Richmond Daily Dispatch - 1860-1865

New York city election.
New York, December6. 
--Full returns of the city election show that R. O'Gorman, Democrat, is elected corporation counsel by 17,000 majority, being on all but the Republican ticket. Eight aldermen are elected on the Republican ticket, and seven Democrats, two of the latter being claimed as municipal reformers. Of twenty-four members of the Common Council elected, thirteen are Republicans. 

The full vote for Mayor stands: Hoffman Tammany Democrat, 32,955; Roberts, Republican, 31,421; Hecker, Citizens' Association and Mozart Democrat, 10,400; Gunther, McKeon Democrat, 6,661. 

Later from Europe.
Portland, December6. 
--The steamer Hibernian, from Liverpool on the 23d ultimo, via Londonderry on the 24th, has arrived. 

Stephens, the Fenian Head Centre, escaped from prison on the morning of the 24th. 

The cattle disease is reported on the increase in England. 

Commercial intelligence.
Liverpool, November23. 
--Cotton — sales of the week, fifty-one thousand bales; market closing with a decline. Breadstuffs dull and declining. Provisions unsettled. 

Threatened raid on New Brunswick.
St. John, N. B., December6. 
--Some excitement was to-day caused by the rumor of a contemplated Fenian raid from the United States. The Government received a dispatch from Washington, stating that a raid on New Brunswick had been planned. It is generally believed to be nothing more than a plundering expedition, and measures are being taken to guard the banks and other property both of this city and on the frontier. 

Fenianism — rejoicing in New York.
New York, December6. 
--The Fenian Senate have commenced an extra session. 

The Fenians are rejoicing over the news of the escape of the Irish Head Centre (Stephens) from the Dublin jail. Their headquarters are illuminated to-night, and speeches are being made by Mahoney, Killian, Mullen, and others. 

Arrest of Lieutenant Maffit and Jefferson Davis Howell.
Portland, December6. 
--Lieutenant Maffit, formerly an officer of the rebel privateer Alabama, and Jefferson Davis Howell, who came as passengers per the steamer Hibernia, were arrested in this city just as they were starting in the train for Canada this afternoon. 

Gold excitement at Victoria.
San Francisco, December4. 
--The steamer Pacific has arrived. There is great excitement at Victoria over the reported discovery of rich placers at Big Bend. The largest nugget yet found was worth four thousand dollars. One man took out eight hundred dollars in one day. Three hundred dollars a day was common. 

Tennessee.
New York, December6. 
--The Nashville special dispatch to the Tribune says the bill allowing negroes to testify in the courts has been tabled by the Legislature. 

Richmond Dispatch.
Monday...december 11, 1865.
Admission of Southern Representatives.
The Washington correspondent of the New York News, under date of December 8th, says: 

There was a report yesterday to the effect that the Radicals in Congress would soon make a great show of magnanimity by admitting to their seats the representatives, first from Tennessee, second from Arkansas, and third from Virginia, provided those from the latter car take the test oath. I was inclined to doubt the truth of the report at first, but after investigation I believe it is well founded. What the object in view can be does not yet appear. It cannot be that the Radicals look upon it as an accession of strength to their party, for it will be the reverse. There are three (so-called) Republican members from Tennessee, but they are no more Republican in their feelings than Andrew Johnson is. All of the three members from Arkansas, six of the members from Tennessee, and seven of the members from Virginia, are Democrats. If the whole nineteen members from the three States are admitted, sixteen will certainly vote with the Democrats, and only three with the Radicals. The strength of parties in the House will then be: Radicals, 142; Democrats and Conservatives, 52. Your readers can see that the Radicals run no risk in the admission of the representatives from these three States. They will still retain an overwhelming majority, although the Democrats will receive a large accession to their numbers. 



Thaddeus Stevens's resolution will meet with decided opposition in the Senate. It is understood that Reverdy Johnson and Senator Doolittle will make strong arguments against it. The most strenuous efforts will be made to amend it, and faint hopes begin to be entertained that it may not pass the Senate without amendment. There is no prospect, however, that any of the Southern members will be admitted this session, except those from Tennessee and Arkansas, and possibly those from Virginia. 

Of the same subject, the Washington Star says: 

The Republican members of the Senate yesterday were in caucus upon the resolutions of Mr. Thaddeus Stevens relating to reconstruction. They are not likely to pass that body without important amendments. 



It is reported that prominent Republicans in both Houses favor the admission of the Tennessee delegation. 

The Washington correspondent of the New York Tribune writes: 

It is expected that there will be a strong opposition to the passage of the Stevens resolution in the Senate, mainly on the ground that it would make the action of that body as to the admission of its own members dependent upon the concurrence of the House. This, in fact, was the objective trait urged in a caucus of the Republican members of the Senate today. But whatever modification it may undergo in point of form, there is no doubt that the principle of the restoration will be adopted and that the investigation will be read. 



About the meaning of that resolution there can be no doubt; it is a declaration on the part of Congress that the representatives of the people have a word to say with regard to the reconstruction of the States lately in rebellion: that they mean to investigate the case for themselves, and to act upon their own judgment. The resolution involves neither a direct approval nor a direct censure of the policy followed by the President; but it does, indeed, indicate that the results of that policy will not be accepted without having first been closely scrutinized, and that the national authority will not relax its hold upon the late rebel States until the guaranties given for future good behavior are clearly understood to be satisfactory. It is rumored here that the passage of the Stevens resolution was received with little favor in Administration circles; but, in fact, the President has no right to complain. That the final closing up of so tremendous a revolution as that through which we have passed should be confided to the discretion of one man, could not be expected in a country in which the exercise of Democratic government has become a fixed habit with the people. The President has assumed responsibilities almost without precedent in the history of this republic, and even his nearest personal friends will hardly ask for him an unqualified endorsement without a close examination of the case, where the stake consists in the future peace and happiness of the nation. There was a way for him to escape this responsibility. He might have called an extra session of Congress immediately after the close of the war, and the legislative and executive branches of the Government might have unanimously proceeded together in an attempt to solve the great problem before them. But as the President undertook the business alone, it cannot be surprising to him that the National Legislature, when at the regular time entering upon its functions, should ask for an account of what has been done, and insist upon being heard concerning what is to be done hereafter. 

