Additional from the North.
From our files of Northern papers, of the 10th, we make up some interesting intelligence, which we give below:The position at Vicksburg.
A correspondent of the New York World, writing from near Vicksburg, June 2d, gives the following explanation of how things stand with the Federal:- I. Vicksburg is not in our possession.
- II. It is closely invested, our lines of siege being within two and a half miles of the centre of the town. Our-pickets are behind trenches, and our riflemen in pits at a distance of from two hundred to five hundred yards of the enemy's line of defensive works. The enemy can hold no communication with the outside forces. He is closely and securely hommed in.
- III. Only one partial attempt has been made to storm the works, which resulted in a repulse, with a loss to us of eight hundred in killed and wounded. This attempt was made by a portion of McClernand's corps on the left or lower side of the city. This was on the 19th. Since that time skirmishing along the line, with occasional firing from the field batteries, has comprised all the hostilities, beyond the shelling and bombardment by mortar boats from the river front.
- IV. It is not, certain whether the attack is converted into a siege of regular approaches by parallel works, mines, etc., or whether we are waiting for additional reinforcements with which to make a general assault. Opinions differ. The general impression is, among intelligent officers, that Vicksburg may and can be taken by the loss of ten to fifteen thousand men. This loss would be trifling for the gain of such a position; but in the judgment of the General commanding, it is more than he is willing and ready to pay, feeling, perhaps, that by a little delay the place must fall at far less cost.
Ladies going to or Returning from the South.
The Yankees are about to send another batch of people South. The regulations for their obtaining passports are published as follows in the Washington papers: First.--All applications for passes to go South must be made in writing and verified by oath, addressed to Major L. C. Turner, Judge Advocate, Washington, D. C., as follows: ‘ I, A — B--, applicant for a pass to go to City Point, Virginia, and now residing at--, do solemnly swear that, if said pass be granted, I will not take any property excepting my wearing apparel, and that all the articles to be taken with me are contained in the trunk or package delivered or to be delivered to the Quartermaster on the transport steamer on which I am to go to City Point.--That I have not been in any insurgent State, nor beyond the military lines of the United States, within thirty days last past. That I will not return within the military lines of the United States, during the present war, and that I have not in my trunk nor on my person any papers or writings whatsoever, nor any contraband articles. ’ No person will be allowed to take more than one trunk or package of female wearing apparel, weighing not over one hundred pounds, and subject to inspection; and if anything contraband be found in the trunk or on the person, the property will be forfeited and the pass revoked. Second.--A passenger boat will leave Annapolis, Md., on the 1st day of July next, to deliver those permitted to go South at City Point, and the baggage of each applicant must be delivered to the quartermaster on said boat, at least twenty-four hours previous to the day of departure for inspection. Third.--Children will be allowed to accompany their mothers and relatives, and take their usual wearing apparel; but the name and age of each child must be given in the application. Fourth.--Ladies and children desiring to come North will be received on the boat at City Point and taken to Annapolis, and every adult person coming North will be required to take and subscribe to the oath of allegiance to the Government of the United States before the boat leaves Fortress Monroe. L. C. Turner, Judge Advocate.
The meeting of the peace Democrats in New York — resolutions passed.
