SUNDAY
JANUARY 5, 1862
THE DAILY TRUE DELTA (LA)

JOHN BULL WIDE AWAKE AND BUSY.

Here is some interesting intelligence from London, received by the America:

Busy Scene in the Tower of London.--The greatest activity prevailed since Saturday at last at the Tower of London.  The whole of the workmen and their laborers employed in the various departments there have been engaged from an early hour in the morning until a late hour at night, and packing up fire-arms and every kind of article necessary for active service abroad.

On Sunday last the interior of the ancient garrison presented an unusual bustling appearance, in consequence of an order which had been received from the officials of the war office to prepare for the immediate transmission of twenty-five thousand stand up arms, which were packed in boxes containing thirty rifles each, with the usual adjuncts.  The man worked through the whole of Sunday in packing up, and the same night eight barges were filled with boxes, which were conveyed to Woolwich for shipment to Quebec, Canada, and other places.

On Monday evening, a similar amount of arms was conveyed to Woolwich, and on Wednesday, preparations were being made for the transmission of every kind of munitions of war down the river in barges and other craft, which were conveyed by steamers to the several government depots, where orders had been received and forward without delay every kind of defensive missile.

Additional hands have been employed daily in the various departments of the Tower, which has not assume such a bustling parents for many years.

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The Washington correspondent of the Philadelphia Ledger, noticing the pamphlet of Ellett, criticizing the movement of Gen. McClellan, says:

"Gen. McClellan has not been able to move; his soldiers are represented as wholly unfit for war yet; the general is teaching them; he has made a great many reconnaissances in force, merely to learn them how to move in brigades and handle their arms; but they are altogether to raw for serious work.  And they are said to be improving, and every day's delay will tend to make them better.  In the meantime the Federal cause is not supposed to be suffering by delay.  Besides drilling the soldiers and inspiring them with courage, a great scheme is gradually being pushed forward, and will culminate at no distant day in one universal rout of the rebels.”

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A French Officer in the Service of the South.--The Mobile Advertiser of Wednesday says:

"By a recent arrival at a Confederate port from Havana, Lieut. P. Enneau, late of the French army, came passenger, and is at the present in this city. Lieut. Enneau has lately been a resident of California, where he devoted himself to organizing and drilling a corps of carabiniers, whose testimonials of their high appreciation of his service he bears.  But preferring the reality to the image of war, and still more, preferring to the side on which the sympathies of his compatriots are enlisted, and where so much of the blood of his race is to be found, as ready to flow as that of the gallant Dreux--preferring this side to that which has thrown disgrace upon the name of Zouave, and almost upon that of soldier, he has come to offer his sword to the cause of the Confederacy.”

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Captain Pegram and Gen. Scott.—Captain Robert Pegram, of the Confederate navy, and Gen. Scott, of the Yankee army, are natives of Dinwiddie county, Virginia, and blood relations. They are now both in Europe, but how opposite their errands! Pegram is there on the patriotic mission of serving his own native south, while the purpose of Scott is to recover from the shock which mortification and chagrin inflicted upon an already enfeebled constitution, and at the same time to exert whatever influence he may possess to damage the cause of the land in which he was born, and in which nearly all of his kindred have their homes. We wonder if these two “cousins” will meet in the old country? –Raleigh (N.C.) Register.

Coming to Their Senses.--The New York Mercury begins to appreciate the fact that in the south is in earnest, and makes the acknowledgement of conviction in this wise:

"The persistence of our aristocratic and wealthy Dixian brethren in their humorous attempt to establish a new confederacy, has at length impressed the United States government with the truly remarkable idea that a rebellion is not quite such a pleasingly sentimental affair as a quarrel between lovers, and may sometimes require a trifling exercise of common sense to put it down.  The amiable delusion of supposing otherwise, so long indulged in by our gentle-hearted rulers, has been productive of many very affecting displays of that touching magnanimity which is worthy of noble minds and all that sort of thing, but loses much of its good effect when lavished on sinners of business habits."

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Effects of Cold Upon Federal Soldiers.—The Washington correspondent (Dec. 23) of the Herald states that the Federal soldiers on the Potomac “are suffering considerably from the cold weather,” and adds:

This is not surprising when they are still under canvas. From this very circumstance, however, we are satisfied that Gen. McClellan is contemplating a forward movement, and has no idea that the return of spring will find his vast army stretched along the windy hills of Fairfax. He knows, from the experience of Napoleon, that an army in motion, bivouacking under the open sky in the dead of winter, suffers much less from disease than an army ever so well established in winter quarters. Compare, for example, the sufferings of the British army in its winter quarters before Sebastopol with the remarkable good health of Napoleon’s legion in that winter campaign of Austerlitz. Vast bodies of men enclosed or hutted for two or three months in the same place, inevitably, to a greater or less extent, produce infections and malignant disorders. Hence, no doubt, the shifting of Beauregard’s central column from Manassas to Centreville, and the continual movements of the enemy from one point to another along their general line of occupation. Let us be patient. There are good reasons for the retention of our Potomac army under canvas at this time. The climate, as you go southward, becomes warmer, and log huts are not convenient articles of transportation.

