The Sun.
London, England, 1862-09-04 00:00:00

AMERICA.

LIVERPOOL, WEDNESDAY.
The Liverpool, New York, and Philadelphia Com.
vany's screw steamer City of Baltimore, Captain
Kennedy, which left New York on the 23d and
Cape Race on the 26th ult., arrived at the bar of
the river this morning.
By this arrival we receive New York journals of
the 23d ult., two days later than those by the Jura.
Among the details of interest is the following
s peach of President Davis to the Confederate Con.
grass on their re-assembling on the 18th ultimo at
Richmond :-
44 TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF
THE CONFEDERATE STATES.
" It is again our fortune to meet for devising mea-
sures necessary to the public welfare, whilst our
country is involved in a desolating war. The suf-
ferings endrhred by some portions of the people ex
cite the deepest solicitude of the Government, and
the sympathy thus evoked has been heightened by
the PeAriotic devotion with which these sufferings
havr4 been borne. The gallantry and good conduct
of our troops, always claiming the gratitude of the
'4ountry, have been further illustrated on
hard
fought fields, marked by exhibitions of
individual
prowess which can find but few parallels in ancient
or modern history. Our army has not faltered in any
of the various trials to which it has been subjected,
and the great body of the people have continued to
manifest a zeal and unanimity which not only cheer
the battle-stained soldier, but gives assurance to the
friends of constitutional liberty of our final triumph
-in the pending struggle against despotic usurpation.
" The vast army which threatened the capital of
the Confederacy has been defeated and driven from
the lines of investment, and the enemy, repeatedly
foiled in his efforts for its capture, is now seeking to
raise new armies on a scale such as modern history
does not record to effect that subjugation of the
South so often proclaimed as on the eve of accom-
plishment.

The perfidy which disregarded rights secured
by compact, the madness which trampled on obli-
gations made sacreel by every consideration of
honour, have been intensified by the malignity en-
gendered by def,Jat. These passions have changed
the character 'of the hostilities waged by our ene-
mies, who a:re becoming daily less regardful of the
usages of -civilised war and the dictates of humanity.
Rapine 'and wanton destruction of private property,
war ''upon non-combatants, murder of captives,
bloc.* threats to avenge the death of an invading
so ,
1‘...e27 by the slaughter of unarmed citizens, orders
'a banishment against peaceful farmers engaged in
the cultivation of the soil, are some of the means
used by our ruthless invaders to enforce the sub-
mission of a free people to foreign sway. Confisca •
tion bills of a character so atrocious as to ensure, if
executed, the utter ruin of the entire population of
these States, are passed by their Congress and ap-
proved by their Executive. The monied obliga-
tions of the Confederate Government are forged
by citizens of the United States, and publicly
advertised for sale in their cities with a noto-
riety that sufficiently attests the knowledge
of their Government, and its complicity in
the crime is further evinced by the fact that the
soldiers of the invading armies are found supplied
with large quantities of these forged notes as a
means of despoiling the country people, by fraud,
out of such portions of their property as armed vio-
lence may fail to reach. Two, at least, of the gene-
rals of the United States are engaged, unchecked
by their Government, in exciting servile insurrec-
tion, and in arming and training slaves for warfare
against their masters, citizens of the Confederacy.
Another has been found of instincts so brutal as to
invite the violence of his soldiery against the
women of a captured city.
" Yet the rebuke of civilised man has failed to
evoke from the authorities of the United States one
mark of disapprobation of his acts, nor is there any
reason to suppose that the conduct of Benjamin F.
Butler has failed to secure from his Government the
sanction and applause with which it is known to
have been greeted by public meetings and portions
,of the press of the United States. To inquiries
made of the commander-in-chief of the United
States, whether the atrocious conduct of some of
these military commandants met the sanction of
that Government, answer has been evaded on the
pretext that the inquiry was insulting, and no
method remains for the suppression of these enor-
mities bat such retributive justice as it may be
found possible to execute.

" Retaliation in kind for many of them is im-
practicable, for I have had occasion to remark in a
former message that under no excess of provocation
could our noble-hearted defenders be driven to
wreak vengeance on unarmed men, on women, or
on children. But stern and exemplary punishment
can and must be meted out to the murderers and
felons, who, disgracing the profession of arms,
seek to make of public war the occasion for the

commission of the most monstrous crimes.

" Deeply as we regret the character of the con-
test into which we are about to be forced, we must

accept it as an alternative which recent manifesta-
__

flour; give us little hope can be avoided.
" The exasperation of failure has aroused the
worst passions of our enemies, a large portion of
thsix people, even of their clergymen, now engage
in urging an excited populace to the extreme of fe-
rocity, and nothing remains but to vindicate our
rights, and to maintain our existence by employing
against our toe every energy and every resource at
our disposal.

