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From Charleston.
[Special correspondence of the Dispatch.]

Charleston, Feb. 4, 1861.
Certainly we begin to breathe easier. We bet that the madness that has ruled the hour at Washington, has reached its culminating joint. Nothing has transpired as to Colonel Hayne's finale; nor is there anything known, except that he has demanded the unconditional at surrender of Fort Sumter, of the President, and that he has communicated the same to Congress.

The impression prevails here, in well-in-formed circles, that the first act of the Southern Congress at Montgomery will be to demand all the forts and arsenals situated in the molding States, and that the demand will be granting. I have seen no one who supposes for a moment that anything will be effected by the Convention now being held in Washington, and that the whole thing will break up with a worse understanding than at present.

The army of this State continues to increase, and the severest training continues.

The fortifications and breastworks are all nearly completed, and the guns are nearly all in place.

The ‘"floating battery,"’ of which you have heard so much, is rapidly progressing, under the constant labors of one hundred men. Its destination is yet unknown to any, except the Governor and his Cabinet.

A few evenings ago, a steamer which had been up the river after Palmetto logs for one of the fortifications, had been belated, and was returning in the night, and had to pass one of the batteries, and having forgotten the signal by exhibiting her lights, she was hailed by a cannon, and not giving the proper signal, she was suspected as being a spy, and the boys gave her a shot close to her bow, when the fellows aboard put up such another screech you never heard, which had the effect of stopping the mouth of the cannon.

A very ancient old fort has been brought into requisition on the coast near here. It was a fort built in colonial times, in which to fight our oppressors, of large dimensions, with a wall of concrete, about 6 feet high, and some 8 feet thick. Trees of immense size had grown up in it. This is again brought into requisition against those who seek our oppression, and is just finished, and, on its completion, a sturdy negro, who had tasted some of that which ‘" massa"’ had taken, rose upon its walls and said, ‘"Dis place was built long time ago by dese very people to fight dem Britishers, and I speek nigger help to put up dis wall dat I am now stanin on. Dese white gemmen now here, our feller-citizens, building it up agin, and de great gran chillun of dem very old niggers dats dead and gone, now help white folks to put up de same walls, an put up dese bull dog guns, to kill dem Black Publicans.--When de time comes, boys, I want massa let me fire dat big feller dare, an of I don't make um hang up de fiddle and de bow, massa need give me no more meat dis year."’ With that all the gang of blacks jumped up, and shouted at the tops of their voices, and cut all sorts of splurges, and hallooed ‘"Hurrah for Cudjo Seabrook."’

Very bad weather, yet large sales of Cotton at 10 ½ to 12 ½ Virginius.

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