The National Intelligencer thus argues specially for the admission of the Virginia members: 

When the body of Virginia seceded, the northwest and eastern sections refused to desert the Union, but they proclaimed themselves a loyal community at the outset; and these relations with the Federal Government have never been suspended, but have continued uninterruptedly, without intermission. 

What is recognized as Virginia was even before Tennessee in the abolition of slavery and the adoption of the constitutional amendment, and in the acts of repudiating the rebel debt and of declaring the ordinances of secession to be null and void. 

The Alexandria Legislature was entirely loyal. The Senators elect, Messrs. Segar and Underwood, are everywhere recognized as loyal; the Governor of Virginia, regularly elected, is of indisputable loyalty; and we can recognize no technicality which, under radical reasoning, should exclude Virginia even for an instant on the score of the loyalty of the State, since it first unfurled the flag of the Union in a community of armed and defiant secessionists. 

We are becoming more and more sanguine that it is out of the power of politicians (even if they shall see fit to manifest a strong will to do so) to defeat the speedy triumph of restoration now nearly accomplished by the President. 

Meeting in Baltimore for the Benefit of Presbyterian ministers in the South.
--A meeting was held on Thursdayevening, in the Central Presbyterian Church, to adopt measures for the relief of ministers of said church residing in the South. A large audience was present, together with a delegation from each of the Presbyterian churches in the city. The meeting was opened by the singing of an anthem, and prayer. Honorable Judge Giles was called to the chair, who, upon assuming the position, stated briefly the object of the meeting. The Rev. Dr. Dickson, of the Westminster Presbyterian Church, presented a preamble, setting forth the deplorably desolated condition of the Southern churches and the suffering of their pastors, with resolutions looking to the taking up of a collection and to appoint a committee to obtain contributions in aid of their brethren in the South. In support of the resolutions, Dr. Dickson, Hon. J. Morrison Harris, and Rev. Dr. Backus, of the First Presbyterian Church, delivered short addresses, concurring fully in the language of the preamble and resolutions, and setting forth in eloquent language the destitute condition of pastors of the different churches in the South, and the broad field of charity thus opened to those desirous of contributing thereto. During the remarks of the speakers it was stated that there were some seven hundred ministers in the South, representing a membership of about thirty-five thousand, hardly one of which could be supported by their congregation. A committee of ten from each church, to carry out the purpose of taking collections, was then appointed. The committee to obtain contributions consists of Rev. Dr. Backus, Rev. Dr. Bullock, Rev. Dr. Smith, and Messrs. Whitely and Mercer. A collection was then taken up, resulting in the realization of a handsome sum towards the furtherance of the object for which the meeting had been called.-- Baltimore Gazette.

General S. B. Buckner is associate editor the New Orleans Crescent, a most able and spirited paper. Please come up, General, and take your Christmas dinner with us. We can't give you as magnificent a one as was prepared for you here on the 25th of December, 1861, but you shall have a much better one than you ever got in the rebel army.--Louisville Journal.

Additional European News.
The constabulary in all parts of Ireland have been warned of the Fenian Stephens' escape. 

The Court of Queen's Bench for Ireland has refused the application to have the Fenian cases tried in some other place than Dublin. 

The London Times says that specimens of virion gold have been discovered in Tinstream, in Cornwall. 

A sensation rumor, received in Europe by way of Halifax, Nova Scotia, stating that the French Minister at Washington had suddenly demanded his passports and would sail on the 10th of November, had created a good deal of excitement in Liverpool. 

A letter is published from Consul Dudley in the Liverpool papers regarding the cotton supply from America. The old cotton in the Southern States fit for market at the time of the capture of Savannah, it is estimated, did not exceed one million of bales. This year's crop will probably not exceed three hundred thousand bales. He estimates the present amount of cotton on hand at little over seven hundred thousand bales, including the new crop. 

As before stated, the war between Spain and Chili had occasioned great excitement among the merchants of both France and England, and they were urging their respective governments to interfere actively in favor of the Chilians. The ship owners of Liverpool were preparing to use the blockade-runners cast out of employment by the end of the American war in China. 

The steamship Asia, from Liverpool on the twenty-fifth ultimo, and Queenstown on the twenty- sixth, arrived at Halifax on the eighth instant, with two days later news. There was considerable mystery connected with the escape of Stephens, the Fenian Head Centre, the particulars of which have not been as yet disclosed. The Government offers a reward of one thousand pounds for his recapture, and three hundred pounds for information that shall lead to his arrest, with a free pardon to any person or persons giving such information. The opinion was, that Stephens made his escape through the assistance of some of the prison officials. The question of parliamentary reform was being agitated with increased interest and vigor, a reform meeting having been called at Birmingham, at which it was announced that John Bright would address the people on the great interests involved in the question. The reported increase of the cattle plague in England is confirmed by the arrival. Dr. Hunter, the American physician, on trial in London for an alleged assault on one of his female patients, had been acquitted. 

Tennessee and her Governor.
The remarkable editor of the New York Tribune astonishes people sometimes by his outspoken candor about men and measures. The telegraph on Saturday quoted the substance of one of these outbursts, viz: a denunciation of Tennessee and her Governor. We suspect that the assailed party will have as few defenders as ever appeared for any man or cause in this world. We give Mr. Greeley's pithy article entire: 

Tennessee Loyalty.--The telegraph has informed us that the bill allowing blacks to testify in the courts of Tennessee, which passed the Senate by ten to nine, has been defeated in the House by thirty to twenty-seven--the East Tennessee Unionists generally opposing, while many of the ex-rebels supported it. This is what we had been led to expect. Those East Tennessee Unionists have been permitted, by a weak and worthless Union general commanding, and a reverend blackguard, who is styled Governor, to murder two or three negroes to balance each of the paroled and returned rebel soldiers whom they have seen fit likewise to dispatch, until they have good reason to deprecate the admission of negro testimony; for it would hang hundreds of them if there was any semblance of law or justice in that region. According to our information, not less than a hundred rebels and negroes have thus been butchered since June last in and around Knoxville alone; and there will, of course, be more if the strong hand of authority be not stretched over them. 

