The Express.
London, England, 1863-09-24 00:00:00

cosernTernowAL ow

)IIDINATIC BRANCIO&

Although carefully covered over with the mantle
of secreay by Congress, enough has been disclosed by stern
realities to show the total incompetency of President Davis
to govern the affairs of the Confederacy. He has lost the
confidence of both the army and the people, and if
an election to-morrow was to come off for the presi-
dency, we believe that he would not get the vote
of a single State in the Confederacy. Yet if the pro-
visional congress had done its duty—lf the present emi-
gre= would do its duty—President Davis oonld readily be
driven into a course of efficiency. He is president of the
Confederate States for six years. The constitution has not
been proved to be inadequate to rectify his imbecilities.
He can be controlled and directed, as the King of Great
Britain is. That government is a constitutional monarchy,
having co-ordinate branches. In Great Britain, no policy
of the government, no cabinet advisers, can stand agaisat
the expressed opinion of the Hones of Commons. Are the
people less potent in the Confederate States, through
their representatives in Congress, than the people of
Great Britain in parliament? We do not believe it.
Parliament has no power, like that of Congress, to par
a law in spite of the king's veto ; yet no king, since
1688, has dared to veto a bill pulsed by parliament. No
king has dared to defy public opinion in the appointment of
the national counsellors and the commanders of armies, set-
ting up personal favouritism and partisanship ►bove effici-
ency. . . The legislative power which Congress possesses,
as to measures and men, sun control the government
sad force efficiency into the administration, whether in
the appointment of cabinet officers, commanders of armies,
and harem officers, or in the management of our diplomacy,
our finances, our military operations, our naval prepara-
tions, and the efficiency of our bureaus of conscription,
commissary stores, and quartermaster stores. But this
ODD never be done by those who look upon P-osident
Davis as "our Moses." Congress must assume its duties
under the constitution, as an independent element of power.
It must abandon the idea that it is only a secret body for
registering the will of the President. It must be the people,
standing forth in the light of day, clothed with the whole
legislative power of the government, and with their agent,
the President, instrumental for their deliverance. That oar
cause will ultimately triumph we do not doubt, in spite of
the incompetency of President Davie end his silly and most
disastrous policy, by which theOmilederate States have bean
deluged with blood and covered over with suffering and
Injury. His inefficiency and Yankee efficieuey will both
be overcome. But if President Davis is to be treated as

"our Moses," we really do not We the use of Congress.
If the people, through their representatives in Congress,
are to exercise no power, bat at the bidding of the execu-
tive, Congress is a nonentity. It is worse ; it is a tool of
the executive, by which the constitution is practically over-
thrown and a military dictatorship established in its stead,
oharacterised by a base assumption of power on the part of
the executive, and a bum' betrayal of trust on the part of
Co•grses.

THE OCCUPATION OP PORT WAGNER BY THE
PEDERAI4.

