February
February 1.
At Leavenworth, Kansas, an interview was held between Mr. Dole, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and the chiefs of several of the loyal tribes of Indians. The chiefs were Opothleyoholo, of the Creeks, Alektustenuk, of the Seminoles, and several representatives of the Iowa tribes. The interview was of an impressive character, and the conference covered the entire range of topics relative to the status of the Indian tribes, their relations to the Government, and their position as regards the rebellion. Commissioner Dole informed the chiefs that the Federal Government had no intention of ever calling upon its red children to take a share in the contest, but a portion of the Indians having proved false to their allegiance, and, under the instigation of designing men, having driven the loyal Indians from their homes, the Government would march its troops down into the Indian country and compel submission.--(Doc. 24.)
By order of the Provisional Government of Kentucky, the name of Wolfe County was changed to Zollicoffer County. The county of Zollicoffer will perpetuate on the records of Kentucky the name of one whose fame belongs to struggling freemen every where.--Louisville-Nashville Courier, February 3.
A skirmish took place to-day near Bowling Green, Ky., on the Green River, between a party of rebels and a company of the Second Cavalry, Forty--first regiment Indiana Volunteers, commanded by Captain J. B. Presdee. The rebels lost three killed and two wounded; none of the National soldiers were injured.--(Doc. 25.)
The Spanish steamer Duero arrived at Liverpool, Eng., from Cadiz, bringing as passengers the captains of three American ships, captured and burned by the privateer Sumter.--(Doc. 26.)
February 2.
Lieutenant-Colonel White's cavalry encountered a force of Lincoln's infantry in Morgan County, Tenn., on the mountain side. The Lincoln force was estimated at from one hundred to three hundred. White charged upon the enemy. Captain Duncan rallied his men twice, when he was shot through the head and killed by J. Roberts, a lad fifteen years old. The Kentucky Unionists were then completely routed and fled in confusion, leaving seven of their dead upon the field.--Norfolk Day Book, February 6.
The bark Trinity left Boston, Mass., to-day, for Fortress Monroe, Va., with three hundred and eighty-six rank and file, and eleven officers, from Fort Warren, in Boston harbor, to be exchanged for an equal number of National soldiers in the hands of the rebels.--N. Y. Herald, February 3.
February 3.
In accordance with the decision of the Administration of the United States, the privateersman who had been confined in the City Prison, were released from that place and confined as political prisoners in Fort Lafayette. The persons captured on the British ship M. S. Perry, and held as witnesses, were released entirely.
In the Superior Court at Salem, Mass., Henry M. Bragg, Francis W. Bayley, Isaac M. Daggett, Martin L. Stevens, Joseph S. King, and George W. Edwards, all of Haverhill, indicted for tarring, feathering, and riding on a rail, in August last, the editor of the Haverhill Gazette, Mr. Ambrose L. Kimball, were severally held to bail for trial, in the sum of one thousand dollars each.
[22] In the United States Senate, Mr. Chandler presented resolutions from the Legislature of Michigan reaffirming loyalty to the Government and hatred of traitors, and asking the Government to speedily put down the insurrection, favoring the confiscation of the property of the rebels, and asking that, as slavery is the cause of the war, it be swept from the land.
By the operation of Earl Russell's circular of neutrality, the privateer Nashville was sent off from Southampton, Eng., to-day. The Union gunboat Tuscarora was anchored off Cowes, where the rebel vessel passed her. The Tuscarora steamed up and was ready to start in chase of her, when she was stopped by the British frigate Shannon, (fifty-one,) to be detained for twenty-four hours, in accordance with the strict letter of international law. The London Times and Post congratulate the English people on their seeing the last of both vessels, as well as of all other American naval belligerents.
February 4.
