transcended any thing which I had thought of, and
makes me feel how entirely wanting in a true conception of the elements of the
case my speculations have been.
"Let me say, however, that never
was speculator better pleased at seeing his anticipations realized than I am to
hail the disappointment of mine, I think I may even say that every
step toward this consummation has
been for me an occasion of personal exultation.
"I am sure that I need not tell
you that I was exceedingly pleased with those little speeches of the President
which you sent me. [Those to the serenaders just after the election.] They
contain the infallible indications of a great mind. In my enthusiasm for the
President I do not think I should yield even to the most ardent member of the
Union League.
" I have just been reading
GOLDWIN SMITH'S reply to the valedictory address of the Union League. It seems
to me exceedingly good ; in the tone (and this is equally the case with all his
manifestations in the United States that I have seen) I think he has just hit
the mark that was to be desired. I sincerely trust his visit may conduce to that
which is the highest object of the best men in both countries a more charitable
mutual appreciation.
" The Canadian difficulty for the
moment is a cloud on the horizon, but I can not believe that it threatens any
thing serious. Judge COURSAL'S proceedings are flagrantly in error, and are very
possibly dictated by corrupt bias ; but the Canadian Government show every
disposition to apply a drastic remedy, and Mr. LINCOLN had always expressed his
confidence in their good faith."
This is the spirit of a true
patriotism, free from envy, and full of generous appreciation of other nations,
and of the great fact, which becomes more and more a principle of statesman
ship, that it is the true interest of nations to be mutually respecting friends
and not defiant rivals and foes.
MRS.
HUTCHINS.
IN commenting some weeks since
upon the pardon of Mrs. HUTCHINS--a woman of Baltimore who gave a sword or flag
to the rebel raider GILMORE we suggested that it would be satisfactory to know
upon what grounds she was pardoned.
Since our article was published
we learn that the oath has been made public to which Mrs. HUTCHINS freely and
fully subscribed an oath of such a character that she must be a very bad woman
who could take it meaning to perjure herself. It is also urged that her act was
only an expression of the sympathy in which she had been educated, and that five
years in a common jail was a rather severe punishment for merely wishing well to
the rebels.
If that were the extent of her
offense we are fully agreed that it was a very severe penalty, and that it is,
under the circumstances, properly remitted. But how happened she to be so
heavily sentenced for such a misdemeanor?
DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE.
THE
SITUATION.
THE political news of the week is
unimportant. The bill for the relief of our
prisoners by means of retaliation is
still before the Senate. The Amendatory Loan Bill was passed by the House on the
20th. On the 23d a bill passed the House reducing the duty on imported printing
paper to 3 per cent. ad valorem. It is to be hoped that this bill will soon pass
the Senate.
On our first page we give a
detailed account of the capture of Fort Fisher, of which we have engraved
several illustrations, In addition it should be stated that all the remaining
fortifications near the mouth of Cape Fear River have come into the possession
of the navy, increasing the number of guns captured to 162. The loss in the
military division was 119 killed and 535 wounded total loss 654. General Sherman
resumed operations January 14. The Fifteenth and Seventeenth Corps, under
Howard, were sent to Beaufort, and from that point moved out to Pocotaligo, on
the Charleston and Savannah Railroad. This place was evacuated by the enemy, and
our army was thus placed within 30 miles of Branchville and 50 miles of
Charleston.
CONGRESS.
January 18:
In the Senate, there was a long
debate on the case of General Payne, which had no practical result. A bill was
reported from the Military Committee providing for the exercise of retaliation
upon rebel prisoners for cruelties inflicted upon our own in Southern prisons. A
resolution was passed ratifying the notice given by the President to Great
Britain of the termination of the treaty of 1817 limiting the naval force on the
lakes.
In the House, a resolution of
inquest was adopted relative to prisoners now confined in the Old Capitol and
Carroll prisons.
January 19:
In the Senate, resolutions of
thanks to General Terry and Admiral Porter were passed. A bill was passed,
amending the act defining the pay of army officers so that a brevet rank shall
not entitle the holder to any increase of pay.
