DAILY POST. The Union ayt Was, the Constitution as it Is. «3> WJierti there la no law there Is no freeaom. THURSDAY MOBNING, AUG. 6. Demooratio Nominations. FOB GOVERNOR, BEOBSE W. WOODWABI), FOB SUPREME JtJBQE, WALTER 11. LAWBIE, irStSOTICK-THE SEVEBII IRS* Coontv Committees uf Sm erintendence are reque.ttd to communicate the names and Foitofn-.ie addrcci o their members to the Chair' man uf the State Central Committee. Editors of Democratic pap o 3in t'ennsylranju are requested to forward copies to dm. OaAttliha J. BlDDLE,Chairman. Philaielphia. Fa., July 2id, 1863. no PAPEB, There will be no paper is jusd from this office to* morrow. THE UNION CONVENTION, The Abolition, Republican (misnamed Union) Convention assembled in this city yesterday, at Concert Hall, for the pro ceedings of which we refer the reader to our local department We have, in our brief political existence, seen many State political assemblages, bat in point of talent, character, dignity and spirit, thiß was tbe weakest we ever witnessed. There was not a man of commanding ability in the whole assemblage. As for spirit and an embodiment of that feeling which sug gests Buccese, it was entirely destitute of both. It reminded ns of the Democratic gathering in Harrisburg, in 1854, which felt that its candidates were doomed by the uprising flood of Know-Nothingism, which burst forth upon ns the following October. The overwhelming defeat of the Abolitionists of Pennsylvania, at the approaching election, was plainly visible in the Convention yesterday. On Tuesday evening the friends of Cur tin held a cancns and figured up seventy six votes for their candidate. When the Convention assembled yesterday, it was plainiy visible'that they had everything their own way. On every vote indicating a preference, they polled from eighty to eighty-fire, and in the evening about seven o'clock, after allowing their opponents the largest liberty of discnssion in assail ing Curtin’s political and moral delin quencies, they nominated him on the first ballot by ninety-three votes, or twenty six more than a clear majority of the Conven tion. The Curtin majority seemed utter ly reckless and used their power, appa rently, with a desire to aggravate and punish tbe minority. A triumph over them was determined on, even at the ex pense of their candidate’s overthrow in October. Judge Agnew, of Beaver Co., was nom iuated for the Supreme Bench by acclama tion. We have not yet seen the Conven tion’s resolutions. UNION FEELING SOUTH. When we seriously reflect upon the eon duct of the present Administration ever since the rebellion began, we can arrive at no other conclusion than that those who control it are determined upon the permanent disruption of the Union. Our readers remember that the votes cast in the State of Virginia alone, upon the question of Union, resulted in a majority of some eighty thousand in its favor. This was but a few months before the firing upon Sumter. This majority in Vir ginia, in favor of the old Union, waß equalled by the vote in Maryland; in fact every one of the border slave States showed overwhelming majorities in favor of the continued Union of the Btates. More than this, it was believed by all, and stated Ify President Lincoln, in one of his public addresses, that there was a positive majority of the people of even the Qnlf States, with the single exception of South Carolina, in favor of remaining in the Union. Whatbeoame of these majorities? They were, in time, by eur acts of emanci. pation and confiscation, driven into the rebel ranks. Instead of our Administra tion encouraging the preponderating Union feeling in the discontented States, it labored to destroy it. Had that feeling been nurtnred and encouraged, it was, of itself, sufficient to put down the rebellion. But that was not the programme of the Abolitionists, and we now perceive and feel the consequences. A.l ter two yeara and a quarter of slaugh ter and carnage, which is shocking to con template, and when the strength of the rebellion is not only broken, but many of the seceded States anxious to return to their allegiance, what do we perceive? Do the Abolitionists, who control the President, manifest any desire to bring these States back? Not they; but on the contrary, they are enforcing an odi ous conscription act to prosecute hostil ities—as some of them are bold enough to avow—for the absolute subjugation of the Bouthern whites, and the complete emancipation of their blacks. Prom Loui “ana, Tennessee, North Carolina and even Georgia. ..Alabama and Mississippi, we hear cries come to us upon every breeze in favor of returning to their allegiance.