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The Winter Campaign.—The Cincinnati Commercial, heretofore desponding, begins to have hopes of a speedy “forward movement.” It says:

Aside from the fear of a foreign intervention, we would regard a winter campaign as the thing needful to crush the rebellion; and in the present alarming condition of our foreign relations, the activity of our armies during the winter months is essential to national salvation. And we are happy to say we believe that the long lethargy of those armies will be speedily shaken off, and that a simultaneous effort will be made by all the forces we have in the field to “crush out” the military power of the rebellion. There is evidence to this effect that we have no right to discredit, and the confidence which we have in it is the foundation for all the hopes we entertain that our country will rise triumphant in its old proportions, and with new glory, from the sea of troubles, against which it has taken up arms.

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Georgia Factories.—There are thirty factories in Georgia engaged in making cotton and woolen goods, besides several smaller factories that spin yarn only.

MONDAY
JANUARY 6, 1862
THE HARTFORD DAILY COURANT (CT)

THE SITUATION.

With the exception of such changes as our telegraphic columns may indicate, the following appears to be the situation of the day:

General Burnside, with his 14 regiments and 40 sail of vessels, of all sizes, is still at Annapolis. He would have moved ere this, except for McClellan’s illness.

Doctor Verdi, the attending physician of General McClellan, says he will be in the saddle early this week. The plan is believed to be, for a large part of Gen. McClellan’s force to cooperate with Burnside by marching down the Virginia side of the Potomac, via, Occuquan, silencing the rebel batteries, by assaulting them in rear, on land, as they go; while Burnside’s expedition moves up the Rappahannock, to Fredericksburgh, where the railroad to Richmond, which begins at Acquia Creek is reached; and when that is done, both the rebel forces along the Potomac, and the rebel army at Manassas, will fall back or be captured; and the way to Richmond, is considerably plainer.

This movement was to have been commenced on the 25th of December, had not the illness of McClellan prevented. A general readiness for action is now apparent.

Gen. Buell’s move against the rebels at Bowling Green , Ky., could not be made, until the railroad bridge over the Green river at Mumfordsville was repaired. The bridge was partially destroyed by the rebels, and although a very lofty and intricate affair of trestle-work is now fully completed and ready for transportation. The army has been preparing, while the bridge was building. The rebels are trying to impede our advance by destroying the  Louisville and Nashville railroad; but Gen. Buell will get along without that, and use a broad and excellent turnpike, which runs from Mumfordsville straight to Bowling Green, a distance of forty-two miles. This road the rebels cannot destroy or materially injure; and Gen. Buell will have about 100,000 men, who expect to be able to remove all obstacles placed in their path, and cut their way right through to Bowling Green, and there to have a fight forwith, and either whip or be whipped, one thing or the other, most unmistakably. There is a great deal of sickness in Buell’s army, and all hands are eager to  be at their work of fighting. So that when the forces meet, the “dark and bloody soil  of Kentucky” will probably sustain its old reputation.

As to financial matters, the New York banks were paid in gold the interest on 150 millions of the Federal debt, but had not confidence enough in one another to divide it among themselves. The specie-paying banks are refusing to take checks upon the non-specie paying, and a bank squabble is the result. Our government has not paid the government contractors in New York anything due on their contracts later than October 10. The floating debt of the Government is therefore large; of course, it did not appear either in Mr. Lincoln’s or Mr. Chase’s account of the Federal debts at the opening of Congress. Government contractors have been selling their dues on their contracts to New York brokers, in some cases at a shave of five per cent. for current funds.

At the Sub-Treasury, Mr. Cisco is paying out the “demand notes” which seem to be acceptable to government creditors.

The Paris correspondent of the New York Times alleges that it is rumored there that the whole affair of the seizure of Mason and Slidell was arranged between the rebels and the British government. In proof of this, it is asserted that there was no necessity for their presence in Europe, being no abler than the commissioners already there, and moreover, the fact, that Capt. Pegram of the Nashville, announced on his arrival, his conviction that Mason and Slidell would be captured, that the La Plata made extraordinary good time to confirm this conviction, that the British government did not hesitate to make its demands on the immediate receipt of the news, and almost instantaneously set men and munitions in motion for Canada, proves circumstantially that there was such an understanding between the parties and that Palmerston and Russell were fully prepared to hear of the insult to the English flag.

