gMlOttr futtilignat.
NDNESDAY, MAY 31, 1865
"The printing presses shall be free to every:
person who undertakes to examin p ceedings of the legislature, or any branch of
government; and no law shall ever be Made
to restrain the right thereof The free ctonmu;
nication of thought and opinions is one of the
invaluable rights of men; and every citizen
may freely speak, write and print on any sub
ject being responsible for the abuse of that
liberty. In prosecutions for the publication of
papers investigating the official conduct of offi
cers, or men in public capacities, or where the
matter published is proper for public informa
tion, the truth thereof may be given in evi
dence."
To the Democracy of the City and County
of Lancaster
In pursuance of authority given the un
dersigned, by a resolution of the Democratic
County Committee, adopted at a meeting
held on Thursday, the 18th inst., you are
requested to assemble in the several wards
of the city, boroughs and townships of the
county, on SATURDAY, the 10th day of
JUNE, to elect not less than three nor more
five delegates, to represent such district in
a general County Convention, to be held on.
Wednesday, the 14th day of June, at 11
o'clock A. M., in the hail of the Young
Men's Democratic Association, in the city
of Lancaster, for the purpose of electingsix
delegates to represent the Democracy of the
county of Lancaster in the coming State
Convention, to be held at Harrisburg on
Wednesday, the 21st day of June next.
By the established usages of the party,
the several districts will each nominate one
person to serve as a member of the County
Committee for the ensuing political year,
and also nominate ward, borough and town
ship committees, being particular to desig
nate their names on the backs of their re
spective credentials to the ensuing County
Convention.
R. R. TSIMDY, Chairman
A. J. STEINMAN, Secretary.
LANCASTER, Mal , 22, 1864.
The War Ended
The surrender of the trans-Mississippi
rebel army, commanded by Kirby
Smith, ends the war, and the country
is now destined, we believe, to enjoy a
long period of peace and prosperity.
Certainly this will be the case if the
statesmen who control the destinies of
the Republic have the ability and dis
position to settle the difficulties grow
ing out of the rebellion on great Consti
tutional principles and in a spirit of
conciliation. All armed hostility to the
Government and the Union having
ceased, wise councils are now more
than ever necessary to put the Ship of
State on the right course, and avoid
the breakers which are looming up be
fore her. We have some faith in
President Johnson, from the indica
tions he has already given, that he
means to do his duty and grapple
with the great questions which he has
to meet in a statesmanlike manner;
but we have not the same degree of
confidence in the leading members of
his cabinet, and particularly in Secre
tary Stanton. This man has, by his
tyrannical and dictatorial conduct,
justly rendered himself obnoxious to a
large majority of the American people,
and the sooner the President gets rid of
him, the better it will be for his own
fame and for the countryat large. Let,
therefore, Mr. Johnson commence the
good work entrusted to his care by re
modeling his cabinet and taking the
Constitution as his chart and compass,
and his administration will have the
cordial support of every conservative
citizen, both North and South. The
people earnestly long for peace, per
sonal liberty and union, and will sooner
or later crush all who may stand in the
way of their restoration.
Right to Jury Trial
" The trial of all crimes except in cases of
impeachment shall be by jury."—Art.
sec. 2, Con. U. S.
"No person shall be held to answer for a
capital or otherwise infamous crime unless
on a presentment or indictment of a grand
jury, except in cases arising in the land or
naval forces, or in the militia when in ac
tual service, in time of war or public danger."
—Art. 5, Con. U. S. amendments.
We clip the above from the Constitu
tion of the United States, for the pur
pose of prepounding the query as to
whence the rightful legal or constitu
tional power of a military commission
to try a private citizen, not connected
with either the army or navy, for a
capital or other infamous crime? Does
the plea of State necessity, under which
the power has heretofore been assumed,
still exist? Did it ever exist in locali
ties where the civil authority was un
impeded, and ready to administer
prompt punishment upon delinquents"
These are great and absorbing ques
tions which assume a paramount impor
tance at the presenttime, in view of the
surrender of the rebel forces to the ar
mies of the Union, and the consequent
closing of the war. Since then, all
armed hostility, at least east of the Mis
sissippi, to the authority of the General
Government has ceased by the crushing
out of the. rebellion, and whilst our own
armies are ill process of speedy disband
ment, is there the shadow of a pretence
for alleging that any further necessity
exists, if it ever did exist, for military
trials of civilians outside the rebel States ?
There is a growing repugnance among
the people to these military commis
sions, so called. The popular heart is
beginning to yearn for the speedy re
turn of the good old times when every
citizen felt that he was under the pro
tection of Constitutional law, and no
man,whatever his offence or crime, could
be convicted except after trial by a jury
of his peers.
Magna Charta
The Great Charter of England—es
tablished in the midst of civil war,
and extorted from King John by the
Barons at Runnymede contained,
amongst other provisions, the follow
ing great fundamental principle of
liberty, which is still held sacred and
inviolate on the soil of Great Britain:
"No freeman shall be taken or im
prisoned, nor will we condemn him or
commit him to prison, unless by the legal
judgment of his peers, or by the law of
the land."
The "law of the land," atige time
when Magna Charta was subscribed by
an unwilling King, was well understood
to mean " trial by a jury of twelve men,
impartially chosen from the hundred,
or, at farthest, from the county where
the alleged crime had been committed."
The "judgment of his peers" or equals,
referred to certain exemptions from the
common jury trial, claimed and estab
lished by feudal law, in behalf of priv
ileged persons.
Would It not be well for our rulers to
take lessons of wisdom and justice from
the example set by Englishmen more
than six hundred years ago, and ex
tend the same rights to American citi
zens, which have always been accorded
to British subjects since the beginning
of the thirteenth century
Yankee Fanaticism—The Next Object of
Attack.
No sooner is the war against the re_
bellious South over than the New Eng
land journals start a new element of
discord. The Abolitionists of that sec
tion hammered away at slavery until
that obnoxious feature has been de ,
stroyed suddenly and without adequate
provision for the freed blacks, Now
they have opened their guns
,against
the Catholic Church, and judging from
the vigor of their commencement, they
will persevere until the whole country
;becomes embroiled in a war of scats. it
,seems to be the design of those puritanic
Awakes to revive the intolerant period
.of their Idetory, and to make the bal
ance of itue R, w t y to conform to the
standard .of ixtorulity, Egilitics and spiri
tualistic " relisiou " Alley * design
to at up.
The Twins.
For many years past a pair of twin
, heresies have hadpolitical existence in
'this country. Theyhave ben 23 E! :int"'
antitely allied, if not quite sii;eloaelY'Cbit-,
netted as the celebrated SiataeObrothera
•
South Carolina has been thehome
one and Massachusetts of the`. other:
Each has been a Source of infinite an
noyance to the nation. Either was
ready, on occasion, to oppose the Gen
eral GovernmeWand to announce their
resolve to
,destrtthe Union. The cry
of the one wa 10 Union with slave
_holders," that of the other, "no Union
with Abolitionists." They managed
between them, after many years of dili
gent effort, to involve the country in
the terrible civil war through which we
have passed. It would be difficult to
say which is most guilty, which most
deserving of the hatred of the people.
