The national Republican., 1861-10-22
THEIR SECRET courorls.

In the clearing up of the rubbish Of the
room occupied last winter by the famous com
mittee Of thirty-three, the following letter,
written bya Southern member of It, was found,
and is now In our possession. The writer evi.
IDENTIFY contemplated the disruption of the
Union with concern and anxiety, but he treats
1t as fixed and irrevocable fact. This was in
the early part of January, and while the pre-
tence was still actively kept up, that there was
possibility Of preventing conclusion really
foregone, by healing" measures of compro.
mise. All that was matter of diplomacy
merely, the object not being to restore the
national Union, but so to manage the pending
legislative issues as to produce perfect union
of The South. The national Union was regarded
as gone, by the fixed policy Of the Gulf States,
and so 1t was then, as 1t is now, unless sustained
by military force. The end and aim of the
man9uvering last winter, In committees, in the
" Peace Conference" at Willards' Hail. and on
the floors OF the two Houses of Congress, was
not to bring back vitality to the dead body Of
the national Union, but to mass the South in
favor Of disunicn, by such o presentation Of
the pending questions as would bring into the
measure the border States, which were still
reluctant to venture upon so hazardous q step.
The subjoined letter, however, speaks suffi
ciently for itself:
"WAsHNGToN, January I, 1861.
"DEAR SIR: duly received your favor, and
will attend with pleasure to your request SO
soon as l can get an hours leisure. My labors
on the committee consume nearly all my time,
but presume they will finish their work in a
day or two. Thus far, their deliberations have
| resulted In nothing Of particular Importance,
| and fear they will not accomplish anything
calculated to quiet the disturbed state of the
public mind. The truth is the Union is already
dissolved, and it will require the same miracu.
ous interposition to restore Its vitality as was
presented at the grave of Lazarus. Mortal man
cannot do It, and look upon it that the whole
matter is now resolved into o simple question
| of security or preservation for the South. Yes,
the Union is dissolved! The reins of Govern
ment have fallen from the nerveless grasp of
the miserable old creature who now presides at
the White House, and the next scene in the
drama land the most awful one too) will be the
disruption Of the bonds of society, when bad
and desperate men will control the hour, and
all will be discord, rapine, crime, and chaos.
This is the wrath to come. Dismal Night, with
her ghosts, is now lowering around in shades
The epidemic is progressing and is now rapidly
extending from South to North. 1t will 60 on
increasing in geometrical progression, and in
accordance with the law Of gravitation, it will
become more rapid as it descends.
"To my mind, this is no time for elimination,
or for the inquiry, if there was just cause for
the country to be precipitated into its present
troubles? the sole inquiry is, the union of the
South for the safety Of the South. There must
be no divisions at home. He who doubts i'm.
perils the very security of his hearth and dear
est domestic relations. Right or wrong,
every patriot must now rally in defence of his
own home and people, think if all the slave
States, in the dread alternative now forced upon
us, would simultaneously unite in separation,
| 1t would tend more to prevent a civil war be-
tween the two sections, and produce, ultimately,
reconstruction of the Union"