As a part of the history of this war we make room for the resolutions adopted by a meeting of the peace Democrats of New York on the 3d, a sketch of which we published several days ago. The meeting was a very large one, and among the speakers were several Germans. Here are the resolutions: ‘ Resolved, That the sovereignty of the States and the sovereignty of the people, as laid down in the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions, of which Jefferson and Madison were the authors, are the fundamental principles of the Democratic party; that they are the vital essence of the Constitution, pervading every line and provision of that instrument, and to deny them would reduce our political federative system to anarchy or despotism. ’ Resolved, That, under the Constitution, there is no power in the Federal Government to coerce the States, or any number of them, by military force. If power of coercion exist at all, it is a legal power, and not military. That the Democratic party, if true to its own time-honored principles, cannot sustain a war against sovereign States; that we believe it to be the duty of the party to proclaim these sentiments boldly, that the people may feel that there is at least one political organization which will deal honestly, independently, and truthfully with them. Resolved, That the war, in its inception and further continuance, being contrary to the Constitution, must necessarily fast consume all the elements of Union, and hence that our duty as citizens, our obligations as men, and our relations to our common Father, alike demand that an end should be put to what is repugnant to the law, abhorrent to the humanity and civilization of this enlightened era, and inconsistent with the benignant spirit of morality and religion. Resolved, That the claim of dictatorial and unlimited power, under the pretext of military necessity, and the trial of citizens, not in the land or naval forces, or in the militia in actual service, by courts martial, are monstrous in theory and execrable in practice. That it is equivalent to an entire abrogation of the Constitution and the erection in its place of a military despotism. Resolved, That we should be unworthy of the name of American citizens of this free and independent State, claiming the first rank among the sovereign components of the American Confederacy, if we did not protest against the cowardly, despotic, inhuman, and accursed act which has consigned to banishment the noble tribune of the people, Hon. Clement L. Vallandigham; we protest against it in name of liberty, in the name of humanity, and in the name of Washington. We hope the people of Ohio will have the opportunity of passing condemnation of this act by the election of Mr. Vallandigham as the next Governor of the State. Resolved, That thus believing there can be no reliable security to persons or property pending this war; and that by its continuance the Government itself will be utterly and irrevocably subverted — and that the South as well as the North must all be crumble into general ruin and devastation, we recommend, in the name of the people, that there be a suspension of hostilities between the contending armies of the divided sections of our country, and that a Convention of the States composing the Confederate States, and a separate Convention of the States still adhering to the Union, be held, to finally settle and determine in what manner and by what mode the contending sections shall be reconciled; and appealing to the Ruler of all for the nestitude of our intentions, we implore those in authority to listen to the voice of reason, of patriotism, and of justice. The reading of the address occupied about three-quarters of an hour, and was received with general favor. Among the sentiments of the audience elicited by the reading were groans and hisses for President Lincoln, Burnside and Butler, cheers for Vallandigham and McClellan, hisses for the Emancipation Proclamation, prolonged and nearly cheers for peace, groans for military courts martial of citizens, and cheers for the proposition for a Convention to take preliminary stops to secure peace. The greens and black for the President and the cheers for Vallandigham and peace were specially viscous. On motion of Mr. Flanders, the resolutions were adopted, after which Mr. Flanders, on behalf of the Committee on Invitations, read letters of regret for non-attendance from Hon Thomas H. Seymour of Connecticut, Hon. James A. Bayard of Delaware, and Hon. Willard Saulsbury of Delaware, all of which endorsed the peace movement, and elicited unusual approbation. The speech of Fernando Wood was the boldest and ablest of the occasion. Its tenor may be inferred from the following reasons which he assigned why the war should cease:- 1. The war should cease because it should never have commenced, in as much as there is no coercive military power in the Federal Government as against the States, which are sovereign, and in possession of all power not delegated. If power of coercion exist at all, it is legal, not military.
- 2. Because there was no necessity for it. An amicable adjustment of the questions in dispute could have been, and can be still, procured on terms of fairness and equality.
- 3. Because, however legal and just at the commencement, it has been diverted from its ostensible original purpose, and made a war for the abolition of slavery and the extinguishment of the Southern States, as such, which, of course as a consequence, subverts the Government itself.
- 4. Because it is made a pretext for the most outrageous and damnable crimes against the liberty of the citizen, the rights of property, and even against the form of Government under which we have lived.
- 5. Because it is creating a stupendous public money debt, which must bear down labor, destroy capital, and finally cause national bankruptcy and dishonor.
- 6. Because in the military it is establishing a new and dangerous power, which already overrides the Courts and the Constitution, and which history teaches when once firmly established becomes permanent, despotic, and tyrannical. When military law subverts the civil law, liberty departs forever.
- 7. Because there is neither in the civil nor in the military departments of Government any man or men of sufficient mental power to successfully prosecute the war against the vastly superior statesmen and Generals of the South.
- 8. Because the commercial wealth of the country, derived from foreign trade, and largely enhanced by Southern products, must gradually disappear if this war continues. As yet artificial stimulants have supplied the defection of sound mercantile resources, but time must dissipate them, and then will follow a reaction terrible — overwhelming and annihilating.
- 9. Because the popular enthusiasm necessary to conduct the war and supply the failing armies has subsided. Force, by a draft, cannot supply the indispensable requisite. Republicans; who have grown up with the idea of personal freedom, and right to political opinions and action, cannot be so suddenly changed as to become willing instruments of power, and be used effectually against their own convictions of policy and right.
- 10. And, finally, because experience should admonish us. that the over-ruling power of God is against us. We cannot succeed in what we have undertaken. Hence every dollar expended is thrown away — every life lost is little less than murder — every acre of land laid waste is so much toward national impoverishment — and every day's continuance of war places an additional barrier between us and reunion, and drives another nail in the coffin of the Republic.
