The daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1863-1864, 1863-12-22
LETTERS M ] FROM JIM WASHINGTON.
Especial Correspondent of the wheeling Register


body Of 900 Cavalry under Mosby upon
Fairfax Station, not, twenty miles from
Washington. They surrounded and cap
tured Company of the l5Sth New York
Regiment, tore up two miles OF the Alex
andria & Orange Railroad track, and burn
ed the bridge over Pope Run. Doubtless
this was but part of their exploits, which
might have been more successful in the
capture of Railroad train laden with pro-
visionsl&e., &C., hadnet the train been de-
layed a couple of hours by accident 1t
certainly speaks little for the vigilance OF
Meades' army that force 80 large as the
above should be able to pounce down on
our lines and commit so many depredations.
As the party cut the telegraph wires, the
Federal forces further down in the county
will not be advised in time to cut off or
otherwise seriously impair the rebels re-
treat rsr.......
The Senate did not deem the long holi-
day from to-day over to the sixth of Janu-
ary as quite the decent thing the House OF
Representatives were willing to consider
it, The interval from the 23d to the 5th
proximo is in much better taste, and will
not be objected to.
Isuppose yourself and readers did not
fail to note the nice little keelhauling fur
aished by little Senator Davis, of Kentucky,
to the Administration and its friends in the
debate on the exchange of prisoners. Davis
2inched home, but he will hereafter pinch
much tighter than he has done already
The Abolition eorruptionists we'll know
that they have far more to apprehend from
the true, Union-loving, constitutional men
such as is Davis, was Crittenden, and are
Mallory, Etheridge, &C., dc,-than they
have from the open secessionists, or the Sc
cret friends of jeff, who call for prema-
ture "peace". How sharply the Radicals
felt the force of Senator Davis's remarks
was proven IN the illogical, inconseq
and bullying reply (2) of the burly Senator
from New Hampshire. In what Hale said
there was this much of truth, that if the
Administration, with Lincoln at it's head,
were such as Davis depicted, they deserved
the scorn and sxecration Of Mankind. Very
well, and did Hale disprove single allega-
ton or turn single position of Senator
Davis? Not one, absolutely not one. On
the other hand his points tended to confirm
what Davis had alleged. Yankee-like, Hale
asked questions and answered them himself
to his own liking. How it would have been
had some other answered his questions, a
child might Judge. Thus, with respect to
Lincoln, Hale remarked that 'to day. (Mon-
day. "was the first time in his whole life
that he ever heard the honesty or the pa
triotism of the president questioned, and
that amidst all the vituperaton of political
calumny the personal integrity of the Pres
ident, thus far, had stood unscathed and
uuquestioned." Now to this impudent
burst cf untruthful braggadocio it is obvi-
Gus to answer that, even if it were true,
that Hale had never heard any question
made of the Presidents probity and up
rightness-which it is not-how did Hale
know that Davis could not prove his charg
es? Hae's ignorance, even if real, which
it was not, amounts to nothing if Davis had
the knowledge and the proofs but it was
Hale's purpose to try the effect of stento-
rian lungs, pursy abdomen, and fictitious
indignation on the doughty and honest lit
tie Senator.
Everybody knows that for the better part
of two years past Mr.. Lincoln's personal
qualities have run down to the lowest ebb
in the public estimation. Save this hollow
effort of Hale, when did anybody call the
President BY his old familiar title of "Honest
Abe2n 1t has become obsolete, and no
efforts of confederated and interested Radi
calls can resusitate it. Mr.. Lincoln's vacil-
lation, his Inconsistency with his platform,
with his old speeches, his more recent pro-
fessions, his pledges and his plain constitu-
tional duty under solemn oath, have left
his true character in painful dubitancy, and
caused most men to fear that the future
will fix upon him soubriqaet the very re-
verse of Honest" What men say to the
private ear is what they truly think and
Mr.. Hale and his oo-partizans may be sure
that conservative men have utterly ceased
to place the smallest confidence in Mr.. Lin
coins promises, unless in those promises
which he is believed to make to the most
Ultra, Radical, Fanatical and Destructive
section of the abolition party. For myself,
am free to say, that the man whe now
pretends to believe in Mr.. Lincoln's "hon
estv,n as the word was, sets himself down
in my judgment as either Intellectually or
morally unsound. am sorry that have
so diametrically changed my opinion of
man Of whom l once had great hopes; but
the fault is not mine it is Mr.. Lincoln's.
As for Mr.. Hale himself, We shall be bet
ter able to judge of his probity when the
investigation into that charge against him
of receiving SO 900 for getting pet priso-
ner out of the Old Capital, has been made.
1t is to be hoped that this vestigatiou will
not be defeated by trickery and fraud in its
management. Let's have it right up and
down. Mr.. Hale.
We.are al in hope that the reported
capture of ,At Chesapeake from three OF