Had there been no Abolition party there
, would have been no cause for war ; had
I there been no advocates for the doctrine
,of secession in the South the people of
that section would have sought and
have found peaceful redress for their
grievances within the Union.
No one seems better to have under
stood the exact relationship of Massa
chusetts and South Carolina to each
other, and the evil tendencies of the
pernicious doctrines of the two ex
tremes, than President Johnson. In
his celebrated speech, made in the
Senate of the United States, on the sth
of February, 1861, after the, Cotton
States had seceded, he gave utterance to
the following bold and truthful lan
guage. We quote from the Congres
sional Globe of 1861, page 748 :
"I do not intend to be invidious, but
I have'sometimes thought that it would
be a comfort if Massachusetts and South
Carolina could be chained together as
the Siamese twins, separated from the
continent, and taken out to some remote
and secluded part of the ocean, and
there fast anchored, to be washed by
the waves, and to be cooled by the
winds ; and after they had been kept
there a sufficient length of time, the
people of the United States might en
tertain the proposition of taking them
back. They seem to have been the
source of dissatisfation pretty much
eversince they were in the Confederacy;
and some experiment of this sort, I
think, would operate beneficially upon
them."
It is a great pity the proposition was
not sufficiently practicable to have been
acted upon. The only improvement we
could have suggested would have been
the crowding of all the radical Aboli
tionists in the whole North within the
bounds of Massachusetts, and all the
secessionists per se of the South within
the limits of South Carolina. Then no
man of sense would ever have voted to
allow them to be broughtback to trouble
the country. Could this have been
done it would have saved us from all
the horrors of the war through which
we have passed.
Wanted Five or Six Shiploads of
Yankee Spinsters.
Our readers will remember that Gov.
ernor Andrew, of Massachusetts, gave
public notice, some time last winter,
that the State over whose destinies he
presided was somehow in danger, or, if
not in danger, in serious difficulties in
consequence of the alarming prepon
derance of unmarried females within its
borders. How it happens that this dis
proportion between males and females
in the Bay State has grown to such vast
proportions, we know not; but, from
specimens of Yankee females whom we
have seen, and whose rantings many
people have listened to, it is not difficult
to imagine that a more timid Governor
than even Andrew should be alarmed
at their undue preponderance in any
community. Is it possible that the
young men of Massachusetts, sensible
of the inferior quality of the homebred
article, go elsewhere to seek wives? Or
is the charge made in the pamphlet on
miscegenation true, and has the Yankee
race so degenerated physically, in and
about the " Hub of the Universe " that
Massachusetts matrons bear chiefly chil
dren of the weaker sex? Whatever
may be the cause of this anomalous
condition of afthirs, we notice that there
is a prospect of the nuisance being abated
in time. By due course of mail, Gover
nor Andrew has at length received an
application for " five or six ship loads "
of love-lorn Massachusetts maidens.
Here is the document:
PROVO CITY, UTAH COUNTY,
UTAH TERRITORY,
March 20th, 1865.
Dear Sir : I noticed in the telegraph
of March the 2d, that your Excellency
in your message tells the Legislature of
Massachusetts that there is in that State
a surplus of nearly thirty-nine thousand
women above the age of fifteen years ;
and that you recommend that they be
sent towards the Setting Sun to pleb - . up
husbands ;—that is wright.
" You will pleas Send me five or Six
ship loads ; by the way of Panama,—
up the Coast of the Pacific ; through
the Gulf of California to Calio landing
on the Rio Colorado :—we will meet
them there with our teams and wagons;
—and bring them here :—to a land of
peace—a land of plenty—where the peo
ple are of one mind !—and they Shall
have Good husbands.
" But, Sir, Remember that we want
none but thehouest in hart :—those that
are strictly virtueous indutrious ; pleas
Send us a few Ship loads of those with
their little ones and we will make them
happy ; for here is Zion in the moun
tains.
" I have the Same Number of Sons
that farther Jacob had ; ten of them
want wives now and the other two will
want them Soon : this from a yankee
Exile from his home and the tooms of
his fathers :—to wander in the wilder
ness. * * =4:- 4:-
" To his Excellency Gov. Andrew."
It is barely possible some of the for
lorn spinsters might object to the cus
toms of Utah, but we have no doubt
very many will be found ready to run
the risk of securing the half, the fourth,
the tenth, or even the fiftieth of a hus
band, rather than go entirely unpro
vided for. We congratulate the Gover
nor, and his army of spinsters on the
prospect thus opened to them.
Negro Suffrage
A portion of the Republican papers
and leaders are zealously urging that
the right of suffrage be extended to ne
groes by the U. S. Government. They
very naturally fear that Abolition rule
must soon end if white men alone are
allowed to vote—that it can be perpet
uated only by a class of ignorant and
idle stipendiaries who can be made to
understand that in voting for the Abo
litionists they vote for their own sup
port in idleness and sloth. But it is said
that president Johnson does not readily
embrace this new dectrine. He pro
fesses a regard for the Constitution, and
that instrument seems to stand in the
way of any and all Federal interference
with the question of suffrage. Section
2, article 1, of the Constitution reads as
follows :
"The House of Representatives shall
be composed of members chosen every
second year by the people of the several
States, and the electors iu each State
shall have the qualifications requisite for
electors of the most numerous branch of
the State Legislature."
"Now," says the N. Y. World, and it
appears difficult to escape the argument.
"Now if the Federal Government can
not prescribe the qualifications for the
elective franchise in the election of its
own officers, it cannot, a fortiori, pre
scribe the qualifications or the election
of the officers of a State,"
—Notwithstanding Me surrender of Kirby
Smith and the forces west of theZiasissippi,
it is believed that the troops will be sent to
Texas to protect the frontier and restore
order throughout tbo Mete, Whether they
will be detached from atill.Peartßier
ment or forwarded under the corntda
Gen. Sheridan remains to be seen,
General Sherman on Stanton
General Sherman's "short, sharp,
and decisive" letter, says the Netv
Yo*:,Tt7atid„Aouching / the treatment,
he Ifts r*.iNi'atifrona Seare6lrikitantea;
willicommand a large `share of pubyp
ath . Mtiorf to-day. Te does not age yeti
many or very, long words, bikt:he says
enough to compel the Am:lei - Lean people,
who; whatever their faults, have a keen
sense of justice and a warm lot , e of fair
play, to share in his indignation at the
rank injustice done him by Stanton.
All General Sherman asked, it
,seems;
was that his official reportsshinild be
given to the public. These reports, it
must be remembered,; were made before
General. Sherman knew of Stanton's
outrageous misrepresentations of his
conference with Johnston, and were
not gotten up with a view to defend his
reputation. But the plain facts in the
case, as the World showed in the midst
of the clamor raised by Stanton, prove
Sherman, to have been as patriotic and
prudent as he was disposed to be mag
nanimous. Not a solitary one of the
charges made against him was true; but
Stanton has had the exquisite mean
ness to withhold all the facts in his pos
session which would have set the hero
of the Carolinas right with the public.
Our Washington correspondents, iu
their telegraphed accounts:of the great
review, state that on Tuesday when the
crowd were loudly cheering iGeneral
Sherman. Stanton had the amazing im
pudence to acknowledge the applause
by a most :condescending bow to the
vast assemblage, as if he was the person
whom they wished to honor.