— The original Onion men of these States, who voted lor Douglas and Bell, at the last Presidential election—forming a ma jority even of the extreme Southern vote, seeing a chance to return to the Onion’ are imploring our government for assist ance to do so. Are their cries, for deliv erance responded to by our rnlers ? Are these suffering friends, who are waiting for deliverance from the.Davis.usurpation, receiving a word of encouragement from our Northern championsof the Onion? Not one (their cries fall dead upon the doll eats of Abolitionism, whose programme of daughter is not yet complete. Ust ““ e °° ntetn Plation of emancipation and negro equality, they have no-ear for the" cnesof freemen struggling to free them-! »elTe« from Southern tyranny The plain tive appeals of women imploripgaßaia't. ance and the innocent smjje of 'childhood aw all neglected, in the fanaticism which rules the honr —a fanaticism which hopes to raise as if by magic an inferior and en slaved race to the dignity and grandeur of Icine which has created governments and -ruled tiiem when in the wildest confusion. To confer freedom tipon those nnfitted for it, our own race.in the South is to be sacrificed; and this infernal policy is being carried oat under the hypocritical pretext of restoring the Union. But it cannot succeed; the minds of the people are not bo heated and befogged as not to see through so diabolical and transparent a scheme. The cries of the people South for a return to the Union we mnet give heed to, and not expend all onr sympa thies and thoughts upon the imaginary, as well as real, evils of negro slavery. Will our Abolitionists forego agitation for a season in order to provide ways and meanß for the return of three or four Southern States into onr Union ? Or will they persist in war until our white p opulation is destroyed in giving freedom to the Sonthern slaves? A PICTUBE OF SHODDY ABIS- TOCBACY. Our old acquaintance Daniel Dough erty, Esq,, of Philadelphia, who left the Democratic party because, it was said, President Buchanan conld'nt oblige him with the District Attorneyship of Eastern ’Pennsylvania, has been making one of his spread eagle addresses in Lancaster. In the coarse of his observations he paid his respects to the shoddy contractors and Union Leaguers, who are piling up fabu lous wealth because of their connection with the war. Dougherty’s connection with the League of Philadelphia enables him to Bpeak by the eard. He said : ■'Grief may* shed its bitter tears in the silent chamber, poverty may starve in its hiding-place the patriot may mourn, but no grief, nor fear nor feeling seems to dwell in tbe public mind or touch the publio heart- This year has b«en wild with fashion, hilarity and snow. Our Northern cities eclipse the past in gorgeous dissipation : more diamonds flash in the glare of the gay Baioon : the gentlemen stop at no extravaganoe, and the ladies in full dress powder their hair with gold; .dinners, balls and masquerades iu omontatioo and luxuriance, turn midnight into day; prancing steeds and gaudy equipages curry light hearted loveliness through all the drive, oi fashio -; stores where jewels* pearls, and precions stones, and the rich goods of turope and Asir nre exposed, are crowded with purchasers, and ha\ e doubled sales, though gold touched a premium of seventy percenr.; speculators in stoc a imi#e fortunes in a day; palatial stores and marble dwel.ings are springing from the earth on every side; resorts of amusement were never so numer ous and never 10 crowded; prize-fights excite for a time more interest than the battles of the Kepabuc; thousands of dollars are ptaked on the favorite of the race; gambiinghells are wide open to entice to infamy the young; crime is fearfully on the increase; the law grows impotent, ami Dkfco who have, by the basest means, defrauded the. laborer, the widow ana orphans, hold high their heads, and go un whipped of justice.’' W&* The Draft seems to be getting but few soldiers, but a great deal of money paid to the Government. In the interior of New 1 ork, the Times says, and in New England, half thB persons drafted pßy their s3on. It is men and not money that is wanted. Possibly the 3.100 exemption, added to the $lOO bounty from the Gov ernment, may get-substitutes enough. It ought to before another draft is resorted to, because the amount of the exemption was considered by the Government an equivalent for service, and nntil it. is all paid ont in procuring substitutes, it would not be fair to the people to call upon them again foriservice. Besides, the knowledge that it all will be certainly paid to the Government substitutes, will induce per sons the more readily to entor the Gov ernment service. If these means do not have sufficient effect in procuring the num ber of men desired, another draft will have to bo resorted to. Assaults on Gen. Meade There is scarcely a General prominent in command in the U. S. Army who has not, at some time or other, been the ob ject of fierce attack from the partisan press. Thuß