Progress of the war.
The Herald on Abraham Lincoln as a Dictator — Bennett on his Knees to the future Ozar of the United States.
The New York Herald, of the 27th, has the following article on Abraham's prospects for the Dictatorship of the United States: ‘ The important measures which have lately passed, and others which are now under consideration in the two houses of Congress, will leave no excuse for a failure on the part of the present Administration to put an end to the rebellion. With the closing of the present session President Lincoln will be practically invested with the powers of a Dictator. The scope of his authority and discretion as President of the United States will hardly be less than that of Louis Napoleon as Emperor of France. Our whole political system of the peace establishment — including the subordination of the Federal Government to the will of the States and the people — will be reversed; for the States and the people will be rendered subordinate to the will of the Federal Administration. And this will be done, too, through the duly elected representatives of the States and the people in Congress assembled. This most remarkable political revolution is now within a few days of its consummation. The Militia bill, which has passed, places under the control of the President all the militia of the United States for the purposes of the war. The Banking bill, which has passed, and the Treasury note or finance all bill which is under consideration, will invest him with almost unlimited power over the range, finances, and currency of the country; and that other bill which is pending before the House, providing for the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, will give him full authority over the liberties of the individual citizen. In a word, we may say that with the adjournment of Congress on the 4th of March, President Lincoln, for the two years remaining of his term of office, will be clothed with dictatorial powers — political, military, and financial, over State and citizen, and by the action of Congress and under the authority of the Constitution. This organic instrument and the laws passed in pursuance thereof constitute the supreme law of the land. Nor do we think it can be successfully denied or contested that in straining its warlike authority to the establishment at Washington of a temporary dictatorship, Congress has in the acts indicated passed the barriers of the Constitution. The legislative power of Congress in regard to the militia, in case of rebellion or invasion, and over the financial affairs of the country, and the habeas corpus, is broad and comprehensive. It is possible that with a Napoleon or a Cromwell, clothed with this provisional dictatorship, there would be an end of our Republican institutions and the beginning of an imperial establishment; but there is not the slightest danger of the abuse of his authority by President Lincoln for ambitious purposes. We all know that his ambition is limited to the suppression of the rebellion, but if he were not, we all know that he would be powerless to employ the intelligent, liberty loving soldiers of the Union in any movement involving the suppression of our regular Presidential election. We therefore entertain no apprehensions of evil to the reserved rights of the States or the liberties of the people from these extraordinary powers with which Congress is clothing the President.--On the other hand, as these laws will be passed over to the next Administration they may even then be turned to good account in the application of their pains and penalties to the Abolition disorganizes at the North, after the rebels of the South shall have been reduced to their proper allegiance. Meantime, accepting the plea of imperious necessity, we cheerfully consent to this transformation of our President into a temporary Dictator. We cheerfully consent, in view of the great object of concentrating the forces and resources of the loyal States against those of the rebellion, and in the belief that this is the shortest way to the restoration of the Union, we cheerfully consent to surrender, for the present some of the privileges, immunities exemptions, and blessings of peace to push on this war, upon which depends the very life of this nation. Upon this point the patriotism of the loyal States is surely equal to that self sacrificing fanaticism which governs the people of the rebellions States. These people are under the most terrible despotism ever known to modern times; they bear it, they sustain it, and they submit to conscriptions, crucifies, extortions, privations, sufferings, and losses, painful to contemplate, under the belief that all these things are demanded of them in order to secure the independence of their Southern Confederacy, and under the belief, too, that with the object secured they will have a better Government, and a new career of happiness, security, and prosperity. Are not, then, the people of the loyal States capable of sustaining, it a comparatively light degree the burdens of a struggle upon which not only the life of the Government, but the safety of the property, the home, and the household goods of every man in the country depends? The intelligent will need no prompting to answer this question. But we concur in these war measures of Congress from still another view of the subject. They will admonish the great Powers of Europe that foreign intervention against the Union is not to be thought of and that they can only intervene in support of the cause of the Union. Thus Louis Napoleon may, perhaps, be convinced that the time has arrived when, acting upon Mr. Seward's Congressional peace proposition he may say to Jeff. Davis and his Confederates: Further resistance to the Federal Government is worse than useless — Accept the friendly offices of France in behalf of your submission to the Union or prepare for the consequences. But in every view of the subject, foreign and domestic, we are prepared to sustain these war measures of Congress and to support the President even as a temporary Dictator. Let us support him, and all that we have lost may be restored; but if we abandon him, all that we have may be lost. ’General Yankee News.