In the House, the Legislative
Appropriation bill came up. An amendment was passed appropriating in addition to
the $2,000,000 already appropriated $1,777,000 for procuring dies, stamps,
paper, printing, and circulating Treasury notes.
January 20:
The Senate was not in session.
In the House, the Senate's
amendments to the Consular and Diplomatic Appropriation bill were concurred in,
One of these provides for a Minister Extraordinary to the Republic of Mexico.
The Senate bill, changing the place for holding the United States Circuit and
District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia from Richmond to Norfolk,
was passed. The Amendatory Loan bill came up. This bill provides for no
additional loan, but only changes the form of one already authorized from
five-twenties to seven-thirties. The bill was passed, with an amendment
restricting the issue of legal tenders. The Post Office Appropriation bill was
passed. The Secretary of the Navy communicated the following facts relative to
the bursting of Parrott guns at Fort Fisher. Five guns were destroyed on board
the Ticonderoga, Juniata, Mackinaw, Quaker City, and Yantic. Forty-five persons
were killed and wounded. The cause of the explosion was not fully ascertained.
January 23:
In the Senate, a communication
was received from the Secretary of War, showing that the number of credits given
for naval enlistments from April 17, 1861, to February 24, 1864, was 67,687. The
principle was to credit these men to their places of residence.
In the House, a joint resolution
was passed by a vote of 97 to 40, that in lieu of the duty on printing paper,
unsized and used for books and newspapers, now levied by
law, there shall be levied a
three per cent. duty, ad valorem. A resolution of inquiry into the conduct of
Mr. Field, of Louisiana, who had assaulted Mr. Kelley, of Pennsylvania, for
language used in debate, was passed, with an amendment suspending Mr. Field from
any privilege which the House had hitherto extended him until the report of the
Committee should be heard.
January 24:
In the Senate, the resolution
relative to retaliation upon rebel prisoners for the sufferings experienced by
our prisoners at the hands of the rebels was debated at length.
In the House, a good portion of
the session was taken up in the consideration of Mr. Brooks's charges against
General Butler. Mr. Boutwell presented documents completely relieving Butler
from the charge of gold robbery. These documents showed that all General
Butler's transactions in the matter had been above board, and were well known to
the Government.
NEWS
ITEMS.
Brigadier-General William H.
Powell has resigned the command of the Second
Cavalry Division of
Sheridan's
army.
Within the past few days the
Department of the South, under the command of Major-General Foster, has been
extended so as to embrace the States of Georgia, South Carolina, and North
Carolina.
Desertions from
Lee's army
continue to increase in number and frequency, and frequently from fifty to
seventy-five deserters per day are brought here on the City Point boat. They
comprise not only privates but officers disgusted with the service of the played
out Confederacy. Since the 1st of January five hundred and twenty rebel
deserters, all of whom came within the lines of the Army of the Potomac and the
Army of the James, have passed through
Washington.
It is reported that the rebel
Secretary Seddon has resigned.
Secretary Stanton has made the
following promotions, to date from the 15th inst. : Brevet Major-General Alfred
H. Terry to be Major-General; Brigadier-General Adelbert Ames to be Brevet
Major-General ; Brevet Brigadier-General Curtis to be Brigadier-General; Colonel
Louis Bell (dead) to be Brevet Brigadier-General; Colonel Pennybacker, to be
Brevet Brigadier-General ; Colonel Abbot, to be Brevet Brigadier-General.
A force of eight hundred men are
to go from the North to Savannah immediately for the purpose of putting in
running order the railroads centering in that city.
The following promotions have
been made in General Sherman's army:
BREVET MAJOR-GENERALS
(FULL).-William B. Hazen, Fifteenth Corps; J. M. Corse, Fifteenth Corps; Charles
Woods, Fifteenth Corps; J. M. Leggett, Seventeenth Corps; John E. Smith,
Seventeenth Corps; Giles A. Smith, Seventeenth Corps; A. S. Williams, Twentieth
Corps ; John W. Geary, Twentieth Corps; W. F. Barry, Artillery ; --Baird,
Fourteenth Corps; J. H. Kilpatrick, Cavalry.
