The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-06 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, APRIL 6, 1863

AMERICA.

QUEENSTOWN, Saturday.
The Royal mail steamer Australasian has arrived
bringing New York dates to the 25th of March.
The Australasian was detained 26 hours at New
York by fog.

In furtherance of the new peace movement a
special meeting of the Democratic General Com•
mittee of Mcztrt-hall was held in New York, at
which the following resolutions were enthusiasti-
cally agreed to :
" 1. That the United States are a union of original, in-
destructible, and sovereign political communities called
States; equal in political rights, independent in their re-
spective organizations, existing long precedent to the for-
mation of the Federal Constitution, and reserving to itself,
at the time of making that great compact of union, every
right, power, jurisdiction, and authority not therein and
thereby specifically delegated to the Federal Government.
" 2. That, while we assert our devotion to the Constitution
and to the union of these States, and will, hereafter, as
always, heretofore, support and respect the officials of the
United States Government in the exercise of their lawful
powers, we deliberately avow and announce that, in our
judgment, the liberties of our people are at this time me-
naced and endangered by Federal usurpations,and can only
be preserved to us by the energetic action of State autho-
rity ; and that we as citizens of the great and patriotic
State of New York, are determined to maintain and defend
the honour and the rights of our State and people.
"3. That the masses of the American people throughout
this whole land are now offering up their daily and heart-
felt prayers for peace, and demanding that this most un-
necessary, most ineffectual; most devastating,and most cruel
war of modern times shall be brought to a close; that the Go-
verment at Washington must before long find itself power-
less to continue a conflict which the awakened judgment of
a Christian and civilised people emphatically condemns and
upon which the displeasure of Heaven would seem to have
fallen ; that, in order to produce even a seeming and
temporary unity of public sentiment at the North in favour
of coercive war, it required the suppression of newspapers,
the intimidation of the weak, and the lawless imprisonment
of brave and consistent tribunes of the people in military
bastiles, along with an unexampled profusion of the official
favours of a corrupt administration, a lavish distribution of
civil and military honours, and the shameless plunder of
millions from the public treasury ; but now, after two years
of this terrible fratricidal struggle, when hundreds of thou-
sands of our best and bravest youths lie in their bloody graves
and the land is filled with mourning and suffering, while
bankruptcy and grinding taxation are pressing upon us, and
the declared object of the war has long sine. been lost sight
of and abandoned, we recur to the words which Abraham
Lincoln uttered on the day of his ill-omened inauguration,
when he said, Suppose you go to war ? You cannot fight
always; and when, after much loss on both sides and no
gain to either, you cease fighting, the identical questions are
again upon you.'
"4. That the policy of war having had a fair trial for
two long, miserable, bloody years, and having failed to bring
us, to all appearance, a single step nearer to the restoration
of the Union, the people insist that a policy of peace should
now be undertaken and attempted ; and that a convention
should be called, as contemplated and provided for in such
exigencies by the Constitution of the United States, at which
convention all the States which were adhering to the Union
on the Ist day of November, 1860, should be invited to be
represented by delegates elected from their people, and that
such a convention should be held at the earliest possible day,
for the purpose of devising means for a reconstruction of the
American Union and the restoration of peace.
"5. That the Conscription Bill recently passed through
Congress, and which is claimed by the Federal Government
to be a law, is, in our judgment, grossly and palpably un-
constitutional in its provisions; that it is in direct violation
of those express conditions and reservations as to the
control of her militia, under which the sovereign State
of New York entered into the Union ; that it is subver-
sive of the rights of State Governments, and designed to
make them mere dependencies and provinces, to be ruled by
military satraps, under a great, consolidated, usurping
central despotism ; that the people everywhere should be
awakened to the infamous distinction which it makes
between rich and poor, whereby the former is allowed to
buy his freedom for the sum of 300 dole., while the latter,
unable to command that sum, is to be torn away from his
employment, his home, and his family, and forced, at the
point of the bayonet, into the ranks of the army; that we
call upon the authorities of the State, in view of the in-
tolerable outrages of this conscription law, to advise the
Executive of the United States against the enforcement of
this Act here, until its constitutionality has been deter-
mined, with its provisions so repugnant to the sentiments of
our citizens, and so insulting to their manhood and dignity

