SUNDAY
JANUARY 22, 1865
THE DAILY PICAYUNE (LA)

Henry Stuart Foote.

The course of this somewhat noted member of the Richmond Congress has been of a character, of late, to attract very general attention, and to excite no little comment. The last accounts from the North acquaint us with the fact that he has lately made an effort to reach Washington, accompanied by his wife; intending doubtless to relinquish his citizenship in “The Confederacy,” and to return to his allegiance to “The Union.” As the accounts run, the Government at Washington received information that in attempting to enter our lines, Foote was arrested at Occoquan River, about fifteen miles southwest of Alexandria. He was accompanied, as we have said, by his wife. When found he was at the residence of a Mr. Hammell. Mr. Foote was overtaken in his flight by two rebel cavalrymen, who obliged Mr. Hammell to harness his horse and wagon and convey the captive as far back as Dumfries towards Richmond. The military authorities of Alexandria were ordered to send at once to Occoquan for Mrs. Foote, and she was rescued and reached Alexandria. Mr. Foote and wife were detained a day after reaching Occoquan for want of facilities to cross the river. Fears are entertained that Jeff Davis may deal harshly with Mr. Foote. The Government has taken steps to prevent any injury being done. Should Jeff Davis be so rash as to take the life of Mr. Foote, says a Washington correspondent of the Chicago Tribune, it is probable that the act will cost the highest rebel official in our custody his life.

Henry Stuart Foote was born in Fauquier county, Va., September 20, 1800. He was a graduate (so says the American Cyclopædia of Appleton, though we have heard this doubted,) of Washington College, Lexington, Va., in 1819. After leaving college he studied law, and was licensed to practice in 1822. In 1824 he removed to Alabama, and settled in Tuscumbia. He resided there two years, and besides practicing law edited a democratic newspaper. In 1826 he removed to Mississippi, and established himself at Jackson. In 1847 he was elected to the United States Senate, and was placed at the head of the Committee on Foreign Relations. In 1850 he took an active part in favor of the “compromise measures.” In 1851 he became the candidate of the Union party for Governor of Mississippi, and after a very excited contest, was elected by about a thousand votes over his competitor, Jefferson Davis. He resigned his seat in the Senate, and entered on the discharge of his duties as Governor in January, 1852. In 1853 he removed to San Francisco, Cal., and in 1856 supported Mr. Fillmore for the Presidency. In the spring of 1858 he returned to Mississippi, and settled in Vicksburg. In May, 1859, he attended the Southern Convention, and made speeches against disunion, which attracted a great deal of attention throughout the country. The commencement of the present war found him a citizen of the State of Tennessee, which he has in part represented in the Confederate Congress, from the first to within a few weeks past. His recent course, in bitter opposition to the policy of his old rival and competitor, now the President of the Southern Confederacy, Jefferson Davis, and in favor of peace and reconstruction measures, and his sudden resignation of his place in the Congress, are well known, and have been the topics of much variant newspaper comment. His late attempt to cross the lines seems to confirm the idea for some time entertained that he had come to the conclusion to relinquish his opposition to the Government and the Union of the United States. ->

Mr. Foote is a person of extremely irascible and excitable character. He has figured in many scenes of strife during his somewhat notable and checquered career. The writer of this sketch once saw him draw a pistol upon a brother Senator, on the floor of the Senate, in open session, and during the progress of debate. On the same floor he proclaimed to another Senator, a Northern man, that if the latter would but come South, he himself (Foote) would with pleasure officiate as his hangman; whence he has for years been proverbially spoken of as “Hangman Foote.” He has been engaged in several “affairs of honor,” among which were duels with Mr. Winston, of Tuscumbia, receiving a slight wound in his left shoulder; with Sargent S. Prentiss, in Mississippi, being again slightly wounded, and still later with J. F. H. Clairborne, in which there was “nobody hurt.”

•••••

Interesting Calculation.–The following, from the Christian Observer, is commended to the reader who chews tobacco:

Allow that a young man, who is a confirmed tobacco chewer, may live twenty-five years. In each day there will issue from his mouth half a pint of fluid too nauseously disgusting to describe. In twenty-five years this will amount to five hundred and fifty gallons, or more than four hogsheads of this detestable mass. In the same time, allowing him only two ounces a day, he will roll as a sweet morsel under his tongue half a ton of the hateful weed, which will sicken a dog or kill a horse, forming a heap of the size of a hay stack. Then his rejected quids would form a still larger pile. Now, if such a young man could see ten half hogsheads full of abominable filth, destined to pass through his mouth–a wagon load of tobacco–and ten wheelbarrows heaped up with quids, designed for an equally intimate association with his lips, how would the prospect affect him?