BRIGADIER-GENERALS
(FULL).—Colonel J. S. Robinson, Eighty - second Ohio, Twentieth Army Corps ;
Colonel Oliver, Fifteenth Army Corps ; Colonel Mitchell, One Hundred and
Thirteenth Ohio, Fourteenth Army Corps; Colonel Potts, Thirty-second Ohio,
Seventeenth Army Corps.
BREVET
BRIGADIER-GENERALS.-Colonel H. A. Barnum, One Hundred and Forty-ninth New York,
Twentieth Army Corps ; Colonel A. Pardee, One Hundred and Forty-seventh New
York, Twentieth Army Corps ; Colonel William Coggeswell, Second Massachusetts,
Twentieth Army Corps; Colonel Ketchum, Fifth Connecticut, Twentieth Army Corps;
Colonel Buell, Fifty-Eighth Indiana, Twentieth Army Corps; Colonel A. Beckwith,
Chief Commissary ; William Woods, Seventy-sixth Ohio, Fifteenth Army Corps.
The ship Sir John Franklin, from
Baltimore to San Francisco, went ashore at Pigeon Point on the night of the 17th
inst. Captain Displeax and eleven seamen were drowned. The prevalence of a dense
fog had prevented the taking of an observation for twenty-four hours.
The Army bill reported from the
Committee of Ways and Means appropriates $511,280,000, of which $200,000,000 is
for pay of volunteers ; subsistence, $93,000,000; quarter-masters' supplies,
$50,000,000; incidentals, $10,000,000; horses, $21,000,000; transportation,
$30,000,000; clothing and camp equipage, $50,000,000; armament of
fortifications, $3,500,000; ordnance stores, $20,000,000 ; armament of the
national army, $3,500,000; gunpowder and lead, $2,500,000. The appropriation
made last year for the army amounted to $60,000,000, including $90,000,000 of
deficiency.
Burleigh, the rebel raider from
Canada, has been recommitted to prison.
FOREIGN NEWS.
ALTHOUGH at our latest foreign
advices the news of the
capture of Savannah and the full extent of
Thomas's
victory had but just reached England, the rebel loan had all ready and before
the reception of the news declined ten per cent., having fallen from 62 to 52.
The news of
President Lincoln's repudiation of General Dix's order allayed the
apprehension which that order had occasioned.
The British war steamer Racehorse
was lost in the China seas in November. Only nine of her crew, including the
commander, were saved. The remainder, 99 in number, were drowned.
The revenue of Great Britain for
the year 1864 was £70,125,374 sterling a decrease of only £308,000 as compared
with 1863, notwithstanding a reduction of several millions sterling in the
taxation of the country during the year.
At the New Year's reception of
the Diplomatic Corps by the Emperor Napoleon the latter, in reply to the
felicitations of the Papal Nuncio, expressed his trust that concord would
continue to reign between them, and said that his relations with foreign Powers
would be ever animated by respect for right and love of peace and justice. M.
More had been received as Embassador from Spain, and the Emperor said to him
that no one could contribute better than M. More to the maintenance of the
intimate relations between France and Spain, to which the Emperor attached the
greatest importance. Napoleon intends to be master of the situation in regard to
all matters of Church as well as of State. On the 1st instant the French
Minister of Justice addressed a circular to the Bishops, announcing that the
Council of State was occupied in reference to the expediency of authorizing the
publication of that part of the Pope's Encyclical Letter which grants a Jubilee.
In regard to the first part of the letter and the appendix he said that the
reception and publication of these documents, which contain propositions
contrary to the principles on which was based the Constitution of the Empire,
could not be authorized. The French clergy were arranging the preliminaries for
addressing a manifesto to the Pope, instructing him as to the unpleasant
consequences of his letter in France. Prince Napoleon had been appointed
Vice-President of the Privy Council.
King Emanuel of Italy, at his New
Year's reception, expressed to the Parliamentary delegation a hope that the
destinies of Italy would soon be accomplished. On a similar occasion the Pope
addressed an allocution to the Sacred College, in which he said that in the
present day robbery was committed under the pretext of nationality; but the
triumph of the Church was certain.
