NOVEMBER 7, 1863.]

HARPER'S WEEKLY.

707

(Previous Page) " 'Very well,' said Madame, proudly, 'I can tell you that Mrs. Burnside, or Mrs. Grant, or Mrs. Foster, or Mrs. Gilmore, could not be at the house of any of our members without hearing what would be extremely disagreeable.'

" 'Yes, Madame. May I offer you a bit of this pate?' "The truth is," said X—, "Mrs. Jefferson Davis would be as much feted in the first Copperhead circles here as in the rebel drawing-rooms of Richmond. But what then? There were Tories in the Revolution. The best wine will have lees."

Colonel Tom told me the last mot of the President, whose good things will be as famous as Talleyrand's. He was anxious to know who was really responsible for the surrender of Harper's Ferry last summer. So he summoned Halleck. The General did not know. "Very well," said the President, "then I will ask General Schenck." That General merely knew that he was not to blame. The President sent for Milroy. Milroy averred that he was not guilty. Hooker was summoned. Fighting Joe hoped it was clear to His Excellency that he had nothing to do with it. "Perfectly clear," said our Uncle Abraham, smiling. So he assembled all the four Generals in his room. "Gentlemen," said he, "Harper's Ferry was surrendered, and none of you, it seems, are responsible. I am very anxious to discover the man who is." He walked up and down the room, while they still sat there. Suddenly he stopped. "I have it," he said. "I know who is responsible." The Generals crowded about the President, each a little suspicious. "Who is it, who is it, Mr. President?" "Gentlemen," replied our uncle, with a twinkle in his eye, "General Lee is the man."

Trimountain is here from Boston, and dined with me yesterday. He says that little Mrs. V— is a tremendous Copperhead, because her husband once lived in New Orleans; and the other day she went to the barber's to have her boy's hair cut. While the barber was busy a gentleman began to abuse the Government, said Trimountain, with the copiousness of an Amasa Parker and the ardor of a Sunset Cox. There was nothing too vile to be attributed to it, and gorilla was too mild a name for the sanguinary and vindictive Lincoln. But, above all things, coercion was the most to be denounced. Who is safe if coercion is to be admitted? What right has this Government to coerce sovereign States?

Little Mrs. V— fairly trembled with delight, and at the first pause in the torrent of talk she stepped forward.

"Excuse me, Sir, I am unknown to you; but my whole heart responds to your most just and generous sentiments. I am glad that some men are still enough men to protest against this infamous despotism. I thank you, Sir, in the name of the gallant and struggling Southrons, whom the Government is wickedly endeavoring to coerce. From my heart I thank you, Sir."

The gentleman bowed, said that he was very happy that they had so true a sympathy, and wished her good-morning. He went out, and the moment the door was closed little Mrs. V— asked, with enthusiasm, for the name of so patriotic a gentleman.

"Why, marm, excuse me, do you remember the man who seduced a woman and half killed her, some years ago, and was sent to the State Prison?"

"Yes."

"Well, marm, this is the chap. He came back yesterday, and he nat'rally goes agin coercion."

Little Mrs. V— did not tell the story, said Trimountain, but the barber did.

LOUIS NAPOLEON'S FRANCE.

BY-AND-BY, when the complications arising from the French conquest of Mexico plainly develop themselves, we shall wonder that we have been so long unwilling to see that our most subtle and dangerous foe from the beginning of our war was Louis Napoleon. We have raged against John Bull as the most jealous and sordid of nominal allies. But how has it been with Emperor Louis?

He began, hand in hand with the British Government, by recognizing equal belligerence between the rebels and the nation. But in our wrath with England, our ancient foe, we overlooked the singular fact that France, our traditional friend, showed exactly the same hostility. Under plea of the recognition, and of her neutrality, and of her municipal law, the British Government shut its eyes and was sick at home, when pirates were built, rigged, armed, and manned in her yards, and sailed from her ports. Let the whole truth be stated. The British Parliament sneered at us; the officers of her Government openly declared themselves against us—for it was nothing less than this when Russell said that we were fighting for dominion, and when Palmerston said that they would not change the law even if it did not save their neutrality, and when Gladstone said that the rebel chief had created a nation—the British Press, with splendid exceptions, stormed at us, the stress of British public opinion declared against us, and the fact that pirate ships sailed under the British flag, and were coaled and victualed at British ports, without remonstrance from the British Government, unquestionably drove American ships from the ocean and ruined that enormous branch of our commercial activity. That is the indictment against England. It is black enough. Clearly the substantial part of her offense is the policy of piracy. But this she has stopped, and by paying arrears of damage the mischief can be soon repaired.