as freemen.
"6. That the Banking System,' recently enacted by the
Congress of the United States, has been shown, by a few
lines over the signature of the Republican Bank Superin-
tendent at Albany, to be in plain derogation and violation of
the constitution ;and laws of the State of New York, inas-
much as it assumes to authorise the issue in this State of
unsecured, worthless, and irredeemable paper money ; that,
if our authorities were to suffer such a system to be imposed
unlawfully upon our people, its effect would be destructive
of every existing moneyed institution in the State, and the
poeple would be beggared, that the Government and its fa-
vont ites might roll in ill-gotten wealth ; that this ingenious
scheme was devised and designed to fasten upon us a vast
centralised money power, more rapacious, more powerful,
and more dangerous than 50 such national banks as Andrew
Jackson overthrew; to erect a power which could grasp at
every man's purse strings, and hold in its control the income
of the millionaire and the daily wages of the poor labourer
alike. a power unknown to the Constitution of the United
States, and expresly forbidden and exorcised by the Consti-
tution of the State of New York.
" 7. That the pretended enactment of Congress whereby
Abraham Lincoln is deliberately created an absolute and
despotic monarch, in all but name, and is authorised at his
own discretion and pleasure to suspend and abrogate the
great sacred charter of the personal freedom of 20,000,000
of American citizens—the writ of habeas corpus—and that
too in States wherein no invasion or insurrection exists or
has existed—we denounce as altogether unconstitutional,
null, and void throughout; and we call for our protection
upon the judiciary of the several courts of the State of New
York, which were created and established by the people of
this State. to maintain and viadicate its laws for the safety
of the persons of our citizens.
" 8. That we pledge our utmost influence to act in con-
junction with our fellow-citizens of other States to prevent
the payment of a single dollar of the money of the people,
wrung by taxation out of their hard earnings, which shall
be appropriated from the Federal treasury for the emanci-
pation of negroes.
"9. That we denounce the meetings recently gotten up
in this and neighbouring cities, with the money and by the
agency of office-holders, or would• be office holders, under
Republican patronage, together with contractors, jobbers,
and agents for Government plunder, for the purpose of or-
ganising' loyal leagues;' that in our judgment these leagues
bear a marvellous and striking similarity to the Wide
Awake Clubs of 1860, and appear to be controlled and offi-
cered by the very same class of men ; that we adjure all
Democrats—if any there be—who have been seduced into
these leagues under false pretences, to reflect whether the
old Democratic party of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew
Jackson is not a sufficiently ' loyal' league to live and die in
—that we point proudly to the historical evidence of the
loyalty of the Democracy to the Constitution to be found in
the fact that during the 60 years' ascendancy and control in
the Federal Government, not one malcontent was convicted
of treason, not one arbitrary arrest was made. not a single
court or magistrate was impeded in legitimate powers, not
one newspaper was suppressed, and not one drop of Ameri-
can blood was spilt for any political offence. We ask all
men to contrast these 60 years with the two past years of
Abolition ascendancy, and to remember that ' by their
fruits ye shall know them.'
" 10. That we tender our hearty congratulations to the
Democracy of the Statesof Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsyl-
vania, New Jersey, and New Hampshire, upon the glorious
victories recently achieved by them in each of those states
upon the common platform of opposition to the war for the
emancipation of negroes and advocacy of convention of States,
and we bid God speed to the gallant and fearless Democrats
of the State of Connecticut, now grappling with their Abell..
tion opponents, and whose victory we anticipate and feel to be
already half accomplished ; that we take this opportunity to
assure Democrats everywhere, no matter what pensioned or
cowed daily presses may say, the Island City stands firm; that
our great majority of 30 odd thousand last fall has swollen
to a much mightier majority since, and is increasing daily
and hourly ; that the people of this great metropolis are for
peace, for that peace which made us great, and prosperous,
and powerful in times past; that four-fifths of our people
have no interest in the blood money of war contracts ; that
New Yorkers are not mere maniacs, ready to annihilate white
That
men, women, and children to liberate negroes ; that they
are not wanton shedders of blood, but believers in the God
off peace and the Gospel of peace, hoping for peace, praying
Institute on Friday or Pee, longing for peace, and whenever the polls are
openedu. they will be found emphatically voting for peace.
a public mass meeting be called at the Cooper
evthening.,
.the 3d day of April proximo,
of arrangements for such• meeting,
to give expressionyto
city on public affairs, ande optihanitonthoef cthhaei Democracywltpow ero of this
r appoint a
tcommit-
tee
co-
operate with any other committee that may be appointed
for a similar purpose."
Judge WCann and the Hon. Fernando Wood
made speeches in the spirit of the resolutions.
A Washington letter in the New York Times says