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Edward Ludington, assistant baggage master at the Springfield depot of the S., H. & N. H. Railroad, has been caught robbing the baggage entrusted to his care. Some $200 worth of property taken from trunks, was found in his house, and a bunch of skeleton keys in his pocket capable of unlocking any ordinary trunk or valise. Ludington escaped from the Springfield jail, Friday, and the officers would be glad to see him again.

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The “Guardians Of Civilization.”—Your admirable leader in last evening’s paper suggested a few reflections, one or two of which I venture to send you.

A portion of the London press are throwing up its hands in holy horror over the “barbarity” of filling up Charleston harbor with stone-laden vessels, and invokes the “guardians of civilization,” to take the matter in hand. If the “guardians of civilization” are going to have a sitting on the “barbarities” of war, I propose that they turn their attention to matters in regular order. I venture, therefore, to direct their investigations to the practise of lashing prisoners taken in battle to the muzzles of cannon and firing them off by platoons. This England did do. The sickening details may be found in the record of the rebellion in India about four years ago.

I submit that dropping a fifteen-inch shell into a fort containing a thousand men, thereby killing one or two hundred of them perhaps, is in the abstract “barbarous,” and yet if this be one of the modes of crushing a rebellion or repelling an invasion, I am ready to apply the match to the gun. If the usages of war permit the destruction of the “noblest work of God,” why do they prohibit the destruction of such inferior, yet “beneficent works of the Creator,” as Charleston harbor?—Commercial Advertiser.

TUESDAY
JANUARY 7, 1862
LOWELL DAILY CITIZEN & NEWS (MA)

Considerate Relief.—We learn that Miss Adelaide Currier, who sustained a painful injury some months since by the mutilation of an arm by machinery in the Massachusetts Mills, has been kindly remembered by her friends in the form of a New Year’s gift, in cash, to the amount of $41, which, added to other sums previously contributed, makes a total of $72. Miss Currier is still confined to her room from the effects of her injuries.

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Ralph Waldo Emerson addressed full audiences in Welles Hall Sunday; in the afternoon upon the beauty and excellence of truth abstractly considered, and illustrating its perversion by examples taken from every-day social life and business transactions. In the evening, he treated o slavery and of religion in his peculiar way, defining theology proper as the rhetoric of morals. Father Taylor, the eccentric and eloquent seamen’s preacher, was once asked where he thought Ralph Waldo Emerson would go after death. The witty old man replied—“The dear, good, blessed soul! I don’t see in him any evidence of saving truth; but then I don’t know what Satan could do with him.”

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In a review of Mayor Wightman’s address, the Boston Advertiser complains that his honor “says not a word as to the constant desecration of the Sabbath by the open sale of liquor, in a city where on that day the sale of even a newspaper is carefully restricted within certain hours—except on Sunday before a municipal election; he says nothing as to the scandalous example set by the city government itself, in the abuse of intoxicating beverages.”

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Marine Disaster.—A dispatch from Gaspe Bay reports that a number of boxes and barrels and parts of the cabin of a wrecked ship have floated ashore. The wrecked vessel is supposed to have struck at St. Paul’s. The Boston Advertiser thinks there is reason to fear that the Cunard steamship Australasian, with 1150 British troops, has been lost, as she had 820 men of the 1st battalion of the Rifle brigade. The Australasian arrived at Halifax on the 26th ult., nothing has been heard of her leaving that port, but it is possible that, hearing of the Persia’s success in reaching the island of Bic, she may have started for the same destination and have been lost near the mouth of the St. Lawrence. The Australasian was a fine screw steamship of 1760 tons, built in Glasgow in 1857.

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Reminiscence.—An exchange observes that the position assumed by Great Britain in the case of Mason and Slidell recalls a very interesting event which occurred at Newport in the year 1794. The British sloop-of-war Nautilus, Captain Baynton, from the West Indies, stopped at Newport for a supply of provisions, water, &c. While there, information was given to the general assembly, then in session, that several American citizens were illegally detained on board this ship, and the captain and first lieutenant of the British cruiser were detained on shore while the vessel was searched. The result was that six American seamen were found among the crew, several of whom were detained against their will. These men were afterwards sent on shore, and upon further examination, discharged.

Interesting from Port Royal.—The Vanderbilt arrived yesterday at New York from Port Royal, bringing 3679 bales of Sea-Island cotton. Gen. Stevens’ brigade advanced on the main land on the 1st inst., and took possession of the rebel batteries after a short resistance, assisted by the gunboats in shelling them. Gen. Stevens followed up to within six miles of the Charleston and Savannah railroad. A flag of truce was received from the rebels, with a request for permission to bury their dead. An hour was granted them for this purpose, when they fell back on their fortifications, which are said to be very extensive, and defended by 11,000 or 12,000 men under Gen. Pope. Their loss is unknown. Our force was 4500 and had eight wounded, including Major Watson of the eighth Michigan regiment, mortally. Gen. Stevens now holds possession of the main land, and awaits reinforcements from the north to proceed.

