From the North.
We have received, by special arrangement, the New York papers, of Thursday, March 6th. They are filled with glorifications over the anticipated opening of a cotton trade through
Tennessee, and other successes achieved by the ‘"Union" ’ arms.
The
Herald says:
‘
"The success of the right wing of our [Federal] army on the upper Potomac is complete.
A dispatch from
Charlestown--
Gen. Banks's headquarters — informs us that
Leetown and
Lovettsville are now added to the points held by the
Union troops.
Not less than $20,000 worth of provisions and forage has been captured from the rebels since our army crossed the
Potomac.
Another brilliant event on Tuesday night added fresh
eclat to the movement of this portion of the grand army.
A squadron of the first Michigan cavalry advanced as far as
Berryville, on the
Winchester turnpike, and there, lying in ambush, surprised a party of the rebel cavalry, routing them, killing three, and capturing nine horses as trophies, without the loss of a man. One of the horses was recognized as the celebrated black steed rode by
Col. Ashby."
’
Now, since it so happened that
Col. Ashby has not ridden a
black steed at any time during the war, we know the latter portion of the above paragraph is a falsehood, and probably the ‘"brilliant event"’ described was en-entirely manufactured for the
Northern market.
The
Herald further says:
‘
Advices from the lower Potomac yesterday state positively that the rebels are concentrating in large force opposite
Gen. Hooker's division.
It is believed in
Washington that their forces on the
Potomac have been greatly increased since the late victories of our armies in
Tennessee,
Kentucky, and
Missouri, as though the rebel leaders were now convinced that their last grand stand must be made on the
Potomac, where their most powerful strongholds and the pick and choice of their army are located.
’
Advices from
Springfield, Mo., are to March 1st. The dispatch says that on the Wednesday night previous the
Federal Captain Montgomery, of
Wright's battalion, was surprised at
Keithville,
Barry county, by 850 ‘"rebels,"’ supposed to belong to
McBride's division, but who represented themselves as Texan Bangers.
They fired into the house occupied by the
Federals, killing two and wounding one. One of the ‘ "rebels"’ was killed; the balance fled, taking with them about seventy horses.
The remainder of the news possesses no interest, except the following:
It is feared that the combined forces of
Price, Van-
Dorn,
McCulloch, Pike and
McIntosh, will again overrun the country, which keeps thousands from avowing their sentiments.
Price, after a hot chase, is cooling off in the
Boston mountains.
Ben McCulloch is on this side of the mountains.
The papers contain nothing new from
Columbus, beyond that already given by telegraph.
Forty-nine Confederate officers started from
Columbus, Ohio, for
Fort Warren, on the 4th.
R. R. Cheatham,
Mayor of
Nashville, has issued a proclamation giving the ‘ "satisfactory result"’ of an interview between the city authorities and
Gen. Buell.
He therefore respectfully requests that business be resumed, and that all citizens, of every trade and profession, pursue their regular vocations.
The sale or giving away of intoxicating liquors is, however, strictly prohibited.
The
Nashville correspondent of the New York
Times gives a picture of the state of affairs, from which it appears that the invaders were not received with any great amount of cordiality.
We make some extracts:
‘
I have spent a good deal of time to-day in conversing with the citizens, and found but little.
Union sentiment.
Men asserted that they were not citizens of the
United States--didn't want any protection from the
Government, and in several cases even refused to sell any goods to the soldiers or officers.
One man said he was a Union man, but never had dared say so for fear of being hung; another said the only two nights' sleep he had in weeks were since the arrival of the
National army.
Another individual assured me with a very haughty air, that there were no Union men in
Nashville except among mechanics and laborers; no gentlemen, he said; were anything but Secessionists, or rebels, if I liked the term any better.
’
Gen. Grant and his staff visited
Nashville, and called upon
Mrs. James K. Polk.
Of the interview the writer says:
‘
She received her visitors courteously, but with a polished coldness that indicated sufficiently in which direction her sympathies ran — she was simply polite and ladylike; in no case patriotic.
While she discreetly forbore to give utterance to any expression of sympathy for the
South, she as rigidly avoided saying anything that might be construed into a wish for the success of the
Government.--She hoped, she said, that the tomb of her husband would protect her household from insult and her property from pillage; further than this she expected nothing from the
United States, and desired nothing.
’
The correspondent finds that ‘"the ladies of
Nashville are as full of treason as they are in occasional cases of loveliness."’ Among the evidences of their contempt for the
Yankees the following is given:
‘
Occasionally I met other specimens of
Nashville ladies, who, in many cases supposing me to be a soldier, from the possession of a blue overcoat, described upon meeting a wide semi-circle of avoidance, swinging, as they did so, their rotundant skirts with a contemptuous flirt far out, as if the very touch of a blue coat would be contamination.
And then the angle at which the noses of the naughty darlings went up, and the extent to which their lips and eyes went down were not the least interesting portion of these little by-plays, and assisted materially in showing the exquisite breeding of these amiable demoiselles.
’
A later account says--
‘
"Union men begin to make their appearance.
They say that a majority will yet be found on our side, but that it will take some time to develop the feeling that has been so thoroughly crushed."
’
The latest reports of proceedings in the Federal Congress present nothing of interest.
The Confiscation bill was still a prominent subject of consideration.
Among the items telegraphed to the New York
Herald are the following:
‘
The publication of the defence of
General Fremont produces much excitement here.--The Committee on the Conduct of the
War state that the publication was unauthorized by them.
The Committee of the
House on Foreign Relations have the
Mexican question under consideration.
Mr. Seward is preparing for the committee a valuable paper on the subject of our commercial intercourse with
Mexico.
