The New York herald., 1861-12-28

ston, of Wisconsin, went TO st. Louis to obtain .
colonelcy, for which he agreed to pay $1,000
to "the Tycoon" for the express purpose OF
making $4,000 on the purchase of, q thousand
horses for his regiment. 1t was regular game
| TO condemn whole lot of mules, and then turn
round and buy them out at reduced price and
turn them in to the government. The California
gang of patriots were six in number, who ho-
vered like sharks about the headquarters. They
were Z. L. Beard. A. s. Selover, Joseph Palmer
J.C Woods, N. @. Worth and Leonidas Haskell
The last named hero was one Of the parties SO
highly favored with authority to purchase
horses 1t was no wonder that board Of off,
Gers at Warsaw, appointed to examine the horses
sent there from st. Louis, found 'sseventy-six fit
for service, five dead, and $50 undersized, under
and over aged, sti6ed, ringboned, blind, spa
vined, and incurably unfit for any public SER
vice."
Vouchers totally or partially false were
among the most notable means by which the
government was swindled. For hay and oats,
never bought or sold, such vouchers ereissued.
In other cases very inferior blankets. purchased
at from 81 Is to 81 AZ, were paid for at the rate
of from 81 81 to So IS. In New York, by order
Of General Fremont, $4,000 condemned worth
less Austrian muskets were purchased, at .
cost of Sl66,000. which could not be used, and
| 5,4O0 Halls oarbines, sold by the Ordnance
Department, as unfit for service, at SO so each,
| were afterwards bought by Fremont's order at
| S22 each.
| Suoh are the jobs in which General Fremont
and his friends we're engaged during the
last fall. All other jobs are but bagateles
compared with them Who can doubt that the
| proclamation he issued was to cover up and
| divert attention from these beautiful transac-
| ti0ns? Fremont is the standard bearer and
chosen chief of the Thoroughbred abolitionists.
In his interest the 1ribasse, and the other radi-
Cal journals and all the orators of the faction,
threatened the government at Washington with
revolution, first, when Mr. Lincoln ordered him
to change his abolition proclamation; and, se-
! condly, when he removed him from his com.
mand, not only for the reasons disclosed in tho
report of the Investigating Committee, but on
account Of his military incapacity. In combi-
nation with mutinous journals and mobs at the
| West, Greeley attempted to get up an aboli-
| ton Fremont demonstration in this city. but
| on mature consideration concluded 1t was safer
| to abaHdon it. If there be any hanging, there
fore, of "the blacklist traitors" we trust the
rope will be put around tho right necks.
Tho Position OF tho Border Slave States.
There is a very general misapprehension of
the position of the border slave States in the
present war. II is believed by many that Mis-
| souri,, Kentucky and Virginia are hostile to US,
because these are the principal battle grounds
on which the federal forces are contending with
the rebels, and because greater progress has
not been made in re-establisAing the federal
authority in those border States. There might
be some force in the argument If 1t were true
that the rebelious forces now occupying paSts-
of Missouri and Kentucky, and the greater por-
| ton of Eastern Virginia, were raised in those
States. But. so far from this being the, case the
rebel armies in Virginia, Kentucky and Mis-
souri, hail for the most part from the cotton
| States, and advanced into the border slave
| States in pursuance Of a settled plan to save
their own States from the ravages Of war, and
to carry on the hostilities at the expense
| of their neighbors, and, at the same time,
to make the area and population of the confede-
ration appear to the world so much larger than
they really are.
The insurgent chiefs thus seem to be on the
defensive in the border slave States, and claim
| sympathy from mankind on the ground of being
invaded, whereas it is evident that they are the
invaders. Wherever their armies occupy and
control Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri, of
course the latent Union sentiment, now crushed
but let that pressure be only removed, and the
Union men will spring up on every side, as if
from the ground, like the army of Cadmus,
which grew from the soil in which he had sown
the dragons teeth. So soon rs Halleck drives
Price and McCulloch, with their myrmidons,
out of Missouri, that State will become as good
Union State as Maryland is now. The
same will also prove true Of kentucky when the
Union forces shall sweep beyond its southern
border, like chaff before the wind the invaders
who now occupy strong positions on its soil.
And when Mcclellan makes his forward move
ment through Virginia, the Old Dominion will
be found as true to the old flag as she ever was.
In February last Virginia decided, by vote
of l00,536 against 45, l6l in favor of the Union;
and the Convention at Richmond, which subse-
quently voted for the ordinance of secession, did
so under the terror Of a mob collected from
every part Of the State. Kentucky, even after
the battle of Bull run, decided, by s3,l57 against
l6,005-an aggregate majority Of 67,O00-in the
election Of her Legislature, in favor of the Union
though secessionists had been secretly foisted
into her previous Legislature, and her Cover
nor's sympathies were evidently with the rebel
lion. Missouri, like Kentucky, had secession
Legislature and secession Governor, owing to
the operation Of secret conspiracy to elect
such men, at time when the people were
not aware of the designs of the traitors. But
when Governor Jackson and the Legislature,
who professed armed neutrality, revealed their
true character, they were repudiated, in Febru-
ary last, by vote Of lOl,3 800 against 5l,5oo,
being two to one In favor Of the Union. How