On the evening of the 6th instant General Gill-
iam', it is knowu, ordered that an assault on Fort Wagner
should be merle the following morning. The special cor-
respondent of the New York Herald writes :
•' Tho troops moved from their camps shortly after 10
o'clock, reaching their positions in the trenches an hour
later. They had barely arrived when a deserter from the
rebel lines came in, bringing the news that the island
was being evacuated. We had depended upon our picket
boats in Vincent's creek, under Major Sanford, to keep us
advised of any movement of this kind on the part of the
seamy ; but it appears that the state of the tide would not
allow them to get through until some time after the with-
drawal of the rebel garrison had commenced. A. soon
as the story of the deserter could be told, General
Stevenson sent forward a smell scouting party to mon
tam its truth. They speedily returned and corrobo-
rated the news, and our tomes immediately leaped
into the fort. .:aptains Walker and Pratt, in charge of the
sappers, planting their flag upon the parapet. A slow
match connecting with the magazine was discovered and
extinguished, and then commenced a race between our
troops for Battery Gregg. Captain Brayton, of the Third
Rhode Island artillery, waa the first man there. A few
men of the Fiftyfourth Massachusetts were close behind
him, and then cams two companies of the Third
New Hampshire regiment, under Captain Randlett.
They arrived in season to capture between forty and
fifty stingier% mostly from South Carolina regiments,
while Major Seaford, who, as soon as the tide served, had
got his picket boats through the marsh, succeeded in
overhauling a couple of boats containing a lieutenant and
twenty-two men of the rebel iron-clad steamer Chi-
con, who had been mediae the garrison in their escape.
In addition to the prisoners taken we captured nineteen
inns, fourteen of which were in Fort Wagner and the re.
=lining live in Battery Gregg. The armament of Wagner
consisted of two ten-inch columbiada, one ten-inch mortar,
five navy howitzers, mounted on seacoast carriages ; three
carronadea, one rifled gun, and two field pieces. Gregg was
armed with three ten-inch oolumbiads and two field guns.
Nearly all the pieces had been spiked, but in such a manner
that the spikes can be euily withdrawn from the vents.
These guns are nearly worn out, and are now of little use
except for short ranges.
" The scene which presents Reef tolthe eye of a visitor
at Fort Wagner this morning is one of utter wreck and
rein. The broken parapets, the dismounted gnus, the
sand piled up before the entrances of the bombproof, the
bolts and fragments of exploded shell with which the
terreplein is paved, and more than all, the heaps of
rebel slain, some lying in the sun and others half buried
in the loose and, show what a fearful ordeal the garrieon
paned through. The stench arising from the decaying
dead is sickening and overpowering. Many were buried at
night, just below the surface of the terreplein, to be
unearthed and torn to pieces by the missiles which on
the following day continued to plough through the work.
Here en arm sticks stiffly out of the ground, and there a
shoeless foot is visible, while in another corner are three
bodies, one clad in a major's uniform, laid carefully raids for
burial, but left in the hurry of departure for us to put away.

" WITHIN TH BOMBP 00?

" Existence must have been terrible while the bombard-
meet was going on. Even now the odour of the apartment
is aimed intolerable. The garrison, which coosisted al
about fourteen hundred men, was here huddled like
sheep in • fold, without stuiahioe to illumine or air
to breathe. The ceiling. formed of huge logs, Is so low es
scarcely to afford deeding room. Dead bodies are met.
tared here and there, contributing their effluvia to the
horrid stench arising from human filth and nastiness.
I could only remain for • moment in the place.
Officers and soldiers who enter it flee hurriedly
away as from • plague or pestilence. The only furniture
of the mom was • table made of rough boards. One or
two rough coffins were shwa, whether empty or not I did
not endeavour to sacertain. A row of shelves on either
side of the main entrance contained • number of
shot and shell of various calibre. The door was
strewn with ImPers, old run, pieces of greasy
bacon and other filth which, in ordinary (snips, finds its way
to the sinks. Until disinfectant. ac freely wed and the
work thoroughly policed it will be imposobk for our men to
remain there. Already General Terry has ordered them
out of the fort, and forty barrels of chloride of lime are on
their way up the beech to be employed in making the
atmosphere of the place in some degree tolerable and whole.
some.

'' TUX Ran BUSTING 131017 ND.

" Beyond Fort iragogr iii7g7ouoi ssang to hay* Ewe
aged ag s place of hula fat many who foil is the dotsooo
of the pima There area number of parse just in the
rear of the booquottga Hee air sevseal lead horns
sod umiak mass with 'axioms wawa and ottgooling to
the spot myriad. on myriads of dim Mitt's further on

are several holes dug in the sand for shelter to the troop',
those stationed withcat the fort living very much Meth-)
fiddlers and mad crake with which the ground is thronged.

"THE TELIOBAPH IN OPIERATION.

"At an early hour this morning the telegraphic machine
which has been statiocal for a month peat in a bombproof
in the mood parallel, was removed to Fort Wagoer, ►nd the
line advanced to that point by Lieutenant Dana, of the
Signal corps. The following message from Lieut.usut.
Colonel Mann, of the 39th Illinois Volunteers, was the first
traaamitted from the new station
. . .

'" United States Military l'elegraph Dapartntent of
the South. Fort Wagner, Sept. 7, 8.20 a.m.
" To General Gillmore, —The general officer of the
trenches seeds his complimeou and congratulations to the
Commanding General from the bombproof of fslleo Fort
Wagner. His confidence in God and General Gillmor.. is
unshaken. " ' Colonel MANN.' "

THE RSPRAULSTATION OF TAMWOBTH.