•••••

A Magnificent Project.–To some of the merchant princes and millionaires of New York is credited the contemplation of a project at once magnificent, generous and grand. The plan is to present to the United States government $2,600,000,000, and thus relieve the nation of the public debt. It is proposed to make the gift in 200,000 shares of $10,000 each, of which A. T. Stewart, William B. Astor and others will each take fifty shares, making up at least a quarter of the whole amount in New York. The realization of such a project would place both government and citizens in a prouder position than ever government or citizens occupied before. History gives no parallel to such an act. The Venetians held in grateful remembrance the name of a man who, by a life-time of personal sacrifice and hard-faced usury, obtained means to relieve the republic of its financial burdens and placed it again upon the road to prosperity after a long and disastrous war. They forgot his exacting usury and his life of selfishness in the lasting benefit he conferred upon the state. But we should have no abuses to forget, and only the generous patriotism of republican citizens to remember.

MONDAY
JANUARY 23, 1865
THE CHARLESTON MERCURY (SC)

The News from Wilmington.

During the last forty-eight hours we have had abundant rumors of fighting at or near the town of Wilmington, but neither the mail nor the telegraph, as yet, has brought us any confirmation of these reports. We copy some interesting intelligence from the latest issues of the Wilmington Journal that has been received at our office:

[From the Wilmington Journal, January 19.]

There has been no movement of importance among the Yankee troops since the capture of Fort Fisher. On yesterday it was stated, upon what appeared to be good authority, that only two of the gunboats had as yet made their appearance in the river opposite Fort Fisher, the rest of the fleet still lying off.

We have endeavored to obtain some particulars in regard to the fight, but matters are in so confused a state that no two reports agree, and unless we can get the truth we prefer publishing nothing. All reports concur, however, in stating that General Whiting and Colonel Lamb fought gallantly, leading the troops to repel each assault, and never gave up, but were overpowered or shot down. Others also fought bravely and well, and are deserving of all praise.

We understand that when the enemy had gained the parapets of the fort and planted their flag, General Whiting two or three times tore the flag down, and only desisted when he was shot down and unable to rise.

A communication has been received from the commanding officer of the Federal forces, Gen. Terry, stating that General Whiting’s wounds were of a serious nature, but not mortal. Colonel Lamb, we believe, received a serious wound in the thigh from a Minié ball.

Forts Holmes and Caswell were evacuated by our troops on Monday, as was expected, the capture of Fisher rendering the holding of these points useless to us. A tremendous explosion was heard and felt in town about 1½ o’clock on Tuesday morning, supposed to have been produced by the blowing up of the magazines at the above forts.

[From the Wilmington Journal, January 20.]

Major Venable, of General Whiting’s staff, carried a flag of truce down to the enemy’s line on Wednesday morning, and returned late in that evening. General Whiting has been quite severely wounded, while also Col. Lamb in the thigh severely. Both are believed to be doing well. The fighting at the fort was desperate on both sides. The casualties on our side we are unable to report. They will be published as soon as circumstances will permit.

Our losses are heavy. From what we can learn from private sources, they will amount to over one hundred killed and more than five hundred wounded. When we say that among the prisoners are General Whiting, Colonel Lamb, Major Hill, Major Stevenson, and so many other men, good, true and brave, our own feelings can be appreciated. ->

Of course, the fall of Fort Fisher necessitated the fall of the other forts on the river below it. Everything below New Inlet is in the power of the enemy, even if it is not already in his possession. But that does not mean by any means imply possession of the town of Wilmington. It does mean closing up the blockade-running port of Wilmington. In that sense of the word it is a severe blow.

Betwixt us and the enemy there are Fort Anderson and other works. They are now attacking them. We think we know the men in them. John Hedrick, and men like him, will fight the thing out. We only regret that we are not with them. God knows we would rather be with them in the forts than trying to set up type here, as we are doing now.

We do not think that Wilmington must necessarily fall. The port of Wilmington is already gone. That has gone cheap. The Confederacy has lost its best port. The men of Wilmington must now defend their homes. We think they can do so–we think they will do so. Let us all try. The truth is, every tolerably decent white man, who does not want to be a slave, must take his position, willing to give up his life for the cause in which he is engaged. It is perfectly useless to blow up the President or Gen. Bragg. We do not believe that either of these gentlemen are perfect, nor do we think that, even if they were perfect, they could save us. They are simply clever and patriotic gentlemen. Let us–all of us–be equally so. That is simply the way to say it, and to be it, or at least try to do it. Neither President Davis nor General Bragg can fight for us. We must fight for ourselves and for our country.