How is it with Louis Napoleon? Beginning with England in recognizing the rebels as belligerents, he signed with England and Spain the treaty of Soledad to secure the payment from Mexico of their common debt. But the moment that his purpose evidently transcended the agreement, and contemplated the conquest of the country, thereby establishing an interest which compelled him to be the active foe of this Government, England withdrew from the treaty. Have we done her justice in the matter? The occupation of Mexico under plea of collecting a debt was a most specious pretense for compelling the result of our war which England was supposed to desire. But she refused, and Louis Napoleon pushed on alone.

But when he landed on Mexican soil he put his foot upon a cardinal and traditional point of the policy of the United States, and he did it because he thought us unable to resist. He subverted a republic, our neighbor. He scornfully flouted our established declaration that we could not, in view of our own interest, see unconcerned a foreign European power forcibly dictating an internal policy to any of our neighbors. He did it counting upon the success of the rebellion to found two rival states upon our late united domain, which would be a

check upon each other, while the weakest, lying next to him, would depend upon his alliance. Mr. Slidell said openly in Paris within six months that the rebels would gladly become colonists of France rather than return to their old allegiance. In Mexico Louis Napoleon still remains. Every day necessarily commits him to a more positive hostility to us, because the success of the rebellion was essential to his plans, and as that prospect fades he is forced upon the alternative of deliberately retiring from Mexico, which is a confession both of infamy and failure, or of lending his aid to secure the success upon which he counts.

The blow Louis Napoleon aims at us is deep and mortal. England, even if she would gladly see us smitten, refuses to strike. Coarse and clumsy John Bull must needs be, and he has never affected to like us. But his offenses in this war can be condoned, if not forgotten. While Louis Napoleon's France, which began to offend with him—which treats the Florida as a ship of war—which receives with confidence and respect the rebel emissary' Slidell, whose confederate, Mason, is kicked out of England by John Bull—which proposed to England to mediate, when mediation meant either humiliation or exasperation to the United States, as England told him, and declined—whose agent in Washington is a notorious sympathizer with the rebels—which, unless belied, is building ships for our enemy—and which, had she had convenient ports, would have coaled and victualed those already loose upon the seas—Louis Napoleon's France, which, counting upon our destruction, has been swift to take steps that require our ruin for their success, is the most dangerous enemy of the United States which the war has revealed.

GENERAL BURNSIDE.

THE very important operations of General Burnside in Eastern Tennessee have hardly received their fair appreciation. Until his late dispatch announcing his march upon the great southwestern rebel line from Lynchburg, and redemption of the whole State, none of his official accounts have been published. What is the reason of this silence? Burnside's movement from the capture of Morgan and his horde, the passage of the Cumberland Gap to his entry into Knoxville, and occupation of Eastern Tennessee, has been triumphant. From the beginning of the war we have all cried, "Why neglect East Tennessee? Why not seize and hold the most loyal part of the rebel section, and a military position of the utmost importance?" And now when it is done by one of the most gallant, heroic, and noble of our Generals, ought we not to take a little more care to weave a laurel wreath for the liberator of East Tennessee?

We have the dispatches of other Generals in full, why not Burnside's? Is it because General Halleck does not like him? And does General Halleck dislike him because Burnside recommended his removal as a military advantage? Does General Halleck remember the story of the pontoons at Fredericksburg?

There is great harm in wanton allusions to disagreeable circumstances. But we must remember that General Burnside has resigned his command more than once, and retained it only in obedience to the express wishes of the President, and, we may add, of the earnest desire of the country. If that resignation was in any degree the result of jealousy in other quarters and consequent injustice, the truth should be known that public opinion may judge the offenders. Meanwhile Burnside's name remains among the most cherished and illustrious of the war. The nobility of the man is well matched by the skill and heroism of the soldier.

A LAST WORD.