that the question of the issue of letters of marque
had not yet been affirmatively settled
"That important matter is under Cabinet advisement.
The main argument in favour of the issuance of the letters
is understood to be the desire to provide additional means
to thwart the voyages of the English privateer ships if they
should succeed in getting to sea, In reply to this, it is urged
upon the President that it will be impossible to organize a
letter of marque of sufficient strength for that purpose, on
the principle that underlies the whole system—compensa-
tions by booty. It would be otherwise, say the dissentients,
if there were a profitable commerce to be seized. This
question has been under discussion from time to time in
Cabinet meetings for two weeks. It still goes on."
The same paper, in a leader on the subject, after
arguing that Northern privateers would lie effective
against the Confederate cruisers, goes on to add
" The time, indeed, may not be far distant when it will
be both just and expedient to issue these commissions, not
only against the Confederate flag, but against the English
flag itself. The last Congress imposed no restrictions upon
the authority of the President, for the express reason that it
recognised the possibility of a necessity for making prompt
reprisals upon British commerce before the next Congress
shall assemble. There certainly is such a possibility. If the
iron-clad ships which are now being built in England noto-
riously to depredate upon our commerce, under the rebel
flag, be allowed to quit British waters, the Government
ought not to wait an hour after hearing of the first 'capture
made by one of them before commissioning American ves-
sels to make reprisals. At the last advices the Ministry had
been interrogated in Parliament respecting the destined
purpose of these vessels, and chose to answer that they had
no legal proof on the subject. The same answer was given
respecting the Alabama just prior to her leaving the Mer-
sey. Judging by that precedent, a moral certainty founded
on circumstantial evidence, s uch as governs the ordinary
conduct of States as well as of individuals, is not sufficient
in this case. The proof must be sifted and analysed, and
refined and sublimated into the very highest indubitable-
ness known to metaphysics ; so that the chance shall be a
thousand to one that the pirates shall be well under way
outside of the Channel before the process is completed. Our
Administration, if it have a drop of American blood in its
veins—and we know it has plenty of it—will stand no such
trifling. The quiet toleration of one such imposition is quite
enough. The excuses concerning the Alabama were treated
with respect, because it was possible to reconcile them with
good faith; but, after that lesson, the default, if repeated,
can admit of no excuses, and, if such are made, they will de-
serve to be treated only with contempt. The launching of
those vessels upon our commerce from the shores of Eng-
land should be taken by our Government on the instant as
an act of deliberate war on her part against our commerce,
and her own commerce should be made to answer for it."
The Democratic members of the Indiana Legisla-
ture have issued a manifesto to the people of that
State complaining of injudicious measures adopted
for the suppression of the rebellion, and of the de-
spotic conduct of the Administration.
An article in the Richmond Enquirer of the 21st
contains the following :
" The peace delusion is blown away. Neither from
foreign intervention, nor from imperious decrees of King
Cotton, nor from friendship of the North-west, nor from
stupid rumours of demoralisation in Yankee armies, does
any hope of peace dawn upon the land. We must fight or
submit. If they can take Richmond, Charleston, and Vicks-
burg in six months, their financial credit is restored, and
party feuds cease. The plain truth is, we are in the middle
of war; and during coming spring and summer that war is
to be more fierce and unrelenting than ever before. The
Yankee enemy is just beginning to fight. Again Great
Union meetings are the order of the day at the North. De-
mocrats bury the hatchet just lifted up against Lincoln.
Vallandigham will soon stand where John Van Buren does.'
The article winds up a most intense appeal for every man
to be put in the army and every deserter returned."
A Washington letter of the 22d, in the New
York World, says :-
4, The Government has advices from the West which are
by no means cheering. The resistance to the arrest of de-
serters in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois will be succeeded by