P. S.–We are officially informed that the cannonading heard below last afternoon was from the enemy’s gunboats at our forces at or near Sugar Loaf. Other reports say that the enemy attacked Hoke’s forces yesterday afternoon, but whether this is true or not we are unable to say.

We would call the attention of our contemporaries to the fact that Fort Fisher never was surrendered, but was carried at the point of the bayonet by overwhelming numbers, after all the guns on the land face had been dismounted by the terrific fire from the fleet.

The enemy’s loss in Sunday’s fight is estimated to be at least one thousand in killed and wounded. The fort was charged three times on Sunday afternoon and night before it was captured.

We are informed that, if it becomes necessary to evacuate the town, it is the intention of the Commanding General to exercise the authority vested in him by act of Congress and destroy the cotton remaining here. Instructions have been given already to facilitate the removal of that in private hands, and parties not promptly availing themselves of this privilege of removing their property to a place of safety will have no cause of complaint when the military authority destroys it. Should Wilmington unfortunately fall, let the enemy find it a barren gain, and not realize a capture such as made in Savannah.

TUESDAY
JANUARY 24, 1865
THE PITTSFIELD SUN (MA)

Negro Suffrage and Education.

If Congress considers it necessary to prescribe the particular steps to be taken by any insurgent state in its return to the Union, the question to be asked is not what ought that state to do, but what has the general government a right to compel it to do as a condition of restoration to its former standing and power in the Union. If Congress assumes unconstitutional and despotic power in one matter, it may in all, and the states will lose their existence entirely. It is already determined by the president, as commander-in-chief, that the insurgent states shall be released from military rule and allowed to resume civil government on condition that they adopt and carry out the emancipation proclamation. Congress is asked to go farther and to require the extension of the right of suffrage to the freed slaves as another condition of reconstruction. It  is hardly presumable that Congress will go thus far, not only because the constitution leaves the regulation of suffrage with the states, but because of all the loyal states, only Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts and Rhode Island allow their own colored citizens to vote. It would be strange if the representatives of the other loyal states should undertake to compel the South to do better by the black man than their own states have yet done. No, Congress will be wise enough to leave this matter to the action of public opinion and to the people of the states concerned.

Taken abstractly, it cannot be denied that the colored citizen is equally entitled with the white to a voice in the government under which he lives. The democratic idea admits of no distinction based on color. Nevertheless, when the people organize a government, they have the right to limit suffrage so far as they shall consider it for the safety of the government itself. A property qualification was formerly required in many of the states, because it was held that a man without property had not sufficient interest in the state government. But we have come now to the belief that intelligence is the only qualification the state can insist upon. Character is really quite as essential to honest voting, but that is a thing we cannot get at, and it is necessarily left out of account. It would be well, however, if it were more insisted upon in candidates for office. A certain amount of intelligence may be assumed to be an essential qualification for a voter without doing any violence to the democratic idea, and those already holding the franchise must of course fix the limitation, whatever it may be. The Republican was among the first to advocate that the voter should be required to read and write the language of the country. It proposed this as the true solution of the question of limiting the suffrage of foreign immigrants, in the days of the know-nothing avalanche. And it believes that this is the truer solution of the question of Negro suffrage. ->

Let every man, white and black, who can read and write English, be allowed to vote, and we have made the suffrage as free and as nearly universal as is consistent with the public safety. This test will admit quite enough voters who are unable to form intelligent opinions on public questions. Let the freed Negroes vote, then, as soon as they attain to this minimum qualification. But even this cannot be forced on any state. South Carolina, as well as Illinois, must take its own time. All we can legitimately do is to ply the argument faithfully, and educate the colored population up to a position to command the right of suffrage by manifest fitness for it. And Wendell Phillips and such as he would accomplish a great deal more for the extension of the suffrage to colored men by engaging efforts for their instruction than by clamoring for their immediate transformation into voters by a despotic act of the general government. If the general government can do anything in this direction, it had better begin at the foundation and establish a system of national education, which shall ensure for the future sufficient intelligence on the part of the common people of all colors to give reasonable hope that they will vote wisely for themselves and the nation. If Congress has the power and the ability to do this, they will thus at the same time promote the extension and the safety of the suffrage.