ON Tuesday, the 3d of November the people of the State of New York are to decide whether the Empire State shall be the only one of the glorious band of loyal communities to pronounce against the Union and Government, and the war for their preservation. And if any honest voter objects that it is not fair to say so, and insists that the Copperheads are equally zealous with loyal men for the Union and the Government, let him observe this fact, that at the Copperhead Metropolitan Ratification Meeting the motto selected for the inspiration of the speeches and the expression of the sentiment of the audience was, that the question is between the Union and the Administration, not between the Union and the rebellion. That there is a bloody conspiracy against the Government, that it seeks by arms the dissolution of the Union, that to perplex and embarrass the Government in saving the Union is to play into the hands of its enemies, were facts not mentioned by the Copperhead orators who ask our votes for their ticket. But that the success of that ticket is counted upon by Lee and Bragg and Davis as the strongest blow for their cause; that every foreign enemy of this country prays that it may triumph; that every voter who encouraged the riots or took part in them, and every man who wishes to see the Government forced to make terms with armed traitors, will vote for that ticket, is as well known as that Lincoln is honest and Davis a rebel.

You have to answer by your vote not whether you approve every measure of the war, but whether you think the country in more danger from our own Government than from the rebel authorities. If you think the latter, then vote as the rebels want you to vote. If you think our danger is not from ourselves but from our enemies, then vote so that the 3d of November in New York shall be a victory at the polls as significant as the great day of Gettysburg in the field.

WHAT MR. LINDSAY THINKS.

THERE is great harmony of sentiment between our Copperheads and the British friends of the rebels. Even the vagaries of Vallandigham, a quadruple disunionist, find support in England. Mr. W. S. Lindsay, a gentleman who came to this country before the war, to secure a monopoly of a

certain California trade for English ships, and went home again wroth at his failure, informs us that he believes the "old republic" will be cut up not merely into two, but into four distinct States. This is Vallandigham's thunder. That martyr statesman proposed the same plan three or four years ago in Congress.

THE ARRIVAL OF THE COMING MAN.

A DAILY paper says: "He is going to take his stand upon the floor of Congress as an independent, individual statesman. As such he will rule the surging factions around him without joining them or compromising with them. He will bring his splendid powers to bear upon great national questions from new and unexpected points of approach. He will exert his mighty mind to preserve, consolidate, and support the country, and will yield to no ultra isms or pestilent politicians."

Who will? Has Madison returned? Is Jefferson alive? Are Hamilton, or King, or John Quincy Adams to sit in the next House? Have we a Calhoun, a Clay, a Webster among us? Not quite. "This is to be the Hon. Fernando Wood's exalted station in the next Congress."

ARMY AND NAVY ITEMS.

GENERAL SHERMAN and staff have left for the front, and indications of operations are apparent.

General RIPLEY, Chief of the Ordnance Bureau at Washington, has paid the Department a flying visit.

General DODGE has returned from a leave of absence, and resumed command of the left wing of the Sixteenth Army Corps.

General SWEENEY'S command have been sent in pursuit of the rebels from Lagrange.

By order of the War Department, Assistant Surgeon-General WOOD has removed his head-quarters from St. Louis, Missouri, to Louisville, Kentucky.

Generals GRANT and ROSECRANS both arrived at Stevenson, Alabama, on 20th, the one from Nashville, the other from Chattanooga, and were the guests of General HOOKER. Such a military gathering attracted much attention.

Chief-Engineer A. C. STIMERS has been notified by the Secretary of the Navy that the Court of Inquiry in his case have reported "that in their opinion there is no necessity nor propriety of further proceedings."

The Treasury Department has recently sent seven or eight million dollars to the West for the payment of troops. The execution of Dr. WRIGHT, for the murder of Lieutenant SANBORN, took place in Norfolk, Virginia, on 23d. An attempt was made by the culprit to escape by using the dress of his daughter, while admitted to see him.

The Counties of Hancock, Brooke, and Ohio, in West Virginia, have been detached from the Department of the Monongahela, and added to the Department of West Virginia, under Brigadier-General B. F. KELLY.

Rear-Admiral DAHLGREN has thought proper to contradict, in the most authoritative manner, the absurd report that the relations existing between General GILMORE and himself were not of a harmonious character. The report that Captain TURNER has relieved Admiral DAHLGREN is positively denied.

General WILLIAM HAYS, U.S.V., has taken his seat as President of the Court-martial from which Brigadier-General SLOUGH was relieved. Captain H. F. BROWNSON, A.A.G., is detailed as member of the court in place of Captain JOHN E. JEWETT, A.D.C., who is ordered to Memphis for duty on the staff of Brigadier-General LEGGETT, U.S.V.

General MILROY has received leave of absence for twenty days, and has gone to Indiana.

Rear-Admiral PORTER reports the capture, by Acting Chief Engineer Thomas DOUGHTY, of twenty men, and Mr. HOBBS, on the Red River, of two steamers performing important service for the rebels. It being impossible to bring the vessels out into the Mississippi, they were destroyed.

