The Norfolk post. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1865-1866, 1866-02-21
CHE Marfulk gost.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 81, 1856.
BREAKFAST TALK.

Il
about as pleasant reading rs Mr.. Ban
croft's late address. Like the historian
Mr.. Foote hits people who are down
The following passages are from Mr
Foote's book, just published:
JEFFERSON DAVIS.
saw him first in the city of Vicks-
burg more than thirty years ago as Lieut.
Davis. He was then young man q
modest and pleasing aspect and man
ners, but gave slight Indications of any
abilities likely TO lead TO future distinc.
ton. He married, left the army, and
settled himself on n plantation of re.
spectacle dimensions in the southern
part of the county of Warren, some
twenty miles from the city of Vicksburg,
where he has constantly resided since,
until he became President of the Con-
fedefate States. h.b fr
Mr.. Davis and his associates had no
correct conception of the true character
and dimensions of the war into which
they had so hastily plunged, as was af-
terward frankly confessed In many a
lugubrious harangue, and in more than
one solemn official document. They did
not believe at first that the conflict
would endure for twelve-mOnth, and
were even weak enough to calculate
most confidently upon strong northern
aid, which it Is now well known there
never was the least probability of their
receiving; albeit ex-President Pierce
and several others, whose letters to Mr..
Davis have recently seen the light, had
piled this cOnfiding parsonage with
secret promises of support, upon which
he built in part his hopes of one day
/ "a toI1intv \, IN, marital ceoptra IN tla
interposition Of foreign powers in behalf
of the now warning states of the South,
though many deceitful assurances were
received from abroad at different periods
of the contest, no man of sound intel
| lect anywhere now supposes that either
the French or English government ever
| seriously thought of embroiling itself i'm
| transatlantic civic feud. Mr.. Davis
vetoed more bills during the short pro-
visional regime than all the Presidents
| of the United States put together, from
| Washington to Lincoln inclusive, and
no attempt to pass single bill over his
head was ever made.
sEDDoy AS A CHEAT.
| And yet Mr.. Davis retained this man
I in the Office of Secretary of War, amid
continual indications of popular indig-
nation and disgust, from month to
month and from year to year; nor would
he have been at last seen to vacate the
official position which he had so long
deeply dishonored, but for the unde-
niable fact that had, directly charged
him upon recorded testimony, that is to
say, upon the evidences supplied by the
books of his own department., of having
| caused to be paid to himself, by his own
official subordinates, forty dollars Ter
| bushel for his whole crop of wheat for
the year 1864, while he was, by the in
strumentality of forcible impressment,
compelling the farmers of North Caro-
| lima. Georgia and other states, to yield
up their wheat to the government of
| ficials at the inadequate price of from
seven to nine dollars in Confederate
paper. made this exposition in the
last speech which l delivered in the
Confederate Congress. Mr.. Seldom re-
signed the Department of War the very
| next day. AS chairman of a special
committee of the Confederate Congress,
| organized at my own instance, for the
purpose of inquiring into cases of illegal
imprisonment, L obtained from the SUI
perintendent of tho prison-house in
Richmond, under the official saolction
of the Department of War itself, grim
and shocking catalogue IF several hun
uiCN PiioOhCio thCh III COhHutIutIft
therein, not one of whom was charged
with anything but suspected political
infidelity, and this, too, not upon oath
in single Instance. Before / could
take proper steps to procure the dis
chargeof these unhappy men, the second
suspension of the writ of liberty oc-
Cured, and presume that such of them
as did not die in Jail remained there
until the fall of Richmond into the
hands of the federal forces. -
THE ERLANGER LOAN
The celebrated Erlanger loan, the
| proposition to enlist in which came TO
| Richmond under the sinister auspices of
Mr.. John SlidelI seemed to considera-
BILE number of the members of the Con-
| federate Congress to be a speculative
project, adroitly set on foot chiefly for
the benefit of Messrs. Slidell, Benia-
min Il Co., their aiders aud abettors,
in the United States and in foreign
countries, and we therefore struggled
most earnestly to defeat it by every ex-
pedient known to parliamentary tactics.
BY the aid of the celebrated ten minutes
rule and the sitting with closed doors il
was finally carried by somewhat
| meagre majority in the House.
FOREIGN INTERVENTION. M
T. hC laCe WIS NSiy Wcl hHOWIl I'd lie
that Mr.. Davis and his friends were
confidently looking for foreign aid, and
from several quarters. 1t was stated i'm
my hearing repeatedly, by several spe-
cial friends of the Confederate President
| that one hundred thousand French SOL
diers were expected to arrive within the
| limits of the Confederate States by way
of Mexico; while it was more than ru-
mored that secret compact, wholly
unauthorized by the Confederate Con-
stitution, with certain Polish commits.
sioners who had been lately on visit
to Richmond, had been effected, by
means of which Mr.. Davis would sooii
be supplied with some twenty or thirty
thousand additional troops, then refu-
gees from Poland, and sojourning in
several European states which latter
force, when it should arrive, not being
levied under Congressional authority
would be completely at the command
of the President, for any purpose what
ever. @
The New York Evening Post tells this
story:
AN IMPUDENT REQUEST.
The steamer Planter was used during
the war by the rebels 10 carry ammuni-
ton and provisions from Charleston to
Fort Sumter. She was seized by her
colored crew and brought out to our
fleet. This act of Robert Small and his
companions was one of the most gallant
of the war. The Planter was afterwards