The Sun.
London, England, 1865-06-24 00:00:00

THE UNITED STATES.

(From the Time Correspondent)
PHILADELPHIA, June 9.

The great question of the manner of Mr. Davis's I
capture has 'not yet been settled, and probably never
will be. It is the object of the Government to de-
preciate Mr. Davis as much as possible, and therefore
they give currency to the petticoat story, and all
their newspapers repeat with variations the reports
of his being manacled. Mr. Davis is still confined at
Fortress Monroe, but the manacle story has been so
often contradicted that scarcely any one believes it.
Colonel Pritchard, Mr. Davis's captor, has been in
Philadelphia for some time. The question of how
the capture was made was putto him very pointedly
while here, and he pronounced the petticoat story a
falsehood. The latest version of the events preced-
ing the capture comes to us from New Orleans. It
is vouched for by several citizens of that place, who
were in Georgia at the time of Mr. Davis's capture.
Mr. Davis was escorted from North Carolina to
Georgia by two brigades of cavalry. When he ar-
rived at the Georgia line he heard of the surrender
of Gen. Taylor, and at once disbanded his escort,
giving them a small sum of gold that he had saved
from an allowance made him by Congress, and di-
recting them to go home. He then mounted his
horse, and accompanied by a few personal friends
proceeded to Ervingsville, Georgia. No disguise or
evasion was used. He was everywhere known and
recognised as the President of the Confederate
States. At Ervingsville Mr. Davis first saw the pro-
clamation of President Johnson, charging him with
complicity in the assassination of Mr. Lincoln. He
at once sent to the nearest Federal post and in-
formed his purpose to surrender
an
against
him. A detachment of
d meet thet h commander
charge
ge of
General Wilson's Federal cavalry came to Ervings-
ville, and Mr. Davis and his party surrendered.
No further developments have been made of Mr.
Davis's trial, but it is said it will be postponed until
September. The report that Charles O'Conor, of
New York, will defend him is correct. •
The subject of paying off the national debt still
perplexes the country, but every project suggested
has failed. There is a general desire to be rid of it,
and now that the excitement of the war is over,
people begin to see very plainly the terrible conse-
quences that follow. The loans are just now very
dull. Other sources of investment are opened, and
capitalists leave the loans for them. Bonds are
coming back. from Europe, and this deranges the
market. The tendency of prices is downward, and
as it is caused principally by the news from Europe
all the bondholders are angry at the attention paid
to English quotations. They say 300 millions are
held abroad, and 2,300 millions at home, and yet
the foreign quotations control. There is another
statement that has been made officially, which appals
the community quite as much as the enormous
amount of the public debt. It is an account of the
number of soldiers that have died from sickness and
wounds during the war, and has been published by
the War-office. The number of deaths is reported
at 325,000, and the number of wounded men at
1,100,000. Nearly a million and a half of men have
been killed and wounded in this awful war on one
side alone. No report based on accurate data can
yet be made of the Confederate losses.

There is great complaint from the South about
the restrictions on the cotton trade. Efforts will be
made to haye them removed. Many of the owners
of cotton have realized so little from their produce
when intrusted to military agents that they prefer it
shall rot rather than pay the expense of hauling it
within the Federal lines. An instance is related
in which an owner received a return of but one
dollar per bale for his cotton, the rest being eaten
up by taxes and expenses. By the new trade
regulations a tax of 25 per cent. is levied at the
very outset, and yet so little cotton is brought in
that the amount of tax collected will not pay the
expense of the agents. An open market, free from
military agents, taxes, &c., cotton merchants say,
will bring out the cotton, let the current price be
what it may. Military restrictions only result in the
rotting of the cotton upon the plantations.
Scarcely any new reconstruction movements have
been developed during this week. The President is
now framing and will soon issue a proclamation re-
storing the writ of habeas corpus all over the country
and ordering a general clearance of military prisons.
The Mississippi delegation arrived in Washington
and had an interview with the President on the Bth
June. He refused to recognise the Confederate Go-
vernor or Legislature of Mississippi, and stated that
he would pursue the same course in that State as was
taken in; North Carolina. The Alabama delegation
have returned home satisfied with their interview
with the President. A provisional governor for that
State and also one for Georgia will be appointed
before a week elapses. Col. Parsons, of Talladega,
will probably be Governor of Alabama. It has been
semi-officially announced that South Carolina will
be the last State reorganised.

Some of the Southern railroads are being repaired.
One or two railroads in South Carolina are being
rebuilt by the military authorities. The road run-
ning from New Orleans north through Jackson,
Mississippi, will soon be in good order. Sixty miles
of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad, immediately
west of Lynchburg, Virginia, are in order, and
trains are running. The railroad from Chattanooga,
Tennessee to Atlanta, Georgia, will be in order be-
fore the end of June. The repair of the Richmond,
Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railway, formerly the
great line of travel south of Washington, is begun.
Nearly two months will be required, however, to put
it in order. Almost ell the other Southern railway
companies are too poor to make the necessary re-
pairs to their roads. Nothing can prove the com-
plete prostration of the South more than the
small number of newspapers now in existence
there, compared with the large number before the
war. At Macon, Georgia, there are four news-
papers ; at Atlanta, two ; at Columbus, two ; at
Augusta, three, of which the Constitutionalist is the
only southern printed on a whole sheet of
per ; the
rest u
n n
half and quarter sheets. At
p
Montgomery, Alabama, there are two quarter sheets;
or
at Columbia, South Carolina, one ; and at Chester,
South Carolina, one. Fifteen newspapers make up
the budget for the entire South, as it existed on the
Ist May. One of the Macon papers is a still more
complete evidence of Southern poverty. It advertises
that it will receive produce in payment of subscrip-
tions at the following rates :—Corn, $1 per bushel ;
fodder, 75c. per cwt. ; bacon, 15c. a pound ; flour,
sc. a pound ; butter, 25c. a pound ; eggs, 20c. a
dozen. It is reported that since the removal of re-
strictions upon trade a brisk trade has sprung up
between New York and Newbern ; that large quan-
tities of cotton and tobacco have been brought out
from hiding places in Montgomery, Alabama, and
Wilmington, North Carolina, and that steamers are
plying between Mobile and Montgomery.
The States of Mississippi, North Carolina, and
South Carolina have been divided into internal re-
venue districts, and tax-collectors have been sent
there. In Virginia recent developments show that
the difficulty between Pierpont and the new Legis-
lature has been healed. It turns out that in only six
legislative districts candidates were elected, and, al-
though all are opposed to Pierpont, they are not nu-
merous enough to control the Legislature. This fact
has rendered a resort to military force unnecessary.
Pierpont will soon issue another proclamation order-
ing an election in several more counties in Virginia.
He has started a Land and Emigration Company in
Richmond, with the object of populating the aban-
doned plantations by bringing white labourers into
the State. The proposition drags, however, as every
plantation taken by the company will sooner or later
be the source of endlesslitigation caused by conflict-
ing titles.
The evidence is universal that the farmers and
planters all over the South will reconcile themselves
to the new order of things caused by the abolition of
slavery. It is the determination of the Government
to eradicate slavery from the country. No compro-
mise will be permitted upon this point. Although it
is a very bitter draught to many to part with their
slaves, yet they view it in an economical point of
view, and consider that it will be much cheaper to
employ hired labour on the plantations. The few
Southern journals now in existence inculcate this
doctrine. Similar sentiments have been expressed
at several meetings of the people of the South. They
wish to make the best possible use of a necessity. A