From Washington,
[special Correspondence of the Dispatch.] Washington, Jan. 10, 1861.
All is excitement here to-day.
The first gun has been fired at Charleston.
The Government, now in the hands of Scott, has acted cunningly indeed. "The Star of the West was not a vessel of-war; yet she was fired into by the rebels"--that's the way they have made the case appear; and the North, to a man, will sustain Scott.
But Anderson needed no reinforcements.
He was already impregnable.
The object of additional troops, therefore, could not have been peaceful.
There is no need for argument.
It is too late for that.
We must fight.
The thing is fated.
We are doomed to a long and bloody war. This is the feeling of our ablest Southern men.
Now that the danger is upon us, prompt action, guided by cool, clear judgment, on the part of Virginia, is what we need.
Look to all the points of offense and defense.
See that no more of the former fall into the hands of the enemy. We shall have work enough to do to rescue those already in their hands.
The excuse given by the Superintendent of Harper's Ferry for bringing troops there, is, as related to me, most flimsy and inadequate.
Virginians, arouse!
Discover instantly whether there be Arnolds and Dunmores in your midst.
Do your duty to your State at once.
Advertise no more of your plans in the papers.
The President is acting in secret, and with great energy.
Follow his example.
In Baltimore, the wilder spirits are raging in consequence of the occupation of Fort McHenry. Senators Pearce and Kennedy, at last, have been brought to insist upon a call of the Legislature, which will instantly call a Convention.
Here is one good effect already of Virginia's action.
A news-boy at Brown's Hotel is in the habit of amusing the Southern members by crying out, "Ere's the N. Y. Tribune--destruction of Horace Greeley by fire!" I hear from pretty good authority that Seward is going to bring worse destruction than fire on Greeley.
His speech is said to be so conciliatory that its effect will be to rend the Republican party in twain.
It is stated that Sumner has begged him not to deliver it. As he has accepted the Premiership under Lincoln, he is obliged to be moderate.
The Greeley wing of the party is left out in the cold.
But Seward's moderation comes too late.
So, also, the Northern anti-Abolition reformation that seems to be going on. War has begun.
We see strange sights.
A Democratic President fighting a Democratic State, and relying on Abolitionists for support — his own party having deserted and denounced him. A Massachusetts mob tearing down and burning up a school-house because an Abolitionist lectured in it. New York city, with its business all suspended, crowding the theatres from pit to dome, and, according to the Albion, displaying "an apathy and indifference perfectly astounding.
Revolution is canvassed as though it were a novelty in the fashions." As the Dutchman said when he was swindled by a Building Association, so say I--"Mein Gott!
vot a peoples!" Zed.