Tennessee has many staunch Unionists and worthy men among her citizens; but she is nevertheless a Pandemonium of passion and crime, and no more fit for self-government today than Dahomey. She needs the strong arm of military power stretched over her for months yet; and she needs that this rule should guarantee the freedom and legal equality of all her people as the solid basis of a true reconstruction. 

Political view of General Butler's resignation.
--A Philadelphia paper says: 

"This is significant, as showing the bitterness of feeling which is growing up between the Radicals and the Conservatives at Washington. General Butler tendered his resignation some time since, or as soon as he heard that Lieutenant-General Grant was about to give him a scoring in his official report. The matter was laid over, and nothing more was said about it until a few days since, when General Butler was called to Washington for a conference with the President. Sequel: General Butler was not satisfied; the conference was not a happy one to him. He looked up his old resignation, and had it accepted before the time came when its acceptance might appear creditable to him. Consequence: General Butler will now be a bitter opponent of the Administration." 



Southern members of Congress.
--The WashingtonChronicle, which is supposed to speak the President's opinions frequently, if not habitually, says in its issue of yesterday: "The members elected from the Southern States to the Senate and House are having free and friendly intercourse with those who occupy seats in those bodies, and are everywhere treated with marked courtesy. Generally there is no disposition on either side to show what may be called discontent at delay, or eagerness to protract their exclusion. The impression prevails that they will be admitted before the close of the present session. This will certainly be so if they continue to march up to the fair and logical requirements of the President and of the anti-slavery majority of both breaches of Congress." 

Washington,December 8, 1865.
--General Logan had an interview to-day with the President and Secretary of State. He expressed his desire to go to Mexico, if he could be assured that our policy toward Mexico would be changed, but declared his unwillingness to go unless the Government intended to extend some substantial aid to the Liberals. The President informed him that he could not give him such assurance. Mr. Seward added that our policy of neutrality toward Mexico would, for the present, remain unchanged. Whereupon General Logan definitely refused the Mexican mission. The matter was discussed in the Cabinet meeting to-day, and it was determined not to appoint any one else in place of General Logan. 

Notwithstanding the belligerent tone of the message toward England, there is no expectation of war with that Power.--Special dispatch to the New York News.

The late cashier of the Philadelphia customhouse having embezzled over sixty thousand dollars of the funds and decamped, Collector William B. Thomas has paid the amount out of his private fortune, so that the Government loses nothing. Mr. Thomas says he cannot see that he is bound, either in law or in equity, to make good the defalcation of his subordinate, but that he "has been prompted to make payment by an anxious desire that the present Administration — with the good name of which his own is to some extent identified — should not be chargeable (in consequence of any circumstance which may have occurred in the department consigned to his care) with having lost or squandered the public money." 

The Quartermaster-General, in an order, publishes the decision of the Second Comptroller, stating that affidavits taken before a notary public after the 1st of October last must have a certificate of the Secretary of State or clerk of the Court of Records to the official character of the notary. 

It is said that two per cent. of the fractional currency received at the Treasury is counterfeit. This comes to the Department from bankers and others deemed experts in judging money, and two per cent. escaping the detection of such parties gives some idea of the extent of this kind of counterfeiting. 

It is stated that E. M. Bruce, a member of the late Confederate Congress from Kentucky, has presented General Breckinridge with the sum of one hundred thousand dollars. 

The receipts from internal revenue on the 8th instant amounted to one million four hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. 

Singular blunder in the Treasury Department.
Washington, November26, ? 1865 ? . 
--The Printing Bureau of the Treasury Department recently made a blunder of such a stupid character that it is a wonder that it was not discovered by some one of the many attaches in time to save the reputation of the establishment. The careless and off-hand manner in which they do things in the Printing Bureau would ruin any job printing office in the United States in six months. Think, for instance, of them striking off, I don't know how many thousand dollars, but as much as they wanted it any rate, of ten cent fractional notes, and then discovering, when the work was completed, that in the engraving the word "cents" had been omitted, and that the bill might mean ten mills, ten cents, ten dollars, or ten d — us, just as might be agreed upon between the holder and the redeemer of it. It had 10's all over it, but the word "cents" didn't once occur. The faux pas was not discovered until the greater part of the notes had been paid out of the Department. An attempt is now being made to call in the erroneous issue, but the work proceeds very slowly. The head of the Printing Bureau is Mr. Clark, about whom a Congressional investigation committee told so many naughty stories a year and a half ago. But there seems to be some hidden virtue in him that made him invulnerable.--Correspondence Cincinnati Commercial.

Future action of the President.
--It is rumored in well-informed circles that the President will withdraw the Provisional Governors of the several States as soon as the Constitutional Amendment is adopted, the freedmen given the right to testify, and the rebel debt and act of secession declared null and void. The military force will then be withdrawn, and the Freedmen's Bureau also withdrawn as soon as the proper spirit is shown to give the freedmen a fair trial. That he then considers the work of reconstruction complete, and he cannot but recognise them as States upon an equal footing with the Northern States; that war will be declared at an end. Large numbers of those now excluded in the Amnesty Proclamation will be pardoned by another proclamation.-- Associated Press Dispatch.

Treason cases.
--Senator Doolittle, of Wisconsin, who is said to be a supporter of President Johnson's policy of reconstruction, and therefore not a sympathizer with the Radical majority in Congress, has introduced into the Senate a bill which assumes that there would be great difficulty in empaneling a jury to try Jeff. Davis and each like distinguished offenders against the law. It provides that in all such trials no juror be rejected by reason of opinions previously formed or expressed as to the guilt of the accused, which may have been founded upon rumors, statements in newspapers, or the common history of the times, provided that the juror declare upon oath, and it appears to the satisfaction of the Court, that he will impartially try the case upon the evidence deduced upon the trial. 