It is said that Spain has made
the following proposition its ultimatum to Peru: The Peruvian authorities shall
disavow all participation in the outrage upon the envoy sent from Spain, and
upon Spanish subjects, and shall take judicial proceedings against the authors
of the violence committees. As soon as the prosecution is commenced Spain,
without awaiting the result, will restore the Chinchas. The Republic shall
subsequently send a plenipotentiary to conclude a treaty of commerce and amity
between the two countries.
The Danish Government proposes to
open the coasting trade of that country to all nations.
The Emperor of Russia has issued
a ukase extending the abolition of serfdom to Transcaucasia, the only province
of the Russian empire where that institution still exists.
INTERESTING ITEMS.
THE CILDHOOD OF JAMES WATT. Watt
was, from his birth, of an extremely delicate constitution, unfitted for taking
part in the common sports of boys, and little prepared for those struggles with
difficulties which afterward marked his career. His mother, who was a woman no
less remarkable for her intelligence than for her personal graces, taught him to
read when scarcely out of his infancy ; and his father, who was a ship's
carpenter and dealer in naval stores in Greenock, added a little writing and
arithmetic. In the latter the child rapidly improved, and he was fond of working
out his sums with a pencil upon scraps of paper, or more commonly with a piece
of chalk upon the floor sometimes his only amusement when the severe headaches
to which he was subject compelled his parents to keep him at home. On one
occasion, when he was bending over a stone hearth with the usual piece of chalk,
a visitor who was present remarked to the father, " The boy ought to be sent to
a public school, and not permitted to idle away his time at home." " Look at
what my child is doing before you blame him," returned the father. The child of
six years of age was endeavoring to solve a problem in geometry. Another time he
was scolded by his aunt Muirhead, while taking tea with the Watts, for his
assumed indolence. "Jemmy," said the worthy lady, solemnly, "I never saw such an
idle boy as you are. Pray take a book and employ yourself usefully; for the last
hour you have not spoken one word, but taken off the lid of that kettle and put
it on again; holding now a cup and now a spoon over the steam, watching how it
rises from the spout, catching and counting the drops it falls into. Are you not
ashamed of spending your time in that way?" The little James playing with the
tea kettle, observes M. Arago, who tells this story, became the mighty engineer
preparing the discoveries which were to immortalize him.
A SALIOR'S LOVE OF FAIR PLAY.—In
a shipyard the other day, a tar from a man-o'-war was observed watching two men
dragging a seven-foot cross-cut saw through a huge oak log. The saw was dull,
the log very tough, and there they see-saw, see-saw; pull, push; push, pull.
Jack studied the matter over a while, until he came to the conclusion that they
were pulling to see who would get the saw ; and as one was an immense big chap
while the other was a little fellow, he decided to see fair play; so, giving the
big one a blow under the ear that capsized him, he jerked the saw out of the
log, and giving it to the small one, he sung out, " Now run, you beggarl"
Swiss PASSENGER CARS.--In
Switzerland nothing can be more convenient than a railway carriage, to which the
traveler gains access by ascending a few steps, leading to a sort of platform or
balcony for smokers. Here a door opens into the interior, fitted up like a
saloon, with a table in the middle, and seats all round ; the passengers,
instead of being cramped by sitting for hours in the same posture, can walk
about, or write, or play at chess or whist, if they please. The seats are made
so as to face opposite points of the compass, and every thing is arranged on the
most comfortable plan, with the only exception that the traveler desirous of
solitude is not alone a questionable comfort, which, as we but too well know, is
fraught with danger.
THE OLD ARM-CHAIR.—A Paris
journal publishes the following strange history of an old Gothic arm-chair,
which was sold a few days since at the public auction-rooms in the Rue Drouot.