The New York Herald states that passengers from Richmond, who left that cit on the 3d inst., say that news has been received there that Com. Dupont landed 3500 troops on the main land near Port Royal ferry on new-year’s day. An engagement ensued, in which the rebels repulsed the federal troops. On the 2d inst., the attempt was renewed with better success, and Gen. Gregg’s South Carolina brigade was driven back, with heavy loss.

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A Chapter on Boys.—Boys between the ages of nine and sixteen have a right to exist, there is no doubt about that; but, if they could be lured into some cave, to suck their claws, bear-fashion, during that interval, so that one could turn a street-corner without fear that one of them would jump through one’s belt, and come out at one’s back; if one need not run the risk of being made deaf for life by one of those astounding local war-whoops, known only to the initiated juvenile; or, if after picking one’s way successfully through a sea of mud, if your boy would not come dashing past you, in his seven-league boots, sending the inky spray far over your shoulders; I say, if this fascinating and effervescent young creature could be persuaded to desist from his innocent pastimes, life would be more sun-shiny for many timid females.

For one, I may be pardoned fro my natural shrinking from this singular adolescent being, in consideration of my high regard for him, when he has emerged from his snarled lair, torn trowsers, and water-on-the-nose, to the glorious creature whose vests and coats seem a part of him, so perfectly do they harmonize with—yes, I repeat it, so perfectly do they harmonize with! I am unaware that there are devoted mothers who like muddy boots on their sofas, and pet them tenderly when thrust on their silky laps. I have seen these human angels divest themselves of everything these young creatures fancied, or thought they fancied, that they wanted. It was undoubtedly angelic of them; and, if I dissented, it was in respectful silence, for, as soon would I use a teeming beehive for a night-cap as doubt that Tommy, or Johnny, or Sammy was not in danger of being translated as one of those whom the gods love, and to take to their bosoms early. Sally, the cook, may defy them with a rolling-pin, if she chooses to be so audacious, and has friends to see her decently interred; and Molly, the chambermaid, may object to being showered with unexpected bowls of water every time she touches a treacherous door; and little sis, if she “wants to be an angel,” may threaten to “tell mother,” when this young Nero places her best wax-doll at tantalizing distance in the top of a tall tree; but for myself, I have not lived all this time to commit any such folly.—Fanny Fern, in Harper’s.

WEDNESDAY
JANUARY 8, 1862
THE BOSTON DAILY ADVERTISER

NOT TO BE MADE PRISONERS.

To the Editors of the Boston Daily Advertiser:

We have many horrid accounts of the treatment which our prisoners meet with in the jails of New Orleans and other places in the South. We ought not to be surprised at this. We have no right to expect anything better from men who have spent their lives under the influence of slavery.

But let us not be tempted to retaliate. This is an example not to be imitated. On the contrary, the dictates of humanity, to say nothing of the precepts of Christianity, urge us to treat those who have fallen into our hands as well as we have the means of doing. In this way something may be one to soften their feelings towards the North, and to lead them to do us justice in their reports of us, when they go home. Another reason is, we cannot treat them cruelly without becoming cruel and savage ourselves.

But there is one lesson our soldiers should learn. No one who has had experience of life in a Southern prison would be willing, in any contingency, to renew it. He would, in most cases prefer a thousand times to die on the field of battle. Henceforward, then, let our soldiers resolve never to be taken prisoners, but to fight on desperately to the end.

This spirit acted on, would save us from all our defeats.

In several battles, perhaps in every battle, if our men preferred death to imprisonment, they would have been victorious.

Many of the greatest and most glorious victories ever won, have been the consequence of a resolution never to yield. When it was once understood that a Southern prison is worse than death, even cowards will act bravely. And when it is felt that it is always ignominious to submit to a dastardly and treacherous foe, the brave man will never think of yielding. Let it be then the resolve of every army, of every regiment, of every company, of every man, to gain, on the battle-field, LIBERTY or DEATH.

A part of Napoleon’s 67th maxim of war is—“Great extremities require extraordinary resolution. The more obstinate the resistance of an army, the greater the chances of assistance or of success.”

“How many seeming impossibilities have been accomplished by men whose only resource was death.”

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Work Not Talk.—The House of Representatives at Washington it seems bent upon staving off the necessity of considering our financial position as long as possible.  What do the days given to discussions about the Ball's Bluff disaster or the surrender of Mason and Slidell avail?  The debates on the former are palpably mischievous; those on the latter of questionable advantage.  Meantime that the public credit is in a position, where not one day can be afforded for inaction if it is to be saved from utter destruction.  A definite scheme ought to be concluded upon at once, and the tax bills and other details should be put in course of preparation immediately.  Work is wanted now; not eloquent speeches on subjects of no present importance.

