Additional from the North.
The Northern papers of the 28d inst.
contain a few brief items of intelligence:
The Examination of a Banished Minister.
It has already been announced that
Butler has sent
Rev. Jas. D. Armstrong, D. D., of
Norfolk, Va., to work upon the fortifications at
Hatteras, as a punishment for being "disloyal. " The following is the official report of the "examination" of
Dr. Armstrong:
Question. Do you call yourself a loyal man in letter and spirit to day?
Answer. I prefer not answering.
Q What is the name of that gentleman who had taken the oath and while coming out of the
Custom House with you made the remark that be "would like to spit upon Northern Yankees, " or something to that effect? A. I prefer not answering.
Q. Have you ever in your pulpit alluded favorably to the
Southern cause? A. I preached a sermon on the recommendation of the Southern Congress.
Q. Did you object at that time to doing so? A. No, sir.
Q. Have you since the commencement of the war preached in your pulpit a sermon favorable to the
Union cause--one that would please the loyal and displease the disloyal? A. No, sir.
Q. Where were you born? A. In
New Jersey.
I came to
Virginia when nineteen years old.
Q. Have you determined in your mind not to pray for or allude to the
President of the
United States, the authorities, the armies and navies thereof, that they may be successful in all their efforts to put down this wicked rebellion? A. I have.
Q. Do you think this a wicked rebellion? A. No, sir.
Q. Have you, since the commencement of this war, opened your church on any fast or thanksgiving day recommended by the
President of the
United States?
A. No, sir.
Q. Did you ever open your church on
Jeff. Davis's recommendation? A. There has been meeting for prayer.
Q. Should the
President of the
United States within a short time recommend a day of thanks- giving or fast, with a view that Christians would unite in prayer for the overthrow of all rebels in arms against the
Government of the
United States, would you willingly open your church and take charge of such meetings to that end? A. I should not.
Q. Do you look upon slavery as a divine institution? A. I look upon it as allowable.
Q. Did you look upon the hanging of
John Brown as just and right? A. I did.
Q. Would you look upon the hanging of any of the prominent rebels-Jeff
Davis, for instance — as just and right? A. I should not.
Q. Are you religiously and morally opposed to capital punishment? A. I am not.
Q Do you look upon
Jeff. Davis or any of his confederates as deserving any severe punishment for their public acts against the
Government since the commencement of the war? A. I do not.
Q. Do you sympathize with the
Union cause or with the
Confederate?
A, With the
Confederate.
Q. Do you look upon
Jeff. Davis,
Wigfall,
J. M. Mason, and their former colleagues in the United States Congress just preceding the year 1860, as perjured men, and deserving a traitor's reputation for all time, until they show works meet for repentance? A. I do not.
Q. Did or do you now regret the
Federal loss at
Smithfield a few weeks since? A. I do not.
Q. Do you think the attack upon
Fort Sumter by the rebels justifiable? A. I prefer not answering
Q. Do you think the
South justifiable in ever having fired on the old flag? A. I do.
Q. Should you know of any blockade runners or secret mail carriers to or from the rebels, would you give immediate information there of to our authorities, that they might be detected and punished as traitors deserve? A. I would not have anything to do with it.
Beecher on the endurance and Pluck of the rebels.
Rev. Henry Ward Beecher rather startled his hearers at the Plymouth Church, in
Brooklyn, in a enology of the rebel troops, in the course of a sermon designed to show that the price of liberty was not only eternal vigilance, but eternal self-sacrifice. "Where," exclaimed the speaker, --shall we find such heroic self-denial, such up bearing under physical discomfort, such patience in poverty, in distress, in absolute want, as we find in the
Southern Army?
They fight better in a bad cause than you do in a good one; they fight better for a passion than you do for a sentiment.
We believe them to be misguided, but we must do them the credit of saying they fight well, and bear up under trouble nobly; they suffer and do not complain; they go in rags, but do not rebel; they are in earnest for their personal liberty; they believe in it, and if they can they mean to get it."
Mr. Beecher also denied that slavery was dead. "Dead !" be exclaimed, "we know that within the lines of the frontier army there are yet three millions of slaves.
As yet, we learn that they are docile, amenable to the will of their masters, patient, and subservient Don't be deceived.--
Miscellaneous.
Burnside's expedition is to be organized at
Annapolis.
It is said 50,000 troops will be gathered there; but three regiments have yet arrived there.
The
Yankees can't spare the half of 50,000 troops for any water expedition.
It looks like a blind.]
The
Secretary of War and the
Provost Marshal General disclaim all interference through Provost Marshals in the elections head in
Kentucky,
Delaware,
Maryland or
Missouri.
Five hundred Confederate prisoners passed through
Philadelphia from Camp Morton for
Fort Delaware.
The citizens of the Eastern Shore of
Virginia are required to register themselves as loyal or disloyal.
Siegel commands the department of West Virginia, and has appointed
Gen. Stahl his chief of cavalry.
Mr. Cisco has been appointed by
Chase to sell his surplus gold.
Longstreet is alleged to be mounting his infantry.
An incursion into
Kentucky is expected.
Thursday last was the day for a grand review of the Army of the Potomac by
Grant.
The Canadian Ministry have resigned.
The campaign in
Texas has opened vigorously.
Gen. Averill is ill at
Martinsburg.
Gold was quoted in New York on the 21st inst. at 163½.