Major-General MEADE was in Washington on 22d, and had a long interview with the President and General HALLECK. He returned to the Army of the Potomac on 23d, rumors of his having been relieved to the contrary notwithstanding.

General TRUSTEE POLK has arrived a prisoner at St. Louis, and will be sent to Johnson's Island.

Colonel M'KELVEY is still in command of the Convalescent Camp in Virginia, and Lieutenant-Colonel DICKINSON has not been appointed to it; and Colonel GREEN is still Chief Provost Marshal of the Department of Washington, and was never in command of the camp aforesaid, and therefore could not have been relieved.

By direction of the President, the Secretary of War has written a letter to Colonel FITZ ROY DE COURCEY, commanding a brigade under General BURNSIDE, complimenting him in the highest terms for his expeditious march from Knoxville to Cumberland, in the movement upon that place. His command of infantry marched sixty miles in fifty-two hours.

Major-General FRENCH, while leading his column at Auburn, Virginia, during the recent charge on the front of the Army of the Potomac, received a bullet in his hat.

Brigadier-General ELLIOT has been ordered from the Army of the Potomac to the Army of the Cumberland.

Brigadier-General CARR has been assigned to the command of the Third Division, Third Army Corps, of the Army of the Potomac.

DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE.

THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC.

LEE has fallen back across the Rappahannock. Meade followed him slowly, repairing the Orange and Alexandria Railroad as he went. Skirmishes occur daily, especially between the cavalry reconnoitring parties; but no battle has taken place, and the impression prevails that the campaign in Virginia is at an end for the season.

GENERAL GRANT IN THE FIELD.

General Grant has issued an order assuming command of the Military Division of the Mississippi, and announcing that his head-quarters will be in the field.

THE ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND.

From Chattanooga we learn, by dispatches via Cincinnati, that a portion of the enemy's forces under Generals Breckinridge and Hindman had withdrawn from the front of General Grant's army, and were moving in large bodies to the left of our army. It was reported that an attack was made on both Atlanta and Rome in the rear. General McPherson drove the rebels from Canton, Mississippi, on the 15th, taking 200 prisoners and occupying the town. The Army of the Cumberland is detained for the present from making any general movement in consequence of the delay in bringing up supplies.

A FIGHT NEAR CORINTH.

General Osterhaus, in the advance from Corinth, eastward, on the 21st inst., encountered two brigades of rebel cavalry, under Generals Lee and Forrest, near Cherokee Station. The fight lasted an hour, when the rebels were driven back with serious loss. Our loss was seven killed and thirty-seven wounded.

EAST TENNESSEE.

The latest reports from General Burnside represent that he is rendering good service in East Tennessee, and has repeatedly driven back rebel reconnoitring parties.

CHARLESTON.

The siege is steadily progressing, and General Gilmore's batteries are nearly ready to open on the doomed city. We have a dispatch received in Richmond from Charleston, dated the 23d inst., which says that stormy times are expected soon.

AFFAIRS IN TEXAS.

The whole rebel force west of the Mississippi is reported not to exceed 20,000 men, and among them there is much disaffection, resulting in frequent desertions. On the 26th ult. Kirby Smith visited the rebel army at Arkadelphia, under Price, finding it in a state of demoralization. He therefore relieved Price and put Holmes in his place. This action raised a mutiny among both officers and men, who are unfriendly to Holmes, and the confusion is described to have been without bounds. Between Sunday and Friday, from 500 to 700 men deserted, and to save the army orders were given to march south to Waco, on the Rio Brazos. Kirby Smith's head-quarters are at Marshall. A strong Union sentiment is reported to be exhibiting itself in Northern Texas, and Morgan, the Union candidate for Congress in the First District, comprising nineteen counties, has been elected.

ROSECRANS AT HOME.

General Rosecrans arrived at Cincinnati on 26th, and was escorted to the Burnet House by an immense crowd of citizens. He was enthusiastically welcomed throughout the entire line of march.

Judge Storer introduced the General to the assemblage by saying his fellow-citizens of Cincinnati appreciated the work he had accomplished for his country, and he assured him of their unshaken confidence. While he had never dishonored his native State, his native State had never forgotten him. Alluding to his removal from the Army of the Cumberland, Judge Storer said the people would require the records upon which that action was based.

General Rosecrans returned thanks for the expression of sympathy and respect which this public reception implied. While he felt flattered by it, he could not forget that the heart of the people did not go out to individuals alone. It was the principle for which we were contending, the struggle for national life which produced such assemblies. He asked the people never to forget their duty to the Government, whatever might happen to individuals. The question as to how he had been used he desired to leave for future time to answer.

