The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1861-09-06
good at West Point, and are "the first always


INTERCOURSE BETWEEN THE NORTH AND
S0UTH-DEATH OF JEFF. DAvs-Since Genera
Mcclellan assumed the command at Washing
ton every effort has been made to cut of the
communication Of news from the North to the
South, and, as far as military matters are con-
cerned these efforts have been quite success
full. Like most good rules, however, this nom
intercourse arrangement has worked both ways,
and the chiefs of the confederacy take every
care to keep us in ignorance Of their movements
and intentions. On Tuesday last, for instance
we published rumors that Jefferson Davis, the
rebel chief, had died on Monday morning. Soon
after came reports that the rebel flags at
Bailey's Cross Roads were at halfmast, and that
the rebel officers wore black Grape for mourn
ing. Then negroes and travellers from Ma
nassas and Richmond asserted that the news Of
Davis death was true. Next came reports from
Louisville that the President" of the rebels,
so far from being dead, had actually called
Congress together, by special proclamation,
he having been left without money to carry on
the war. Then Nashville despatch said that
jeff. Davis was alive and recovering. And to-
day we have dispatches informing us that
it was Stephens, now President er-o0icio
Of the conspirators, who called Congress
together, and that JEFF. Davis had really follow
ed the example of his privateering namesake-
hoisted the deaths head flag, struck ON bar
and gone under forever.
Whatever may be the motive for concealing
4bo - T,.p n...: "a.
the action of Kentucky or to avoid discouraging
the rebel armies-the fact that this conceal
ment could be maintained SO long, in spite of
our efforts to penetrate it, is none the less re-
markable. 1t is, nowadays, about as difficult
to get news from the rebel States as from the
interior of that other confederacy, the kingdom
of Central Africa or from China and Japan,
whose rulers are frequently reported dead some
time before they really expire. We know
nothing, except by inference and logical de-
duction, of the state of the Confederate armies
in the field, or of that great Confederate army
of women and children at home. We are abso-
lutely unable to state authortatively whether
the President of the confederacy is dead or
alive. The whole confederacy is in the dark,
and we are in the dark about it,
BY and by, however, we intend to let day
light into this affair, landwse, by the aid Of our
the best of news from the rebel States-the
news of our Victories of the certain death of
many rebels besides JEFF. Davis, and of State
after State reclaimed to our glorious Union.
THE TIMES AND THE PREss.-We have often
before noticed, edtorially and in tabular form,
the number of newspapers dead, diseased and
dying on account Of the hard times, in this city
and throughout the country. In the South very
few newspapers yet survive, and these are in
the last stages of dry rot. Want of paper kill
ed some, want of advertising patronage finished
others, want of readers settled still others, and
combination of all these causes, like an extra
number of physicians, has ended the days of
many more. Sometimes our armies knocked
Sometimes our soldiers killed the paper by
making dead matter of the Confederate editor
AT any rate, most of the secession
journals down South have collapsed, and
even the loyal journals there are obliged to ask
subscribers and advertisers from the North.
We hope they may get them.
Even in New York city, as we have before
shown, many of the newspapers have an ex-
ceedingiy hard row to hoe during these times
while the Northern country papers are not
only dead, but largely in debt for their funeral
expenses. Upon sending out to purchase our
usual copies of the New York weeklies yester-
| day, we ascertained that no less than ten OF
| these papers had suspended during the past
week or two, and that others were sounding the
dismal note of preparation to follow suit 1t is
some consolation for us to turn from the con-
temptation of such grave matters to our own
rapidly increasing circulation and advertising
patronage-already more than that of all other
journals in the city combined.
| MIR. SECRETARY WEtrEs AT HoME.-We no.
tice that Mr.. Secretary Welles, of the navy, has
| become so exhausted by his onerous labors in
the Navy Department since the government
has been theoretically at work to crush out the
| Southern rebellion, that he finds a weeks rest
at his home in Connecticut necessary to recu-
| perate him and fit him for the heavier work yet
to come. With Secretary Welles at home
Commodore Stringham at Brooklyn, and
General Butler in Massachusetts,, nothing
new will probably be undertaken, sea-
wise, this week. BY next week, how.
ever, all these gentlemen will be again at
their posts, and then the brilliant expedition
upon Forts Clark and Hatteras will be followed
up by series of attacks upon points along the
| Southern coast. While the navy attends to
| Beaufort, &c. our army will take care of Beaure-
gard & Co., and thus the rebellion will find our
forces, like good rule, working both ways
but either way badly for the confederacy.
Wait patiently till Secretary Welles returns to
Washington.
THE WAR IN MIssouRr--It appears that the
late so called victory near Springfield, Missouri,
of Ben. McCulloch with his rebel army Of
$4,000 men, over General Lyon and his 4,5OO
men, has proved so very Improbable to Ben.
that he has been compelled to retreat back into