We have such confidence in the in
tegrity of President Johnson that we do
not believe he will long retain in his
political family a man without personal
or political honesty ; in his respect for
law and for our civil liberties, that he
will soon eject from the War Depart
ment the man who never hesitates at
breaking a law or trampling the dear
est rights of freemen under foot ; in his
courage and honor, that he will not long
tolerate near him a coward and calum
niator like Stanton.
CAMP NEAR ALEXANDRIA, Va., 1
May 19. f
DEAR BOWMAN : I am just arrived.
All my army will be in to-day. I have
been lost to the world in the woods for
some time. Yet on arriving at the
" settlements " found I have made quite
a stir among the people at home, and
that the most sinistermotives have been
ascribed to me.
I have made frequent official reports
of my official action in all public mat
ters, and all of them hare been carefully
suppressed, whilst the most ridiculous
nonsense has been industriously spread
abroad through all' the newspapers.
Well! you know what importance I at
tach to such matters, and that I have
been too long fighting with the real
rebels with muskets in their hands to
be scared by mere non-combatants, no
matter how high their civil rank or
station.
It is amusing to observe how brave
and firm some men become when all
danger is past. I have noticed on fields
of battle brave men never insult the
captured or mutilate the dead ; but cow
ards and laggards always do. I cannot
now recall the act, but Shakspeare re
cords how poor Falstaff, the prince of
cowards and wits, rising from a figured
death, stabbed again the dead Percy and
carried the carcass aloft in triumph to
prove his vapor. So now when the re
bellion in our land is dead, many
Falstaffs appear to brandish the evidence
of their valor and seek to win applause,
and to appropriate honors for deeds that
never were done.
As to myself, I ask no popularity, no
reward; but I dare the War Department
to publish my official letters and reports.
I assert that my official reports have
been purposely suppressed, while all
the power of the press has been malig
nantly turned against me.
I do want peace and security, and the
return to law and justice from Maine to
the Rio Grande ; and if it does not exist
now substantially, it is for state reasons
beyond my comprehension. It may be
thought strange that one who has no
fame but as a soldier should have been
so careful to try to restore the civil
power of the government and the peace
ful jurisdiction of the federal courts
but it is difficult .to discover in that fact
any just cause of o frense to an enlighten
ed and free people! But when men
choose to slander and injure others, they
can easily invent the facts for the pur
pose when the proposed victim is far
away, engaged in public service of their
own bidding. But there is consolation
in knowing that, though truth lies in
the bottom of a well, the Yankees have
perseverance enough to get to that bot
tom. Yours, truly,
W. T. SHERMAN
Sherman's Men
When our children, reviewing the
great events of this crowning season of
the war for the nation's life, shall dis
cuss the " giants that were in these
days," there will surely be no prouder
title of honor found for any American
than this, that his father was "one of
Sherman's men." Upon all Alie brave
soldiers who have fought under differ
ent commanders, and in different or
ganizations, for the Union, a special
task has been laid, and by all a special
glory won. The Army of the Potomac,
the armies of the Mississippi, all have
done their work loyally and nobly. But
it was the special fortune of the army
of Sherman to strike at the heart of the
rebellion in the most critical moment
of the war; and the story of that mag
nificent march which began with the
fall of Atlanta to culminate in the fall
of Savannah and Charleston, and the
surrender of Johnston, has a dramatic
splendor, and a visibly decisive bear
ing upon the destinies of the
war, which will insure to all who
took part in it a particular
hold upon the admiration, the grati
tude, and the affections of their country
men. This is strikingly illustrated in
the feeling with which the people now
regard General Sherman's straight for
ward and eminently unconventional
way of calling to a sharp account the
jealous and unjust men who tried to
abuse their official station for the pur
pose of misrepresenting his conduct at
the time of Johnston's surrender, and
putting the hero of a hundred battles
before his countrymen as an imbecile
or a traitor. All men feel that this
vehemence and directness of nature,
which, yielding all deference to the
candor and equity of a just Presi
dent, insist upon bringing an un
just secretary to the fruit of his own
deeds, are precisely the qualities which
carried their possessor, with hisarmy of
heroes at his back, through the very
center and core of the rebel states, down
from the frowning Alleghanies to the
friendly Atlantic. And as, regiment by
regiment, company by company, or sol
dier by soldier, " Sherman's men" pass
through the loyal states and cities to
their homes, they will everywhere be
made to feel, in the spontaneous enthu
siasm of the people, that republics are
not ungrateful, but that the justice of I
the popular heart can at once atone for
the forwardness and folly of individuals,
and anticipate the permanent, glorious
rewards of history.-11 7 1 Y. World.
General Sherman and the South.
We quoted a day or two ago a strik
ing passage as to the cessation of bad
feelings between the brave men who had
been fighting under Generals Lee and
Grant. Rev. Dr. Fuller, of Baltimore,
who recently returned from the South,
sends a brief diary to a religious paper
of New York, in which he mentions his
interviews with Geuerai Sherman as
follows :
" Had several conversations with Gan.
Sherman. He says that Johnston's
army is entirely demoralized, but as to
their sincerity in professing a willing
ness to come back into the Union, he
has entire confidence in it. 'ln case of
a foreign war,' he remarked, should
be perfectly willing to-morrow to put
myself at their head. I should not have
a single, doubt as to them. We ought
to win such men in the only way they
ought to be won—by entire confidence.
They would never disappoint ukif we
confided in their sincerity.' He except
ed always Wade Hampton, saying he is
onp pf . tbpsp bad' men who ought to bp
killed. I refused t speak M
It is stn!oil 't t lint - 4"oFerson pavist only
article of inicury'or comp a nigosbip ix #li@
cop.fulement is a pible.
Portrait of a Yankee.
Many ihre the pictures which have
bean drawn of the gerinhie New Eng
land Yankee. The otuFacteryilcs are
86,fitrongly !narked tliatgey
ly : be exaggeiated-into *icatuin. ie
gaunt anatomy looking as if half starv
e4thejting artaliposelthungpn them
ablipedihoulclaY; theViindling shanks
that terminate in ill-formed feet, which
shuffle as they move; the lantern jaws,
through which a candle would shine;
the thin nose thatindicates unmitigated
#llahness and 'etingi,nrKin - the, n3Oni•
and the sharpest; tdirewisluiess in the
Women the thin bloOdleas lip' that
speak without being-opened of coward
ice and cruelty singularly combined;
the crane-like neck ; the locks of lank
hair thinly scattered on' the skull—all
these are physical peculiarities which
unmistakably mark the genuine New
England Yankee as a peculiar specimen
of what would palm itself off upon an
unsuspecting world for manhood.
Their mental characteristic have been
repeatedly described, but the latest
sketch which we have seen is from the
pen of one who is fully prepared to
speak on the subject ex-cc/Ow:lra.