The New York Herald, in its "Situation" article of the 27th ult., says: ‘ The rebels are actively engaged in making raids on the north side of the Rappehannock. It is said that on the night of the 25th the picket guard on the Chantilly road out from Centreville was pounced upon and all but one captured by a hundred rebels after firing two rounds. It also says that on the same night a party crossed at Kelly's mill and threatened Stafford Court-House; that quite a large body occupy Warrenton, and that Stonewall Jackson is pushing up the Valley towards Strasburg. Gen. Hunter, in South Carolinas, has peremptorily ordered the staff of Gen. Foster to leave his department and proceed North by the first steamer. He has also put Gen. Stevenson, of Foster's corps, under arrest for stating in conversation that he objected to the employment of negro troops in the Government service, and that he (Stevenson) would as soon be beat as employ them as soldiers. Inasmuch as Gen. Foster has been to Washington and returned to Port Royal again it is supposed the difficulties have all been arranged and that matters will soon be all right again. From Kentucky, we learn (the "Herald" says) that the enemy was retreating from that State by way of Mr. Sterling and Hazel Green, and that CeiKinkie with a force of eight hundred men was pursuing them. A subsequent dispatch says the Confederates were overtaken twelve miles from Mt. Storing and were badly beaten after a brisk skirmish. There is a rumor that Breckenridge is advancing on Lexington with 10 (0) men, but this seemed to be doubted. A correspondent from Frankfort says that a gentleman from Richmond reports that our troops are retreating towards Lexington pursued by doth their numbers. A deserter from Lexington, Ky., dated the 16th says that there is great ... and that there are reports there of of Kentucky by a large force which is to cove through Cumberland Gap; of which the military authorities are not advised but that they are beginning to yield to the popular belief that a formidable invasion from that quarter is not far distant. A transport with forage and provisions has been captured by Morgan's man on Barren river, and it is feared another steamer bound for Bowling Greed would share the same fate. ’The Alleged French Meddling in Texas--official repudiation of the act.
In the Paris Moniteur, of the 10th ult., we find the following semi- official repudiation of the act of Mr. Theron in Texas: ‘ The London Times attributes great importance to an incident by which, according to its assertion, the Government of the Confederate States of America has been thrown into agitation, and in which some French agents are said to be compromised. One of the dispatches of Mr. Benjamin to Mr. Slidell. which were intercepted and published by the Federal Government give as the motive for the expulsion of M. Theron, Consular Agent of France, and the Consul of Spain at Galveston, an ill advised step taken in virtue of secret instructions, emanating from the Department of Foreign Affairs, or from the Emperors Minister in Mexico. We have every reason to believe that the Government at Richmond was soon disabused of an erroneous impression; but the English journal does not is less persist in exaggerating the importance of this incident by republishing, if not as well founded, at least as plausible, certain suppositions, the improbability of which that journal itself would have admitted if it had been informed of the real character of the agent incriminated. M. Theron, who left Europe twenty years ago, to take up his residence in Texas, is neither Consul, nor even paid Consular Agent at Galveston. The honorary functions with which he was invested in 1850 make him a simple delegate of the Consul at New Orleans, and under that title he has never corresponded, save with his immediate head. The only instructions he has received from his superior ordered him to observe the greatest reserve, and to abstain from all intervention with the political affairs of the country. The Consuls of France in the United States have, besides, been all directed to forward analogous recommendations to the agents placed under their orders. As to the other agent, M. Taboncile, whose name has been mixed up in the pretended discovery of diplomatic manœuvres, he is neither Consul nor Vice Consul, but simply a clerk in the Consulate at Richmond. Mr. Jefferson Davis, in cancelling the order given to M. Tabonelle to leave Virginia within twenty-four hours from the time it had been given, has sufficiently shown that the trifling incident which, in consequence of an entirety accidental circumstance, had awakened the suspicious of a Confederate Senator, did not seem to him to merit serious attention. ’ Mr. Theron, the Consul named at Galveston, has issued the following address "to the French, Spanish and Italian subjects, in the counties of Colorado, Austin, and Fayette:" Dear Friends:
Martial law has been declared in your counties, on account of some insurrectionary movements.
I hope that note of you have taken part in it. Beware not to join the enemies of your adopted country.
As aliens, be neutrals, and your nationality shall be respected.
I have fall confidence in Gen. J. B. Magruder.
His chivalry and integrity are sufficient protection against any injustice. 