The last Confederate.
--Only one Confederate soldier now remains at the Fair Grounds Hospital--Sergeant Thomas W. Rives, of company G., Forty-third Alabama regiment, Gracie's brigade. Sergeant Rives received his wound at Appomattox Courthouse on Sunday, April 9, 1865, about fifteen minutes before the flag of truce was hoisted, and within a few yards of the famous apple tree under which Generals Grant and Lee signed the articles of surrender. He is still a sufferer from the wound, which was very severe.--Pittsburg Express.

General officers.
--A report from the Adjutant-General's office states that the number of major-generals who have gone out of service since March 11, 1865, is as follows: Honorably mustered out, ten; resigned, twenty-two; total, thirty-two. Number of brigadier-generals who have gone out of service: honorably mustered out, seventy-eight; resigned, fifty-five; died, four; total, one hundred and thirty-seven. Total of both grades, one hundred and sixty-nine. 

The Catholic Church and the Fenians.
--The authorities of the Catholic Church are very explicit in their condemnation of the Fenians. Bishop Daggon, of Chicago, has instructed the clergy to refuse Christian burial to such of them as die in membership with that society. 

The Odd Fellows.
--On Tuesday the Grand Lodge of West Virginia was duly instituted. James L. Ridgely, Esq., of Baltimore, secretary of the Grand Lodge of the United States, and others, delivered addresses on the occasion. In the evening there was a grand banquet, attended by two hundred persons. 

Interesting to Coal Dealers.
--The Louisville Collector of Internal Revenue, by instructions from Washington, is vigorously enforcing the law by requiring stamps upon dray tickets, coal tickets, and other receipts for the delivery of property. 

The ratification of the constitutional amendment by Georgia secures twenty-eight States in its favor; that is, three-fourths of the whole number, which, including Colorado, is thirty-seven. The President will now, it is said, issue his proclamation declaring the amendment to be a part of the Constitution. He might have issued it even without Georgia, for Colorado is not yet a State. 

The Secretary of War has addressed a circular to each member of Congress, calling attention to the fact that he has the privilege of nominating from his Congressional district two persons as applicants for the positions of first and second lieutenants in the regular army, to the end that they may be examined before the board for the position, and if found qualified, appointed at once. 

The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the Southern States will hold its annual meeting in Macon, Georgia, on Thursday, the 14th day of December next. The Committee of Commissions will meet at the same time and place, and the proceedings of the two bodies will be looked for with no small interest. 

A Savannah paper states that the railroad from Augusta to Savannah will probably be repaired and in running order about the 1st of January next. Two weeks ago the break extended from station No. 5 to Waynesborough, fifty miles, but strong parties were working at both ends, narrowing the interval rapidly. 

Reports to the Freedmen's Bureau represent fifty-three colored schools, one hundred and twelve teachers, and five thousand six hundred and eighteen pupils, in Washington, Alexandria. Georgetown, Freedmen's Village, and the Government farms in Maryland. 

The widow of Stonewall Jackson, it is telegraphed to the Northern papers from New Orleans, "is in a most destitute condition." The authority given is a "letter from a distinguished clergyman in Virginia." We trust the report is not true. 

In response to inquiries from Major General Pope, the Secretary of War replies that the deserters whose regiments are still in service on the Plains will be dishonorably discharged without pay or allowances. 

General Banks and Speaker Colfax have been invited by the National Equal Suffrage Association to deliver addresses before that body. It is reported that they will take strong ground in favor of negro suffrage. 

Comptroller Clark, of the Currency Bureau, has decided that ladies cannot act as directors of National Banks, as the laws do not recognize them as citizens. 

Clever executed counterfeit coin of the nickel three-cent denomination are noticed in circulation. It is made of some kind of an alloyed metal, which is much softer and lighter than the genuine coin. 

In consequence of the refusal of General Woods, commanding in Alabama, to obey a writ of habeas corpus,Judge Busteed has indignantly adjourned the United States Court for the Middle District. 

The Macon (Ga.)Telegraph has good authority for saying that Provisional Governor Johnson has received instructions from Washington not to vacate the chair of State until further advised. 

The freight agent of the Louisville and Nashville railroad announces that the restrictions on shipments of freight to Atlanta and the South have been removed. 

The First National Bank of Danville, Virginia, J. F. Ficklin president, and J. M. Johnston cashier, has gone into operation. 

Roger A. Pryor is practicing law in New York city. 

The Latest News.
from Washington — Appointments in the War Department--rights of pardoned rebels — a test case in the Supreme Court. 

Washington, December9. 
--Members of Congress are already overwhelmed with letters and personal applications from persons who wish to be nominated to the War Department for positions in the army, a recent order having been issued for the filling of vacancies in the regular service by an equal apportionment among the States--one first or one second lieutenant to be appointed from each Congressional district. 

The Supreme Court of the United States now has before it the following case: The United States, plaintiff in error, against Leroy M. Wiley. It involves this question; "Does the President's pardon remit the sentence of forfeiture of rebel property, and reinstate the rebel in all his rights thereto." This was a motion of Leroy Wiley, defendant in error and appellee, to dismiss the writ of error and appeal of the United States, on the ground that the President's pardon and the acceptance and compliance with the terms thereof by the defendant, discharged and remitted the forfeiture for which sentence of condemnation was pronounced in the District Court, by pardoning the acts by which alone, if at all, that forfeiture was incurred. The cause originated in an information filed in the District Court of the United States for the Southern District thereof, and one Charles Gould, named as the informer, under the acts of Congress of 1861 and 1862, commonly known as the confiscation acts, for the confiscation and forfeiture of seventeen hundred and fifty-six shares of the capital stock of the Great Western Railroad Company, of 1859, and of upwards of fifty thousand dollars due on coupons of bonds of the same corporation, as the property of the defendant, on the two-fold ground alleged in the information--first, of alleged use of property by Mr. Wiley in aid of the rebellion, under the act of 1861, and second, of alleged treasonable acts of Mr. Wiley, under the act of 1862. The motion to dismiss this cause was announced by Mr. Laroque in its support. 

