CM soldiers ands! kit seagull* And if *Tag to issoans, .gtightlavijs aiWon be • • • lied fors Ake ne a t presidential e ett.- r he temp'. alba ton pailif ; ary candidate to nil the sword to'sectga his own election is toagreat,ithe wonisqie of history too impressive, for the America* peSpie ever voluntarily; to consent to so • hazardous' an experiment. I Never be fere in cur history has such a combination of high quiAlities begin required as will be needed in the administration of the government for the neitftiAryears. The war hascrealed a debt the milinfiudi of whiell hi, astounding to con sider. The interest alone wilt oppress the people for snores of years to come.; at the tame lime the means of discharging the debt, by the necessary operations of the war, have been fearfully weakened. So many bun. drede of thousands of Men have been called frotu their industrial pursuits taxer to return to them; so much of the material wealth of the country 'has-been destroyed; so many fields for the production of its great staples laid walla ; indeed its whole labor system has been perverted or disorganised! To recover the nation from this meteor utter exhaustion, and TeX - tore it to its wonted prosperity, will de mand tin order of intelligence which is be. stowed upon bat few men in any country at the same time, and the mightiest intellect in our latid might well tremble in assuming snob responsibility. IV/ s'want in our coming Presi dent nn advanced thinker, a statesman pro foundly versedn political and economic lei• ems, one who full3tleonsprehends tip spirit of the age in whit)) we live. (frit bserber. ERIE. PA., MARCH 5. 1864.. trims. Vseuasca lIT ill Pions 111 TIM PRICII Or !, UPUtf f The Now Caamiiptiea Law. The'new conscription act, or rather al most - interminable batch of-aniendmenta to the old one, which is repealed only so far "as it may be inconsistent with the previsions of this act," has rneive \ d the signatuie of the President, and is now ,the law of the land. The work of recon ciling the original law with this amend ments, and " codifying" the various sec• tions and features of both will, if expe iience furnishes a criterion, occupy the at tention of the authorities until the end of the present year before it is fully com pleted., The class system is abolished and henceforth all able-bodied male persons, 'white and black. free and bond, between the ages of 15 and 45 resident in the Uni ted States, are to be-enrolled. If the slave of a byal mauler is drafted and muster ; ed into the service, the negro must there- upon become five and hisl master is given $lOO. Aliens are exempt' except such as have voted or held office under the laws of a state or territory. Citizens exempt are Such as are rejected as physically or mentally unfit for service ; all persons actually in the military or naval service of the United States at the' time of the'draft; and all persons who have served in the military or naval service for two years during the present war, and been honor ably discharged.; and no persons but such as 'are herein exempted shell be exempt. The substitute and money exemption proviarons ere more complicated than be fore. tat still discriminate in favor of the rich .and against the poor. No man of miaos canibe compelled to enter the ser vice now sof more than under the law as it formerly stood. A drafted man may furnish a substitute if he pleases. If the substitute be not liable to conscription he will exempt his principal for the period for which he was conscripted. But if the substitute be liable to conscription, the name of 'the principal is immediately placed on the roll again and he is liable en future Oallsjast as if he bad never been drawn. The $3OO exemption obtuse is re tabsed, with the modification that it ex- emptnonly on " that call," and in no ease exempts for more than one year. The -name of the drafted man who pays $3OO ii itill retained on the roll "and he shall be subject ton draft in filling that quota" and all farther quotas. 4f he should es-, cape for one year after paying the $3OO his name goes on again. To - the rich of course'this new form of money exemption is of no consequence. It simply makes their circle a trifle more select, with a cor responding increase of the poor Wass tie barred from purchasing exemption. The change in the qualifications of substitutes also has a discriminating tendency in the same direction in its practical effect. To the conscripted man the alternative is Mom. That is the basis of the law. For the man who has money. exemption is cheap and easily obtained. He cannot be `compelled to serve. For the man who has not money, exemption is dear and out of his reach. He witmit go. In this mbt n - thereo substantially no change. Me, Cox, of Ohio, made a good hit in the Homes of ilereeentatives on Monday. The House had just passed another of the series of bunooinbe resolutions which have become so fashionable, declaring that the " cause of the war must be abolished," "the rebellMn must be embed," and " the Union must be restored," all of which do about as much good as so many paper bullets, when Mr. Cox offered the following Basslnd, That the rebellion be, and the same is, hereby abolished. The Rouse saw the Joke in an instant, laughed heartily over it, and then passed the resolution by a unanimous vote. Oar Republican brethren, who have such strung adth in resolutions sad proclama tions, will probably now rapid the re ' hellion as dead, and bury it 'alongside Of slavery. Seeds et Deperguesete fa CGagrest. Ropreoentative Pendleton' It ti In mit hosts of depart oleo on the floor of the HOD:. • t ) them to answer Tuella, ell much comment, and is pining v), , all parties. The Select committee la::vit this nuittSr Itt charge is oompooedotsome of the ablest men in the House: Stephens, Malfory, Pendleton, Morrill, Eamon; ()An son ad Plaine. They are coniidering the qnsitt,on, ail it is understood thit the turdority are warmly in favor of the plan. Ic ie a bold, decided movement, and it is conceded that it will be a greater check on.oomption and mismanagement of pub. Jic atrairs than any bill ,introduced for MKT " Ledger nye Wines comity tiill iaeape dab drslt. Warns borough sad orrond r ": 11 ills Cm . ruddpb have UNA, quota* full. I 5 .2 1C.C...1 4". - . 