The Richmond Examiner, of this date, has the following on the situation of affairs at the South:
We have a thousand proofs that the Southern people are not sufficiently alive to the necessity of exertion in the struggle they are involved in. Our very victories have brought injury upon the cause by teaching us to despise the public adversary. The immense magnitude of his preparations for our subjugation has excited no apprehension, and had little effect in rousing us to exertion. We repose quietly in the lap of security, when every faculty of our natures should be roused to action. The evidences of the prevailing sentiment are manifold. They are proved by the set of men who are elected to responsible positions. Men of palliatives, expedients and partial measures, control in our public councils. Men who could not perceive the coming storm that is now upon us, and who continued to cry peace, peace, when peace had ceased to be possible, are those who receive the largest support for controlling stations. The government is almost turned over already to these passive characters, who look upon confiscation as barbarous, aggression as impolitic, and vigorous war as a policy to be avoided, because tending to incense the enemy against us. The men who descried the cloud of war when it was no bigger than a man's hand, and who can now see no peace but as the result of vigorous measures, and renewed and repeated victories, are relegated to subordinate positions, and their views being a burning rebuke to the statesmen in position, they are laboring under the weight of implied censure. To win a fight by an aggressive movement is to incur a sort of obloquy; and to lose a battle in a brave push upon the foe is to provoke a chuckle of satisfaction, and the taunt, “I told you so.” Better to fight even at the risk of losing battles, than remain inactive to fill up inglorious graves. Better that government and people should be roused to duty by defeat, than that the army should go to sleep, the government doze and the people grow drowsy, in the very jaws of destruction. To fill our public councils with men of passive measures, who would administer war on Homoeopathic principles, who would whip the enemy by cowardice and sloth, is to paralyze the government and to enervate the people. The people are alive to the demands of the crisis, but if Congress frowns upon them, they grow tame and crouching. In the midst of revolution, no greater calamity can befall a people, than for their affairs to pass into the control of men who could not understand it in the beginning, and are incapable of appreciating the demands of the crisis as they arise. The French, in their revolution, had an easy way of getting rid of such characters — they chopped off their heads. They felt it necessary, as all subsequent opinion has acknowledged, to push their revolution through to a climax, at any cost, and, though often with tears and sorrow, they guillotined the public men who leaned back against the harness. The revolution succeeded, and owed its success solely to their excesses. They passed to the promised land through a red sea of blood. Old institutions, abuses and enormities were swept away, with every relic of opinion that upheld them. France became a tabula rasa, upon which a new destiny was to be written. All Europe moved against her more formidably than the Northern hordes are beleaguering our own country; but such was the fiery earnestness of her leaders and her people, that the gathering hosts of invasion were scattered to the four winds. At last, it must be confessed, that the subjugation of a nation is not to be defeated so much by armies and guns, as by the fierce resolution of its rulers and people. An unconquerable will and fierce combative purpose, are more effective than invincible arms. Does such a fiery [23] purpose blaze in our government, imparting its hot flame to the hearts of our people? There are two things needful for the early extinction of this war. We must first banish from the country every stranger in it who cannot give a satisfactory account of his purposes and objects here. This riddance of spies is a measure of importance, but comparatively of minor importance. The next thing requisite is for the whole community to throw themselves heart and soul into the war, and practise all the self-denial that the crisis demands. Why should the country be taxed with the support of the hundreds of hack teams employed in Richmond, when, if each gentleman would consent to walk a few squares, horses enough for a dozen or two batteries, well broken and well conditioned, with a complement of teamsters, could be thus secured to the army? This is but a single instance to show what might be accomplished by a general spirit of patriotic self-denial. What a vast system of expenditure, now exhausted upon mere luxuries, might be turned to advantage in the war, if the pampered classes of society would but consent to a temporary sacrifice of useless pleasures! He who will take the pains to run through the whole catalogue of items which could thus be turned to valuable account in the war, will be astonished at the extent and value of latent resources which the country affords. The most efficient class to bring out the men and resources of the country in this war have been its women. In the great struggles of nations, like that in which we are engaged, they should have queens for their rulers; for it is woman alone who is proof against the persuasions of time-servers and the sin of backsliding. There has been but one Lot's wife in all the tide of time.
The steamship Constitution, with the Bay State regiment, of Massachusetts, the Twelfth regiment Maine volunteers, and other troops, sailed from Fortress Monroe, Va., for Ship Island, in the Gulf of Mexico, this forenoon.--N. Y. Evening Post, February 5.
At Richmond, Va., J. P. Benjamin, rebel Secretary of War, issued the following order: Bands of speculators have combined to monopolize all the saltpetre to be found in the country, and thus force from the government exorbitant prices for an article indispensable to the national defence. The department has hitherto paid prices equal to four times the usual peace rates in order to avoid recourse to impressment, if possible. This policy has only served to embolden the speculators to fresh exactions. It is now ordered, that all military commanders in the Confederate States, impress all saltpetre now or hereafter to be found within their districts, except such as is in the hands of the original manufacturers, or of government agents and contractors, paying therefor forty cents per pound, and no more. The price fixed is the lightest rate at which contracts have been made, and leaves very large profits to the manufacturers.