It is understood that the constitutionality of the act of Congress prescribing the test oath is now before the Supreme Court, on the application of A. H. Garland, of Arkansas. The whole question will be presented on Friday next. 

Washington,December 9.--The only pardons granted to-day were those to a few Texans. The State Department is still besieged, however, by those who heretofore received the Executive clemency, and who are now anxious to receive their respective papers. 

Quite a crowd of visitors were at the White House to-day, including members of Congress. 

The Representatives from Ohio and Kentucky were among those who had an interview with the President. 

The Southern members to Congress elect are here, but some of them contemplate returning home, and are awaiting until the doors are open to receive them. 

From North Carolina.
Raleigh, December9. 
--The Legislature counted the vote to-day for Governor. Worth received 32,539; Holden, 25,809. Majority for Worth, 6,730. Vance received 132; Stamper, 52; and R. F. Hoke, 22. 

The Legislature had passed a joint resolution to inaugurate Governor Worth to-day, but rescinded it this morning. 

The Legislature passed a resolution to adjourn on the 18th instant, to meet on the 1st of February.

Affairs in Kentucky.
Louisville, December9. 
--The JeffersonCircuit Court, in the case of the Commonwealth against Major-General Palmer for aiding a slave to escape, has dismissed the indictment on the ground that a requisite number of States had adopted the constitutional amendment abolishing slavery before the indictment, and therefore the criminal and penal acts of the Kentucky Legislature relating to slavery were of no effect. 

General Palmer has issued a proclamation declaring that slavery has ceased to exist in Kentucky; and advising colored people to apply promptly to the courts for redress, if public conveyances deny their right to travel at pleasure. 

A resolution was yesterday introduced into the Legislature endorsing the President's policy, favoring general amnesty and recommending the pardon of Mr. Davis. 

From Louisiana and Mississippi.
New Orleans, December9. 
--The Mobile Register complains of the military interfering to take from Sheriff Paris a Treasury subagent who had been arrested on charges of stealing and obtaining cotton under false pretences. 

A committee of the Mississippi Legislature has reported against passing the constitutional amendment — not from any objections to the first, but the second clause. 

Judge Paschal, of Texas, has issued an address to the people giving his views of the policy requisite to get the State back into the Union. 

From Texas — address from Judge Paschal--reconstruction.
New Orleans, December8. 
--Judge Paschal, on his return from Washington to Austin, issued an address to the people of Texas, informing them as to what will be required to get the State back into the Union--that the State Convention must declare slavery abolished, and that it can never exist except as a punishment for crime; and recognizes the rights of the negro as freemen, not implying thereby, however, his social equality with the white man, or his equality at the polls. 

The Legislature, he adds, must ratify the constitutional amendment, and declare the secession ordinance, the ratification of the Confederate Constitution, and the dependent acts for resistance, null and void, and also the State war debt. 

The Judge cautioned the people who they elect to carry these measures into effect. Great importance will be attached to their choice, as an evidence of their sincerity. General constitutional reforms, outside of the above measures, will not be allowed unless submitted to the people for ratification. 

Frightful murder.
Albany, December9. 
--Another frightful murder has been committed in Central New York. On thanksgiving day it was discovered that a Mr. Crandell and his wife, the former sixty and the latter sixty-five years of age, had been brutally murdered at their residence, at Coontown, in Otsego county, about six miles from Bridgewater, on the New Berlin road. Mr. Crandell was shot through the head, and the brains of his wife beat out with a bludgeon. There were three thousand dollars in the house not found by the murderers. 

Boiler Explosion — loss of life.
Boston, December9. 
--An upright steam boiler connecting the Marine railway in East Boston exploded yesterday afternoon, demolishing the engine-house and killing the engineer and a little boy. Three other persons were scalded and otherwise injured — not seriously. 

Robbery at West Troy.
Troy, December9. 
--Last night the office of Roy & Co., at West Troy, was entered by burglars. They darkened and deafened the doors and windows by packing shawls over them, and then blew open two safes from which they extracted twenty thousand dollars in seven-thirties, thirteen thousand dollars in bank bills, and two hundred dollars in specie. 

They made their escape with the money, and there is no clue to their identity. 

Baltimore Markets.
Baltimore, December9. 
--Flour very dull; sales five hundred barrels Ohio Extra at $9.75. Wheat active, under a decline. Corn quiet; yellow, 80@83 Oats dull at 50@51 Cloverseed, prime, $8.60. Whisky heavy at $6.31. Provisions dull. 

New York Markets.
New York, December9. 
--Cotton dull at 40 Flour steady at a decline of 10@25; Southern declining. Wheat dull and nominal, at a decline of 2@3 Corn dull and 1 lower. Beef quiet. Pork buoyant. Lard and whisky dull. Gold 144 1-4. 

Richmond Dispatch.
Monday....december 11, 1865.
The work of "Reconstruction."
While there is in progress the work of political "reconstruction" of the late dismembered United States, there is another kind of work of "reconstruction" of a purely local character, of the utmost importance to the communities interested. The sooner they address themselves to their several undertakings, the better. In the war, the means of the country have been nearly exhausted; but that which consists in the energy and industry of men, and their integrity, which can never be alienated or robbed, and which is the surest basis of credit and resource, as well to nations and communities as individuals, is still left our people, and can and should be employed actively. 

