The Sun.
London, England, 1863-05-08 00:00:00

THE CONFEDERATE STATES.

(From the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
RICHMOND, March 23.
In the Illust7ated London Yews of Feb. 21 the
'ollowing passage has caught my eye :
" From the Cumberland River, in Tennessee, fur-
,her atrocities committed on unarmed negroes and
mulatto men are reported. The coloured cabin-boys
and cooks captured on board some Federal steamers
taken at Harpeth shoals, on the Cumberland River,
were taken to an open field and shot in cold blood.
Two others got down by the rudder of the steamer,
and held on with only their heads above water.
['hey were discovered by the Confederates, and
several soldiers were ordered into a skiff, who rowed
close up to them and blew out their brains. The
life of a chambermaid was saved with difficulty by
the clerk of a steamer claiming her as his slave
whom he was removing into Kentucky."
As our opportunities of seeing English journals in
the Confederate States are like angels' visits, and as
there are indications from the use of the term "further
atrocities," that many similar stories have been con-
tributed to the enlightenment of the British public,
let me venture to ask your readers whether it is
necessary that a voice should come from this side of
the Atlantic to demonstrate to them the ludicrous
improbability of fictions like this? At this moment
the Confederate States, no less or scarcely less than
the Federal, are floating swiftly along a current
which, if this war be protracted for ten months more,
will plunge both sections alike into that great ocean
of repudiation which is consciously and without a
.hudder contemplated at Washington, but towards
which there is at least great repugnance professed at
Richmond. In both sections alike the result is that
everything resembling property is eagerly sought
for, as a safe vehicle for the conveyance of a fraction
of those paper promises to pay with which every
man, ragged and tattered though in some instances
he may be, is heavily freighted. In the category of
property, in spite of Mr. Lincoln's Proclamation, no
man can deny that the negro is still emphatically
included. At the slave market in Richmond not a
day passes but negroes and negresses are eagerly
bought at prices varying from 2,000 to 2,500 dots.;
and if an knglish eye could ever learn to look with
indifference upon so sad a sight many a smile might
be provoked to see the proud satisfaction with
which a negro, who in ordinary times would have
fetched 1,300 dols., and who has little conception of
the meaning of such recondite terms as depreciaTiou
of the currency, finds himself knocked down at
at an advance upon that figure of 1,000 dols. " I
told you," said a female slave recently, impe-
rial in the dimensions of her crinoline, and point-
ing proudly to her gold earrings, " that it worn't
for nothing that I wore them things ;" her meaning
being that the large price of 2,300 do's, which she
had just fetched was attributable to her bijoutcrie.
Under these circumstances is there anv other man
in England but Mr. Baptist Noel who believes that
captured Africans are likely by Confederate soldiers
to be taken to an open field and shot in cold blood ?
Is it conceivable that (as I have read in some other
extract from the English press) negroes taken from
the Federals should by the Confederates be lash°
to trees, cowhided, and left there to perish of star-
vation ? Is it likely that Mr. Baptist Noel's other
story, about negroes hiding arms and being shot at
Charleston, should contain a grain of truth ? As-
sume that it were possible that in such a commu-
nity as Charleston negroes should have sufficient
independence of character to breathe otherwise than
through their masters' nostrils, is there no other way
of punishing them, if insubordinate, than by instant
death ? There are proprietors of coal mines in
Virginia and North Carolina offering at this
moment, by public advertisement, fabulous prices
for the hire of refractory or disaffected negroes.
And what safer or more remunerative disposition of
such ticklish property as Mr. Noel's imaginary re-
cusants could possibly be found ?
It should be remarked that stories such as these,
which bring down the roof of Exeter-hall, are
wisely seasoned for the palate of the English public,
but arc seldom ventilated upon this better informed
continent. The Southerner, cavalier though he
may be, has lived too long in affinity with the
Yankee to be wholly insensible to the fascinations
of the almighty dollar. It is Possible that some of
the miserable sufferers who are perishing with cold
and hunger at Craney Island, and Cairo, and 'Wash-
ington may be soothed into uncomplainingsilent,
by such stories as these, and checked in their aspira-
tion for a return to the tropical savannahs of Dixie
by that dread of physical pain which the African

