, 1861-03-01
[FEE fONY ExfEEsSl
Letters from the National Capital,
rrEou OUR REGULAR CORRESPONDENT, J

below We present 10 our Teauers Two
eiters from Washington City, per Pony
Express. But owing TO some iucompe-
cncy in the express, the news Ond letters
ave been long since anticipated by the
egular mail.
The events are SO changing that it is i'm
possible 10 write more than a narrative Of
last events; anything written Of our coun-
.ry's future can have no interest except as
conjecture. Our correspondent throws
some light on the Pacific Rail Road. II
bis views are correct We can loose but little
by the defeat Of such measure, as this
one that is presented in the bill he refers
to.
WASHINGTON CRY, Jan. 10, 1861.
The revolution is moving on, and not
thing has been done since my last TO stay
its course. The conservative portion Of
the Republican party in Congress has not
spoken out The committees have come TO
no conclusion. All attempts Of the border
Statos to interfere as mediators, have
proved abortive. The President has sent
in his message transmitting his correspond
ence with the commissioners Of Carolina,
and throws upon Congress the response
bility of meeting the crisis In the mean
time, he announces his determination to do
what he can to protect the public property
and collect the revenue. The sending Oi
re.inforcements to Major Anderson, has
caused Mr.. Thompson, Secretary of the
Interior to resign. These re,inforcements
reached Charleston yesterday in the Star
Of the West. The steamer was fired on by
the Carolina troops. Major Anderson sent
an officer with flag, demanding that the
steamer should not be interfered with, but
be allowed peaceably to enter the harbor
and land the troops aud supplies at Fort
Sumter, and declaring, it is reported, that
be would open bis fires upon the city Of
Charleston If the steamer was mOlested.
Tho result was the steamer was permitted
TO enter the port aud discharge her cargo
[ Our correspondent Is in error. The stea-
mer was not permitted to land, but was
forced to 90 to sea again.-EO. We have
not yet received the particulars Of the affair
Mississippi passed her ordinance Of seces-
sion yesterday. To-day it was to have been
drawn up, signed, and have effect There
seems not to be the least doubt that every
southern State, Missouri and Delaware,
and perhaps Maryland excepted, will pass
similar ordinances before the 4th March
next.
Indeed, the hopes Of the most conserva.
tive any union-loving men Of the country,
look rather 10 union through re-construc-
tion of the government than TO the main
tainanee Of the present Union, by amend
menis to the Constitution. Aud to this
end, with most anxious solicitude, they seek
to avoid q collision of arms. The Hon.
JEFF Davis made to-day most eloquent
and touching argument, in which he ap-
pe0led to Senators TO meet the great facts
Of the crisis, TO avoid the shedding Of blood.
| am satisfied that Col. Davis is attached
to, and most anxious to maintain these
States in common union, and under q
common Constitution. His youth and man
hood have been devoted to its service He
has confronted peril, and received wounds
in the common cause. In his speech, be
alluded to these facts in his career, and
urged that the States who felt their honor,
their safety and tranquility required they
should withdraw from the Union, be al
lowed to do so in peace. If this were de-
nied, devastating wars would follow, large
armies would be kept on foot, thousands Of
lives be sacrificed, and millions of treasury
spent, without one section succeeding in
subjugating the other, aud without one
single advance being made to arrange the
existing difficulties. He contended that in
the end as in the beginning, peaceful nego.
tiations could alone settle the question in
dispute.
A few days since, Mr.. Douglas, in very
.forcible argument against coercion, ex-
pressed the opinion that State, seeding
from the Union, as has South Carolina,
must be regarded aud treated with as de
fdetO government both by foreign nations
and the United States. Mr.. Breckenridge,
in letter to the Governor of Kentucky,
protests against any act which will bring
either the sections or the people of soYe.
lSlSu Otuto uHu tne teueTul OONeTumcnt
into collision, as the death knel Of our once
happy Union, and as the death-blow to all
hopes Of reconstruction. Z.
1t must be constantly borne in mind that
we have to deal with revolution, where
event succeeds event with the rapidity of a
dream, where the restorer of palliatiyes Of
to-day becomes obsolete on the morrow,
and where the most patient aud wise fore
cast can discern but dimly the shadow Of
coming events. The public mind cannot
possibly seize, and seasonably adjust itself
to the times Our public men, many OF
them, cannot, or will not l have had hope
in movement Of the Republican party.
There is a decided movement. 1t is still
going on. But it is to be feared, it will
come too late. The proposition of Mr..
Adams, proposing to admit New Mexico as
a State, the proposition made by the Re
pu6llcans to give guarantees against inter
terence with slavery in the States where it
exists, in the District of Columbia, in dock
yards, &c, all eyince the decided and posi-
tive character of this movement. Unhap-
PLY, the body of the Republicans are not
mDViuu fIhav ora vp,itf.,- saff,o-