The article in question, at first richly ornamented, was presented by the maker
to Maria Theresa, and figured in her boudoir. After the death of the Empress of
Austria, it was sent, in conformity with her desire, to Queen Marie Antoinette
of France, and was subsequently used by Louis XVI. during his imprisonment in
the Temple. After the King's tragical death, Clery, his valet de chambre, became
its owner, and took it to England, where it successively became the property of
the Prince Regent, and afterward of the Duke of Cumberland. The latter took it
with him to Berlin, and there sent it to an upholsterer for repair. The workman
to whom it was intrusted found in the stuffing of the seat a diamond pin, the
portrait of a boy, and several sheets of very closely written manuscript. The
man sold the pin, and gave the portrait and papers to a watchmaker of his
acquaintance. Some years later the watchmaker, whose name was Naundorff,
endeavored to pass himself off as Louis XVII., and produced the papers and
portrait in support of his pretensions. After making some noise in France, and
then in Belgium, where he lost his son, who called himself the Duke of Normandy,
he went to Java in 1853, and died there. The workman who found the portrait and
documents kept his secret till just before his death, when he revealed the whole
to his family. One of his relatives, having ascertained that the chair was still
at Berlin, purchased it, and sold it to a French traveler, who carried it to
Paris, where it ultimately came into the possession of an old woman, the inmate
of an asylum for the aged, lately deceased. It has now been sold by auction with
the rest of her effects.
THE Pope, one day, while talking
with some monsignori about the deplorable condition of the Catholic Church, one
of them said: "Oh, we have nothing to fear, your Holiness, for it is written
that St. Peter's bark shall never he shipwrecked." "Yes," answered the Pope,
"that's all very well for the bark, but how about her crew?"
ABOUT 10,000 pieces of Roman
money, principally of the reigns of Augustus, Tiberius, Claudius, and Nero, have
just been discovered in the bed of the Mayenne, at St. Leonard. Their presence
is explained by the fact of a dangerous ford having formerly existed at the
spot, and the custom of travelers to throw in the river a piece of money ex
veto.
EFFECTS OF CHLOROFORM.—The last
volume of "Transactions" issued by the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Seociety
contains the elaborate report of a committee of the society appointed " to
inquire into the uses and the physiological, therapeutical, and toxical effects
of chloroform, as well as the best mode of administering it and of obviating any
ill consequences resulting from its administration." The report is accompanied
by many details exhibited in a tabular form. The following are the
"Physiological Conclusions:" "Chloroform at first increases the force of the
heart's action; this effect is slight and transient. When complete anaesthesia
is produced by chloroform the heart in all cases acts with less than its natural
force. The strongest doses of chloroform vapor, when admitted freely into the
lungs, destroy animal life by arresting the action of the heart. By moderate
daises of chloroform the heart's action is much weakened for some time before
death ensues; respiration generally, but not invariably, ceases before the
action of the heart, and death is due both to the failure of the heart's action
and to that of the respiratory function. The danger attending the use of
chloroform increases with the degree of stupor it induces. Apparent
irregularities in the action of chloroform mainly depend on the varying strength
of the vapors employed, on the quality of the chloroform, and on the
constitution of the patient." The committee state that the results of 2586
capital operations performed before, and of 1847 performed since, the
introduction of anaesthetics, collected from all authentic available sources,
show that anaesthetics have in no degree increased the rate of mortality.
THE London Court Journal remarks:
The latest novelty, in the way of matrimonial advertisements, is the precision
with which the details are entered into. A lady of Liverpool, for instance, thus
puts forth her catalogue
requirements. After stating that
she is forty, and has two thousand three hundred pounds, she says: "The
gentleman must be forty, not beyond forty-five, tall, of good carriage, have
good teeth and hair, and be most particular in his personal habits, accustomed
to daily immersion."
THE Swedish census, taken
December 31, 1863, is published. The total population of Sweden is 4,022,564,
and there are 105,940 more women than men. The increase of population during the
last quinquennial period has been 1.2 per cent. About three and a half millions
live in the country, and the rest in the towns, Stockholm contaning nearly
350,000 inhabitants. The population of Norway is about 1,500,000, which would
give the united kingdom about five and a half millions of inhabitants.
THERE were just three days'
difference in the age reached by Daniel Webster and Edward Everett at the time
of their respective deaths. The former was seventy years nine mouths and six
days, the latter seventy years nine months and three days old.
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