Lxaminer :
"The destitution and suffering of the contrabands
at Washington exceed belief. They are huddled
together in Swampoodle,' a low and marshy situa•
lion off the city, and are in the most abject and
squalid poverty. They are kept apart by themselves,
and no one takes the least interest in them—a cha-
racteristic commentary on the hypocrisy of the
Harriet Beecher school. There is the greatest des-
titution among them ; many of them are half-naked,
and the poor creatures are being swept off by disease
and sickness, dying at the rate of 20 or 30 a-day.
Their condition is truly pitiable; hundreds of them
pine to come back to their old masters. If an op-
portunity were offered, gladly would they return to
servitude in a body, so thoroughly disgusted are
they with the taste of Northern freedom. No one
will give them work ; all they do is to bask in the
sun or loiter along the streets, their clothes in tat-
ters, their persona more ragged than any cornfield
negro in Virginia. Their forlorn and destitute con-
dition is in striking contrast with their blithe and
happy faces when here in their comfortable cabins,
and their sorrow-stricken countenances strike pity
to the stoutest heart, not warped by the prejudice
and madness of abolition."
And it is into such a galere as this that England
pants to see, not 100,000, but 4,000,000 helpless,
dependent beings forced to enter. If to the above
description I were to add the narratives which have
reached me of scenes at Craney Island and Cairo—far
too revolting to be printed any where, unless as a sup-
plement to Dante's Inferno"—some conception of
the emancipated negro, as found at present in the
Northern States, might be conveyed to England.
But if it is imagined in England that the loudest of
Exeter-hall utterances—that the universal diatribes
of Europe against African slavery, will induce six
million intelligent, and, upon the whole, humane
Caucasians to turn four million canaries out of their
cages, and set them adrift in such woods as Wash-
ington and Craney Island, then it is high time that
England should be undeceived. What has England
recently done to abate this sum of all villanies—
negro slavery P This answer is Lord Macaulay's,
" She has brayed." What has she done to encourage
it ? For years and years she has imported not lass
than £50,000,000 worth of slave grown raw material.
How will our record read when it is set down that,
having introduced upon this continent the African
slave, and having largely profited by him, we regis-
tered undying hatred against slavery when this con-
tinent had passed from our possession, but illus.
trated that hatred by subsidising the slave-owner
at the rate of £50,000,000 a year ?
It is a solemn thing to cry aloud for Abolition
and spare not; for, disguise it as you may, the
abolition of slavery means the extermination of the
black race on the continent of North America.

pass from the contemplation of such a possibility as
the deportation of the blacks to Africa, or else-
where, by reason of its manifest impossibility. Be-
tween 1820 and 1856 the American Colonisation
Society sent to Liberia 9,502 persons; in the same
period the increase in the slave population of the
old Union was 1,999,527 souls. In the words of
Professor Cairres, " The deportation of slaves world
require a new Moses and new miracles." To
emancipate the negroes without deportation has
always, to the most fanatical Abolitionist, ap-
peared such extravagance of cruelty that never,
until it pleased President Lincoln to put forth his
recent proclamation as a war necessity, was such
an atrocity contemplated. The result of such a
proclamation, could effect be universally given to
it, may be studied at Cairo and Craney Island.
That such results should enlist the sympathies of

England, that they should be demanded in tem-
pestuous accents by great concourses of people,
proves little else than that the English people, justly
detesting the abstraction of slavery, know nothing
of the disposition, temperament, or circumstances
of the African slave as Been on the continent of
North America. For years, and decades of years,
a solution of the difficulties of this mighty question
has been sought by the whole civiiised world.
Has any approximation to a solution been hitherto
found ? Will any solution arise from the stormy
addresses of Exeter-hall orators? It is worse than
childishness to strive to beat down by clamour
what we are unable to abate by reason, judgment,
or philosophy. .