Hospital Comforts Wanted.

To the Editors of the Boston Daily Advertiser:

I have received a letter from my cousin, one of the nurses in the Mansion House Hospital, Alexandria, Va., giving an interesting account of the convalescent soldiers quartered there.

Speaking of their wants, she says:

“There are many men here who only need what they could easily get at home, to be strong and well in a short time; send me towels, handkerchiefs, shirts, drawers, books, slippers, dressing gowns, juices and wine; in fact, anything is useful and needed here.”

Adam’s Express forwards goods to this hospital free of charge, and the public are requested to remember that he who gives quickly gives double.

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The Free City Hospital.--The Mayor in his address calls attention to the progress of the Free City Hospital, and remarks that the original plan, which provided for a central building and six smaller ones or pavilions, has been modified so as to provide only a central building and four pavilions, two of which only now are to be built.  He adds that the expense of them will absorb the whole appropriation of $150,000.

Mr. Wightman omits any illusion to some facts which ought to be the subject of immediate inquiry, especially as it appears that work on the hospital has been begun, as if to "clinch" the hasty adoption of the modified plan.

He omits to state, what we believe is the fact, that while the new plan for $150,000 will furnish accommodations for one hundred patients, the original plan for $160,000 or only $10,000 more would have given accommodations for two hundred and forty, and might have been made to give accommodations equal to those now provided, for not much more than $100,000.  He omits to state that the new plan when completed at an expense of more than $200,000, and perhaps a mere $380,000, will accommodate only two hundred patients in all, that the lot will then have been spoiled for the enlargement of the establishment, and that there will still be no provision for contagious and lying-in cases, so that the city will have paid a larger sum, without procuring what it wants; whereas by the original plan the establishment might have been enlarged so as to easily accommodate three hundred and fifty patients of all classes.  And he omits to state that the new plan was adopted against the advice of experts, who have recommended the original one.

These are points which it is not yet too late for the city council to review.  We trust that they will be looked after, bearing in mind also the important question, whether the new hospital is to be built for the accommodation of patients, or to furnish a pleasant resort for trustees and committees?

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Experienced Troops.—The statement that three well trained divisions have been sent from the Potomac to Annapolis will be observed with interest. There has been some uneasiness at the vast preponderance of raw troops in all the expeditionary corps. Sending these three divisions looks very much as if some expedition was on foot which is expected to find itself in hot work very soon.

THURSDAY
JANUARY 9, 1862
THE PITTSFIELD SUN (MA)

THE LESSON OF THE YEAR.

The year has ended.  It has gone from some of us with swift wings.  It has dragged its heavy wheels through sands, while others of us have longed for the hours to fly.  The passage of time is rapid or slow as the mind of man makes it, but there was never a year when it was so varied to American minds.  When the year began opinions differed as to the future.  Some longed for the spring to come, as the harbinger of peace and prosperity.  Others shrank from the opening of the season, and with prophetic vision beheld the coming horrors.  Some prophesied that the summer would behold the country peaceful, prosperous, united.  Others saw the cloud of war above the horizon, no larger than a man's hand, and foretold the thunder and the tempest.

As the year advanced we grew more and more set in our respective views and anticipations.  The one side anxious, sorrowful, imploring peace, concession, compromise; the other side firm, exultant, confident, laughing at the threatened calamities, and scoffing at the distant mutter of the thunder.  This difference on views are more and more determined until the spring opened.

In looking back now, we are impressed with the belief that on the first of April last the dominant party in the country were possessed by a great delusion.  It was not so much that they did not believe that there was war in the future, nor that they did not regard the States which had seceded as sincere, but that they wrongly judged Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee.  They believed, to use the then current expression, that "you could not take either one of the three out of the Union." So firmly was this view impressed on the leading minds among the Republicans, that the Democrats, who had thrown a whole weight of their influence into the simple work of saving the Border States, were laughed at by the party in power, and actually met with jeers and derision when they offered, in profound sadness, the arguments of earnest patriotism.  We do not recur to this now for the sake of reviving the discussion, or to prove the superior sagacity of the Democratic politicians of last spring.  There are thousands of those who sincerely agreed with the Republicans in the Peace Convention, who now regret the errors which led us into the present contest.  But we recur to it for the sake of suggesting among the reflections which the opening of a new year naturally awakes, that those Border States which did not hurl themselves out of the holy bond last spring, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri and Delaware, are entitled now the benefit of the wisdom which a year's bitter experience has taught us.

