Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1862-05-02

CoRIS1H, April ?, lse2.
To Ga. Samuel Cooper, Richmond. ! a.
All present probabilities are that whenever the
enemy moves on this position he will do SO WITH
an overwhelming force Of not less than yIzole Aily
lohkjnsp men, by VIVA abe vkjlyi bate nqhkI Iorlte
1riy lohkjnap yx3l wlrmyj nina phia may posi-
bly, shrakj "a \ xyc pneicrlo nghklxrlly 81 lohAJ-
nap Why. Can we not be reinforced Nlhp oyNq-
zilhaj nive. If defeated here cy THY 10y Nld
mnt3ye nap dhjirqte hki wnkiy, whereas We eouid
even aford TO lose for a while EontyJiha hfp
jnmzu5yl for the purpose Of defeating qkyt4J nlFe
which would not only insure Us the valley OF the
Mississippi, but our Independence.
Pc. T. BEAUREGARD.
If the despatch had all been in cipher, It
would have been more difficult TO dccipher
it. As it is, the Introductory words give US
an immediate clue. The estimate OF the
Overwhelming force" would Of course be
given in thousands, and we find that tie
third word has the same number of1etters as
the word - thousand" Let US assume
then, as liar is proverbially not apt to be
very sharp, that this curious looking word
may be compared letter for letter with
Thousand, and made 70 betray a portion
of the alphabet used.
o h < nap
thousan
L stands for t, for b, for o, sc. We
have therefore eight letters Of the cipher. Let
US now search for another long word-be-
cause this economies the process. Near the
end we have,
wone a.
Apply the alphabet 50 far as we know it,and
we have,
h o n.
Here is enough to indicate Charlestou-and
this gives US four more letters,
witty, for
erie.
The first word is therefore - hty, eighty,
which gives Us two more, and SO on.
The figures used now and then seem to indi-
cate in most cases the doubling Of the previous
letter. "5t thousand is an exception, and
as it can not be 50 thousand, it was assumed
to be Is thousand. The lowest New York
thief-gans would hardly have used 50 simple
a cipher.
There has probably been little or NJ pro-
gress in the art Of concealing intelligence by
ciphers, for thousands Of years. The one the
key Of which was discovered IN some oil TIE
recent oyeThauliuss Of rebel documJnts-yi1.
a square piece Of PAPER containing the alpha
bet repeated several times in arbitrary order
over which IN using it,a sheet Of paper was
laid, and then pricked through over the let
tiers to be indicated. the perforated sheet
thus constituting the dispatch, which, Of
course could only be read by applying it to
a similar key in the hands OF the receiver
is an invention Of tie ancient Slar,aus.-
The Spartan generals, however, instead of "a
fla, sheet, used rollers marked with the all
phabet, round which strip Of parchment
was rolled >Pirally and then prieked through
20 Indicate the letters OF the despatch
The Darlington SenfHe. gives assent ,.or
TO quote without dsaTp-Jy4l is 70 give assent,
according TO its own dOctrine) to the f1.-
lowing precious sentiment
The proper epitsph to be inscribed upon t1c
tomb Of our country,s liberties would be " Here
lies buried tie freedom Of people who, in vailly
striving TO procIre freedom Tor another race fool
ishly lost their own
This piece Of saivelins philosophy is entire
ly on level wit the policy which would
have oil moral considerations discarded ia
governmental affairs. The paper which can
not see why We should ever regard in politics
any thing but sour material interests" Of
course can never see how selfsacrifce for
others good, can be auGht but superlative
folly. Be that as it may, is not the SHtae7
a little carly in its provisions for the q burial
of our country's liberties? The free North
is fighting to-day the battle Of constitutional
Freedom, of Humanity and Equal Rights,
for the race, the world around, and will
come victorious from the contest, freer and
stronger than ever before.