the obstruction of the Conscription Act, and a refusal to pay
Excise taxes. Several governors of Western States, toge-
ther with influential citizens, had an interview with the
President to-day on the subject, and measures to prevent
such resistance have been taken. Governor Tod, of Ohio,
who is a Democrat, it is presumed, will look to matters in
Ohio under military authority. The sale of arms in all the
principal Western cities has been stopped."
The Richmond Despatch publishes the annexed
" circular," addressed to the consular agents in the
Confederate States :
" Department of State, Richmond, Feb. 7.
" Sir,—l have again to inform you of the raising of the
blockade of two Southern ports by superior forces. This
Government is officially informed of the total dispersion and
disappearance of the blockading squadron recently stationed
off Galveston harbour by the combined attack of land and
naval forces of the Confederacy. In this attack the enemy's
steamer Harriet Lane was captured, and the flagship of
the squadron, the Westfield, was blown up and destroyed.
The blockade of the port of Galveston is therefore at an
end. The armed river boats which raised the blockade at
Galveston then proceeded to Sabine ram; where they again
attacked the enemy's blockaders, captured 13 guns, a large
quantity of stores, and a number of prisoner. No blockad-
ing fleet now exists off Sabine Pass, and the steamers of
the Confederacy were, at the last accounts, cruising off the
Pass with no enemy in sight. This information is given
for the guidance of such of the merchants of your nation as
may desire to trade with either of the open ports of Galves-
ton or Sabine Pass.
" Respectfully your obedient servant,
"J. P. BENJAIaIIft Secretary of State."
Some Federal prisoners arrived at Washington
from Richmond give a startling account of the
treatment they met with at the hands of the Con-
federates. In an interview with Judge-Advocate
Holt it is stated—
only four of the ori-
" They related some startling stories of their punishment
and imprisonment, they having been captured by blood-
hounds and confined in dungeons without light for several
months, and handcuffed all the tinae. During last winter
seven were taken out and hung, andginal party of 22 are here, the rest having escaped while on
their way from Knoxville to Richmond, and but two were
subsequently heard from. These four now here will soon
return to Ohio, where they belong. It is the intention of
the Government to adopt suitable Measures of retaliation,
such as will deter the rebels from such harsh treatment of
our prisoners in future."
Federal accounts of the attack upon Fort Hudson
have been published. The following was received
at Washington, addressed to Colonel Stager, by
steamer to New York :
" (By Telegraph from Baton gouge, March 15.
" Southwest Pass, Louisiana, March 15.
"Commodore Farragut, leading in the Hartford, attacked
the Fort Hudson batteries last night, at 11 o'clock, with his
fleet. The steamer Mississippi ran aground, was aban-
doned, and burnt. The firing on both sides was rapid and
severe. The army is within five miles of the enemy's works,
in good spirits, and bound to win. Cavalry skirmishes have
been the only fighting as yet.
"C. S. BULKELEY, Assistant Superintendent of the
Military Telegraph, Gulf Department."
A Washington letter of the 23d says :
" Information has been received by the Navy Depart-
ment to-day from Admiral Farragut's fleet on the Missis-
sippi, showing that the Admiral has safely made the passage
by Port Hudson in the frigate Hartford, his flagship, and
with his whole fleet, the Mississippi alone excepted. The
destruction of the latter by burning was done by the order
of Admiral Farragut, the vessel having got aground. The
siege of Port Hudson will henceforth, therefore, be con-
ducted from above by the fleet, in co-operation with the
land forces, which are only a few miles from the strong-
hold."
Advices from New Orleans are to the 15th, They
say :
" On Monday, the 9th inst., a small rebel force was cap-
tured six miles below Port Hudson, together with the signal
book containing the signals used in the rebel army. In con-
nection with this movement a detachment of our forces de-
stroyed the bridge across Comite river. A large number of
vagrant negroes had been al rested in New Orleans. Gene-
ral Sherman is in command at the city during General
Banks's absence. The prize steamer Peterhoff was still
lying at Key West."
The following are the latest despatches relative
to the Yazoo Pass expedition and the siege of Ticks-