Horace Greeley, alarmed, as he has a
right to be very justly, for the fate of the
poor negroes who may unfortunately
fall into the hands of their philanthropic
friends from New England, discourses
as follows :
We hear that many of the blacks,
thoroughly distrusting their old mas
ters, place all confidence in the Yankees
who have recently come among them,
and will work for these on almost any
terms. We regret this; for, while
many of these Yankees will justify
that confidence, others will grossly
abuse it. New England produces many
of the best specimens of the human
race, and, alongwith these, some of the
very meanest beings that ever stood on
two legs—cunning, rapacious, hypo
critical, ever ready to skin a flint with
a borowed knife and make (for others) a
soup out of the peelings. This class
soon become too well known at home—
"run out," as the phrase is—when they
wander all over the earth, snuffling and
swindling, to the injury and shame of
the land that bore them and cast them
out. Now let it be generally presumed
by the ignorant blacks of the South
that a Yankee, became a Yankee, is
necessarily their friend, and this unclean
brood will overspread the South like
locusts, starting schools and prayer
meetings at every cross-roads, getting
hold of abandoned or confiscated plan
tations and hiring laborers right and
left, cutting timber here, trying out tar
and turpentine there, growing corn,
cotton, rice and sugar, which they will
have sold at the earliest day and run
away with the proceeds, leaving the
negroes in rags and foodless, with winter
just coming on.
We do not remember to have seen a
better sketch of the Yankee character
anywhere; and we do most sincerely
pity the poor negroes who may fall into
their hands. How bitterly they will
curse the day that forced upon them the
thankless boon of a freedom more
burthensome than ever slavery was.
An Interesting Case.
Attempt to Extort $130,000 from A. T
Stewart. the Celebrated New York 111 er
One of the most audacious and deter
mined plots to extort money' that has
been recorded in the police annals of
this or any other city was in part devel
oped in an examination before Judge
Dowling at the lower police court
(Tombs) yesterday afternoon, - which,
from the consummate skill with which
the conspiracy was planned and set on
foot, the position in society of the per
son against whose liberty, if not life,
the conspirators were plotting, and the
sum of money to be extorted, excites
considerable interest. The individual
against whom the plot was directed was
Mr. A. T. Stewart, the well-known
merchant of this city, and the chief of
the conspirators is Frederick Nassau, a
sea captain, who claims to be a part
owner of the ship Victoria Melville,
now at this port. From papers on file
at the court, it would appear that the
conspiracy was originated for the al
leged purpose of extorting the sum
of 5130,000 from Mr. Stewart, and for
this purpose he was to have been entic
ed from his home in a carriage, and then
taken to a certain place prepared in the
upper part of the city, and there to be
closely confined until such a time as he
would be in a suitable frame of mind to
sign a document granting the principal
in the plot the sum of $130,9011, or give
an order for that sum on his banker.—
The only person who has yet been ar
rested is this Nassan, and the plot was
divulged by a man named James Dono
hue, whom Nassau was very anxious to
have to join him in the plot. Donohue
listened to Nassan's overtures as though
desirous of taking an actite part in the
transaction, and then gave information
to John S. Young, chief of the detective
police of this city. Detectives Niven
and Vaughn were immediately detailed
to work up the case, and if possible ar
rest Nassau, the chief plotter. After
several days' watching the pretended
captain was found in W4shington pa
rade ground, and he was 'arrested and
locked up at headquarters.
Donohue then appeared before Justice
Dowling and made the following affida
vit against Nassau, which details the
whole plot.
James Donohue, of No. 118 Christo
pher street, being duly sworn, deposes
and says : That on the 19th day of May,
1865, Errick Nassau (here present) met
deponentin Washingtonparadeground,
and commenced talking with him ; that
in course of the conversation he stated
to deponent that he was the owner of
the ship Victoria Melville, which had
just landed with a cargo of iron, con
signed to A. T. Stewart, and that he was
then at law with Mr. Stewart, who had
sued him (Nassan) for five tons of iron
short ; he said that Stewart wanted to
cheat him-out of his ship, and as Stew
art was a rich man, he had formed au
idea how he could get money from Mr.
Stewart; that he wanted deponent to
go and hand a letter to Mr. Stewart
while he was going to or from his
house, or the club where he resort
ed, to meet him ; that he would pretend
to be a foreigner, and -would wait at
some distance from the place, where he
would have a carriage; this was to take
place on the evening of Wednesday,
May 24, 1865; that he said after he would
get Mr. Stewart into the carriage he
would take him into his room in Thirty
first or Thirty-second street, and there
detain Mr. Stewart forcibly until he
would sign a papergiving him (Nassau)
one hundred and thirty thousand dol
lars, and that he would tie Mr. Stewart
in his room until he would receive the
money from Mr. Stewart's cashier; that
he would also compel Mr. Stewart to
give him a paper to get his ship cleared,
and that he would proceed to sea in
ballast after shipping a crew and then
go to England, where he would take
deponent after giving him ten thousand
dollars for his trouble in the matter;
that after this foritwo or three days de
ponent met him and kept going around
the city with him; just before the time
had arrived for the consummation of
the affair deponent called upon Sergeant
Young, of the detective police, who
caused the arrest of said Nassau.
Nassau was arraigned before Judge
Dowing, who committed him for ex
amination. In the meantime the detec
tives engaged in the ease are in search
of further evidence against the prisoner.
—llr. Y. World of Saturday.
That Committee
The Committee on the Conduct of the
War has disbanded; it was organized in
1861 to dictate to President Lincoln and
persecute Gen. McClellan ; and having
succeeded in both objects, theyconclud
ed their labors by a puff of Gen. Ben.
Butler and Secretary Stanton. But this
endorsement of these two bloody fanat
ics will not save them from condemna
tion. Butler. is already in ,disgrace,
while Sherman is after Stanton with a
very sharp inatrunient, He is about to
expose the darl. proceedings by which
the was office suppresses truth and
manufactures falsehood. The war being
over this unearthing of villiany will
afford Sherman a pleasant sunrier's
amusement.
The eyidence: and report of Gen:Sher-
Man aubmiited to the CoMmittee on the
dindnet of the War make over 80 pates of
iiiaraiscript. It is claimed by his friends ta
be a conwleteVrlication. of his
Vith 4.o4neen!
The Sherman• Stanton War.
Regankir John Sherman 9 a Review of the
Islllllcctlty—Very Cullom Fact. Drought
ilil 4 filid — Stanton's Treachery and Hal
.4ll4lolßhillgulty—HalleeitAis the he.
, wilegtipqr(2enerais, &c., &v. • r
Minn,,l;;:iiininunteatin in Wiel2lngton,Chron-
I@T,ThECOtiitiioTtrnii:RTlr , 5-.-" j
quarrel between two high officers
Of the Vovarnment is always unfortu
natkimseerrily, and usually injurious to
each. This is especially so when they
are werking in the same great cause—
and that cause brilliantly successful,
crowned with a gloriouspeace. Itis idle
inaiqtinceakevidencea of passion eagerly'
, pforntdgated by the telegram and press,
and-it. is, .for kindly looker-on to
take a dispassionate view to see if all
this . heat is necessary. The writer of
this knows both parties, and is certain-;
ly friendly to each.
The commencement of any difference
was With the Sherman-Johnston con
vention. This, if approved by the Presi
dent; would have made peace between
the Potomac and the Rio Grande. The
objections made to this are included in
three propositions : Ist. That Sherman
had no power to make such a treaty.—
The answer is obvious, that he never
claimed or attempted to conclude the ar
rangement. Allhedid "conclude" was
a truce for a few days, and he then sub
mitted, for the approval or rejection of
the President, this important offer of a
general peace. Even in arranging the
truce he had it all on his side. Wilson
was still moving and holding
the outer coils of the net, while
Sherman was building railroads and
repairing roads and bridges, ready for
the final spring if the arrangement
- was disapproved. He gained every
thing by the truce and lost nothing.