Whether, as has been frequently asserted, the President at the time of his proclamation, after the fall of Sumter, expected that Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina would rally to the old war cry, and stand by the flag, we, of course, have no means of determining. He had every reason to believe it, if he placed his dependence on the leaders of the party which had elected him to office. They had assured him that those States would never go, and that he might count on their self-interest if not on their loyalty. Whether such was his view or not, it is now evident that the grand error of the past year was in permitting those States to go. They might have been saved in Congress, or in the Peace Convention, but

they were sacrificed. At the present moment there are insane politicians who would pursue the old policy and drive Kentucky and Missouri into the enemy’s arms. This madness, which wholly ignores the constitutional rights of the slaveholder in Kentucky because he is a slaveholder, which proposes to regard the war as a reason for substituting “military necessities” in place of constitutional guarantees, is to-day the most important element that is working against the Union. We do not propose to argue the matter, but we submit to the consideration of Americans, at the opening of the year 1862, whether t is not worth while to accept the solemn lessons of 1861, in all their terrible simplicity, and to beware of the same errors in the future that we have committed in the past.

Let Kentucky serve as an example. We owe to Kentucky all that we owe to any State in the Union. We are bound to stand by the slaveholding interests of Kentucky as firmly and as solemnly as we are bound to sustain the manufacturing interests of Massachusetts or the agricultural interests of Illinois. Gentlemen may shrink from the parallel, but so long as Kentucky is a member of this Union we owe her every obligation of the Constitution.

If there is any lesson of the past year which should be profoundly impressed on the minds of men at the opening of the present, it is the grand importance of these constitutional obligations. If the Union is to e restored, in 1862 or in any future period, it will only be by strict adherence to those promises and pledges, to those immunities and checks. The heresy that because one State or ten States, one man or a million men, have violated the bond, the bond itself is not to be regarded by us, either in dealing with them or with one another, is the plea for anarchy.

We pretend not to the ability of prophets. We make no attempts to foresee the events which God disposes. The nation is in His hands and He will do with us as He sees fit. We can only resolve to be firm in the path of duty, to be faithful patriots and faithful men, and leave the disposal to Him. We enter on the New Year with the most hearty desires that the nation may find in it the peace and unity for which it is now contending. If every man in the North will administer to himself the oath of allegiance, will solemnly resolve to support the Constitution of the United States, in every line and letter, and will keep his oath, we have faith to believe that 1863 will find us a nation at rest in our borders. But if disorganizing sentiments prevail in Congress or at the North, the man does not live who will see the restored glory of the American Republic.

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The N.Y. Times' Washington correspondent says, "The examination of the officers of the volunteer cavalry has disclosed the incompetency of a large majority to hold their positions--and this is true of the field as well as the line officers, and it is probable that many of them will be compelled to resign, and officers from the regular army assigned to their command."

FRIDAY
JANUARY 10, 1862
THE LIBERATOR (MA)

TREASON.

The boast of the South that, in case of a dissolution of the Union, they would find active allies all through the North, though not realized to the full extent of their hopes, was far from being an empty rodomontade. The events of the past year have conclusively shown that even the Northern States contain hosts of men who are secretly aiding the rebellion in every possible way. It is notorious that there are spies in Washington, spies in the army, and spies even among the clerks in the various executive departments.  It is not by any means certain that all the army officers holding high commands are loyal. The rebels boast that we have now in service enough old army officers that are in favor of the South to prevent our ever winning a decisive victory!

It ahs been suggested that the adoption of the emancipation policy by the Government would be followed by the resignation of a large proportion of the officers of the regular army. Such a result would, undoubtedly, give rise to much difficulty and confusion; but if it would purge the army of traitors, it would be far from unfortunate or inexpedient.

Much as has been said of the loyalty of Kentucky, and much as has been done to keep her in the Union, there is room to question the sincerity of her patriotism. Reluctantly ranging herself upon the strongest side, after months of sham neutrality, during which she aided the rebellion to the utmost of her power, she is hardly settled in her tardy allegiance before she sets up a long howl at the Secretary of War, and demands his removal because he is opposed to bolstering up slavery with one hand, while we fight the Slaveholders’ Rebellion with the other! The Louisville Journal, the organ of her “loyal” men, has steadily opposed every warlike act of the Government; and especially denounced, with unmeasured violence, the first proclamation of the President, calling for 75,000 men.

What is true of Kentucky is true, to some extent, of other States. It is the worst feature of our case, that the Administration is almost compelled to pursue a time-serving, hand-to-mouth, undecided policy, for fear of alienating the loose and uncertain loyalty of so many whose adhesion seems of much importance. The South have the advantage of united counsels, and a pronounced, outspoken policy. The mob terrorism, which, for so many years, has been employed in driving from the South every man suspected of anti-slavery opinions, has made them a unit.