•••••

The appointment of Gen. Lee by the rebel congress as commander-in-chief of their armies, in compliance with the clamors against Davis and in spite of the remonstrances of his organ, proves the extent and power of the anti-Davis party. It is not a Union party by any means, but it favors negotiations for peace connected with the earnest prosecution of the war. The most significant item in the late southern news is the article of the Richmond Enquirer of the 19th, the drift of which is that if the South should be beaten it had better reunite with the North rather than seek an alliance with England or France; and that in a war for possession of the continent and the expulsion of the European powers the South might hide its shame and gain advantage and glory. Anything that keeps the idea of reunion before the southern people, in their present distraction and distress, must have a tendency in the right direction. It is evident that they are thinking about and discussing just the things that would naturally be in mind if they felt that they must soon yield to the logic of events. Hit ‘em again, Sherman; put ‘em in the licks, Terry; that’s the way to bring them around.

WEDNESDAY
JANUARY 25, 1865
THE PITTSFIELD SUN (MA)

LATEST FROM REBELDOM.

The Peace Discussions.

The last-ditch party is still dominant in Richmond, and the rebel leaders are determined to collect their strength for one more effort before giving up the desperate cause. The Sentinel, Davis’s paper, has become extremely violent. In one of its late diatribes it says:

“No wilder hallucination could take possession of the human mind than a belief that we could ever again live with the Yankees on terms of equality, or come under the same government with them, except as a conquered people. The Yankee has disclosed himself. The whole world with one voice proclaims him a disgrace to civilization, liar beyond liars the earth has ever known, blood-thirsty, rapacious, insolent, vain, malignant, mean and devilish. His acts of confiscation are unrepealed upon his statute books. His cold and brutal threat of extermination still hangs over us. His purpose to parcel out our lands is still fixed. His intention to ravage and despoil, to deluge all before him with blood, and to leave nothing behind him but ashes, is still inflexible. For a day he may relent, as in Georgia, but his charity is more demoniacal than his anger, for he knows that when we submit he can strip us at our leisure and without danger to his person. Yet we are told in Congress we can get better terms from the Yankees than from the English or French. Oh shame! Oh folly!”

The Whig sees that it is impossible for President Lincoln to negotiate a peace with the rebel leaders, and is sound in its logic when it says:

“It would be absurd to suppose that immediately after those successes which Yankeedom professors believe are the crowning victories of the war, and the finishing stroke of the rebellion, Lincoln would offer or accept any other terms than such as would involve our unconditional return to the Yankee Union. And as this would not require negotiation, but, on the contrary, would be the utter abdication on our part of even the right to negotiate, it is just as absurd to suppose that he intends to enter into any diplomatic discussions with our government. We venture to state, and to place the statement on record as a prediction, on which we are willing to hazard our sagacity, that Lincoln will never negotiate with the government of the confederate states till he is ready to acknowledge their independence.”

The Enquirer, in an article to the same purport, says:

“If that compromise (Mr. Cox’s peace resolutions), the joint work of Greeley and Cox, cannot find favor with the republican House of Representatives, what confederate can hope for any terms other than an ignominious surrender? Let peace slide; and let us turn our whole and undivided attention to the war. The Negroes recommended by the president have not been provided. Will not the congress immediately take action and secure the forty thousand? If we would have peace, we must first gain victories. The army must have more men, and a new and better organization. This is the only work for congress to do. Let them do it, and do it quickly. Turn peace over to Mr. Blair and Mr. Foote. Let them hob-nob over it to their hearts’ content, and whether on this side or the other of the Potomac makes no matter. War and war measures for the congress of the confederacy is the only thing now left for our legislature.” ->

The Examiner threatens congress if it allows any more talk about peace, and tells what Virginia has to expect if she falls under Yankee rule, thus:

“Once more it is time we have done with this peace imposture, which congress persist in occupying itself about. Nay, if congress do not stop it at once, and put down or brush away all who presume to take up the public time with any such trash, then that congress itself will have to be put down or brushed away. Yes, superseded by a convention of the confederate states, and its members sent to negotiate peace with one another in private life, and exhaust the arts of statesmanship in some sequestered spot. If Virginia should ever, unhappily, fall under the rule of the Yankees, then cast your eye over the whole state and look for the worst, foulest, meanest ruffian in it. You may not find, perhaps, in all Virginia, such a superhuman wretch as Brownlow; but, still, single out the worst you can think of–one whom every honest man avoids like poison; let him be some hardened grog-shop politician–a coward at once and a bully, and foaming preacher, whose prayers to God are imprecations, and who hates his neighbor like the devil, that is the man who will be governor of this commonwealth. He will be inaugurated in our old capitol, hedged around with Yankee bayonets. He will appoint all civil officers, including judges and hangmen, for there will be no senate or house of delegates, under that regime; but the flag of the state, with its ‘sic semper,’ shall wave over a den of robbers and a shambles, where drumhead justice will soak the soil with the blood if all good Virginians, and give their possessions to their murderers, to have and to hold them and theirs, forever.”