Johnston was " corraled," and was kept
so by this very truce, while Sherman
was never more active in preparing for
for future movements if necessary. It
is said generals have no business to make
truces, or deal with political questions,
and that Grant was reproved for this ;
but Sherman had made truces before,
and for a year has been distinguished
for his treatment of political questions
without a word of caution or reproof
from his superiors. The telegram to
Grant, now published as an official order
of an old date, was withheld from Sher
man, and Sherman had been instructed
to open communications with rebel civil
authorities.
The second objection is that the ar
rangement recognized the rebel State
governments and officials. This is the
most serious objection,
and amply justi
fied the government in rejecting or
modifying the arrangement; but the
official papers show clearly that Sher
man refused to grant this in any shape
or form, until the order of Weitzel, is
sued while Mr. Lincoln was present in
Richmond, convened the rebel Legisla
ture of Virginia and recognized the re
bel Governor Smith. With this order
before him, without a word of the con
trary tenor, Sherman informed John
ston of the order, and waived his previ
ous obAtion to recognizing the rebel
State auFhorities. Why shduld Sher
man be denounced for submitting to the
new President a proposition based upon
this order of the revocation of which he
had not the least notice? How unjust
to arraign him for this, and then conceal
the fact that he was acting in pursuance
of the policy of the former Administra
tion.
The third objection is, that he recog
nized slavery, and restored the old rela
tions between master and slave. This
is simply absurd. Sherman has repeat
edly acted upon the validity of the pro
clamation of emancipation and the laws
of Congress abolishing slavery, and the
idea of repealing or strengthening them
by a military arrangement between the
generals never entered his head. The
official papers show that he urged John
ston to announce as a "fact" the ex
tinction of slavery—a " fact " that Sher
man not only regarded as fixed, but as
unalterable. The result wa.s, that slavery
was not mentioned, but was left precise
ly where it ought to be left. Time nervous
fear that this question could not be left
to the law and the Supreme Court did
not disturb a purely military mind.
This was the arrangement about which
so much has been said. It disbanded
the rebel armies, placed all their arms
within our power, made peace universal;
and it was purely conditional, having
no life without the approval of the
President. Now it is plain that the
duty of the Government was simply to
approve or reject it, and give no
reasons, but issue its orders ; and this is
precisely what was done by the Presi
dent, and he did no more. Gen. Grant
was sent to convey this order, and did
his duty nobly and well, with generous
consideration for his subordinate and
fellow-soldier. Sherman did not hesi
tate a moment, promptly terminated
the truce, made a new arrangement
with Johnston, and at once started for
Charleston and Savannah, to send sup
plies to General Wilson, then far in
Georgia, and to close up the scattered
links of his great command. His official
report shows an amount of zeal, activity,
patriotism, and wonderful ability not
surpassed by any portion of his previ
ous life. All this was going on while
he was in utter ignorance of the wild
storm of denunciation - that was sweep
ing over the whole country. While he
was supplying Wilson, arranging to
catch Davis, detaching armies from his
command, and preparin g for peace and
home, time press and the telegraph, the
pulpit and the rostrum, were ringing
with denunciations. A letterOf a rebel
to the London Times was universally
quoted as the revelation of a plot to
overthrow the Government. Cromwell
and Arnold, and all that was desperate
and violent, were suddenly brought to
public notice. To defend Sherman,
and
even to be" people to "wait—let us hear
from him,'' was to invite quarrel and
insult. Timid people were pitying him
and all connected with him. People
who had slept sound in their beds at
night, and made money every day dur
ing the war, thought General Sherman
had joined the " copperheads," and was
no better than Jell Davis, and even
hinted that he got some of Jeff. Davis's
gold.
General Sherman first nietthis "chil
ling wind" as he was coming northward
around Cape Henry to meet his army
and surrender his command. He was
then writing his official report. He
firmly believed that all thefierce and most
unreasonable calumny was organized by
Mr. Stanton and General Halleck with
the deliberate purpose to insult, humil
iate, and ruin him. He then first saw
Stanton's reasons and Halleek's insult
ing order. He mixed all the falsehoods
and malignity with these two official
acts. No wonder that this gave tone to
his official report, and under this shadow
it would be read. It will soon be made
public, and the writer of this ventures
to predict that every fair-minded man
who contributed to the clamor will, on
reading it, regret his part.
The rejection of the convention and
the reasons of Stanton were given to the
public at the same moment. They had
the appearance of contemporaneous
acts ; but they were entirely distinct
and separate. The fact of disapproval
was sent by Grant, and was entirely
legitimate, and resulted well. Grant
even did not know these " reasons."
Not a shade of discontent could have
arisen. Why, then, publish these rea
sons ? The answer of Mr. Stanton is,
that Gen. Sherman's order announcing
the truce to his army made it necessary ;
that he could not disappoint the hopes
of the army, based upon this order, with
out giving the reasons . ; that he got a
copy of the order after Grant left and
then penned !these reasons. The
gloom of the public mind and his own
escape from assassination, no doubt
colored his statement, and suspicion,
aroused by a desperate crime, lit upon
the most conspicuous person, who, at
the moment, seemed to thwart the na
tional cry for " vengance. Sherman's
arrangement breathed the spirit of the
dead President; but it came one week
too late, or one month too early. In
either contingency Stanton's reasons
would never have been issued. They
were his alone, and are plainly marked
with passion, but may have been pub
lished without malice.
But, it is said, why did Sherman issue
this order to his troops? Why did he
assume that peace was to exist from the
Potomac to the Rio Grande? Why not
wait until the arrangement was ap
proved? The answer is, that it was ne
cesagry to announce the truce to the
army to prevent collision and loss of
life. The order was to the army only,
and expressly stated that the truce de
pended-upon the approval of the Presi
dent. Without a knowledge of the
truce how could officers or men per
form their new duties, and in what bet
ter terms could a condltikul truce be
expressed ? Sherirum talked to his achy
slope, merely for their temporary action.
Can any man read the order now with
out approving it?
Then. followed the advice of Halleck
to ignore Grant; to insult Sherman, and
to arrest the movements of Subordinate
officers, not only without the knowl
edge but in defiance of both of them.—
And.this was accompanied by the mili
tary offense of Haneck's disregarding a
truce and actually invading another
military - department to 'assault an ene
my under, terms of- surrender. It Was
fortunate that this order;;was counter
manded. In Vine or an actual collision
might have 'occurred in Violation of a
truce between twciermies of oar noble
heroes. For this, General Halleck
alone ought to be held responsible. If
he was of any service at all other than
an expensive luxury, tied and labeled
away where it was supposed he was
harmless, he should, as a writer on
military law, have been the last man to
advise the brevh of a truce—the
diem' " higher law." He knew that
Johnston had surrendered, was await
ing the action of the President upon
that surrender, and that Grant, his su
perior officer; was conveying that action
to Sherman; and yet he advised a course
that Could only be justified by the clear
ly ascertained fact that both Grant and
Sherman were traitors to their country.
