capital ready for any want of the planter or real estate operator. As a consequence the South became an enormous debtor -owing over sixty millions of dollars to New York city alone, which came due in the year 1861. To repudiate was an easy way, with dishonorable men, to discharge an honorable obligation; and that Legislatures forbade the collection of debts due to the North through the State Courts, was only another crime to add to the category of sins which are now scheduled under the name of secession.

It was so natural to abuse those whom they had injured, that we are not surprised to find the Cotton States, in 1861, fairly slippery with falsehood and misrepresentation. With a few honorable exceptions-exceptions which stand like green spots out of that Dismal Swamp of demoralization-the press adopted a system of paragraphing, whose first and last principle was to misinform their readers-to overrate their own importance and strength and to underrate that of "their enemy"—to deceive and betray. A first impulse of men base enough to act the part performed by the Secessionists would be to contemn, and affect to despise, those whose favors they had fattened upon. Such paragraphs as that quoted on page 40 followed fast in the van of events, as if to pilot the South in the way it should not go. A few more extracts will suffice to convince the most incredulous, of the base part played by the press in exciting the baser passions of Southern human

nature.

A gentleman of Richmond, Va., was in New York. The scenes which he witnessed in the streets reminded him of the descriptions of the Reign of Terror in Paris. Nothing was wanting but the bloody guillotine to make the two pictures identical. The violent and diabolical temper everywhere conspicuous, showing but too clearly whither all things are tending in the commercial metropolis. A spirit is evoked which can only be laid in blood. The desperadoes of that great city are now in the ascendant.-Richmond Whig.

The tremendous outburst of ferocity that we witness in the Northern States, is simply the repetition of one of the most common traits of their national character. It is the fashion of the day, the humbug of the hour, and it will cease as suddenly as it has commenced. Like straw on fire, the periodical sensations of the North make a great flame,

but to sink to the ashes and the dust of indifference as swiftly as they sprang.-Richmond Examiner.

When the Commonwealth of Rome was subverted, the people were compelled to worship the image of the despots whom the brute force of the mercenary soldiery had elevated to brief authority. So it seems the Black Republican mobs of the Northern cities compel the people to worship striped rags as evidence of their obeisance to the Abolition despots who now desecrate the seats of power in the Federal city.Charleston News.

The Richmond Whig says that the last reliable intelligence represents that Old Abe had been beastly intoxicated for the previous thirty-six consecutive hours, and that eighty Border Ruffians, from Kansas, under the command of Lane, occupied the East Room to guard His Majesty's slumbers. It is broadly hinted in a Washington paper, that his guard exerts a despotic control over the Presidential inmate-that all his decrees are of its inspiration. The paper (The States and Union) then proceeds to shed a becoming quantity of tears over this "sad subject for contemplation.”—N. O. Sunday Delta.

General Scott, it seems, has taken position against his native State. It is a sight to see the drivelling old fop, with his skinny hands and bony fingers, undo, at one dash, the labors of a long and active life. With the red-hot pencil of infamy, he has written upon his wrinkled brow the terrible, damning word, "Traitor."-Abingdon (Va.) Democrat.

It was, no doubt, the profound policy of Lincoln and his faction to throw the operatives of the North out of employ, to secure the recruits for the army of coercion. Starvation produces a certain sort of valor, and a hungry belly may stimulate patriotism to a kind of courage which, on a good feed, will risk the encounter with a bullet. It appears that the Lincoln recruits from Massachusetts, at Baltimore, were in large proportion cobblers. The revolution seems to have affected their craft more than any other, according to some of the accounts; their vocation gave them admirable facilities in the fight, especially in running; they used their footing expeditiously, and took a free flight with their soles (souls)---not one of them apparently being anxious, under the fire of Baltimore brickbats, to see his last.-Charleston Mercury.

Massachusetts, the telegraph so reports, is all alive with the war spirit. Those who know these Puritan fanatics will never believe that they intend to take the field against Southern men. They may muster into service to garrison posts comparatively free from attack, and when they can be sheltered within impregnable walls, but the hereafter will have little to tell of their deeds in the tented field, or the "imminent deadly breach."-New Orleans Bulletin.

VIII.

THE FIRST AND THE SECOND TRAGEDY.