•••••

A Full Stop.–An innocent old lady, who never before had “rid on a railroad,” was passenger on one of the Vermont railroads at the time of the recent collision, when a freight train collided with a passenger train, smashing one of the cars, killing several passengers, and upsetting things generally. As soon as he could recover his scattered senses, the conductor went in search of the venerable dame, whom he found sitting solitary and alone in the car (the other passengers having sought terra firma,) with a very placid expression upon her countenance, notwithstanding that she had made a complete summersault over the seat in front, and her bandbox and bundle had gone unceremoniously down the passage way. “Are you hurt?” inquired the conductor.” “Hurt? Why?” said the old lady. “We have just been run into by a freight train, two or three passengers have been killed, and several others severely injured.” “Lord me, I didn’t know but that was the way you always stopped!”–Vermont Record.

THURSDAY
JANUARY 26, 1865
THE NEW HAMPSHIRE SENTINEL

The Final Assault on Fort Fisher.

Both Col. Abbott, formerly of the 7th New Hampshire, we believe, and Col. Bell, commanded brigades in the assault on Fort Fisher, the former losing his life, and both acting heroically. A correspondent thus describes the scene:

Fort Fisher consists of one enclosed fort or bastion, from the opposite angles of which spread out at right angles to other high parapets or curtains of earthwork, the sea face to a distance of 1600 yards, and the north face about a third of this distance. At regular intervals these curtains are crossed by high traverses which, at the same time, serve as bomb-proofs, and between which are mounted sometimes one, and at others two heavy guns. On the north face were fifteen of these traverses, and when our men succeeded in capturing one of these, the second was an earthwork behind which the rebels could retreat, and so on successively until our men reached the bastion, which was enclosed on all sides, and here the rebels would evidently huddle for their final struggle.

Col. Bell led his gallant fellows, and the First and Second Brigades, augmented with this additional strength, fought nobly, desperately on until six of the fifteen traverses had been won, and here the advance for a time was checked, and thus the matter rested until about five o’clock.

Col. Bell was killed, and Pennypacker severely if not fatally wounded, while every member of Gen. Ames’ staff and nearly every regimental commander was either killed or wounded. The loss of all, or at least so large a number of his officers, had disorganized and confused his men, so that it was almost impossible to get them into the closing labors, which, with some three hundred fresh and organized men to rally his men about, it was the opinion of the General might be successfully and gloriously accomplished. Simultaneously with the message the Admiral sent another, saying that the enemy appeared to be landing reinforcements at Fort Buchanan, and word was received from Gen. Paine that Hoke had driven in his pickets at the northern defensive line.

A courier was instantly dispatched for Col. Abbott to move up his brigade and notify Gen. Paine to so dispose his forces as to fill up the gap occasioned by the withdrawal of Col. Abbott’s troops; in other words to attenuate his line sufficiently to occupy the entire northern defensive works, which he could do with safety owing to the added strength given them by the six howitzers prudently planted there the night before. Gen. Terry ordered the assault to be made upon Fort Fisher.

Final Assault and Victory.

An anxious hour was spent until about dark, when Col. Abbott dashed up close behind his gallant men. They advanced immediately up the river beach, and though the moon soon after rose, but little past its full, we could see nothing but the flash of musketry in increased frequency upon the dark outlines of the fort. Another hour, two, three of cruel anxiety went by, and our hearts sank with the chill of disappointed hope. Our men were still slowly advancing, and a dispatch stated that two-thirds of the fort was ours. We had all the north part of the work, occupied the northern traverses, and had swept around their rear up to the central fort or bastion, which the rebels still defend. ->

This bastion was the only enclosed portion of the work, the two wings of curtains of successive traverses being open to the plain or beach of Cape Fear river in their rear. Intrenching tools were sent forward, and our men commenced constructing earthworks, so as to maintain their position in case the fort should hold out till morning. About 9 o’clock, Gen. Terry, unable any longer to control the anxiety from which he suffered, went forward himself to examine the progress that had been made, and to confer personally with Gen. Ames. At 10 o’clock precisely a ringing cheer swelled down the night breezes from the frowning parapets of the blood-stained fort; another and another followed. Lieut. F. E. Beardsley, Chief of the Signal Corps of the expeditionary forces, who had all day stood to his duty exposed to the sharpshooters of the fort, flashed a message from the General that the fort was ours, and almost instantaneously the whole sky was ablaze with signal rockets from the rejoicing fleet.