4 L., . • rein' lAN hi Flimellihk We regret to be compelled to renounce - 1 a most disastrous affair in Florida. It will be remembered that about WI hire Feb; ruary an expedition under oommarid of Gen. Seymour, Left Charleston wits the avowed object of driving the rebels Out of. Florida and restoring, that State tO the Union; — It landed at - JectlemsniihL—ead with little or no opposition, took pewneljt -lion °far) city,: Arran . 7 for permanent ocoupation,and on the 11th; an expedition about 4,000-stroogorearted for the interior, to seise the railroad lines; and "expel the rebel armies. It marched some distance, without meeting any rel swarm, when suddenly it foond.itself be tween two swamps, where a greatly supe rior rebel army, was so stationed as to be able to do us great damage, without our troops being able to inflict much upon them. It was, in fact a citinplete trap. Our loss in killed, wounded and missing. is very large, variously estimated at from 900 to 1500, including several coloeelit, and many officers of a tees rank. There were three colored regiments in the com mand, and accounts differ vastly as to their behavicr.. The correspondents of the Tribune and Post . praise them very highly, while those of several otherpapeiv, and one of the officers, ‘ who has written North, say their condu4 assisted largely to produce our disasters. The 'World has the following editorial comments on the expedition and its results " HAT'S FLORIDA EXPSDITION.-Mr. John Hay is a fresh and fair youth of some twenty summers, who writes exoellerit verses and has flourished for two or three years in the executive mansion at Wash ington as a private secretary of the Presi dent. He was esteemed by the better sex as a proper ladies' man, and might with due change of garb have passed creditably as a lady's maid. The other day he was made a 'major, and departed forJhe South—tor what precise quarter was to the public un known, till a day or two ; ago a steamer from Hilton Head brought:tbe heart-sick ening announcement that a thousand brave men hadiallen amid the swamps of Florida in a fruitless attempt to make successful a political expedition of which this young man was the leader, and Mr. Lincoln, the inspiration. Gen. Gill more nominally led the expedition, bat Hay had full authority for its direction. Its object was the occupation of Florida, with a view to the reconstruction of that State, after the fashion indicated in the President% proclamation in December last. The, expedition was confronted by an unexpected and superior force of rebels, and.was repulsed io signally that our brave soldiers hid, added to the poignancy of their grief at defeat., the bitter reflection that. they were poorly led, in a military sense, while the political...object for which they died was so contemptible and so cruel as almost to surpass belief.! Noth ing has yet happened on the dark side of our arms which will so effectually shake the country's confidence in our rulers as this lamentably wicked movement. Oiir Greatest Now. The following letter of United States Attorney-General Bates contains matter which should attract fat more attention than it has done : Arrounnr-GurszAils Oincs, 1 WAsummos, 1414.16,'63.j Hon. J. G. Siam Jags, tie, MuWax N. M. !Re-: Your letter of the 4th of August, oomplaining of military arrest*, was slow in reaching me, and then such smile urgent and continued oocupatum of ,the President in 'the great again of the gov ernment, that I have notlseen able till now to fix his attention upon the particidar outrage upon you, as your letter makes; me believe it to be. There is to be a sward and spewing dis position gt Ms Wan wherever statanwd, 0 engross al:power, and Co treat the. civil govern ment with centwaney, as if the object were to bring it into contempt. I have delivered my opinion very plain ly to the President, and have resign to hope that he, in the main, comas with me in believing- that-- these arbitrary' pro oeedings ought td be suppressed. He has issued an order to have Captain Bennett called to account for his arbitra. ry conduct in your case. I remain, very respectfully, Your obedient servant, We have here an acknowledgement from a high officer of the government , thit the greatest danger which can menace a• free people—the encroachment of the military upon civil power now looms in the ine mediate future of this country. The tary forces whick were called into being to protect the life of the nation are being used to bring contumely upon the civil authorities, and rob the people of their personal- righta. The matter referred to in Mr. Betas' letter is a ease in point. Judge J. G. Knapp, who is a Republican in politica, is associate justice in the Supreme Court of New Mexico, a territory in which there is no more need of martial regulations in the exercise of despotic powers than In Wisconsin or lowa. Yet he was ,put to cruel humiliation by the military authori ties of that territory. Even Mr. Bates' letter given above, did not help the mat ter ; for we find that two months later Judge Knapp vu forced to publish a pro test in the Denver assmosuedni against the military authorities, who demanded that he should not pass from one end of the territory to the.other on official busi ness unless he first took the oath of elle gianoe and carried a pass from point to point where he was required to hold court. I[Melia awl the Pro Mew. The New York Herald asserts that Gen eral McClellan declines becoming a Pre& dential ciadidate. "In conYersatiosa rith ws some time ago, says the editor, the General stated his views very emphatiad- Iv. Said he, "I do not went .