Jan. 8.
The Southern Confederacy (published at Atlanta, Ga.), a paper which has been fighting most gallantly for the Union and the laws, says of the late election for members of the Georgia Convention:
It is a notable fact, that, wherever the ‘ Minute Men,’ as they are called, have had an organization, those counties have voted, by large majorities, for immediate secession. Those that they could not control by persuasion and coaxing, they dragooned and bullied, by threats, jeers, and sneers. By this means thousands of good citizens were induced to vote the immediate secession ticket through timidity. Besides, the towns and cities have been flooded with sensation dispatches and inflammatory rumors, manufactured in Washington city for the especial occasion. To be candid, there never has been as much lying and bullying practised, in the same length of time, since the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, as has been in the recent State campaign. The fault has been at Washington city; from that cess-pool have emanated all the abominations that ever cursed a free people.
The Baltimore Exchange says “the whole population of Maryland is united in the desire to preserve the Union; yet it may be that the people, by a blind and ill-advised course, may render the State obnoxious in future to the charge of having contributed, by her indecision and weakness, to the overthrow of the republic.” --Evening Post, Jan. 8.
Governor Hicks, of Maryland, in a letter to J. L. Curry, Commissioner from Alabama, says he regards cooperation between the slave States as an infraction of the Constitution, which he, as Governor of Maryland, swore to support. The people of that State are firm in their friendship for the Union, and will never swerve from it; they have seen, with mortification and regret, the course taken by South Carolina; for in their opinion it is better to use the Union for the enforcement of their rights than to break it up because of apprehensions that the provisions of the Constitution will be disregarded, and they will cling to it until it shall actually become the instrument of destruction to their rights and peace and safety. Disunion would be ruin to Maryland, and in the proposed Southern Confederacy she sees no refuge from the ills she must suffer in such an event. “Let us,” says Governor Hicks, “have our rights in the Union, and through and by the Constitution.” --Baltimore Sun.
The N. C. troops, and persons residing in the vicinity of Forts Caswell and Johnson, took possession of those defences this day.1
Secretary Thompson resigned his place in the Cabinet, upon learning that the Star of the West had sailed from New York with troops.
From Charleston it is announced that the messages to Fort Sumter cannot be delivered, as there is no communication between the fort and the city.
The Sub-Treasurer of Charleston has communicated to the Government, that the South Carolina authorities will not allow him to pay [13] any more drafts, not even to pay Anderson's men. All the cash in his vaults is to be retained there.
It is ascertained that all the seceding States have drawn their quota of arms for 1861 in advance. The order from South Carolina was filled only a few days before the passage of the ordinance of secession.--Commercial, Jan. 8.
