Rebels Hold Albuquerque and Santa Fe

APRIL 19, 1862.]

HARPER'S WEEKLY.

243

(Previous Page) remember that he is probably reading the grossest falsehoods.

The stories that are usually told of the revolt in St. Domingo are of this latter kind. They are the most stupendous and malicious falsehoods. And as the question is one in which we are all practically interested, it is quite worth while for us to know the facts, which are not accessible except to special study, for the reason that the subject is the occasion of such strong partisan views.

After the French Revolution of 1789 began, St. Domingo was convulsed by civil wars between the whites and the mulattoes, in which the slaves, which belonged to both parties, had for a long time no share, and in which the atrocities committed by the whites, and officially recorded, are beyond belief.

At length the slaves, who saw the whites and mulattoes ferociously fighting, the one party for equal rights, the other for exclusive privilege, revolted and rose. The rising was terrible, but it was not the result of emancipation, for they were not freed; it was the consequence of slavery.

During this anarchy upon the island Spain and England began to contest its possession with France. France was in danger of losing it altogether, when the French Commissioners, in August, 1793, liberated the slaves. In the following June the French Convention confirmed the emancipation. Immediately there was method in the action of the blacks and comparative order. Touissant l'Overture at once raised the French standard. The treaty of Basle, in 1795, secured the Spanish part of the island to France. In 1798 Touissant, appointed Commander-in-Chief, drove out the English, recalled the fugitive planters, gave them their old slaves for hired laborers, and the island became once more peaceful, prosperous, and happy, as every state must be where justice is the fundamental law.

In 1802 Napoleon sent a great army to St. Domingo, seized Touissant by treachery, carried him to Europe, where he died in prison among the Jura Mountains, re-established slavery in all the French colonies except St. Domingo, which he wished first to subdue, then to enslave, and in which the "horrors" again broke forth, consequent upon the effort to re-enslave. In 1804, however, the French were finally expelled from the island.

Let it be constantly remembered, then, that "the horrors of St. Domingo" began three years before the slaves were emancipated, and began because they were not liberated. They ceased with freedom, and they revived with the attempt to restore slavery. The truth is precisely the reverse of the common statement. The trouble of insurrection springs from slavery, and not from liberty. This fact is recognized by the laws of all slave communities, which imply that the slaves are natural and probable enemies. In Sparta, long ago, there was a periodical slaughter of the slaves. In all our Slave States to-day the laws respecting colored persons, free or slave, are shocking to humanity but essential to the system.

The point for us all to remember, as men and citizens, is that it is always more dangerous to the public peace to treat men as brutes than as human beings. And although it is perfectly true that, politically speaking, the citizens of one State in this Union have nothing to do with the domestic institutions of the others, yet when those others, instead of confining their institutions to themselves, seek at the point of the sword to impose them upon the nation, the nation, with a commendable and natural regard to its own existence, will certainly take care that henceforth those institutions shall be limited to the States, and that every falsehood told to prevent or perplex that result shall be exposed, and the motives of the utterers of falsehood made plain to the simplest mind.

INFAMY.

THERE are persons whom no temptation should persuade to emerge from the obscurity into which, by the consent of their country, they have recently or long since fallen; persons whose hopeless fate it is to be pilloried in history; since history must name them, and can only name with scorn. They are persons who for no merit, but from the very obscurity of mediocrity, have been raised to high public positions, despised by those whose tools they were, and shunned by those who resisted their bad designs. They stand conspicuous, as a man upon the gallows stands; but they have no love, no respect, no sympathy. No man would be glad to welcome them in his home, nor to call his children by their name. For a few years they may have dazzled the public eye by an inexplicable success; but their career, ended before their lives, deludes no ingenuous youth and allures no noble ambition. Their names become gradually the synonyms of dishonor and contempt. Theirs is a fate so pitiful that whenever they stir obscurity, and remind living men that they are not dead, those men do not willingly mention them, but leave them to the charitable forgetfulness of their contemporaries and the tragical fidelity of history.

HUMORS OF THE DAY.

SOMETHING "IN NUBIBUS."

