The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1861-06-15

gasneats were fair wAus rates Tor direct Europesp
psf1 were without change II moment.
Jenefsen Davis In vlrglnia-Our South
ern Conspiracy and Its Development tss
With rapidly In the development Of their
plans which, even with the stubborn facts be-
fore US, is almost incredible, the managing con.
spirators of our Southern rebellion have not
only hitched on to their spurious confederation
the hitherto quiet and conservative States
OF Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia,
but they have established their confederate CAPT.
tai in the loyal old city Of Richmond -Prssi-
dent Vice President. Cabinet, Congress and
all. They have carried everything before them
in the slave States, excepting Maryland, Ken
lucky and Missouri, and in these secession ter
rorism has been suffocated or Is held in check
only by the immediate presence of the border
free States, with their overwhelming moral
and physical power. As for loyal little Della
ware, with her rapidly dwindling remnant Of
slavery, she may henceforward be classed as q
free State.
But eleven States of this Union, dragged be-
Carolina, are all combined under common
revolutionary government, advanced to Rich
mORd, and with Confederate army so disposed
in Virginia as to leave us in come doubt as to
the safety of Washington. Who, not conversant
with this grand conspiracy, could six months
ago have believed these things within the
range of human possibilities And yet we ell
know now that this formidable rebellion ia the
matured fruit of many years of careful culture,
and that its roots are intimately interviewer
with all our national political issues of the last
ten years. Until last summer, however, the
idea of a Southern confederacy among the
chief copspirators was limited to the cotton
States, for their scheme at first contemplated
the leaving out the border slave States us
breakwater against the North. Next their
scheme comprehended those border States; but
then came the question, what shall we do with
States? There it stands in the little triangle
OF the federal District of Columbia, with the
border slave State of Maryland behind it, and
with Virginia just across the river before it.
The question suggested the answer. We will
take Washington; we will thus, at single
blow, abolish the general government of the
Union, and build up our own on its ruins. The
North, panic stricken and powerless, will be
divided against itself; and thus We Of the
South shall have the whole game In our hands
In October and November last Richmond
correspondent of ours advisedly foreshadow
ing the Southern programme of rebellion
which Was commenced with the secession OF
South Carolina, came down at length to the
plan of reconstruction of the Union. From
that time onward we heard good deal of this
proposition of a reconstruction, and in very
plausible shape, as peace measure; but we
now comprehend the meaning of it. The re-
construction intended was that of French re-
volution, change of the government under
an armed occupation of our capital, as the 60
vernment of France has from time to time been
reyolutionized by the seizure of Paris. Gov.
Hicks, of Maryland, near the last day of No
vember, If We are not mistaken, warned Mr..
Buchanan and Gen. Scott that this projected
coup Tetot against Washington was planned so
as to cut off Mr.. Lincoln's Inauguration. By
seaeonable precautions this thing was prevent
ed; yet this grand idea of revolution in the
government at a single blow was not absn
doned.
With the fall of Fort Sumter, the Secretary
of War under Jefferson Davis announced in the
fulness Of his enthusiasm, at Montgomery, that
the Confederate flag would be flying over the
Capitol at Washington ON the LIST of May.
Washington, from that day, became the rally
mia, even In 1856, as Southern movement,
had proposed the seizure of Washington, aud
had shown how easily the thing could be done.
We may depend upon it that this pet scheme Of
bis, under his advice and instructions, has had
much to do with the movement into Virginia
of the government machinery and officials, and
the available armed forces OF all the Contsde-
rate States. If they cannot take Washington
they may lose Richmond; and if tbsy lose
Richmond, their whole desperate cause tum
bles into ruins. On the other haud, if they can
and do take Washington, England may at once
recognise this JEFF. Davis government as de
focto the government of the Confederate or
United States; and, with this alliance he doubt
less has already calculated the terms of peace
he will dictate to the North.
If the rebels, then, have evacuated Harper's
Ferry, does 1t signify that they have abandoned
their designs upon Washington? Perhaps not.
They may be simply concentrating their forces
for desperate dash upon the lines of Gen
Mcdowell, and for the chances of routing him
and passing close upon his heels into Wash
inton over the several bridges assigned
to his protection. If General Beauregard,
at the Manassas Junction, has body
of twenty thousand men, and if q rebel
column from Harpers Ferry of fifteen
thousand has moved down nearer to Beaure-
gard, he may have at this moment force of
thirty.fve thousand men within twenty-seven
miles Of Washington, and an army, too, 80
short Of provisions that it must move forward