Abbott’s brigade was ordered to advance upon Fort Buchanan, the strong rectangular fort a mile to the eastward of Mound battery and a mile and a half from Fort Fisher. Here the wounded General Whiting and Colonel Lamb had been conveyed, and some seven or eight hundred of the garrison had, it seems, retreated. Col. Abbott’s forces moved up the Cape Fear shore, and on arriving before the fort, found that two officers had been dispatched with a flag of truce to offer the capitulation of Fort Buchanan, and soon afterward they came in, accompanied by Capt. Graves of Gen. Terry’s staff, and at 12 o’clock the fort was formally surrendered.

The interior of Fort Fisher was the most complete picture of destruction and desolation which it is possible to conceive. The dead and dying lay thickly strewn along the parapets and upon the plan behind as well as in front. The bomb-proofs were crowded with cringing rebels and many of their wounded, estimated by one of our surgeons, who made a hasty survey, as high as 500. The parapets and traverses were plowed and corrugated by shot and shell in every direction, as well as the sand-plain in the rear of the works. The barracks inside the bastion were shivered into splinters scarcely large enough for stove wood, while the large columbiads along the parapets were dismounted and strewn in confusion amid the wreck of their broken carriages. Everything evinced the merciless and most infernal rain of death-dealing and destroying missiles that ever the world has seen.

To storm and expect to carry such a work with the forces used by Gen. Terry, without the aid extended by the navy, would be the height of folly; while for the combined navies of the world to attempt to batter down, alone, earthworks such as these, would be as foolish as for them to essay to demolish Tenerife.

FRIDAY
JANUARY 27, 1865
THE CALEDONIAN (VT)

The Capture of Fort Fisher.

The brilliant victory of Fort Fisher is yet the absorbing theme of talk. Gen. Terry is the hero of the hour, and gen. Butler gets any amount of kicks. This war makes and unmakes men very quick sometimes. But a few months ago, Gen. Butler was high up on the ladder of fame. Some were even talking of him for nomination for President. Now there are none so poor as to do him reverence. Such is life.

The Army and Navy Journal has an article upon the capture of Fort Fisher, and as this paper is acknowledged authority in military matters, as well as able and candid in its views, we copy a paragraph:

“The dashing and brilliant assault of Fort Fisher, considering the daring of the attempt, the obstacles to be overcome, the gallantry of the execution, and the triumphant and complete success attending it, is worthy of unqualified praise. To Generals Grant and Terry, and to all the heroic officers and soldiers of the storming party, and to Admiral Porter and his gallant sailors and marines who were not satisfied with “ substantially injuring the fort as a defensive work," by their tremendous fire, but must have a hand in the land attack as well, the country is profoundly grateful. The brilliancy of the successful experiment shone in brighter relief by contrast with the failure which directly preceded it. The conjunction of the two attempts exhibits more prominently than before the quality of persistency in Lieutenant-General Grant’s character. If he does not always succeed the first time, in his manœuvres and schemes, he will always try a second. If he fails in a second, he will try a third, and a fourth, and so on, until some other person than himself desires a cessation.”

•••••

Petroleum.

The mania for getting suddenly rich is one of the besetting sins of our day. The wonderful discovery of petroleum, and the few fortunes made out of it, has suddenly set a large number of people crazy after it, and helped to form a great many stock companies in the large cities, some of which are genuine, honest concerns, while many others are bogus. The editor of the American Agriculturalist refuses to print advertisements for any of these oil companies to avoid the possibility of leading his readers astray, remarking that probably nine-tenths of them will turn out failures or frauds. The same paper will not advertise patent medicines of any kind. We hope the time will come when the Caledonian will be able to exclude all patent medicines, as it now does the baser sort.

•••••

Great Rebel Raid from Canada.

The Montreal correspondent of the Tribune, editorially endorsed as reliable, makes startling revelations of another raid planned by the rebels in Canada:

“The meditated project of these rebels comprehends nothing less than the capture of the Clinton state prison at Dannemora, a decent on the village of Plattsburg, and a grand raid in New England. At the prison the machine shops, rolling mill, foundry, &c., are to be destroyed and the convicts released, most of whom it is believed will readily accompany the raiders to Plattsburg. At the latter place the extensive barracks belonging to the government are to be destroyed, the custom-house, post office and banks plundered, and the entire town given up to pillage and conflagration. But this work is not to be done alone by rebels in Canada.