Some friends of mine in New York, he said, are very solicitous about my health. The Army of the Cumberland thinks I am well enough, and so do I. As for the quantity of opium I have taken, consult my druggist. New York and Washington papers have said that Generals Crittenden and M'Cook intended to make charges against me. They have assured me that they regret exceedingly that such false reports should be started.

He said that since the battle of Chicamauga he had received a letter of approval from the President for his action in that affair; and whatever charges appeared in the Eastern papers against him, he was satisfied that the Government was in no way responsible for them. He expressed his readiness to do whatever the Government requires of him.

At the conclusion of his speech cheers were given for General Rosecrans and the Army of the Cumberland. The welcome throughout was earnest and hearty.

OUR POOR FELLOWS AT RICHMOND.

The number of Yankee prisoners held in Richmond up to the 12th was recorded at the Libey prison as a fraction under twelve thousand. One of the prisoners, a member of the Pennsylvania Cavalry, was shot a night or two previous by a guard while attempting an escape, and was instantly killed.

THE NEW QUOTA OF NEW YORK.

By a dispatch received yesterday at the Executive Department, in Albany, from Provost Marshal General Fry, it appears that the quota of volunteers which the State of New York is to raise before the 5th of January is one hundred and eight thousand and eighty-five.

WHAT THE REBELS WILL TAKE.

The Richmond Enquirer says:

Save on our own terms we can accept no peace whatever and must fight till doomsday rather that yield an iota of them; and our terms are:

Recognition by the enemy of the independence of the Confederate States.

Withdrawal of the Yankee forces from every foot of Confederate ground, including Kentucky and Missouri.

Withdrawal of the Yankee soldiers from Maryland, until that State shall decide by a free vote whether she shall remain in the old Union or ask admission into the Confederacy.

Consent on the part of the Federal Government to give up to the Confederacy its proportion of the navy as it stood at the time of secession, or to pay for the same.

Yielding up all pretension on the part of the Federal Government to that portion of the old Territories which lies west of the Confederate States.

An equitable settlement, on the basis of our absolute independence and equal rights, of all accounts of the public debt and public lands, and the advantages accruing from foreign treaties.

FREE LABOR IN THE SOUTHWEST.

The Commissioners for renting Government plantations in Mississippi and Louisiana represent that the workings of the paid labor system are decidedly successful and profitable. A strong disposition exists on the part of Union men to concert means for the re-establishment of civil government in those States.

THE MISSOURI QUESTION.

President Lincoln's reply to the Missouri delegation, his letter of instructions to General Schofield, together with an address by Mr. Drake, in answer to the President's reply, have been published.

The main points of the President's reply are as follows; He fails to see that the condition of Missouri and the wrongs and sufferings of the Union men are attributable to weakness and imbecility, but rather to the civil war, of which he gives a vivid picture, referring to the condition of the State under Generals Fremont, Hunter, Halleck, and Curtis, to sustain his position.

He does not believe that the massacre at Lawrence proves imbecility on the part of General Schofield, as similar acts could have been committed by Colonel Grierson or John Morgan, had they chosen to commit them. He approves General Schofield's action to prevent a counter-raid into Missouri by citizens of Kansas, as the only safe way to avoid indiscriminate massacre.

He says the charge that General Schofield has purposely withheld protection from loyal people, and facilitated the objects of the disloyal, is altogether beyond the power of his belief. With his present views he declines to remove General Schofield.

Regarding the enrollment of the militia, he says he shall ascertain better than he now knows what its exact value is. In the mean time he declines to abandon it, and expresses gratitude to General Schofield for ordering it in June last, thereby enabling him to strengthen General Grant at the time reinforcements were imperatively needed.

FOREIGN NEWS.

ENGLAND.

THE ANGLO-REBEL RAMS.

THE Mersey rams have been placed under charge of a detachment of marines, and the London Times asserts that, though nothing had been decided in regard to them, yet, being suspected, they would not be allowed to slip away as the Alabama did.

REV. H. W. BEECHER.

The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher has made another impressive speech in Liverpool. He was again disgracefully interrupted; but a riot, which had been expected, did not take place.

ENGLAND THREATENED WITH WAR IN INDIA.

It is stated that the Punjaub had been invaded by 7000 men, headed by the sons of Dost Mohammed, who are thought to be merely the vanguard of a large force.