And then, why publish th . s order?
What motive could possibly induce
this? If some grave exigency justified
the order, it should have been kept
secret as the grave. If they found Sher
man was playing the traitor, their pre
cautions should have been concealed.—
In any aspect the publication of this
paper seems the grossest folly or the
meanest malice. If justified by events,
it was a blunder to publish their plans;
but when viewed by the light of events
it was a most gross public insult heaped
upon a soldier while in the successful
discharge of the highest duties. The
writer of this does not know that
either Stanton or Halleck authorized
its publication, but he does know the
withering effect it had upon Sher
man's reputation, not for what was
alleged in it, but from what was fairly
implied from it. Why is not this ex
plained? Who published it? Where
was the public censor then Why not
now announce in an equally specific
order that the fears upon which it was
based proved utterly groundless? If
Mr. Stanton published this order, and
will not now openly acknowledge that
it was founded in error, he continues an
insult and evinces malice. Then he
must expect open defiance and insult,
and neither his person nor rank can
shield him.
It cannot be denied that after this or
der was issued, while the telegraph was
under a strict military censorship, the
public mind was poisoned against Gen.
Sherman by telegrams since shown to
be false, as that he refused to obey the
summons of the Congressional Commit
tee, and that facts relieving him from
blame were notstated, as that theorder of
Gen. Weitzel was approved by Mr. Lin
coln, but afterwards withdrawn. And
this; too, while General Sherman was
beyond the reach of letter or telegram,
actively engaged in his official duties.
It is true that Mr. Stanton neither can
nor ough t to control the press,and is often
roughly handled by it. Yet had not an
officer in Gen. Sherman's position the
right to expect some effort, on the part
of his department, to stay the tide of
calumny, the very moment the return
of Gen. Grant with the unconditional
surrender of Johnston proved how
groundless and foolish had been the idle
fears at Washington.
Now, it is plain that the true course
is to publish the official report; to re
spect the natural resentment of a soldier
sensitive on account of a palpable
wrong ; to avoid mingling personal feel
ings with the general joy over great
triumphs; to neither force nor oppose
public judgment upon the merits of a
controversy no longer important to the
nation, and leave to the country and
history to settle the credit due to the
prominent actors in the war. The wri
ter of this is not disposed to belittle
either the services of General Sherman
or the energy of Mr. Stanton, and would
rather see both expended on the com
mon enemy.
The Plan to Pay Off the National Debt
and Abolish Taxation
A few days ago we published the de
tails of a plan to pay off the national
debt immediately and without taxation.
The plan was to divide the debt—which
is estimated at three thousand millions
of dollars—into one hundred and fifty
thousand shares of twenty thousand
dollars each, these shares to be taken
up by our wealthy men. In our edi
torial referring to this scheme, we an
nounced that, in order to start the sub
scription, we would take two of the
shares. The gratifying responses to this
announcement will be found in another
column. Already six hundred and forty
thousand dollars of the national debt is
subscribed for, as follows:
Cornelius Vanderbilt 'ti SiOO,O4Xl
H. A. Heiser's Sons, one share._ I 20,000
H. A. Heiser's Sons, for a friend.. 1 20,000
Robert Bonner '' 40,000
Jordan L. Mott I 20,000
James Gordon Bennett 2 40,1(X)
Total to date
It is of course understood that none
of these subscriptions are to be paid up
until the whole amount is subscribed
for. It is no part of the plan to pay off
a quarter or one-half of the debt, while
capitalists who have withheld their
subscriptions profit by the liberality of
those who subscribe. There are enough
rich men in this country to pay the
whole debt before the Ist of January
next, and it must be done. Then Con
gress will at once abolish all taxation,
and the Secretary of the Treasury will
place the country in the financial posi
tion which it occupied five years ago.
After all, these subscriptions are but
paying our taxes in advance. Commo
dore Vanderbilt subscribes five hundred
thousand dollars. In five years his
taxes would reach that amount. It is
better for the rich men and better for
the poor men to abolish the debt and
the taxation without delay, ending the
present cumbersom system of collecting
revenue and the espionage upon our
incomes and our silver, and restoring
the republic to the proud position of a
nation which owes no man a dollar.
It will be noticed that the six hun
dred and forty thousand dollars already
subscribed have been taken by half a
dozen persons in half as many days.—
Our Stewarts, Taylors, Coopers, Len
noxes and Astors, we have yet to hear
from ' • and the rich men in Boston,
Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cincinnati,
Chicago, St. Louis and other cities and
towns have not yet responded. The
financial year ends in July, and before
next January we ought to have all
the Shares taken. The understanding
is that no money is to he paid until
they. are all taken, and that cash down
is to be the rule when the subscrip
tion is filled. Congress and Secretary
McCulloch will arrange all the details
for the receipt of the money and the dis
charge of the national debt. The debt
of England is only four thousand mil
lions of dollars, and the English govern
ment considers itself happy if, once in a
while, it can reduce the debt three mil
lions a year. But we want to show the
world that, after raising the largest
army in the world to suppress the largest
rebellion the world ever saw, we can pay
off the largest debt ever contracted in
so short a space of time without waiting
for the slow processes of taxation and
gradual reduction.
- We have had several offers, since the
subscription was opened, for ten thou
sand dollar shares. One gentleman said
that he would be glad to have the Gov
ernment take ten thousand dollars—
one-tenth of his fortune. This state
ment displayed the proper spirit; but
we could not accept the offer because
the price of shares had already been
fixed.- It will be easy, however, for two
ten thousand dollar customers to club
together and take one share, and this
process can be continued indefinitely,
so as to embrace five, three, two and
one thousand dollar subscribers. Or,
when the twenty thousand dollar
shares fail to be taken, we may
invite smaller amounts. The former
plan is, however, the more speedy and
practical. There is no spectacle in his
tory which can be compared to that of,„
a nation like ours paying off such a tree
mendous debt without any aid from
government machinery, and by a sub
scription quite independent of the gov
ernment. It stamps us as the greatest
people on the face of the earth. It is
better than giving horses and carriages
to high officials, or presenting silver
plate to successful politicians. It will
; be a monument which the whole world
will behold with astonishment, and
which future generations will wonder
ingly admire. Who are the next sub
scribers?—N. Y. Herald.
Professor Cyrus. W. Mason dieclyester
day, at his residence, in Fourteenth street,
New ork, Deceased occupied
,a promi
nent position in the Democratio,parly dur
ing tine last Presidential c&PAp. 4 O:4: ae iSee
retary,ol'tho Society for the Diffusion.'of
Political Knowledge,' and as a, speaker:at
pemocratic ;meetings, etc. lie Icsjqs
. 0 flit
literous faicaly. • ''; •
The Male Population of the South
Terrible Destruction by the War.
Some of the facts disclosed by Lee's
surrender show how frightful the male
pipuiSion ofithe South havebeen waste d
by'stlie wai. 'ln many localities it will
be found to be nearly annihilated. A
.
few months: ago a general consolidation
of companies and regiments took place
in several of the'rebel etirpe; whole regi
ments that once numbered one thous
and men and more, being absorbed in
single companies of less than fifty men.