THE movement forward, early in the morning of May 24th, 1861, of the Union army, was the first definite step toward meeting the enemy. General Scott's plans were only known to the President and Cabinet, whose confidence he had, in an eminent degree. A journal well versed in matters. said, (May 15th): "General Scott is about to remodel the United States army upon the French system, so as to give it more efficiency and perfection. The old hero works with astonishing zeal, and his mind operates as actively as many a man at fifty-five. It is undoubted that he contemplates a long campaign, that Washington is to be the base of operations, that a large force will be kept permanently stationed here, and that all demonstrations in support of the loyal men in the South, and in furtherance of the determination to retake stolen property, will move from this point. Some complaints are made because an expedition has not already been sent into Virginia, for the purpose of capturing Richmond; but I am disposed to repose my trust entirely upon the experience and patriotism of General Scott. He is heartily sustained by the President and Messrs. Chase, Cameron, Seward, and the rest of the Cabinet, although it is not doubted that Postmaster-General Judge Blair favors a more extreme and aggressive policy."

The gathering of troops at the Capital argued something more than its defense. With approaches all open and com manding positions unoccupied by Federal forces, the mere re-' tention of the city would have been to insure its destruction

for the enemy's artillery on Arlington Heights would have laid the Capital itself in ruins. The safety of the city depended on an advance. But, more than the protective policy it was evident was required. The fact became daily clearer that, if the Union was sustained it must be done vi et armis; if rebellion would be crushed and treason punished, it would be done only by a campaign in the heart of the rebellious region; if the Southern madmen were stayed in their designs, it would be necessary to meet them, on land and sea, with the fullest terrors of the outraged Government. No one comprehended this more fully than the President and the venerable Generalin-Chief; and we find their plans well developed, by May 20th, for an active prosecution of the war.

It became evident at Washington, on the 23d of May, that some important movement was contemplated-that, in fact, Virginia was to be "invaded." The note of preparation was sounded throughout the camps on the afternoon of that day, though the officers were ignorant of the extent of the service to be performed. At midnight, the District Militia, six companies, moved forward as scouts and pickets, over the Long Bridge. They were first on the "sacred soil." The New York Seventh was detailed as the reserve, and, forming line near the bridge, saw the whole forces, under General Mansfield, pass over, before it brought up the rear. The New York Twelfth and Twenty-fifth, the First Michigan, and the First, Second, Third and Fourth New Jersey, passed over Long Bridge between two and four o'clock A. M.-the Seventh crossing at daybreak. Above, at the Chain Bridge, McDowell's forces passed over, at the same time, comprised of the New York Sixtyninth and Twenty-eighth, with Drummond's cavalry and a battery. This detachment took possession of Arlington Heights, and immediately commenced the work of constructing defences. The New York Fire Zouaves (Colonel Ellsworth) moved down by transports to Alexandria, landing, at five o'clock, under the guns of the Pawnee. The First Michigan, (Colonel Wilcox) moved down from the Long Bridge to co operate with the Zouaves in the occupancy of Alexandria.

The New York Twelfth took position about half-way between the two points. The Twenty-fifth advanced toward Falls Church. The Seventh held Long Bridge. The morning of the 24th found Virginia in possession of the "hireling mob," who had thus made their first step toward the work of "coercion."

No enemy opposed the invasion-contrary to all expectation. General Scott, in person, was at the bridge to be prepared for any emergency which might arise, but was not called. to the field. Generals Mansfield and McDowell only found pickets far in advance of their lines in the morning.

This step excited the country greatly, for the moment. The Confederates fairly shrieked in their imprecations; and their vows of a summary revenge were neither few nor made in the most civilized spirit of modern warfare. We quote from the Enquirer of Richmond, as a specimen of the rhetoric excited by the Federal act :

"We congratulate the people of Virginia that the last flimsy pretext of the Rump Government at Washington, of regard for constitutional laws, has been thrown aside. The sovereign State of Virginia has been invaded by the Federal hirelings, without authority of Congress, which alone has the war-making power. Heretofore, the pretense that it was the duty of the Federal Government to repossess itself of the forts and arsenals in the Seceded States, has been put forward to justify the ag gressive movements of Federal troops. But in the present case there is no such pretense; no forts, or arsenals, or other Federal property have been seized at Alexandria. The 'bloody and brutal' purposes of the Abolitionists, to subjugate and exterminate the Southern people, stands confessed by this flagrant outrage upon Virginia soil.

แ

'Virginians, arise in your strength and welcome the invader with 'bloody hands to hospitable graves.' The sacred soil of Virginia, in which repose the ashes of so many of the illus trious patriots who gave independence to their country, has been desecrated by the hostile tread of an armed enemy, who proclaims his malignant hatred of Virginia because she will