° Beat. .1 have No asbilim to bps hasident. "am too young to 14 ii moist. If teurs " fleeted President fay germ of Ow sod; fix* be " over, and thew I Lima. be as es-Praideut " while still a young awn. And what as a " Praident is, and how A. is preasalece bown . doing =Al* efeetively, yam thaw as +villas " I de. M. My claire. ay militia. ? is to be ." moral to indorser politic* fa the *Way,. ao tAot /stay help my come*, and if Liceirary, - "tom /may dirfor Per" Those were . noble words, uttered from a pure and patriotic heart. Let politicians ponder them, and bluab at then own abasement." IEI3 TIN,* aaa Ciwtougu.—The*Jountal tf Can. menu says of the Chaos Circular that,. when it is remembered that men have bee* banished from the country, have' been imprisoned in fortresses, have been vets scented and afflicted, for no moraine?* treatment of Mr, Lincoln's pctic3r and id. niuristration than is now ecommenoed by **Melds of Kr.may well be. /ins shit, timi*Atai and that tb. pmsple foe. thimuselvis. "Again : we find that a:oonvention of Copperhead. met recently j at Pittsburg, and sountimus/Y passed resolutions against the issue of bonds to rats& atoSte3\to re new Atteirhegf apitutr.itow4 the draft. Tisase Copperhleadsfsrishod' 10 : iforeCpoor into the nudes, Tuatitici of inviting senrienbf volunteer's ; y$ this identical eonventiog elsoiotscigovs4tipasa ed a resointioci urging tbegoverutuent to ealrel.titerparofvoldiers *Van :h7,006*-71 go fuethee I Who wiU he ,deceived ,by hiunbuißd. c. • . • I We beg leave to . assure the Butletin'that ibe . 'hOVrible ; et ' I pperhaad i of gheny County do ; not stand alone upon this question.,_ The ' Cominissioners of ,Crawford, Warren, Mercer, Beaver, and hi short, almost all the Counties 'west of the mountains, have refused to offer boun ties for volunteers, and yet to a man they are Republicans If our ootemporary un dertake,s to make the local / bounty mat ter.a test of " loyalty," he xill not,go far before driving his head into the ranks .. of his:nwri-party friends. Wii,da not presume to speak positively on the auttjetct, but the facts that have come iu our posses sion, lead us to believe that the DeinO• cratic counties of the State have been fully up to the Republican ones in offering in ducements to Certain it is, that in this section, the piccalled " Cop perhead" localities are not the farthest . behind-band in filling up' their quotas. EDWARD BATES. &other Pave Unseat. In the Souse of Representatives, on Monday, Mr. Long, (Dein.) of Ohio, of fered the following-resolution : That the President' of the United States be and he is hereby imost earnestly but respectfully requested to appoint Franklin Pierce, of New Ifampshire; Mib lard Filhnore, of New York, and Thomas Ewing, of-Ohio, and such: other persons us the President shall see proper to select as Commissioners on. the part of the United States, who shall be empowered to meet. Commissioners of a likes number for the same object on behalf of the Confederate States, at snob time and place as may be agreed upon to ascertain . l before a renew • al of hostilities, *bother the war shall not come to a - close, end the Union be re. stored by a return of all the States to the allegiance and rights under the Constitu tion ' ; Mr. Dawes (Jacobin, Mass.) inquired of Mr. Lrng whether helWould not substi tuteVallantlightim for winßor Fillmore. while Mr. Ashley (Jaeobin, 'OA. ; thOught Mr. Buchanan ought to b 3 added to the list of Commissioners. T he , resolution was rejected, only 22 nierOliers voting for it, namely : Messrs. J. C.Allen,, Ancona, Brooks, Coaroth, Dennison, Eden, Eldridge, Fink, Knapp, Long, McDowell, Miller -(Pa ) Morrison, O'Neill,(Ohio), Pendleton, Ran deli (Pa ), Rogers, Rosi, Stiles, Strouse, Voorhees and Chilton A. White. The Nap were 9G. Tea "Chase circularl7 which- we print in another column wilt jcommand general attention from people4of all shades of po-' litical view. There is :no doubt of its gen uineness, for it has appeared in the New York Evening Post, the chief organ of that wing of theJaoobin party opposed to Mr. Lincoln's re-election, and none of the Administration's stipendiary journals have denied its authenticity. It will be seen that the Chase hien are not yet con verted to the theory that the .President is the government, and that it is a crime to criticise his acts. Some of .the charges they bring against Mr. Lincoln are quite as severe as any that Democrats have ever alleged against him.iind they derive ad ditional force from the fact of being made by his party friends. On the whole, we think Mr. Chase and his supporters, if they continue to follow up the vigorous attacks with which they began, will soon come to be classed amongst the genus "copperheads." - : Hos. Itobt. M. T. Hunter, President pro tem. of the rebel Renate, made an ad dress at the close of_ the session of that body, in' which, speaking of the resources at the command of the Davis government, he said: "we have at this day the most efficient army whirl we hate ever plaqed in the field, and can commend the re sources tosaintain and support It, not only now, but Mr as long a period as may be necessary to '