The following figures were taken from
the rolls of Hardee's corps, including
present and and absent :
Ten regiments consolidated, 237 men ;
three regiments, 210; twenty regiments
627 ; eleven regiments, 829 ; five regi
ments, 456 ; representing 100 t 000rnen on
the original rolls; one regiment, 201;
eighteen regiments, 424 ; representing
10,000 Texas troops ; one regiment, 40
left out of 1,200; reserve artillery, ten
batteries, 560 ; seven regiments, 419;
eighteen regiments, 719. Single regi
ments consolidated, and not represent
ed above, showed the following num
bers on their rolls: 21, 82, 16, 46, 124, 22,
50, 31, 185, 24, 41, 6.5, 180, 35, 50, 11, 42,
40, 100.
Eight companies consolidated
amounted to 35 men; five companies,
66; ten companies, 82; eleven compa
nies, 59; ten companies, 64; fifteen
companies, 54; ten companies in one
case, 81; in another 69. The average in
Lee's corps before consolidation was
about 80 men to the regiment, and these
Corps represented over half the army.
General Bates' division has lost every
General and field officer and three
fourths of the men in battle, since the
army left Dalton. It lost thirty per
cent, at the battle of Bentonville alone.
Other facts of the same kind might be
stated, if it were possible to place the
matter in a stronger light.
Pardon of the Columbia County Pris
The following article, cut from the
Columbia Democrat of fast week, will
explain itself. It has caused intense
gratification in Columbia county, and
deservedly so, for there never was a
greater outrage perpetrated upon any
people than the punishment inflicted
upon these men
President Johnson has pardoned Jno.
Rantz, Valentine Fell, Benjamin Col
ley, Joseph M. Vansickel, and John C.
Lemmon, the last of the 45 men arrest
ed last August, by the Abolitionists in
the memorable "Cotionbia County In
vasion." They passed through Blooms
burg, on Wednesday of last week, from
Fort Mifflin, to their homes up Fishing
creek, where they will enjoy the society
of friends and home unmolested, and
live respected, as they ever have done,
whilst their "sneaking, lying, loyal ac
cusers," will find that a warm territory
for them to inhabit, and may, perhaps,
be compelled to flee the country.
The arrest and punishment of these
men,
and their colleagues, was both il
legal and unjust—for many of them
were discharged without a hearing, and
those imprisoned were convicted by
perjured witnesses—and, hence, their
pardon was demanded by every con
sideration of justice, humanity and
Christianity.
We then say, so far, bully for John
son.
John W. Forney
Forney, who allows Mr. Osbon to be
tried by court-martial for a crime of
which he alone is guilty, is thus esteem
ed by the Springfield Republican
It has disgraced respectablejourn al ism
by its conduct. There is not in Paris
to-day a newspaper more ready to de
fend every act of Louis Napoleon than
the Chronicle is to defend the Adminis
tration. The day before Mr. Lincoln
died it was forpeace—peace upon almost
any conditions. Its proprietor hobnob
bed with Pryor, one of the meanest
leaders of the rebellion a few weeks ago
—but then peace-and-clemency-doc
trines were in the ascendant. Two days
after Mr. Lincoln was dead the Chroni
cle veered suddenly round to the hang
ing doctrine of the new President. It
saw the beauties of justice very sud
denly, and ever since it has kept on this
tack. I should not say this but for the
brutality exhibted in its columns the
other morning, in calling all persons
who asked for a trial in the civil courts
of the accomplices of Booth "sympthiz
ers with assassins!" In other words,
John W. Forney, the old and intimate
associate of Jeff: Davis, accuses William
Cullen Bryant, Horace Greeley and
Henry J. Raymond, of being "sympa
thizers with assassins." No bought
defender of European government ever
did a more disgraceful thing than this.
Does Mr. , Forney suppose that the
world does not know what he is after
Let him have it, and welcome, if lie
will treat honest men with courtesy.—
We all know what he loves, what he
has been very successful in obtaining,
and we shall smile and pass on.—
But it is unsafe to call the purest men
in the country assassin sympathizers.
They may turn and expose the hollow
selfishness of his personal policy.
Presidential Proclamations.
President Johnson has issued a pro
clamation of amnesty to all persons in
the South who have taken part in the
rebellion, with certain exceptions. The
exceptions are, all who have held civil
office under the Confederate Govern
ment; all who have left judicial stations
in the United States to aid the rebel
lion • all who have been officers in the
Confederate military service above the
rank of colonel, and in the naval ser
vice above the rank of lieutenant; all
who have left seats in Congress to
participate iu the rebellion ; all who
have resigned from the United States
army or navy to avoid resisting the re
bellion; all who have unlawfully treated
Federal prisoners of war; all military
and naval officers of the Confederacy
who were educated at West Point or the
United States Naval Academy; all State
Governors of the Confederacy ; all who
left the United States to assist the re
bellion; all privateers, and all those
who have been engaged in frontier
raids on commerce ; all who have volun
tarily taken part with the rebellion,
whose taxable property is over twenty
thousand dollars, and all who have
taken and violated the oath of amnesty
prescribed in the proclamation of De
cember 8, 1863. Those to whom the
amnesty is granted are secured in all
their rights of property, excepting
slaves. The oath of allegiance must be
taken by all who would obtain the
amnesty.
The President has also issued a pro
clamation for the restoration of the Fed
eral authority in North Carolina. W.
W. Holden is appointed Provisional
Governor, with authority to call a con
vention for a return of the State to the
Union. The members of the conven
tion are to be chosen by loyal voters, and
are to take the oath of April 2.9, 1865, to
be eligible. The proclamation further
provides for the collection of taxes, the
establishment of post routes and post
offices, and reinstatement of the U. S.
Courts throughout the State.
Little John Cessna
This renegade Democrat has been se
lected to represent the Abolitionists of
Bedford county in the next State Con
vention. A number of years ago when
Joseph Guffey was one of the Represen
tatives from this county, Cessna, on
some question that arose, made a roar
ing speech about Democracy an d eh arged
Guffey with a want of zeal and fidelity
for the party.
Guffey rose and said—" Mr. Speaker,
little John Cessna brags loudly about his
democracy, but I have always noticed
that the cow that bawls most loudly,
cares the least for her calf!" Guffey
was right. The little blatant beast of
Bedford not only bawled like a cow, but,
when pressed by the needs of his situa
tion, was, like a cow, retrotuingent.—
IVestmoreland Republican.
The Democratic Party
The New York Timex, a leading Re
publican paper, with unusual justice
and truth, says :
" The life and strength of the old De
mocratic party was its national spirit,
From its earliest history this never fail
ed to assert itself clearly, fervently, we
may say, indeed, fiercely, on every
question involving the preservation, or
the enlargement, or the honor and glory
of the country. In our great contro
yersies with England, with France,
with Mexico, it was peculiarly the war
party. In every minor dispute with
other nations, it was always the party
most apt to plant itself on high preten
sions and. 'extreme claims. In our do
icteatio.Wairst it was, the party that al
.ll?cep laberecl meet camas* to put down
sectional discord and to etrengthen the
bonds qf the Union." ;'.' •
Letter froin the Rebel Oen. 'Johnston.
WHY RE BIISSE➢7tiEREII RIB ARMY.
