From Charleston.
[Special correspondence of the Dispatch.]
Charleston, Feb. 22, 1861.
Our people have not forgotten the birthday of Virginia's great and glorious son, and the Father of his Country.
The day was ushered in by booming of cannon, and it is to be a gala day here, favored as we are with beautiful spring like weather.
No Carolina will never forget the anniversary of the birth of Washington, however she may despise the oppressions of his degenerate sons.
The report of the new Cabinet at Montgomery, which I gave you yesterday, is regarded here as official.
Whether or not the gentlemen selected will take office, is not yet known.
Several of the Cabinet are not widely known, but all of them are regarded as able men and of unimpeached character.
President Davis will certainly be here on Tuesday next, when a grand reception awaits him. It would be a pleasant trip (only 26 hours) for some of your gentlemen of leisure to visit the ancient and now renowned city of Charleston.
It would be a pleasant, and no doubt a very profitable trip for your State Convention to come en masse to see their future gallant Chief Magistrate.
The sight of President Davis and the breathing of secession atmosphere, might quicken some of those now sluggish and inanimate spirits which seem dormant from imbibing too free of Union narcotics methinks if Mr. Moore, of Rockbridge, was to visit us, he would see that we are not such monsters as to haunt his sleeping moments unfavorably.
It is true, he would see on all sides corps of soldiers, bristling bayonets, formidable batteries, and the huge floating batter; but we will take care to ‘"hurt nobody,"’ and will guarantee to return you and all your State Convention ‘"right side up with care."’
Well, the floating battery again.
It is now nearly completed.
I visited the ship-yard this morning to see it before it left terra firma. I will give its dimensions: 90 feet long, 40 feet wide, and what depth of hold I cannot say, because I don't know where to measure to or from.
One broadside is protected by an oval deck or roof, extending about one-third of the width, which is to be entirely closed, as casemates. In this compartment the guns are to work.
The whole interior is lined with Palmette legs of 18 inches in diameter and bolted through and through with iron.
The planking of the vessel is four inches thick, and the whole exterior, roof and all, is covered with from bars of two thicknesses; each bar being three-quarters of an inch thick.
When completed, it is to be anchored in one-quarter of a mile of Castle Pinckney, and the 10-inch Columbiads are to be turned upon her to see if she will stand fire; and if she does, Sumter may look out.
The scaling ladders are nearly done.
Do you know what scaling ladders are?
If not, I will not tell you now, but Major Anderson may.
A report came to the city this morning by one of the pilot boats, that the ship-of war ‘ "Daniel Webster"’ was hovering about our harbor, and the impression is that she is trying to reinforce Major Anderson; but when They get a reinforcement into Sumter, they will have to slaughter a few of us; ‘"that's so;"’ and, by the way, it would be a great piece of cruelty to reinforce Anderson, for it would only impose a very unpleasant duty on our people of having to slaughter so many more.
I heard on the street this morning a sage piece of advice given by an old African to his brother draymen, as they all sat lazily on their drays.
It was this: ‘">Be not deceived."’ I, of course, knew not why the sable speaker uttered these words with such emphasis, but it occurred to me that I might, with equal propriety and earnestness, urge the same scriptural quotation upon Virginia.
When the old ‘ "fossils"’ of the Whig and Democratic parties propose to hang on to abolition North America, and profess so much attachment to the Union, I would say to them, ‘"be not deceived,"’ for there can never be any real Union between them and the North.
When the people are told that the seceded States will ultimately return to the embrace of our loving abolition brethren, ‘"be not deceived"’--they will never do it. When the Black Republicans cajole you, and flatter you, and use honeyed phrases, and stuff you with sugar plum arguments, and show a willingness to kiss your big toe, ‘"be not deceived"’--they are only doing what they have been doing for a quarter of a century — adroitly, and stealthily, and surely, winding you up in their meshes, as ever that wicked spider seduced the unsuspecting fly. ‘"Be not deceived,"’ Virginians — you are as yet not entirely powerless; but the time is at hand when you will be, if you do not resist manfully the tide of abolition encroachments. 