The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1863-02-04
ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.

er On the first page-Letter from Wash
ington; Report of Mrs. Sampson.
Irishman; Reporting Extraordinary a Dstin-
guished Author.
nB- Col. Z. c. Mason. of the It'll Maine
regiment, has been nominated for brigadier
generalshp.
lE- 1t is rumored that Col. Nickerson, of
the 18th Maine regiment, will be offered, and
will accept the command of brigade of ne
groes.
% 1t is believed in Washington that the
attack on Wilmington has been abandoned,
and the forces destined for that expedition
have been concentrated against Charleston.
sB- The Chicago Tribune says that inn
portant discoveries of the plots of secession
lists in that city have been made by detectives
employed for the purpose.
sY- In a letter to Gov. Andrew of Massa-
chusetts, Col. L. w. Hgginson predicts that
his black troops will show dash and fire ia
which our army has been confessedly too def
cent.
sB- The Augusta Age - the Legislative
edition-has not published the report of the
committee in the Yarmouth contested cleo
ton case. Probably it has decidednot to pub
lish anything that impeaches the honor of its
party friends, though paid by the State to deal
fairly in its legislative record.
sg- The Bangor Wing says of Col. Rob
erts, of the Maine I'd, that "his health re-
quired long absence from the army, and he
did not desire to receive the honors and emol-
uments of position he was unable to fill
Had he remained he would now have been
General instead of Col Roberts"
gBr From one end of the Confederacy to
the other the cry goes up for more men. The
Mobile Register demands a hundred thousand
although it thinks fifty thousand would do to
stave off rebel defeat in the southwest. The
greatest fear subsists among the secesh that,
ere their CONSUMPTION can be carried out, the
Union armies will be upon them. Their APP
prehension is doubtless well founded.
sH- dispatch from near Vicksburg says
two brigades are engaged in opening the ia
nous cutoff, of which so much was heard last
summer. The river is bank full at Vicksburg,
and high enough to rush through the canal at
fearful rate. Should this channel become
large enough to admit the passage of boats the
rebels for the present will be allowed to hold
| Vicksburg, while the Federals turn their atten-
ton to matters further south.
s- Who can fail to see through the thin
transparency of the attempt of Democratic
| leaders in the House and Senate at Augusta,
TO make political capital out of Gen. McClel-
Ian! Why are the peace Democrats" the
antwar men, the compromises, SO anxious
to show honors to the man who has been re-
! moved from his command, if not thereby TO
cast imputations and reflections upon the Ad-
ministration?
u The Augusta Age for the hundreth
time refers to 1.-The coarse and brutal assault
made by that paper 1.-THE Press last summer
upon Gen. Mcclellan Not a coarse or bru-
tai word was uttered in our columns against
Mcclellan; at the worst he was simply doubt
ed, and the men who set up a howl over that
|
like the Age, doing all in their power to
strengthen and encourage the rebels.
e1- Private letters from one of our Maine
regiments, which left the State under very ia
vorable auspices, indicate anything but
pleasant state of things in its sanitary arrange
ments. 1t seems to us that officers can COM
init no ofiense more objectionable than that of
neglect towards those under their command.
Men are not insensible objects TO be used as
though devoid of feeling, and the Government
owes it to the soldier to see that he is humane
| ly treated.
% The refined qualities of modern De-
mocracy were recently exhibited in the SEN
| ate by that model man. L. X. Wiggin, of
Saco, who said of EX-Gov. Washburn, that
'he had no respect Tor him as a man, nor con-
fidence in his integrity" There are very few
men among Gov. Washburn's political oppon-
ents who have ever charged him with being
lacking in integrity. In all the elements of
real manhood he is as far above Wiggin as an
archangel is above Shiny reptile.
syr Referring to the justification of Col
Roberts's resignation,w which we cheerfully pub
lished Monday morning, yesterdays Argus
says, The Press was obliged to swallow its
"own words, bitter as they were, without
"winking." What obliged the Press to cor
rect rumor to which it had given currency
in these words: " II is said he was disafected
because he did not receive promotion to a
brigader acknowledgements for which the
Press certainly cannot be held responsible
1t was an obligation which must strike the
Argus rather queerly, one which the Argus at
any rate never recognized-the moral obliga-