burg :

" St, Louis, March 21

"The Republican's Memphis despatch of the 20th says
advices from Greenwood to Monday last are to the effect
that the gunboat Chillicothe bombarded Fort Pemberton on
Saturday and Sunday, but without decisive result. The
rebel battery is so situated that it cannot be attacked by a
land force on account of high water. The guns of the De
Kalb have been taken ashore, and a land battery constructed
near the rebel works. The rebel force is estimated at 6,000,
under General Loring. Reinforcements are being rapidly
sent to the seat of operations, and it is expected that our fleet
will soon be able to reduce all the rebel fortifications on the
Yazoo.

"The Vicksburg Whig of the 11th says the crew of the
Indianola, 92 in number, arrived there the day before."
" Cincinnati, March 23.
" Advices from the Yazoo Pass expedition represent that
the movements are slow, but that there is every prospect of

getting through successfully. Our forces had debarked
near Greenwood and were besieging Fort Pemberton. A
number of our transports were badly damaged in getting
through ihe pass. The ram Lioness overhauled the steamer
Parallel with 3,000 bales of cotton on the 10th inst., crowd-
ing her so closely that the rebels were compelled to run her
ashore and burn her. The rebels burn the cotton ( n every
plantation as the army advances "
" Washington, March 23.

" It is unt!er stood that the authorities here are in receipt
of private despatches, leading to the belief that to-morrow
or next day we shall have startling advices from 'Vicksburg.
It is regarded as quite probable that Farragut has be ore
this joined his fleet with that of Porter for a combined attack
on the place Intelligence from Commodor Porter states
that much sickness prevails in the rebel army at Vicksburg.
He adds that the Yczoo expedition has been much delayed
from sunken trees and other impediments in the channel.
Gen. Hammon has despatches giving a good account of the
health of Gen. Grant's army. It is thought that the choice
for commander of the Department of the West lies between
Generals Heintzelman and Siegel. The pressure for the
immediate superseding of Curtis is very great. He was
removed on the 9th inst., but was to have remained to hand
over the department to the late Gen. Sumner."
" Rear-Admiral Porter, in a second despatch, says he has
received information from Lieutenant Commander Watson
Smith that on the 7th inst. the whole expedition arrived
in the Tallahatchie, which gives us control of the heart of
Mississippi. The vessels all got through in fighting condi-
tion, except the Petrel, which lost her wheel entirely. This
movement of the fleet evidently alarmed the rebels, as they
are energetically at work preparing themselves against all
contingencies. There is much distress in Vicksburg. The
occupants have no meat, but are living almost exclusively
ou corn meal. Secretary of the Interior Usher has returned
from his visit to Indiana."

" Washington, March 21..

"The startling intelligence received to-night from the
Yazoo river,explain the mysterious rumours which prevailed
in this city yesterday, relative to movements in the siege of
Vicksburg ; it now appears that the passage of Fort Pem-
berton was not tho only plan relied on to bring about the
success of the expedition. I have the best of reasons for
asserting that the Government has for days past been in
possession of advices from Commodore Porter which show
that the demonstrative action of our fleet at the mouth of
the Tallahatchie was partially a feint to distract the rebel
attention, and gave the remainder of our forces time to ope-
rate at another and more important point with the success
now announced. The news received, and which puts such a
different face to affairs on the Yazoo, is that one of our
steamers, the Diligent, having on board one regiment of
volunteers, has entered Yazoo river above Hain& s Bluff, via
the Cypress and Steele's bayous. Other iron-clads and a
large number of troops followed, which will thus be placed
between Hair.e's Bluff and Yazoo city, thus flanking the
latter, and rendering the fall of Vicksburg certain."