This city has a heavier labor before it than probably any Southern town, owing to the destruction of so large a part of its business district. In this way, not only is the work for it to do increased, but the means from taxation seriously diminished. Rightly viewed, our misfortunes impose upon us the duty of exertion in proportion to the demands they create. To stimulate the enterprise of our corporate authorities, they may feel assured that the great revolution just accomplished, whatever of evils it may have brought upon the country, will certainly ultimately largely increase the aggregate wealth and population of this city. Whatever of outlay a wise expenditure for the improvement of this city may involve will, therefore, be easily paid at a day not very remote. There need be no hesitation on the part of the city authorities to proceed at once to the work plainly pointed out to them. 

One of their most immediate duties, and which cannot, with economy or prudence, be postponed, is the widening and grading of certain streets. In a few months the vacant lots which now are in the lines of several much-needed improvements, will be built upon, and then, if condemned, the cost of the houses will swell damages enormously. It would, too, subject owners of property to inconceivable inconvenience and loss to grade streets after their buildings are finished. Indeed, we imagine the city would have no idea of undertaking such an improvement then; and we should have to conduct our trade for another half century, perhaps, with all the inconveniences of bad grades. These, and many other matters that readily suggest themselves, require the promptest attention. The low state of the Treasury is not a sufficient excuse for leaving things where they are. A proper system of improvement would bestow immediate advantages, and so promote the general prosperity as to return a rich compensation to both citizens and corporation. 

The State and the people of Virginia have herculean labors before them; but the stimulants to exertion are in proportion to the magnitude of the things that are to be done. The people have to change their systems of culture, they have to diminish the area of tillage, and to do what they do more carefully and more economically. They will have to keep fewer horses, fewer cattle, and to keep them better. Many will have to diminish the extent of their household, to compact their offices, to keep their gear and agricultural implements carefully sheltered, and to attend in person all the work and movement on their farms; nay, to do no small amount of it themselves. Many will, we regret to say, have to be more economical and less hospitable — to live plainer, less extravagantly, and to entertain fewer guests. By selling their excess of land and resorting to these means, they will live quite free of debt and independently. Perhaps they will have more cash than they were wont in days gone by to have in hand. It is true they may become more selfish, and less genial; but then, upon this kind of economy through the country, there will be a larger aggregate yield, and a larger aggregate surplus to support and maintain a very much increased population. There will be, indeed, under this state of things, more people and more general wealth, but less happiness — less individuality and personal dignity of character. But since old things have passed away, and never to be recalled, we should, as wise and true men, make the best of the "situation." 

Virginia, in her Legislative and Executive Departments, has to put her shoulder to the wheel and push the car of State out of the slough into which it is sunk. The most liberal policy and the most energetic measures should be adopted, in order to invite capital to the State and develop her resources. Virginia is the richest State in the Union. The fertility of her soil, the variety and extent of her mineral resources, and the abundance of her water power, excite the wonder of every intelligent traveler. By a wise employment of these great natural gifts, and the inviting of emigration and capital to assist in the work, in a year or two we shall have gone far towards lifting up State and people from the condition of prostration in which the war left them, and to restore the vast wealth which that war and its disastrous termination swept away from us. 

We must extend our improvements and increase our manufactures, and the Government policy should be as liberal as possible with regard to them. We must have, in short, wise, economical and thorough tillage, our mines must be developed, and our railroads and canals extended and multiplied. Money will flow in as soon as we show the proper dispositions — so will population. 

This is the "reconstruction" to which we are urged, by every consideration, to direct now all our efforts. 

The demeanor of the people of Virginia, since the downfall of the Confederacy, ought to challenge the admiration even of their enemies. Overwhelmed at first with amazement and grief, they soon recovered the natural composure and elasticity of their character, and, like a stout ship in a storm, bowed gracefully to the billows of adversity. Now almost buried in the dreary troughs of the sea, and losing sight of the sky, and anon ascending some tremendous wave, and catching a glimpse of a wide and clear horizon; but, whether sinking or rising, still afloat, buoyant and progressing. 

Tacitus, speaking of the Britons while subjected to the Romans, says: "They cheerfully complied with the levies of men, the imposition of tribute, and all the necessary demands of government, provided they received no illegal treatment or insults from their governors; for those they bore with impatience." The character of our ancestors sixteen hundred years ago has been transmitted to their descendants; and, animated by the conciliatory dispositions of the President and he quiet order of the military rule, they have evinced not only fortitude under calamities, but a sincere and manly acquiescence in the changed circumstances of their condition. The honest dignity with which they have conducted themselves in misfortune — the absence of that puerile and fretful peevishness which is the characteristic of small minds — make the Southern people incapable of humiliation, and destined yet to come out from the gloomy clouds which surround them, and shine as stars of the first magnitude in the American constellation. 

The force of mind and character, the practical wisdom evinced by the mass of our people in their new relations, the superiority they of the hour, establish a title to the respect of their countrymen in every section; and, if persistently displayed, will insure them, in the end, the restoration of all political rights and privileges. The people have adhered with good faith to the oath of allegiance, and have, borne the poverty and bankruptcy consequent upon their defeat, not only with fortitude, but with a cheerful philosophy, which is more wonderful than the courage of the battlefield. They seem to have risen from the earth, refreshed, like Anteus, by the fall, and have commenced the work of rebuilding the fallen fabric of their personal fortunes with an energy and hopefulness which promise the happiest results. We cannot believe that such a people will be forsaken either of God or man. The time is not distant when their true character will be everywhere appreciated, and when the manly traits they exhibit in adversity will win even from enemies an admiration which was never extorted by the renown and eclat of their prosperity. 

An English writer says that once, when in Holland, there came one evening a horrible roar of surge and billow and howling Boreas — so horrible that the worthy Dutchmen of the place were inclined to give all up, and many of them sent their wives and children into the interior, never doubting that the dike must give way, and their town be swamped into annihilation. Next morning, however, the sun rose clear and bright; and when the trembling Mynheers took courage to go down and examine the site of the anticipated breach, they found the concern stronger a million times than all the labor of half a dozen plodding centuries had ever been able to make it. Quoth the worthy Briton, "that's the way to look at things." Yes; that is the way to look at the raging ocean of misfortune. It is only the weak and time-serving that are swept away. Vigorous and honest natures, conscious of right intentions, and acting always upon principles of justice and duty, are only strengthened by the shocks of adversity; and, as the billows burst over them, challenge the admiration of the world by their upright attitude and steadfast endurance. Each fresh heave of the wave adds a new line of bulwark to the barriers that, in times of calm, might have been undermined by vermin and crumbled into decay, until, at last, they rejoice in a circumvallation which might withstand a deluge, and behind which cities rise in security, and teeming harvests are gathered in peace. 