The time is coming, and may not be far distant, when something will be done. The logic of events—the stern arguments of necessity—will force the wavering to decide, and compel even the constitutionally timid to throw off all hesitation, and acquiesce, if they do not aid, in vigorous and decisive measures.—Delhi (N.Y.) Republican.

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THE POSITION OF ENGLAND.

An able and enlightened Russian statesman and nobleman, M. Tourgueneff, exiled from his native land in 1825 for his philanthropic efforts to bring about the emancipation which the present Emperor has had the glory of measurably consummating, wrote thus in 1847 concerning England, in his memorial volumes, “La Russie et les Russes,” vol. iii, pp. 270, 271:

“The influence of England upon the rest of the world has been, in general, exceedingly fruitful, beneficent and useful; it is so still, in consequence of the commercial relations of that nation with every people on the globe. But the necessities of trade have also consequences by no means elevating. It is the force of things, it is God that makes commerce; and the relations between peoples the farthest removed from one another serve as a means of attaining the great end of human civilization. Men in general see in them only a means of satisfying their love of gain. When to this exclusive tendency is added, as in England, an excess of products which demands new markets at any cost, the most civilized commercial people end by caring only to sell as much as possible to everybody; they thus come easily into a great indifference to the social and political welfare of the peoples with whom they traffic, and are readily disposed to enter into alliance with the most detestable governments, provided the latter allow them to despoil their oppressed subjects at their leisure.

“We may conclude that the influence exerted by a people placed in such conditions cannot hereafter have very important results for general civilization.”

Judged by the present attitude of England towards this country, her evident desire to fraternize with the Southern Confederacy at the expense of four million blacks in bondage, the language above quoted bears almost the marks of prophecy as well as of philosophic discernment. M. Tourgueneff has lived to see the wish of his life realized in the action of Alexander II, in relation to the serfs of Russia; he may also today compare, with a melancholy satisfaction, his logical forebodings, fifteen years ago, of the future of England, with the present deplorable exhibitions of that country.

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Thaddeus Stevens.—Mr. Thaddeus Stevens, of Pennsylvania, who is kicking up such a row in Congress about slavery, and wishes to free all the slaves at the South in violation of the Constitution, at the expense of the loyal States—thus saddling us in addition to our probable annual expense of $105,000,000 for interest on our war debt in 1863, and $100,000,000 for ordinary expenses, making the snug total of $205,000,000—in addition to this, we say, he would add to our direct taxes an interest on the money paid for slaves at least one hundred and thirty or forty millions more, leaving the honest, hard working men of the country enslaved by an annual expense of three hundred and fifty, or four hundred millions a year! But this proposition is as revolutionary as Jeff. Davis’s Constitution, and those who sustain it are as much rebels against the Constitution of the Union as the army at Manassas, and deserve to be dealt with in the same manner. The former career of Stevens has qualified him for  the violent course he is now urging upon his “confederates.” We remember him as a rabid anti-mason many years ago, who, by his intrigues in Pennsylvania, embroiled that State in civil commotion to an extent that required the aid of military force to sustain the constitutional authorities in opposition to Stevens and his abettors, when the “buck-shot war” left him in disgrace too deep for any party to reach him except ultra Abolitionism.—Boston Post.

SATURDAY
JANUARY 11, 1862
THE SPRINGFIELD REPUBLICAN (MA)

GENERAL NEWS SUMMARY.

Mrs. Greenhow, the persistent female rebel spy at Washington, has been cut off from her allowance of a quart of wine a day, probably to prepare her in some degree for the rigors of Fort Warren, where she will soon take up her abode.

The British press, in their assumed horror of our stone fleet operations, ignore their own past history. In the war of 1812 they attempted to fill up the harbor of Otter Creek on Lake Champlain by sinking vessels loaded with stone. They did not consider it barbarous then.

There are now quite a number of refugees in Washington from the gulf states, seeking some mode of employment until the end of the war. In most instances they are southern born, and men of property and influence at home. They uniformly state that there is a latent Union sentiment in Georgia, Alabama and North Carolina, which is certain to manifest itself on the appearance of the federal  troops. One gentleman, a resident of Savannah, states that the Union flags which were hauled down in that city have not been destroyed, and that they will make their appearance in prominent points when the Union forces enter that city.

The book now in press, entitled the “Life and Times of James Buchanan,” it is understood was written by ex-consul and ex-reporter Francis J. Grund, who has been residing with Mr. Buchanan at Wheatland for several months past. If it tells the truth it will be an instructive book, but we fear Mr. Buchanan will endeavor to forestall the verdict of history.

Peter Reynolds, for the past two years porter in the tore of A. T. Stewart & Co., at New York, was arrested on Wednesday, charged with stealing $800 worth of shawls, all but two of which were recovered.