A SHORT time ago we were distressed to read that Saturn had lost his rings! Whether that steady-going old star had dropped them at one of his periodical Saturnalias, or whether he was obliged to part with them under a temporary financial pressure, our telescopic mind is at a loss to say: but we are sure our readers will rejoice with us at learning that Saturn has got his rings back again. They shine as brilliantly as ever (in fact, many of the diamonds are to the full as big as stars, and sparkle not less lustrously), and from their increased brilliancy we draw the bright reflection that Saturn may probably have only sent his rings to be cleaned; or it may be, since Saturn is the wearer of the belt, and consequently is the Champion of the Celestial Ring, that his love of fair play made him take his rings off, insomuch as he had been challenged to have a round or two with some refractory star, who was out sky-larking. We wish Professor Airey would throw a light on this misty subject, for we are forced to confess that at present it is terribly clouded in obscurity.

SECOND SIGHT. —A pair of spectacles.

A FIGURATIVE POLICEMAN.—A policeman giving evidence at Bow Street against a woman accused of rubbing a pawnbroker, assured the magistrate that, on telling the prisoner the nature of the charge on which he captured her, she "turned away from him and swallowed a bed-tick, a pair of stays, two brass candlesticks, a smoothing-iron, and a bellows!"

MAGISTRATE. "Nonsense! Have you lost your senses?" CONSTABLE. "Your Worship, 'tis the tickets of them, I mane, she swallowed."

The following recipes are said never to fail:

To Destroy Rats.—Catch them, one by one, and flatten their heads in a lemon-squeezer.

To Kill Cockroaches.—Get a pair of heavy boots, then catch your roaches, put them in a barrel, and get in yourself and dance.

To Catch Mice.—On going to bed put crumbs of cheese in your mouth, and lie with it open, and when a mouse's whiskers tickle your mouth, bite.

"This is a grate country," as the poor debtor said when he looked through the bars of his prison.

An exciseman calling at the house of a good-humored landlady at Shrewsbury, she consulted him about some liquor that had been deposited in her cellar without a permit. At the words "without a permit," the exciseman rushed below, and found himself up to the middle in water, which the flooding of the Severn had forced into the cellar.

FRANCE AND MUMBO JUMBO.

Mumbo Jumbo reigns in Rome,

Feared beyond the salt-sea foam,

By his subjects scorned at home:

   They laugh at Mumbo Jumbo.

Mumbo Jumbo governs there,

Guarded in St. Peter's Chair,

Romans France compels to bear

   The yoke of Mumbo Jumbo.

Mumbo Jumbo Frenchmen rules

By the help of priestly tools,

For in France too many fools

   Believe in Mumbo Jumbo.

Mumbo Jumbo frightens France,

Or Napoleon would advance,

And withdraw his countenance

   Away from Mumbo Jumbo.

  Mumbo Jumbo then would flee,

Or in Rome but own a See,

Capital of Italy

   Exempt from Mumbo Jumbo.

Miss Jones says that the reason why she preferred the Sewing Machine that she bought is that the best feller in the world is attached to it.

At a representation of Mozart's "Don Giovanni," a young coxcomb hummed so loud certain airs of the opera as to annoy all his neighbors. An amateur, who sat beside him, unable to bear it any longer, said aloud, "What a fool!" "Do you mean me?" said the troublesome fellow to him. "No, Sir, I complain of Mario, who prevents my hearing you."

Hooke had a recipe of his own to prevent being exposed to the night air. "I was very ill," he said, "some months ago, and my doctor gave me particular orders not to expose myself to it; so I come up every day to Crockford's, or some other place, to dinner, and I make it a rule on no account to go home again till about four or five o'clock in the morning."

"What is the difference, lovey, between export and transport?" "Well, my duckey, if you were aboard of yonder outward-bound craft, you would be exported—I, transported."

Time is money. How willingly would some exchange it for cash!

DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE.

CONGRESS.