far, General Meade has been remarkably farored. Ever since the es cape ef Lee across the Potomac, a com mendable forbearance has been displayed in his behalt by journals hitherto nnspa* ring in their treatment of other officers who happened to fail in achieving all that was demanded of them. Bat now we fear General Meade’s tnrn has come. A Rad ical organ at Washington opens the ball as follows “Unless Meade is more demonstrative than he has been since Lee crossed the Potomac, we shall find the latter in his old camp again, on the south side of the Rappahannock, at Fredericksburg, in less than a week. Without going into details, we are satisfied that General Meade a few days since, had Lee on the flank, where he oould have struck him a fatal blow ; tod by allowing the wily rebel to escape him, General Meade has lost a golden op portunity which he may never recover.”' Of coarse, other editors will chime in, A New York evening paper said, on Fri day, in reference to Lee's escape : If a corps ot ten or fitteen thousand men had then been drawn from the pen insula, where they oonld without doubt have been spared, and thrown to the south bank of the Potomac to act as a corps of observation, success would have been en sured beyond doubt. Lee could not have built his pontoons, neither would he have dared to cross the river. He would have been compelled to fight Gen. Meade, who was strong enough, with his victorious ar my and Gen. Couch's corps to defeat him The situation chosen by Lee would have proved a trap from which his escape was next to impossible. Why was it not made so?” Delaware Slave Released, Among the names of the slaves recently released from the slave pen in Baltimore by Col. Birney, we notice that of James Thomaß, belonging to John N. Smoot, of Georgetown, Del., who has had him held in confinement for eighteen months, for disloyalty to his owner. The Colonel B avs in his report that it appears from the state ments of the prisoners that this slave pen has been ü ß ed chiefly for the pur pose of holding persons (in evasion of the law of Congress) entitled to freedom in the District of Columbia, and persons claimed as slaves by rebels and rebel sympathizers. He liberated twenty six men, one boy, twenty-nine women, and three infants. Sixteen of the men were shackled together by coupleß, at the ankles, by “heavy irons, and one had his legs chained together by ingeniously con trived-locks connected by chains suspend ed to his waist. They-had been confined in that loathsome dungeon on Pratt street from Bix to thirty months, for what t—Del. Republican. Captain Eawyer’a Wife. -The Richmond Examiner of the 25th inßtant, says: Mrs. Sawyer, wife of Captain Henry W„ Sawyer, of New Jersey, one of the pris oners held for retaliatory execution, on arriving at City Point on the flag of truce boat, made application to the Confederate anthoritiea to be permitted to vjsit Rich mond ror the purpoße' of having ah inter metv-svith her husband before Sir execu the authorities denied her per bo~S£ “*$ returned on the same What Constitutes “Aidand Com fort’' to the Enemy. Opinion of the Attorney-General. Attorney-General’s Office, 1 Jnly 27, 1863. j Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 14th inßt., inclosing certain correspondence with the Secretary of the Treasury and the United States Cogsul at Nassau with the Depart ment of State, and submitting for my opinion the question suggested by the Consul at Nassau, viz.: Whether the act of dispatching an American veasel to a neutral port, in ballast, though its ulti mate destination as a blockade runner is all bnt certain, is an offense against the United States, and ior which arrests may be made, and parties concerned in Buch enterprises may be prosecuted, and, if convicted, punished. The second section of the act of July 17, 1852, chapter 105, to suppress insurrec tion, to pnuish treason and rebellion, to seizs and confiscate the property of rebels, and for other parposes, enacts that if any person shall hereaftrr incite, set on foot, assist or engage in any rebellion or insur rection against the authority of the United States, or the laws thereof, or shall give aid or comfort thereto, or shall engage ini or give aid and comfort to, any such re bellion or insurrection, and be convicted thereof, such person shall be punished by imprisonment for a period of not exceed ing ten yeara, or by a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars, and by the libera tion of all his Blaves, if any he have; or by both said punishments, at the discre tion ofthe court. The act of dispatching an Americanves sel from any port of the United State|s to a neutral port in ballast, with the purpose of taking in cargo at that port and run ning the blockade therefrom, would, in my opinion, bring the person or persons so dispatching her