The Oriental administration of women once found an ironical defender in a woman of Western Europe, Lady Mary Wortley Montague. The Turk is a gentleman who has devoted to this subject considerable time and talent. The compulsory seclusion of the sex and the plurality of wives are not, however, the peculiar sin of barbarous tribes. In the primitive life of savage man, there is little incentive or opportunity of jealous precaution. When the States of Greece attained their highest celebrity, the women were reduced to a retirement which was nearly a match for the harem. The influence of the sex has not often been prominent under the more complicated systems of republican policy. In Rome, however, that admirable sex possessed at one time a degree of influence and power which they have not attained even in our own country, where they are still compelled to depend upon their individual prowess and their skill in the use of fire-arms for the redress of their wrongs. 

When the conquerors of Corkage had reached the height of their world-shadowing renown, but one power of earth was left which the masters of the globe did not venture to defy. This power was the Roman women, enthroned upon the hearthstone, who, in the plenitude of Roman pride and pomp, compelled the conquerors, in their presence, to be meek and humble. To speak of a Roman of that day as a "lord and master" of the feminine gender would have been a sarcasm which would have cut through the shield and helmet of the most terrible and victorious soldier. As captive kings followed in his own triumphal procession, so followed he the skirts of the matron's garments. She had acquired the right to retain the property of which the wedded pair might be possessed at their marriage, and the high prerogative of division at pleasure had become mutual. The hen-pecked conqueror of the world lived under the perpetual menace of a notice to quit, and, as if this were not enough, the good wife always appeared in the attitude of the injured party, and got up for the mutual worship of herself and husband a little deity, the goddess Viriplaca; that is, "Appeaser of Men." A similar goddess may have been improvised in this country, but goes under a different name--Revolver, to wit. 

It is not difficult to comprehend that, under such a system, the noble Roman began to hesitate at last to encounter the tribulations and perils of wedlock. By the time of Augustus, the increasing number of bachelors seemed to menace the foundations of the Eternal City. The Emperor, alarmed, caused the people to be assembled in his presence, putting on his right hand the heroic married men, who, by daring and enduring so much for the perpetuity of Rome, had entitled themselves to be considered the martyrs of their country. On the other side were the bachelors, an enormous host of single vagabonds, proud of their freedom, and inspired with a ferocious sentiment of "Liberty or Death." But they had to deal with an Emperor who was determined that the onward march of Rome should not hesitate, from the want of seasonable reinforcements. Celibacy was threatened with cruel penalties, whilst that most splendid exhibition of Roman courage, which did not shrink even from marriage, was rewarded with all manner of political and social preferments. Not only was the bachelor postponed in all competitions for, office to his married adversary, but his right of succession to property was actually invaded, and wealth that otherwise might have been his, diverted to the public treasury. Precedence in the theatres, and (in the event of three children born to him) immunity from personal taxes, were also showered upon the married man. "For less rewards than these," said the Emperor, "would thousands expose their lives; and can they not then entice a Roman citizen to arise and marry a wife?" No, they could not, and they did not. The incorrigible bachelors resorted to all manner of frauds and artifices to evade the law, and kept up such a hideous howl of persecuted men that even Nero, when he ascended the throne, was touched with the sorrows of these suffering innocents, and mitigated the severity of the laws. The salutary terror inspired by the Roman matron gradually ceased, and debauchery, without a parallel in human history, held high carnival in the centre of the world's civilization. 

If Americans, who bid fair, in martial enterprise and prowess, to become the Romans of modern times, would emulate the grandeur and dignity of Roman domestic life, they have only to endow the women with the rights, liberties and franchises claimed by the Womens' Rights Societies, and place them uniformly above the laws. At present they are not permitted to exert any influence over their husbands except by Caudle lectures; they cannot control their own property; they have no way to get rid of a refractory spouse or visit retribution upon an unfaithful lover except by inflicting capital punishment with their own hands they have no right to vote or be voted for; and, in this free land, are treated as incapable of self- government either in the family or at the ballot-box. In some countries their crimes are visited with the same retribution as those of men. We have not yet arrived at such a pitch of barbarity; our juries, to their honor, have too much gallantry to hang a murderous; but this should not be left to the politeness of juries. The law of the land should proclaim their entire immunity from all the penalties of crime. With the adoption of such judicious reform, towards which there seems to be a strong tendency in the public mind, our countrymen may become, in time, like Romans--the most valiant and hen-pecked, the most masculine and emasculated race that walls the earth. 

In his late report of the military events of the last year of the war, General Grant sets forth his estimate of the relative warlike capacities of the soldiers from the eastern and western sections of the country. Having seen both of them fighting battles, he gives it as the result of his observation that there is no difference in their fighting qualities, while, elsewhere, in the same paragraph, he gives the South credit for the most herculean deeds of valor on the field of battle. The judgment of General Grant in this matter will no doubt be confirmed by the people of all parts of the United States. 

It is strange that any opinion should ever have been entertained in any section of the United States derogatory to the valor of any part of its people. The original settlers of all the States were mostly from the same English stock, and the emigration which has since so largely blended with the population was supplied by some of the most warlike nations of Europe. The colonial and revolutionary battles ought to have demonstrated the fact that, while chivalry was to some extent peculiar to the South, courage is peculiar to no section, and the last war with England and the Mexican war furnished still more striking and abundant illustrations of the same truth. But it was never brought home to the convictions of the American people till the mighty struggle in which North and South grappled with each other, and each tested for itself the mettle of its adversary. Henceforth, whatever else the two sections may think of one another, neither will question that pluck and manhood are the common attributes of both. 