ON Tuesday, April 1, in the Senate, a resolution was adopted instructing the Committee on the Conduct of the War to collect evidence in regard to the barbarous treatment of the Union officers and soldiers by the rebels after the battle of Bull Run, and whether the rebels have enlisted Indians in their service. Senator Sumner said it was evident we were in conflict with a people lower in the scale of civilization than ourselves, and he wanted record made for history. The debate on the bill providing for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia was then resumed. Senator Wright spoke in opposition, and Senator Fessenden in favor of the proposition.—In the House, a memorial from the Illinois Constitutional Convention, in favor of the early enlargement of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, was referred to the Military Committee. Mr. Hutchins asked leave to introduce a preamble and resolution setting forth that General Hooker, commanding on the Lower Potomac, had issued an order permitting certain slave-owners of Maryland to enter his camp and search for fugitive slaves, and requesting the Committee on the Conduct of the War to inquire whether such order is not a violation of the Article of War recently passed by Congress, forbidding any officers to return fugitive slaves to their masters. Mr. Wickliffe, of Kentucky, objected to the reception of the resolution, and it was therefore not received. The remainder of the session was devoted to discussing the Tax bill in Committee of the Whole. Mr. Colfax moved to strike out the section levying a tax on advertisements; but the committee refused. The section was, however, modified so as to assess the advertisement tax on the amount received for the same instead of the amount charged, while the tax is reduced from five to three per cent.

On Wednesday, April 2, in the Senate, Senator Latham read the correspondence between the Secretary of State and Ex-President Pierce relative to the treasonable designs of the Knights of the Golden Circle. A resolution was adopted calling on the Secretary of War for information as to what fraudulent drafts had been accepted by Floyd while at the head of the War Department, and what amount is now outstanding. The House resolution in favor of extending pecuniary aid to States desirous of emancipating their slaves was then taken up, and, after a brief discussion, adopted by a vote of 32 to 10. The debate on the bill providing for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia was then resumed, and continued till the adjournment.—In the House, most of the session was spent in Committee of the Whole on the Tax bill, the clauses relative to stamp duties, expresses, and goods entered at custom-houses being under consideration.

On Thursday, April 3, in the Senate, a bill giving twelve months' extra pay to the widow, child, or nearest relative of the officers and seamen of the ships-of-war Cumberland and Congress was passed. Senator Wilson, of Massachusetts, offered a resolution, which lies over, instructing the Military Committee to repel what further legislation is necessary to prevent army officers from aiding the return or having control over fugitive slaves, and to punish them therefor. Senator Davis, of Kentucky, offered a resolution declaring "that the war shall not be prosecuted in any spirit of conquest or subjugation, but to defend the Constitution and preserve the rights of the several Sates unimpaired, and that the United States will prosecute the war until this is secured." This resolution was also laid over. The bill abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia was then taken up. The substitutes of Senators Clark and Dwight were rejected. A substitute, providing for the gradual emancipation of the slaves, with compensation to their owners, and the submission of the question to the people of the District, was also rejected by a vote of ten yeas to twenty-five nays. The original bill coming up, Senator Collamer, of Vermont, offered an amendment that the owners of persons held to service shall put upon file the name and a description of the person liberated by the bill within twenty days after making a claim for payment, or

within such time as the commissioners may limit, under the penalty of forfeiture of the claim, and that the clerks of the Court shall issue certificates of manumission to the persons liberated. The amendment was adopted. Senator Doolittle, of Wisconsin, offered an amendment appropriating $100,000 to aid in the voluntary emigration of the persons liberated by the bill. and other persons of color in the District of Columbia, to Hayti, Liberia, or other country. This was agreed to by a vote of twenty-seven to ten, and the main question being taken, the bill  passed by a vote of twenty-nine yeas to fourteen nays. The announcement of the result was received with applause front the galleries.—In the House, the President was requested, if in his opinion not incompatible with the public interests, to communicate any information which may be received at the Department of State showing the system of revenue or finance now existing in any foreign country. The consideration of the Tax bill was then resumed in Committee of the Whole, the clauses relative to inland insurance, mortgages, stamp duties, the tax on railroad passengers, medicines, and incomes being under consideration. All the sections of the bill have been acted on excepting the two relating to appropriations and allowances and drawbacks.