“A considerable number of the ‘chivalry’ have been detached from their rebels by the rebel war department to assist in the work of plunder, murder and devastation. These gallant men have steadily made their way North, and many of them are now concealed with their friends in Baltimore and New York, while a few others are said to have actually colonized in Plattsburg and other towns in northern New York. All are in communication with the leaders and are awaiting orders. The raiders, having accomplished their purposes at Plattsburg, will, after paying a visit to Keesville, where there are extensive rolling mills and factories, cross to Burlington, Vt., plunder that town, Waterbury and Montpelier, capital of the state, then hasten on to Haverhill, N. H., and then push across the latter state to Maine, where they will keep raiding until driven by a superior force out of the country.”

The Rage of Despair.

The Charleston Mercury of the 12th inst. is remarkable for its slashing criticism on the rebel army and the rebel leaders, and bitter, passionate avowals of the desperate straits in which the Confederacy is placed. It wants “no more Jeff Davis foolery,” but “men, real men, earnest men”–not “mermaids with heads of monkeys and fishy attachments.” Georgia and South Carolina are in no mood for trifling. “South Carolina don’t intend to be conquered. She intends to fight. She don’t intend to be hampered or turned over to the enemy. When she is thus dealt with there will be reckoning–reckoning where there will be no respecters of person.” But even more heroically exclaims the Mercury:

“We stand to-day as gladiators stripped to the fight: we are ready and trained to enter the struggle for life or for death. South Carolina is ready to become the arena of the republic. Her sons are ready for the contest. Make of her whole soul a military camp–strip her to the waist; she will not shrink. But give her her gauntlets and her sword, and she is ready to stand or fall where she is.”

The condition of the Confederate soldiery in the coast department is declared to be disgraceful. Lawlessness and disregard of authority prevail everywhere. Most of the calamities of the Confederacy are charged upon Jeff Davis. He it is who defies all law and so breaks down discipline. Congress lies prostrate at his feet.

Thus the Mercury runs on: “What General,” it asks, “has been cashiered for incompetency; what Lieutenant-General for inefficiency; what Major-General for incompetency; what Brigadier for worthlessness; what Colonel or Captain shot for lawlessness in their commands?”

In its anger and contempt for rebel officers and men, the Mercury breaks out into eulogy of Sherman as the model whom the “chivalry” should imitate:

“We want nerve in Congress-we want nerve in our generals. It is nerve that has carried Sherman to Savannah–it is that which is now carrying him to cut the Confederacy in half. His is an army of discipline–an army of soldiers–not a mob of ragamuffins. He has no generals with rolls of twenty or thirty thousand men, and twenty or thirty hundreds in the field. His men stand to their guns–not to people’s chicken-coops and barn-yards. His men are full in hand at their posts. He holds them there He is a general.”

Having thus vented its spleen at rebel generals by eulogizing Sherman, it pillories Jeff Davis in the same manner by discoursing f Mr. Lincoln, who, it says, has “run the machine” with a “stern, inflexible purpose, a bold, steady hand, a vigilant, active eye, a sleepless energy, a fanatic spirit, and an eye single to his end–conquest, emancipation.” It adds:

“He has called around him, in counsel, the ablest and most earnest men of his country. Where he has lacked in individual ability, learning, experience or statesmanship, he has sought it, and has found it in the able men about him, whose assistance he unhesitatingly accepts, whose powers he applies to the advancement of the cause he has undertaken. In the Cabinet and in the field he has consistently and fearlessly pressed on the search for men who could advance his cause, and has as unhesitatingly cut off all those who clogged it with weakness, timidity, imbecility or failure. Force, energy, brains, earnestness, he has collected around him in every department.”

The Mercury caps the climax by saying that in Davis it finds “a contrast, appalling and sickening to the heart.”

SATURDAY
JANUARY 28, 1865
THE BOSTON HERALD

THE BLAIR PEACE MISSION.
Conflicting Rumors in Richmond.
Nothing Less than Independence Demanded.

Washington, Jan. 27.–The Richmond Sentinel of the 25th inst. says:

“It is not believed that Blair has been authorized to offer any terms of settlement that could be accepted by the Confederate people. What consultations have taken place between him and President Davis, it is presumed is known only to themselves. The rumor circulated yesterday of an armistice for three months has its answer in the thunder of cannon below the city. The rumors of peace and a suspension of hostilities can have no other effect than to raise false hopes in the minds of the people, and, if not so intended, to create divisions among the people. The shortest way for peace is to prepare vigorously for war. The enemy will never make terms with us until they are convinced we will fight on until we achieve our independence. The more we talk about peace, the more arrogant they become. The men who are continually whining about peace but prolong the war, as they well know there can be no peace but in two ways–subjugation or independence. The Yankee who controls the Augusta Chronicle is no doubt in favor of submission, but the people of the Confederacy will have nothing less than independence.”