’
Official information has been received that the
Portuguese Government is devoting its attention to the cultivation of cotton in its
African possessions.
It is strongly suspected at the Treasury Department that the report of the circulation of counterfeit five dollar Treasury notes, which prevailed in New York a few days ago is erroneous, and that there are really no such counterfeits in existence, but that the rumor was either ignorantly or designedly set afloat.
A petition has been started by the distillers and dealers in domestic liquors here, praying Congress to lay tax of thirty to forty-five cents per gallon on spirits, instead of fifteen cents, as proposed in the Tax bill.
The petitioners give as a reason the great increase of revenue which such a tax would produce.
Carl Schurs,
United States Minister to
Madrid, left here this afternoon to make a speech to the German element in New York in favor of the abolition faction.
This ‘"rule or ruin"’ clique dies hard, but the inexorable logic of events is fast crushing cut these opponents of the
Union policy of the Administration.
About two o'clock this morning the residence of
Count Mercier, French Minister, at Georgetown Heights, took fire from a defective flue, and was entirely consumed.
The papers and valuables were saved, but the elegant furniture was much damaged.
The Fire Department was on hand, and prompt assistance was rendered by the soldiers.
The house was formerly occupied by the
Count Sartiges.
United States Marshal
Keyes, of
Boston, who received the rebels
Buckner and
Tilghman on Monday, and consigned them to
Fort Warren, is here, and reports that these rebels are confident of being exchanged for
Major Gen. Banks, who will be captured, as they believe, by
Gen. Johnston,
Buckner is treated at present as a prisoner or war; but he is also a fugitive from justice, there being an indictment for treason pending in
Kentucky, which was found against him long before his capture by
General Grant.
"the last terrible agonies"
The following dignified editorial which appears in the New York
Herald, of the 6th inst., shows what the
Yankees think of the state of affairs in
Richmond.
The rebellion is in the last terrible agonies of a violent dissolution.
Richmond is getting too hot to hold it. Read the exciting information which we publish this morning from the Richmond papers.
The Union men of that city are beginning to put the handwriting on the wall.
‘"Attention, Union Men!"’ ‘"Watch and Wait!"’ ‘"The Union Forever!"’ ‘"The Hour of Deliverance Approaches!"’ are among the mysterious and significant inscriptions which
Davis and his despotic cabal of usurpers find written under their very noses.
And there is a great panic in
Richmond — No wonder.
Cut off at
Nashville, invested at
Savannah, threatened by
Burnside and by
Wool, and ‘"held us in a vice by
McClellan, "’ the rebels are truly in a desperate situation at every point, and especially at
Richmond.
And they have arrested
John Minor Botts and twenty other Union men on the charge of treason.
We are gratified to hear that
Botts not only still lives, but is still a living terror to real traitors.
And martial law has been proclaimed within and for ten miles around
Richmond.
Another good sign; for it shows that the people of that city and for ten miles around it are so dangerously sick of
Jeff. Davis that nothing but the civil law of the bayonet will keep them quiet.
What a charming little city to live in has
Richmond become under the beneficent despotism of
Davis!
What a beautiful illustration it is of the delights of that happy valley of Rasselas, as promised by
Yancey with the millennium of his Southern Confederacy!
All distillations of spirituous liquors, and all sales of the same, under the ban of martial law!
Can anything be imagined more disgusting to the rollicking champions of Southern independence, such as the rubicund and highly-perfumed
Governor Letcher, for example?
No liquor to be sold in
Richmond?
A Maine law there by martial law!
Does
Davis know what he is doing?
Does he not know that in stopping the grog of his subjects and victims he is in a very fair way to raise the devil in a whirlwind!
The Sepoys conspired and brought about that horrible mutiny in
India because they were required to take cartridges between their teeth which had been greased with sacrilegious hog's lard, an intolerable insult to Brahma.
Take away from the true sons of secession chivalry their whiskey, and you attack their religion.
Truly,
Jeff. Davis is on his last legs, and his days are numbered.
A Southern Confederacy and no whiskey?
That fixes him.
Financial matters.
The latest quotations of stocks in New York are--
United States 6's registered, 1881 92 ⅞a93; do 6's, coupon, 1881, 92 a 92¾; do. 5's, coupon, 1784, 84½ a 95;
Virginia 6's; 60½;
Tennessee 6's, 60 a 60¼;
North Carolina 6's, 67 a 70;
Missouri 6's, 52½ a 52¼. The tax bill continues to be the chief topic of conversation in financial circles.
There are wide differences of opinion with regard to the details of the measure.
The New York
Herald urges a tax upon cotton, wheat, corn, turpentine, sugar, and rice.
Important from Mexico.
The steamship
Columbia, at New York from
Havana, brings important news from
Mexico, dated at
Vera Cruz on the 20th of February. It is in substance as follows:
‘
The Spanish
General Prim and the
Mexican General Dobindo had held a conference at
Soledad on the part of the
European Powers and the
Government of the
Republic.--The result was that the allied troops are to be permitted to pass the Chiquihuitt — the key of the
Valley of Mexico — and to garrison the cities of
Cordova,
Orizaba and
Teheran.--When they are in these positions the conferences are to be resumed,
Spain and
France promising to resume their
status in quo at
Vera Cruz, provided they are not satisfactory.
The allies were in much distress at
Vera Cruz just before.
An opinion prevailed in some minds that
General Dobiado had betrayed Juarex, but others, again, thought the allies would be in dangerous places should hostilities be resumed.
General Prim had announced that the Austrian
Archduke Maximilian would be placed on the throne of
Mexico.
From
Havana, we learn that some of the
Spanish legislators dreaded the movement of
France and
England in
Mexico as dangerous to
Cuba.
’