On Friday, April 4, in the Senate, Senator Hale gave notice of a new rule which he proposed to offer—that during the existing rebellion the majority of the Senate may fix the time when debate on any subject shall cease, and the Senate shall then vote on the question without further discussion. The remainder of the session was devoted to District of Columbia business.—In the House, the consideration of the Tax bill was resumed in Committee of the Whole. An amendment, offered by Mr. Blair, of Missouri, proposing to tax slaves two dollars per head gave rise to an animated discussion; but it was rejected by a vote of 47 to 62. The bill was then reported to the House by the Committee. The amendments were ordered to be printed.

Both Houses adjourned till Monday.

On Monday, April 7, in the Senate, the Chairman of the Military Committee made a report authorizing the transfer of the appropriation for fortifications to the building of iron-clad gun-boats. The bill providing for the confiscation of the property of rebels was taken up, and Senator Trumbull made a long speech in its favor. Senator Harris gave notice that he should offer a substitute for the bill, and made some remarks thereon.—In the House, Mr. White offered a resolution providing for the appointment of a committee of nine members to inquire, and report as early as practicable, whether any plan can be proposed and recommended for the gradual emancipation of all the African slaves, and the extinction of slavery in Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri by the people or local authorities thereof, and whether such an object is expedient and desirable; and that they further inquire and report whether the colonization of such emancipated slaves on this continent or elsewhere is necessarily a concomitant of their freedom, and how and what provision should be made therefor; also, that they inquire how far, and in what way, the Government can and ought equitably to facilitate this object; and that they further be authorized, if in their judgment expedient, to extend their inquiries as to the other slaveholding States, and report thereon. The resolution was adopted by a vote of 67 to 59. A resolution instructing the Ways and Means Committee to report a new Tariff bill was, on motion of Mr. Stevens, laid on the table by a vote of 88 to 35. A bill establishing a uniform bankrupt law was reported by the Judiciary Committee. The Internal Tax bill was then taken up, and 73 sections passed upon by the House.

GENERAL McCLELLAN'S ADVANCE.

General McClellan advanced with his army from Hampton on 4th April in the direction of Yorktown. On 6th he made a careful examination of the rebel works at Yorktown, and found them to be very strong and the approaches difficult. The water batteries at Yorktown and Gloucester have been considerably increased. It is evident that siege trains and mortars will have to be employed before assaulting the place, and although its capture is certain, a siege of two or three days may be necessary. All the important works before Yorktown have been already taken by our troops, and the greatest enthusiasm prevails among them. Supplies are being rapidly received from Shipping Point, which was taken possession of by our army on Sunday. A dispatch from General Wool states that the rebel General Magruder has 30,000 men at Yorktown.

THE BATTLE OF PITTSBURG.

A terrible battle has taken place in the Southwest. A dispatch dated Pittsburg, via Fort Henry, April 9, 3.20 A.M. says:

One of the greatest and bloodiest battles of modern days has just closed, resulting in the complete rout of the enemy, who attacked us at daybreak Sunday morning. The battle lasted without intermission during the entire day and was again renewed on Monday morning, and continued undecided until four o'clock in the afternoon, when the enemy commenced their retreat, and are still flying toward Corinth, pursued by a large force of our cavalry. The slaughter on both sides is immense. We have lost in killed and wounded and missing from eighteen to twenty thousand; that of the enemy is estimated at from thirty-five to forty thousand.

This statement of the loss is probably exaggerated. On Sunday the advantage seems to have been undetermined; but on that evening General Buell arrived with fresh troops, and attacked the enemy at daybreak on Monday 7th. The battle raged fiercely all day. The dispatch above quoted thus describes the victory:

About three o'clock in the afternoon General Grant rode to the left, where the fresh regiments had been ordered, and, finding the rebels wavering, sent a portion of his body guard to the head of each of five regiments, and then ordered a charge across the field, himself leading, as he brandished his sword and waved them on to the crowning victory, while cannon-balls were falling like hail around him.

The men followed with a shout that sounded above the roar and din of the artillery, and the rebels fled in dismay, as from a destroying avalanche, and never made another stand.

