Year: 1865




mond Dispatch, Jan. a


The injury done by Sherman TO the


railway lines in Georgia has not yet
been repaired. The railways from Ma
con and Montgomery to Atlanta will
soon be in running order again, but it
will require several months to restore
/ the upper end Of the line between this
/ city and Atlanta. No effort has been


made thus far to relay the track Of
I the Georgia Central Railroad between
Gordon, station twenty miles below


Macon, and Millen. Until these gaps


can be closed up the government is
forced to rely upon wagon trains. which
are doing all that could be expected at
this rainy season Of the year.


1t were folly TO attempt to disguise
the fact that there is very great discon-
/ tent IN this State and in South Carolina
and North Carolina. With trihing ex-
/ cepGons there is no desire Oh the part


OF the people for a reconstruction Of


the Union, but candor compels me to
say there IS wide and deep-seated dis
satisfaction at the management Of
public affairs, which if not timely
checked, threatens to produce
the greatest disasters. | shall
not undertake 10 say whether this dis
content is the result Of unavoidable


military reverses, or of mismanage-


ment by our civil and military author
tiles, or Of the teachings Of a factious
press, which thinks it a light affair to
destroy the confidence of the people
in their leaders, or of the aordid spirit
of gain which has taken such hold
upon the country. IL may be that all
OF these causes have combined 20 pro


duce the deplOrable state of dissatisfsc-
ton, dependency and faction in which


l have found the people all along my
clrcultOUs route from Richmond to Au
gUsta. But that great discomfort does
prevail, and that it threatens, like
cloud overcharged with electricity, to
vent itself upon the nearest object
possibly upon the cause itself which
now engages every patriots heart
there is not the shadow of a doubt The
opinion here expressed has not been
hastily formed 1t has been more than
a month since the writer left Rich
mond. He has mingled freely with
people ofall shades of fOpiniOn-with the
friends as we'll as the opponents of the
admluistrati0n-and he Is painfully
convinced that he does not eEaggerate
when he says the authorities at Rich
m0nd must concede something TO pop
Ular sentiment that the press must be
more reticent and forbearing, remem-
baring that it is one thing 10 criticise
the conduct of public men, and point
out their errors as We would those of s
friend, and quite another thing to de
nOUuce them and destroy their power
for future good; and that the standard
ofprivate virtue and public morals must
be elevated, and the people called
away from the groves and high places
whore MammOn IS worshipped, and
where patriotism is bartered away for
gold If something like this be not
doue-if, in other words, a remedy for
existing disorders be not found and
speedily appled-Lhose in authority, rs
we'll as the press and people, may live
to see the day when they viii call upon
the rocks and the mountains to fall
upon them and hide them from the
consequences of their own infatuatioR.
People in Richmond at the time / left
the capital had but faint idea Of the
real condition Of affairs The admin
istration itself did not begin to realize
the estimation in which tits held by
the country, whether rightfully or
wrongfuliy, need not now stop to con
slider The fact IS what ! am after, and
the fact is as I have stated it to be