within the penalties of the above cited section, if the vessel, in the exeention ol that purpose, actually ran the blockade. This would be an overt act of assistance, or aid and comfort to the rebellion, Buch aB the law prohibits. To secure the conviction of the person or persons who dispatched the vessel it would of comae be essential to prove the existence of the guilty purpose in ao do ing. I am also of opinion that the act of dis patching an American vessel to a neutral port, in ballast, with the aaoertained pur pose ol taking in cargo at that port and running the blockade therefrom, would subject the person or person so dis patching her to the penalties of this law, if, in pursuance and in exeention of that purpose, the vessel actually attempted to run the blockade, bnt in the attempt was captured or otherwise prevented from BO doing by a blockading vessel. The question whether the mere act of dispatching an American vessel to a neu tral port, in ballast, for the purpose nl running the blockade Therefrom, not fol iowefl by aDy actual running or at tempt to run the blockade, would, of itself, con stitute an offense within and punishable by onr criminal statutes, deserves careful consideration. The Becond section ofthe act of the 17th ot July, 18G2, provides com prehensively enough for the punishmeut of the offense of actually inciting, setting on loot, assisting or engaging in rebellion or insnrreetion, or of giving aid or com fort thereto, of of engaging in or giving aid or comfort to an existing rebellion or insurrection; -turrit fails to Include the claßß of acts which, while done with the intent to do these things, do not of them selves amount to actual assistance, or aid and comfort to the rebellion or insurrec tion. The question, then, is whether the act of dispatching an American vessel from a port of the L nited States to a neutral port, in ballast, with the ascertained purpose of there taking in cargo to run the blockade, of itself amounts tp actusl assistance to aid and comfort to the rebellion, within the Btatufe. I think it does, for this rea son : such a vessel started from an Amer ican port with intent to run the bloade, would in my opinion, be subject to lawful capture as prize of war from the moment she left that port. It is a well-settled prin ciple in the law of blockade that the act of Bailing with an intent to breaks block ade, is deemed a sufficient breach to au thorize confiscation. From that moment the blockade is fraudulently invaded, and the vessel is liable to capture, without reference to the distance between the port of departure and the blockade port, or to the extent of the voyage performed, ed. (3 Philadelphia 390 400, and cases cited. 6 Cranch, 843-9 ib.; 440 Story J.) Whether a neutral vessel, proceeding from one neutral port to another neutral port, with the inteut* there to take in car go, and from thence to ran the blockade, is liable to capture and condemnation be fore she reaches the port, at which she is to receive her cargo, it is not necessa ry now to deoide, although from the lan guage of Lord Stowell, The Jonge Pieter , (4 Rob. 39.) I infer that such was his opinion. But however this may be, he distinctly asserts in that case, that if a subject of the blockading country ships goods to go to the enemy througha neutral country, they are liable to captnre and condemnation. For, as he says, “ with out the license of government, no com munication, direct or indirect, cau be car ned on with the enemy. *#*■».• interposition of a prior port makes no dif ference ; all trade with the enemy is alte gal, and the circumstance that the goods are to go first to a neutral port will not make it lawful." Of course, if the goods shipped on such a venture may be con demned, a vessel started from a port of the blockading country with intent to take in cargo at a neutral port, and from thence run the blockade, and thus to hold illicit intercourse with the enemy, is equally guilty and liable to capture and condem nation. If then, tin American vessel starting from an American port, in ballast, with such a purpose, be a lawful prize of war, it fol lows that, from the time of her departnre for the neutral port, it is as much the duty ot our eruisers to capture her as if she were actually entering a blockaded port with tall cargo. And the moment she is placed in this predicament, the per sons who dispatched her on her guilty errand became liable to the penalties of the second section of the act of 17th July 1862. For, whenever the vessel they have started is in such a position as to impose on our cruisers the duty of arresting her voyage by her capture, then these persona have actually and materially assisted the rebellion by adding to the duties of our cnusers that of pnrsning and capturing her, which involves necessarily their withdraw al, tor