General Buell followed the retreating rebels, driving them in splendid style, and by half past five o'clock the whole rebel army was in full retreat to Corinth, with our cavalry in hot pursuit, with what further result is not known, not having returned up to this hour.

We have taken a large amount of their artillery, and also a number of prisoners. We lost a number of our forces (prisoners) yesterday, among whom is General Prentiss. The number of our force taken has not been ascertained yet. It is reported at several hundred. General Prentiss was also reported as being wounded. Among the killed on the rebel side was their General-in-Chief, Albert Sydney Johnston, who was struck by a cannon-ball on the afternoon of Sunday. Of this there is no doubt, as the report is corroborated by several rebel officers taken to-day. It is further reported that General Beauregard had his arm shot off.

THE "MERRIMAC."

The latest intelligence of the position of the Merrimac is that she was still taking in coal at the Norfolk Navy-yard on 5th. It was reported that the renowned Captain Hollins was to take command of her. Other reports say that she will be commanded by Commodore Pegram. She has two new guns on board. She will be accompanied by the Yorktown, Teaser, Jamestown, and four other gun-boats. The correspondent of the Charleston Mercury says of her:

"The Merrimac is new in the dry-dock for repairs. Her iron plates are said to have withstood, with the most complete success, the effects of the terrific cannonading of the enemy, some of the sections only being riven. Her smokestack and ventilators were riddled by the energy's balls so as to give them the appearance, as our informant describes them, of huge nutmeg graters. We are glad to learn from the Norfolk Day-Book that the large gun recently cast in Richmond for the Merrimac has been placed in its position on board of that vessel. It throws a solid shot weighing 360 pounds.

"The shot is of wrought iron, long, and has a steel point. This point is not conical, as in the common rifle cannonball, but shaped like that of the ordinary instrument for punching iron. Recent experiments show this to be a very ugly weapon, even against thick iron plates. The gun for this new projectile, with the two Armstrong guns,

put aboard the Merrimac since she returned from Newport News, gives her one of the most formidable batteries in the world, in addition to her being perfectly shot and shell proof."

GENERAL BANKS DRIVING THE REBELS.

On 1st April General Banks's forces advanced upon the rebels in the neighborhood of Woodstock, drove them through it, they meanwhile fighting as they retreated. The rear-guard of the latter was constantly engaged with the advanced-guard of the former; and during their retreat the rebels set fire to the bridges and succeeded in destroying several of them. At Edenburg they made a stand, but our forces gaining the best of the contest the rebels again retreated.

ISLAND NUMBER TEN.

The rebels at Island No. 10 surrendered on the night of 7th to Commodore Foote, with all the men, guns, and other property at the position.

General Halleck telegraphs as follows:

General Pope has captured three generals, six thousand prisoners of war, one hundred siege-pieces and several field batteries, with immense quantities of small-arms, tents, wagons, and horses. Our victory is complete and overwhelming. We have not lost a single man.

BURNSIDE IN NORTH CAROLINA.

A report reached Fortress Monroe on 5th that the rebels had warned General Burnside to abandon Newbern within six days or take the consequences, and that the General replied that he would soon meet the enemy at Goldsboro' and at Raleigh, and there settle the question of evacuation. The latest from Beaufort states that Fort Macon still holds out, but that formidable preparations are being made by our troops to shell it within a few days, in which event its reduction will become inevitable.

AFFAIRS IN FLORIDA.

Our forces at Jacksonville, Florida, are momentarily expecting an attack from the rebels, consisting of two Mississippi regiments and one of Florida guerrillas, with it troop of horse and a battery of artillery. Brigadier-General Wright, commanding our troops at that place, is confident of being able to sustain himself and protect the town and the inhabitants, the majority of whom are Northern men and loyal citizens. Deserters represent the condition of the rebel forces as desperate, being entirely out of food and relying upon foraging for subsistence.

IN NEW MEXICO.