We have never heard of any nation which could be justly described as a nation of cowards. All male animals will fight, cowardice being exceptional, like physical deformity and the result of defective constitutional organization. Of all nations, the last to deserve in any of its branches the imputation of a lack of combativeness is that pugnacious and belligerent race which, from the earliest record that exists of its history, has been always in the ring, and never so happy as when delivering a "succession of facers" to the rest of mankind. 

When people will insist on comparing Richmond to the PhÅnix simply because it is rising from its ashes, they do a very fanciful and very absurd thing. The similitude is a glittering generality and a pompous platitude. There is nothing conceivable more unreal than the bird PhÅnix, and nothing more real than Richmond. So substantial is it, that [ that ] other bird, the American Eagle, had to sharpen both beak and talons, and then tug for four long years to get it. 

But, even granting the existence of that myth of ornithological hocus pocus, the parallel would fail in every particular. Richmond was shot at by all kinds of fire-arms. Did any one ever go out PhÅnix shooting? Who ever heard of a PhÅnix being starved for four years, or being found during one of his temporary deaths with nothing but black-eye peas in his gizzard? Who could conceive of the ashes from which a PhÅnix is to spring being plastered all over with advertisements of quack medicines? And, lastly, will the most bigoted believer in that highly objectionable fowl pretend to assert that the PhÅnix rose from its ashes a handsomer bird than before? 

But this Richmond is doing. All along Main and Cary streets, houses are going up with an energy never before seen in a reconstructed people. Stately structures of stone, iron and brick are hastening toward completion on the places where small and shabby houses stood before the fire. In fact, the burnt district (where the city blazed up like an expiring candle, and fell into a socket of black walls) is rapidly disappearing; or, rather, will soon be marked only by the newness and beauty of that part of the town. 

But if any one, after this, will continue firm in the belief of that fabled creature, let him but try to revive the ashes of a burnt-out newspaper. Then will gloomy doubt fasten upon his soul. When he sees the once eloquent types mere lumps of lead; the broken limbed presses silent forever; the ashes, even, of his editorial chair lost in the wreck of things less sacred — when he sees all this, and sees no symptoms of rising on their part, he acquires so profound a disgust for ash of all kinds that the very name of PhÅnix becomes loathsome to him. 

So let the classical gentlemen who serve us up cold PhÅnix every time we pass through the burnt district spare our feelings. No more PhÅnix, we beg. 

The resolution offered by Mr. Hurst, of Norfolk, with regard to the assumed appointment of General Butler to the command in Virginia, will, of course, be seized upon by certain Northern journals and perverted into a proof of continued disaffection on the part of the Southern people. We deem it proper, therefore, to state that Mr. Hurst was a Union man throughout the war, and remained in Norfolk during its occupation by the Federal army. He was in no sort a "rebel, " but a staunch loyal man. We hope, therefore, this sin will not be placed to the account of the rebels. These latter have already quite as many of their own as they can bear. They have no fancy for bearing those of the party which opposed them, and did all they could to destroy them. They fought General Buller during the war in the field; they wish no war with him individually in time of peace. This is a family quarrel, with which they have nothing to do. 

Rev. Dr. Cummings, a celebrated English divine, whose specialty has been, for a long time, "the end of the world," and who elicited some irreverent jesting by the discovery that he had leased a cottage for a term of years running a good deal beyond the date at which he had solemnly declared the world was coming to an end, has lately delivered a sermon on the death of Lord Palmerston, in which he eulogized in the most fervent strains the piety of that exemplary peer, and asserted that the aged saint had gone straight to paradise. This will be consoling news to the numerous friends and admirers of the devout and self-denying Premier, who was not more remarkable for his attainments in virtue than for the care with which he concealed them. In fact, so rigidly did he avoid all ostentation of personal religion, that no one knew he possessed a spark of it until Dr. Cummings announced it after his death. We dare say a good many censorious people, who had been in the habit of speaking of Palmerston as a hopeless old reprobate, hung their heads in shame when they discovered what a grievous mistake they had made, and how this heavenly-minded creature had been only affecting to be a gay old lark in order to veil from vulgar eyes the deep religious earnestness of his soul. 

No one will accuse Dr. Cummings of pouring flattery from the pulpit into the dull, cold ear of death. He does not belong to the establishment, neither is he a Universalist, and cannot be expected to speak well of the dead without good cause, or in, any way, to encourage or patronize departed noblemen. He mentions, it is true, in his sermon, a little incident, which uncharitable persons will jump at, no doubt, as the solution of his extraordinary panegyric. He says that Palmerston had been one of his hearers, and spoke in warm terms of one of his sermons, and the preacher added, with charming modesty, that Palmerston was a good judge of sermons. We wonder if that particular sermon was the one in which Cummings, after leasing a cottage for twenty years, declared that the world was coming to an end in ten years. Whichever of his sermons it was, the good nature that could patiently sit under it for an hour, and praise it besides, was too good for this world, and richly deserved to be canonized. 

South Carolina.
The message of Governor Orr, sent in to the Legislature on Monday last, is a remarkably brief State paper. It wastes no space on sentimental issues, but goes directly to the business of the day. He urges, with especial emphasis, the necessity of economy, as the people have no money wherewith to pay taxes. He recommends the assumption by the State of the direct tax levied by the Federal Government upon the landed property of the Southern people. He states that, by a law of Congress, the States are prohibited from assuming the tax; but he thinks an appeal for permission to do so would be heard, especially in view of the fact that the Federal Government has realized nearly the whole amount of the direct tax by the sale and appropriation of the receipts of the rich lands on the seaboard. A proposition is pending in the Virginia Legislature which has the same object, viz: The payment of the tax out of the treasury. 

He recommends the further protection of debtors by partially staying the collection of debts; suggesting that the interest and a part of the principal should be collected annually. 

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This page last updated August 1, 2008.