Ought England, in her detestation of slavery, to
desire the restoration of the Union or not ? Ought

she to side Isith President Lincoln or Presiden

Davis ? Do those who so vituperate and clamour
against Mr. Davis heartily desire that slavery
should be abolished ; cr is it their wish, because
Boston and New York have flattered their literary
vanity, that the Union should arise from itstashinee3
to please Boston and New York? l
that the answer to the former of the: seemses is
these
Hughes to
q tions
very clear; to the latter I leave m
bility the rsur-
u
reply. If by any conceivable possi
Irn
• eginablc p rop
m and security
ono doubt that every motion of the Union could be compassed, doese any
conceded with
against
all a
futurevie w t o
attacksmaking
cwohuilcandtchscermi
describe
uag would be eagerly and
enthusiasticallygil a cubt°7ll:e
Union. Is there better
hope for Emancipationists •
fiaarra totavi of the South
slavery
re
restoration
bn
of
establishment of a Republic believing hopeln
my honest con-
ftTrhoheme r et
hie
and based upon slavery ? Such is
viction and belief. In no
portion
of the
slavcholding States througheight
passed has it ever beenwhich I have hitherto
grievous spots and blemishes denied
that there are
sys-
tem of slavery.
blemishes been excused
xeused as the outgrowth
defensive of the
attitude which New
the South England has forced
to assume,
face - me. Leave these States face to
with their o‘ peculiar
vn institution ; aid them
to modify and abate •
it where modification and abate-

_ .•
merit are possible; let there be no more taunts and
jeers ; let it be ascertained whether the alleged

[Hattie() of breeding slaves in Virginia and else-
where and selling them in the South be true or
false, and if true let it be frowned down ty the

moral sense of the world ; let the hand extended to
help them in wrestling with shivery be the hand
neither of Puritan nor Pharisee but of an equal and

a brother, and trust the rest to Providence.
In my recent letter of the 17th, when describing

Two days later the advance, which was suffi-
ciently difficult upon the 17th inst., would have been
totally impracticable. Early on the morning of the
19th snow began steadily to descend, and before
,neiegnhtinththeehesaovuitehstblaadyecraropfestendowthwe
ghircoh I
unah.ayseiynceet
dav dei t
di warm
consequethennteasily
o vneeco
enhi
ompfe rwtahetnargroeascicsalemfaoyr
either General Lee or General Hooker are simply
eia
ot
Virginian
sei
rrognai
na
aida
lrai a, and the
impossible for at least three weeks, or, more pro-
bably, for a month to come. What are the indica-
tions of the movements intended when locomotion
of large bodies of men in Virginia is possible P Of
course, the answer can only be guesswork. I do not
believe that Gen. Hooker has much IT ore, if any
more, than 100,000 men. Of Gen. Lee's strength
it is not necessary that I should say more than that
ne and his army are in my opinion very formidable.
A great deal is said about Hooker's intentions of
advancing by Kelly's Ford, or Port Royal, or over
the ground which Gen. Burnside's army soaked
with rivers of blood little more than three months
ago. My own opinion inclines to the belief that,
if by constantly threatening to advance, Hooker
could hold in check and neutralise for some months
Gen. Lee and his fine army, the authorities at
Washington would be abundantly satisfied.
Passing from General Hooker's army to General
.Tehnston's, we have cheering reports of the health,
vigour, and confidence of the army of the latter.
But just as our hopes of a battle on that line (which
I have described as stretching from Shelbyville to
Manchester, along what are called the Normandy
Hills) were becoming confident, expectation is
baffled by the retreat of General Rosecrans and his
army. What may be the explanation of this move
—whether it is merely a feint to draw General
1
Johnston away from his strong line; whether it
indicates unexpected and unhoped-for demoralisa-
tion of the Yankee troops; or whether, as seems
generally imagined, it points to a junction between
the forces of Rosecrans and those in front of Vicks-
burg, it seems idle to speculate. From Vicks-
burg and Port Hudson the reports are still most
encouraging. In the Yazoo Pass, after two
feeble attacks upon Fort Pemberton, the whole
Yankee squadron has been compelled to put about
and make the best of its way to the rear. Some hopes
are entertained of damaging the expedition by ob-
structions to be placed in the Coldwater or Talla-
hatchie, but I have little faith in their success.
Vicksburg still stands defiantly over the river ; the
canal is daily less believed in, the flooded and
swollen river is wreaking its vengeance upon the
trespassers on its banks ; the prospects of Vicks-
burg's invaders, especially as the hot weather ap-
proaches, grow less and less encouraging. Port
Hudson has already once been attacked ; it is
known that a large Federal frigate, the Mississippi,
was sunk in the muddy waters of the river from
which it takes its name; that the most glaring dis-
affection exists among the land forces of General
Banks; that a confidence springing out of the
recent repulse of Flag-officer Farragut's attack has
taken possession of Port Hudson's defenders, and
taught them, if possible, to surpass the fame of
Vicksburg.