The news from New Mexico, dated the 18th ult., represents Colonel Canby still shut up at Fort Craig, and Fort Union, the strongest defense on the Western frontier, occupied by a force of fourteen hundred men. The rebels, twenty-four hundred strong, were at Albuquerque, about half-way between Forts Union and Craig. It was reported that the rebel Generals Baylor and Steele were advancing with eighteen hundred Texans on Fort Union. If possible the garrison at the latter fort would attempt to relieve Colonel Canby, and repossess Albuquerque and Santa Fe, now held by the rebels.

AFFAIRS NEAR FORT PULASKI.

Commodore Dupont and Commander Gillis report officially the abandonment by the rebels of the formidable batteries on Skidaway and Green Islands. They succeeded, however, in removing their artillery before leaving the fortifications. The works were taken possession of by our troops. The evacuation of the Thunderbolt fort, which is only five miles from Savannah, would almost indicate that a very strong defense would not be made to the Union advance upon that city. Skidaway battery was situated on the island of the same name, and commanded the approach by the Augustine River. The island is about twelve miles from the city, and was connected with the main bud by' bridges. Fort Pulaski is now surrounded by our forces, and the rebels have offered to evacuate, if allowed to march out with this honors of war. This proposition has been peremptorily refused by General Sherman, who demands an unconditional surrender.

GENERAL FREMONT'S DEPARTMENT.

From Western Virginia we learn that the rebels are retreating before our forces under General Milroy, who has advanced from Cheat Mountain, and now holds Camp Alleghany, lately evacuated by the rebels. The rebels have also fallen back from Monterey and Huntersville, and seem to be moving toward Staunton, where they will have a chance of escape by railroad.

ROUT OF REBELS AT UNION CITY.

On 31st March, Colonel Buford made a descent upon Union City, with the Twenty-seventh and Forty-second Illinois regiments and a part of the Fifteenth Wisconsin, accompanied by a detachment of cavalry and artillery from Hickman, commanded by Colonel Hey, and, after a forced march of thirty miles, fell upon the rebel encampments at seven o'clock in the morning, dispersing the entire force stationed there, under the rebel commanders Clay and King, consisting of both cavalry and infantry. The enemy fled in every direction. Several of them were killed and a number taken prisoners. A large amount of spoils was captured, including 150 wagons, filled with commissary and quarter-master's stores. The rebel force were supposed to number 700 infantry and between 700 and 800 cavalry.

TWO MORE MILITARY DEPARTMENTS.

Two new military departments have been created. The first comprises that portion of Virginia and Maryland lying between the Mountain Department (General Fremont's) and the Blue Ridge, which is to be called the Department of the Shenandoah, to be under command of General Banks. The other is to be designated the Department of the Rappahannock, and will comprise the portion of Virginia east of the Blue Ridge and west of the Potomac and the Fredericksburg and Richmond railroad, including the District of Columbia and the Patuxant. General McDowell is placed in command of this district.

NO MORE TROOPS WANTED.

Orders have been issued by the War Department recalling all officers now on recruiting service to their regiments at once, and notifying all Governors of States that no new enlistments or levies will be received until further orders from the Department, the force now in the field being considered sufficient to put down the rebellion and bring the war to a speedy termination.

ELECTION IN RHODE ISLAND.

Governor Sprague and the present incumbents of the State offices in Rhode Island were re-elected on 2d without opposition. In the Legislature its grand Committee, the Democrats and Constitutional Union Party will have a majority of about 36.

FOREIGN NEWS.

ENGLAND.

RECEPTION OF THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.

THE London journals uniformly sneer at or abuse President Lincoln's emancipation message. The Morning Post treats it as a puerile and vain scheme. It says it can only be accounted for as being the last resource of a Government which feels it is engaged in a struggle which, if continued, must involve it in ruin, and which it would make any sacrifice short of submission to arrest.

THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH.

The United States Minister in London has received a letter from Secretary Seward, advising him to announce to the British Cabinet the approval of our Government of
the project of an Atlantic telegraph to Newfoundland. Lord Palmerston's reception of the deputation from the Atlantic Telegraph Company is regarded as very favorable.

SPAIN.

THE MEXICAN INTERVENTION.

The Spanish Government has ordered General Prim not to treat with the Mexicans till the allied troops are in Mexico City.