"I append for your information a copy of the
papers exhibiting the action of the Government up
to the present time for the repression of the out-
rages committed on our people. Other measures
now in progress will be submitted hereafter.
"In inviting your attention to the legislation
which the necessities of our condition require,
those connected with the prosecution of the war
commend almost undivided attention.
ci The acts passed at your last session intended to
secure the public defence by general enrolment, and
to render uniform the rules governing troops in the
service, have led to some unexpected criticism that
is much to be regretted.

" The efficiency of the law has been thus some-
what impaired, though it is not believed that in
any of the States the popular mind has withheld

its sanction from either the necessity or propriety
of your legislation. It is only by harmonious as
well as zealous action that a Government as new as
ours, ushered into existence on the very eve of a
great war, and unprovided with the material neces-
sary for conducting hostilities on so vast a scale,
can fulfil its duties. Upon you, who are fully in-
formed of the acts and purposes of the Government,
and thoroughly imbued with the feelings and sen-
timents of the people, must reliance be placed to
secure this great object. You can best devise the
means for establishing that entire co-operation of
the State and Confederate Governments which is
essential to the well-being of both at all times, but
which is now indispensable to their very existence.
" And if any legislation should seem to you ap-
propriate for adjusting
differences of opinion, it will
be my pleasure as well as duty to co-operate in any
measure that may be devised for reconciling a just

care for the public defence with a proper deference

for the most scrupulous susceptibilities of the state

authorities.

" The report of the Secretary of the Treasury
will-exhibit in detail the operations of that depart-

meat. It will be seen with satisfaction that the
credit of the government securities remains unim-

paired, and that this credit is fully justified by the

comparatively small amount of accumulating debt,

notwithstanding the magnitude of our military

operations. The legislation of the last session pro-
vided for the purchase of supplies with the bonds of

the government, but the preference of the people for
Treasury notes hls been so marked that the legis-
lature is recommended tc authorise an increase in
the issue of Treasury notes w
inconvenience hich the pubc service
seems to require. No g need be
apprehended from this increased issue, as the pro-
visions of the law by which these notes are conver-
tible into 8 per cent. bonds, forms an efficient and
..Permanent safeguard against any serious deprecia-
tion of the currency. Your attention is also in-
vited to the
means proposed by the Secretary for
facilitating the preparation of these notes and for
guarding them against forgery. It is due to our

people to state that no manufacture of counterfeit
notes exists within our limits, and that they are all
imported from the Northern States.
" The report of the Secretary of War, which is
subthitted, contains numerous suggest ens for the
legislation deemed desirable in order add to the
efficiency of the service. I invite your favourable
consideration especially to those recommendations
which are intended to secure the proper execution
of the conscript law, and the consolidation of com-
panies, battalions, and regiments, when so reduced
in strength as to impair that uniformity of organi-
sation which is necessary in the army, while an
undue burden is imposed on the Treasury. The
necessity for some legislation for controlling mili-
tary transportation on the railroads, and improving
their present defective condition, forces itself upon
the attention of the government ; and I trust that
you will be able to devise satisfactory measures for
attaining this purpose. The legislation on the sub-
jectgeneral officers involves the service in some
of
difficulties, which are pointed out by the secretary,
and for which the remedy suggested by him seems
appropriate. In connectioa with this subject lam
of opinion that prudence dictates some provision
for the increase of the army in the event of emer-
gencies not now anticipated. The very large in-
crease of forces recently called into the field by the
President of the United States may render it neces-
sary hereafter to extend the provisions of the con-
script law, so as to embrace persons between the
ages of 35 and 45 years. The vigour and efficiency
of our present forces, their condition, and the skill
and ability which distinguish their leaders, inspire
the belief that no further enrolment will be neces-
sary ; but a wise foresight requires that if a neces-
sity should be suddenly developed during the recess
of Congress requiring increased forces for our de-
fence, means should exist for calling such forces
into the field without awaiting the re-assembling of
the legislative department of the government.
" In the election and appointment of officers for
the provisional army, it was to be anticipated that
mistakes would be made, and incompetent officers
of all grades introduced into the service. In the
absence of experience, and with no reliable guide
for selection, executive appointments as well as elec-
tions have been sometimes unfortunate. The good of
the service, the interests of our country, require
that some means be devised for withdrawing the
commissions of officers who are incompetent for the
duties required by the position, and I trust that you
will find means for relieving the army of such offi-
cers by some mode more prompt and less wounding
to their sensibility than judgment of a court-mar-
tial. Within a recent period we have effected the
object so long desired, of an arrangement for the
exchange of prisoners, which is now being executed
by delivering at the points agreed upon, and which
will, it is hoped, speedily restore our brave and un-
fortunate countrymen to their places in the ranks
of the army from which, by the fortune of war, they
have for a time been separated. The details of this
arrangement will be communicated to you in a
special report when further progress has been made
in their execution.