The annual report of the police commissioners of New York states that the population of the city of New York is estimated at 900,000 persons, of whom 404,000 persons reside in tenement houses, or houses containing four families and upward.

The splendid brown stone fronts in New York are said to be showing signs of decay. Many of the inmates decayed long since.

An English steamer, the Immortalitie, arrived several days ago at Annapolis, and on Wednesday made application to our government for permission to coal. Orders were immediately dispatched to our officers at that station to allow her to take in all the coal required. This action of our government is in striking contrast with the recent mean conduct of the British officials at Nassau, who have repeatedly refused to our vessels permission to coal in their waters out of our own vessels.

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Latest from Europe.

The steamship Canada, from Liverpool on the afternoon of the 28th via Queenstown on the 29th, arrived at Halifax Wednesday morning. Her dates are two days later than those already received. The Canada brings about 800 troops, a strong battery of artillery, and over 900 tons of military stores. She also has 12 passengers and £50,000 in specie.

The steamer Hibernian was to sail from Liverpool on the 2d of January with 600 to 700 troops, touching at St. Johns, N.B., to land them.

The steamship Africa was to sail from Liverpool on the 4th of January. She would also take a number of troops, landing them at Halifax. The iron plated frigate Warrior had got her sails bent and was to be kept in readiness to leave, pending the solution of the American question.

When the Canada left Liverpool, a state of suspense prevailed, and the greatest anxiety was felt relative to the advices per the Africa, then due, in response to those from England by the Europa.

Deputations from the religious denominations, including the Congregational union, the Baptist union ad the Baptist board, had an interview on the 27th of December with Earl Russell, on the subject of the threatened war with America.

Recruiting for the army was going on in earnest in England. The screw corvette Satellite and gunboats Sheldrake and Spider had left for the southwest coast of America. The steam frigate Orlando would take out winter clothing for the squadron at Halifax. The screw transport Mauritius was about to leave with 800 tons of war stores for Canada, a battery of twelve pounder Armstrong guns and 800 troops. The iron frigate Defense was ordered to be ready to sail Jan. 2d, for Canada. The government had decided to forma  reserve of troops at Bermuda. The whole coast guard was ordered to hold themselves in readiness for war.

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News and Gossip from Washington.

It appears by the report of the superintendent of public printing, John D. Defrees, that the government printing bureau has been conducted with the utmost efficiency and satisfaction. The wisdom of Congress in superseding the former arrangements by the present establishment, is fully vindicated. As compared to the prices formerly paid to public printers, there has during the past seven months bee an actual saving to the government of $60,000.

The government has taken measures to obtain cotton seed from Port Royal, for planting in Illinois and other western states.

Horace Greeley delivered a lecture before a dense auditory at the Smithsonian institute, Friday evening, his subject being “The nation.” He said the misfortune of our country has been its reluctance to meet its antagonist in the eye. Slavery is the aggressor and has earned a rebel’s doom; save the Union and let slavery take its chances. He was against compromise, because it implied concession to armed treason, and expressed his belief that the present contest would result in enduring benefits to the cause of human freedom. President Lincoln, Secretary Chase and several senators and representatives were on the platform. The lecturer was frequently applauded.

An official communication in reference to a resolution of the House was on Monday transmitted to that body by the secretary of war, covering the reports from the quartermaster’s department, by which it appears that George Ramsdell of Pennsylvania has been awarded the contract for feeding 525 disabled horses during the winter, and Charles Chonteau for 71. It appears that the contract system thus far has failed entirely. Advertisements for bids for almost everything required have been made, but not in a single instance have the lowest bidders come forward and closed their contracts. Of the horses placed on Chonteau’s farm at 85 cents per head per diem, only about 85 of them have become serviceable. The remainder are not considered worth keeping.

It is known that several female prisoners are watched and cared for in the northern part of Washington by a detachment of Sturges’ Rifles, under Lieut. Sheldon. On several occasions recently events have transpired showing a plot to clandestinely effect their release, but the vigilance of the guard always frustrated it.

As the navy department has no vessel to detail for carrying to London as in 1851, the contributions which the Americans may desire to exhibit at the world’s fair, the president recommends that authority be given to charter a suitable vessel for that purpose.

William T. Smithson, the banker and broker arrested at Washington, Wednesday afternoon, by order of the government on suspicion of communicating with the rebels, left the same afternoon on the train for Fort Lafayette. This is considered one of the most important arrests which has taken place since the commencement of the rebellion.

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From South America.
SOUTH AMERICAN COTTON GOING TO ENGLAND.

Five hundred bales of cotton en route to England have arrived at Panama from Peru. A much larger amount is going via Cape Horn. Efforts are making to raise very large crops the ensuing year. It is of superior quality.