If the eye is lifted from the opposing hosts at
Fredericksburg and carried westward along the line
of the Confederate defence—a line that stretches

thousands of miles over mountain, river, lake,
swamp, bayou, forest, prairie, and heath, till, start -
ing from the pinewoods of the Rappahannock, it
lands us among the palms and magnolias Galves-
ton,ofef
i
there is no point where a firmer attitude
de-
fence, a more solid state of preparation, s not worn
e
!,
and evinced by the Confederate hosts of 1863 o
i ab ite
seriousness
since t h
and
nfidr seta
r drum
fesattoobeesbas:
atwosaawsremevtsre.ermSbhtyilletl ,hutephmeenreext
pwraormott
in
odern
the bloodiest campaign of the bloodiest ihhse brink of what
saunpdpwosheicthhalt
have
ne
The subjugation
they betoken want o co a
throughout the
P ; it has been
vwerhbicehforise.
of bitterest strife to be the
manifested by 23 months
E
wildest of chimeras. But it is felt •
1:coa ohit,
when, In spite
cryof t
fore South
rivers
ovif
of dead who have fallen,
of the hecatomb; ogbeslirrvaneifidl3:deLnnittel
there is a
valuablo
afsr freshnever
blood—when
length and breadth of the land there is scarcely a
house where there is not one deud__when
lives which can never be replaced have fallen in
every hamlet, city, and State—when
like Major Pelham, but not only mEn
also
and studious, such as mature men, learned
Arnold, as he Professor Coleman (the Dr.
was reputed,
• of this continent),
have yield( d their lives by hundreds—it is felt
that this is no moment for thoughtlessness and
levity. Anothe
r thought is continually finding
expression—it is that the two sections do not
fight on level ground. The North is flooding her
armies with recruits who aro three-fourths of them
foreigners, many of them taken from the emigrant
ships at Castle Garden ; the South is sending into
the field the very lifeblood of her body politic. It
may he that the civilised Powers of Europe, stand-
ing as they do upon a higher level than it is possible
that I can occupy, may ste no hope of successful
.
moral interfercuee. But if they could only witness
the misery which is, from every acre of this-teocliild
favoured continent, crying aloud I°"eaXc'hiance of
scarcely be but that they would r!sk,
Is:
be outreged
failure rather than permit hum t
a noYanguish es has
by a continuance of such
exce'.Bd first leaped from
visited no nation siocc the swot
heart was first s
it scabbard, and the pt!
h-
toincutiveness and hate.
own
with the bitter seed of vii
_____

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