" Of other particulars concerning the operation
of the War Department you will be informed by
the secretary in his report and the accompanying
documents.

" The report of the Secretary of the Navy em-
braces a statement of the operations and present
eondition of this branch of the public service both
afloat and ashore; the construction and equipment
of armed vessels at home and abroad, the manufac-
ture of ordnance and ordnance stores, the establish-
ment of workshops, and the development of our re-
sources of coal and of iron. Some legislation seems
essential for securing crews for vessels. The diffi-
culties now experienced on this point are fully
stated in the secretary's report, and I solicit your
attention to providing a remedy.
" The report of the Postmaster General discloses

the embarrassments which resulted in the postal
service from the occupation by the enemy of the
Mississippi River, and portion of the territory of
the different states. The measures taken by the
department for relieving these embarrassments, as
far as practicable, are detailed in the report. It is
a subject of congratulation that, during the ten
months which ended on the 31st March last, the
expenses of the department were largely decreased,
whilst its revenue was augmented, as compared
with a corresponding period, ending on the 30th
June, 1860, when the postal service for these states
was conducted under the authority delegated to the
United States. Sufficient time has not yet elapsed
to determine whether the measures heretofore de-
vised by Congress will accomplish the end of
bringing the expenditures of the department
within the limit of its own revenues by the Ist of
March next, as required by the constitution.

I. I am happy to inform you that in spite both of
blandishments and threats, used in profusion by the
Government of the United States, the Indian na-
tions within the Confederacy have remained firm in
their loyalty and steadfast in their treaty engage-
ments with this Government. Nor has their
fidelity been shaken by the fact that, owing to the
vacancies of some of the offices of agents and super-
intendents, delay has occurred in the payment of
the annuities and allowances to which they are en-
titled. I would advise some provision authorising
payments to be made by other officers in the
absence of those especially charged by law with this
duty.

" We have never ceasing cause to be grateful for
the favour with which God has protected our infant
Confederacy. And it becomes us reverently to re-
turn our thanks, and humbly to ask of His boun-
teousness that wisdom which is needful for the per-
formance of the high trusts with which we are
charged. " JEFFERSON DAVIS.
" Richmond, August 15, 1862."

Among the proceedings in the Confederate
House of Representatives on the first day of the
session were the following :

A bill was introduced making Treasury notes a
legal tender in payment of debts, and it was referred
to the committee on judiciary.
A resolution was passed directing the committee
affairs to inquire into the expediency of
on military
compelling the commissariat department to furnish
the soldiers with more and better food.
Bills were introduced to extend the application
of the Conscript Act to all citizens under 45 years
of age ; to provide that slaves taken in arms shall
bea dse,l delivered
vered up to the authorities of the state in
which
captured, to be disposed of according to its
w
the white officers, either to be hung or
laws,
delivered up to the state authorities. Also several
bills for retaliatory purposes, among which it is
provided that a
b-v Federal officers who may have
refused to treat Confederate soldiers as prisoners,
private citizens, shall be put
or punished innocent
that an equal number of pri-
soners (officers preferred)
shall suffer the fate in-
to death if captured;
flicted on captured Con
federate soldiers or citizens;
incongruously composed of
that Federal armies
white and black, shall not be held entitled to the
Privileges of war, or to be ta:,:en prisoners, and that
at such as may be captured
the Degrees shall be re-
turned to their masters, or publielY sold, and their
shot
as may be most
convenient.
The varintu, me to the ures were referred
mili-
tary committee.
Bills were likewise
providing for the rais..
ing of 250,000 additional
offered
men, and for an export
duty on cotton and tobacco,to aid
h t.
in indemnifying e' losses of 20 per cen
it is asserted that the t.,
arriof citizens by the enemy.
mond had raised the Confedvals of recruits in Rich-
what it was before the Sevreateforce there to fully
about a q uarter of a million
ofn days, fighting, i.e.,
The New York journals have flia';ni
the demonstrations in honour of Genng accounts of
in Philadelphia and New York. Theeral Corcoran
the enthusiasm of the people was „
tyreclmaeiemd that
and that the crowd in New York to witneers'"
military and civic pageant was fully 200,000 the
,
It is asserted that a junction had been effected
between the Federal armies in Virginia. Williams-
burg was evacuated by the Federals on the 20th
and burned, according to one despatch; but another
and later account is, that it was not destroyed, but
remained still in possession of the Federals.

The Washington Star of the 22d says it has the
highest authority for stating that the rumours of a
disposition on the part of General 31‘Clellan to re-