the time, from other eervice If necessary it would be easy to illustrate in thSAT 78 the e f ectiTe assistance which might be renewed to the rebellion by the mere act of dispatching vessels in ballast, to neutral porta, with Lwb Q Jd Umate TV, PDrpo l e of the blockade. The nght and consequent duty of capturing such vessels off our coast, before they reach the intermediate neutral ports, might well give g 0 muc h employment to our navy as to diminish its effectiveness, elsewhere, or require a con siderable addition to its force. To create this necessity wonld, in contemplation of r lstv, bB to assist and give aid and comfort ta the rebellion in a form only less aggra vpted than the actual fitting out of vessels of war for rebel übo. Ana of this offense within the terms of the statute ! have ci ted, are those persons guilty, in my opin ion, who dispute American (easels iubal-' last, from our own ports, with intent to stop at neutral ports, and, after there ta king-in cargo, from thence to run the blockade. The unlawful purpose being established, the offense is committed when ever the vessel Bball have started on her voyage, whether it be consummated at the blockaded port, or oe arrested after she has left, or before she has reached the in termediate neutral port. ©I am, sir, verv reßpeetfnUy, your obedient servant, TITIAN J. COFFEY, Attorney General, ad int-erim. Wm. H. Seward, Sec. 0 f state. A Peace Party at the South. Hon. J. L. Curry, of Alabama, recent ly delivered a speech to the people of Talladega. ‘Referring to peace, he said that he earnestly desired and prayed for an honor* able peace that no propositions for peace have ever been made by Lincoln or any Northern State, that the belief that peace except at the sacrifice of onr liberty and independence, could at any time have been brought about, was an ignorant delusion CO R IOU . B e *t p acts were read from Pres* ident Davis’ messages, showing ‘that President, Congresß and people of the Confederate Slates earnestly desired a peaceful solution' of the question at issue. itie effort to organize a Peace party in the south was declared to he unjust to our sifter states, grossly wrongful to the ar my, and an encouragement to our enemies to persevere in their unhallowed designs. Whatever peace sentiments exists, or has found expression at the North, was based exclusively on the idea of reconstruction, and that was a proposition too monstrous to be tolerated by any Southerner. While he would not stickle on any rules of false propriety in making propositions for peace, he had more hope in conquering a peace than in humbly begging the Yankees to abandon their wicked purposes. If peace he desired by the North, a withdraw al of their army from our soil would ac complish it." The Two Armies in Virginia ■lust now there is a lull in the thunder cf battle, and the public mind, ever on the qui rit'c, is eager for news. The proba bility is that we shall not have to wait long for intelligence of stirring events. Ihe armies of Generals Meade and Lee each other in formidable array between tbe Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers, and there is every prospect of an immediate and general enagagement. — Tbe situation is not only critical but ex citing enough to gratify all but tbe most morbid appetite for military sensations. Locusts in India A letter from India to the London Times, says that on the 16th of June last a flock of locusts passed over Raneegun ge, which was about a mile in breadth and two or three miles in length. The old cantonment was covered with them, but by far the greatest portion did not alight, bnt remained at a considerable elevation, gyrating in dense columns resembling water-spouts. Ao the flock moved for ward, these living gyratory masses assum ed the uppearance uf clouds and then dia appeared in the distance. The flock was not sufficiently thick to throw a deep shaoe, but the myriads of these destruc tiue little insects moving in the intense glarge arid sunshine which prevailed im mediately before t.heir appearance and after disappearance. Naval Orders The following prizos have been captur ed by the United St&t adjudicated by the and*/ •'{.£ 11 100 WfiABIUBEDHAJIS, *”* WMJHMSH?. COMPOUND EXTRACT OF BUCHU, Bladder «& Kidneys. one half dozen for $3 sa. A.J.BANKIN&CO, Druggist?, 63 Market street,' PITTSBURGH. PPEES, -■ ~ 53 bb:s apples juitr-o'd and for sale by; r. JASA. FRTZEft, i corner Market and First sts grand FESTIVAL. will be given at CiItEJfIVOOD GROVE, Pfiosa from §2OO to $4OO. OH AS, C. HELLOfi, Bl Wood ftraoL WKBXOJi TBCSSES ASD SUOIIDEB IIBACES, “ " o a ® m ot ■§ ri g§ ° 2 5° Hit g <5 S O e C S i■§ o g*i g 1 § »' a| “3 5? W co a w w in a 1 k- i s i a 2 si I e i O.ftla S 3 Q6' 111 5 S g 1 VJ f*-§5 i H §ls 3 I ' M hi % £ CJ Ssk m ir {i wjl II . wa ntg TOE BTEAMBHrp Great Eastern,