The Whig of yesterday says:

“The extracts from Yankee journals copied into today’s paper may or may not afford a clue to the precise objects of Blair’s present visit to Richmond. We know that he has had one or two interviews with the President, but beyond this fact nothing positive is known outside of official circles. Rumor says that Blair is an unofficial medium of communication between the two Presidents, and that he is using all the privileges of his position and whatever logic he may command to influence Messrs. Davis and Lincoln to agree to the preliminaries of an adjustment. Rumor further represents that Lincoln has indicated through his medium a more practicable and conciliatory disposition than the world has given him credit for, but that he still falls short of the reasonable and indispensable demands of the Southern people. All this is vague and unsatisfactory, but everybody will consent to remain unenlightened for the present if developments hereafter to be made can give any assurance of a speedy and honorable peace. Something of a sensation was produced this afternoon by a report that an armistice for three months has been agreed upon. It is not true. There is no prospect of an armistice at present, but Mr. Blair is still in Richmond, and while we are not yet permitted to know officially anything in relation to his mission, we are satisfied from all we can hear that he is zealously endeavoring to bring about a termination of the war. A great reputation will be his reward if he succeeded, and he is ambitious enough to strive to obtain the renown which will attach to his name if he proves a successful Commissioner of Peace.”

•••••

War Matters.

Richmond papers state that the recent attempt of the rebel fleet in the James river to run by the obstructions and batteries and destroy General Grant’s storehouses at City Point and Bermuda Hundred was planned by General Lee. ->

The New York Times thinks it was very fortunate that the Dutch Gap Canal proved a failure, for had it been open the rebel vessels would have passed through it and succeeded in their enterprise. It was a narrow escape at best. A correspondent of the New York Herald says great astonishment and dissatisfaction is expressed at the conduct of the double turreted monitor Onondaga, the only iron-clad in the vicinity of Dutch Gap when the rams came down. Instead of resisting the enemy’s advance, she dropped down the river through the pontoon bridge, and was not within gunshot of the rebs until a staff officer was sent aboard to request her to co-operate with General Ferrero in capturing the grounded rams. Her arrival was too late. No comment is needed.

Examination made above Fort Fisher show that the rebels have constructed a breastwork nearly from ocean to river, and are evidently preparing, as best they can, to contest the advance of our forces in the direction of Wilmington.

Dispatches from Newbern, N. C., state that upwards of four hundred feet of the great bridge on the Weldon Railroad were destroyed by a freshet. This bridge crosses the Roanoke River above Weldon, and is partially built on an island, and has ever been regarded as one of the most important railroad bridges in the South. Since the inception of the rebellion the importance of this bridge has increased to such an extent as to render its preservation a matter of most serious importance to the rebels. It will, doubtless, require at least months to rebuild it.

Large squads of fugitive slaves succeed in making their escape to within our lines daily. When questioned as to their motive for coming they almost invariably state to enter the army. On being questioned, and the fact of the rebels offering to manumit such slaves as will enter the Southern service being alluded to, they always reply that no inducement could prevail on them to accept promises that they believe are only intended to delude. They say that they have been so often promised, and been treated with breach of faith, that they place no confidence in anything now offered in this the day of trial to Southern chivalry.

Western newspapers are publishing, with an asseveration of belief, the report that Kirby Smith, the rebel general commanding the Trans Mississippi Department, is going to Mexico with his army to join Maximilian. This story finds absolute credence among St. Louis rebels, and the Cincinnati Commercial thinks it worthy of consideration. The Commercial remarks: “It may be observed that indications have long been apparent of some peculiarities in Kirby Smith’s department. It is whispered latterly, and the whisper comes from the direction of Mexico and the French people of Louisiana, that an independent movement to ask the assistance of France, and take refuge under the protection of Napoleon, has been inaugurated in the southwest. The story is that the proposition amounts to giving the French Texas as as cotton colony as the price of recognition of the Southern Confederacy, or of the rights of State secession. If Napoleon recognizes the right of a State to secede from the United States, he will have no difficulty in recognizing the right of the same State to leave the Confederacy, and put itself under his protection.”