The Charlotte, (N. C,) Democrat of
May 1 . 5 says:
„
We lay before our readers the follow
ing letter . from Gun. Joseph E. Johns
ton, stating the causes which induced
him to make terms of surrender with
Gen. Sherman. We believe General
Johnston's conduct, and his refusal to
continue the war after all hope of suc
cess was vain, is generally approved ;
but if any one has a doubt on tbispoint,
the reasons set forth by Gen. Johnston
will clearly show that headed correctly
and wisely :
CHARLOTTE, N. C., May 6, 1865.
Having made a Convention with
Major-General Sherman to terminate
hostilities in North and South Caro
lina, Georgia and Florida, it seems to
me proper to put before the people of
those States the condition of military
affairs which rendered that measure ab
solutely necessary.
On the 26th of April, the day of the
Convention, by the returns of three
Lieutenant-Generals of the Army of
Tennessee (that under my command),
the number of infantry and artillery
present and absent was 70,510—the total
present 18,57 s—the effective total, or
fighting force, 14,179. On the 7th of
April, the date of the last return I can
find, the effective total of the cavalry
was 5,440. But between the 7th and
26th of April it, was greatly reduced by
events in Virginia and apprehensions
of surrender.
In South Carolina we had Young's
Division of Cavalry, less than 1,000,
besides reserves and State troops—to
gether much inferior to the Union force
in that State. In Florida we were as
weak. In Georgia our inadequate force
had been captured at Macon. In Lieut.
Gen. Taylor's department there were
no means of opposing the formidable
army under Gen. Canby, which had
taken Mobile, nor the cavalry under
Gen. Wilson, which had captured every
other place of importance west of
Augusta.
• Tile latter had been stopped at Macon
by the armistice, as we had been at
Greensborough, but its distance from
Augusta being less than half of ours,
that place was its power. To carry on
the war, therefore, we had to depend on
the Army of the Tennessee alone. The
United States could have brought
against it twelve or fifteen times its
number in the armies of Generals G rant,
Sherman and Canby.
With such odds against us, without
the means of procuring ammunition or
repairing arms, without money or credit
to provide food, it was impossible to
continue the war except as robbers.
The consequence of prolonging the
struggle would only have been the de
struction or dispersion of our bravest
men, and great suffering of women and
children, by the desolation and ruin in
evitable from the marching of two hun
dred thousand men through thecountry.
Having failed in an attempt to obtain
terms givingsecurity to citizens as well
as soldiers, I had to choose between
wantonly bringing the evils of war
upon those I had been chosen
to defend, and averting those calamities
with the confession that hopes were
dead, which every thinking Southern
man had already lost. I therefore stip
ulated with Gen. Sherman for the se
curity of the brave and true men com
mitted to me on terms which also ter
minated hostilities in all the country
over which my command extended, and
announced it to your Governors by tele
graph as follows :
The disaster in Virginia, the capture
by the enemy of all our workshops for
the preparation of ammunit,ion and re
pairing of arms, the impossibility of
recruiting our little army, opposed to
to more than ten times its number, or
o. supplying it except by robbicg our
own citizens, destroyed all hope of suc
cessful war. I have therefore made a
Military Convention with Major-Gen.
Sherman to terminate hostilities in
North and South Carolina, Georgia and
Florida. I made this convention to
spare the blood of this gallant little
army, to prevent further suffering of
our people by the devastation and ruin
inevitable from the marching of invad
ing armies, and to avoid the crime of
winging a hopeless war.
J. E. JOHNSTON
Return of the Soldiers--
Be Discharged
The following official despatch will
show what men are be immediately dis
.
WAR DEPARTMENT,
AILICT GENERAL'S OFFICE,
WASHINGTON, May 19, 1865.
(W. F. Towlivrod, Albany, Nen. York:
charged
All volunteer organizations of white
troops in (;en. Sherman's army and the
Army of the Potomac whose terms of
service expire prior to Oct. 1, next have
been ordered mustered out.
The musters out are to be made in the
vicinity of this city, and therefore regi
ments and companies sent to the State
for payment.
The troops for mustering out will be
.First : The three years regiments mus
tered into service under the call of July
2, 1862, and prior to Oct. 1 of that year.
Sccond : Three year recruits muster
ed into servive for old regiments be
tween the same dates.
Third: One year men for new and old
organizations who entered the service
prior to Oct. 1, 1864.
The records of the State Adjutant-
General will furnish the number of
troops and particular regiments to be
discharged as herein indicated. Please
arrange a list thereof at once, giving
therein the designation of the regiments ,
with places at which mustered in and
organized, and furnish a copy of the
same to the other superintendents. The
said officers and yourself can thus be
prepared to receive and care for the
troops on their arrival-An the State.
By order of Secretary of War.
THOMAS W. VINCENT,
Assistant Adjutant General
Poor Stanton.
(From the Chleinnattl Gazette, Rep.l
A very significant little inoident oc
curred (at the grand review), which,.
having attracted general attention
among the thousands immediately op
posite the stand, and having been greet
ed with an endless variety of com
ments, I cannot refrain from mention
ing. The animosity existing between
General Sherman and Secretary Stan
ton, on account of the latter's early and
unqualified denunciation of General
Sherman's terms of agreement, condi
tionally made with Johnston, is doubt-.
less well known. Occupying the stand,
on General Sherman's arrival, were
Generals Grant, Meade, Meigs, Han
cock, and President Johnson, Secretary
of the Treasury McCullough, Postmas
ter-General Dennison, Attorney-Gen
eral Speed, Secretary Stanton, Mrs.
Sherman, Mrs. Grant, Mrs. Meade . , and
a large number of other prominent
Most of the gentlemen met General
Sherman as lie entered the party, and
grasped his hand. Secretary Stanton
was seated between' General Grant and
the President. General Sherman ap
proached the President extending his
hand. When Secretary Stanton rose
and extended his, Gen. Sherman turn
ed on his heel and seated himself at the
further end of the platform, without
even bowing a recognition. The slight
was no sooner given than noticed by the
multitude, who, in the enthusiasm of
the moment, loudly applauded the act,
and even laughed immoderately at the
Secretary's discomfiture.
Arrest of Robert M. Lee
During the last sitting of the United
States Circuit Court, Robert M. Lee, a
member of the bar, was tried on the
charge of fraud in the enlistment of
men in the volunteer service, and was
convicted. Before, however, the Jury
had rendered a verdict, the accused dis
appeared, and though diligent search
had been made for him, stimulated by
the offer of $l,OOO reward for his appre
hension, he was not found until early
yesterday morning, when he was ar
rested at his own house, in Sixth street,
near Arch. Information had been re
ceived that he was at his house, and an
attempt was made to enter the door,
but it could not be opened, though great
force was applied to it. A ladder was
then obtained and planted against the
back of the house, and a second-story
window reached and entered. The fu
gitive was discovered concealed behind
a wardrobe. He was handed over.to the
custody of Marshal Millward, and sent
to prison to await sentence. Judge Grier
was on the bench when the case was.
tried, and in his charge to the jury tom
meuted with a good deal of earnesliness
upon the character of the offence as de
veloped by the evidence.—PhOzdOhia:
Ledger.
Telegraphic conillklikdeatiou hunt . beau
opened between Mel - At:obis and Ne o w Q.4atuna...
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