Others of them remained at home, but formed organizations, obtained arms, and practised military evolutions, with the avowed purpose of aiding the rebel cause. These organizations embraced fully three thousand men. There are thirty-two churches in the county, of which four are Episcopal, one Catholic, two Presbyterian, six Baptist, one Universalist, and seventeen Methodist. Northampton County, the more southern of the two, is a narrow peninsula, containing only ninety-four thousand acres of land, of which seventy-five thousand acres are improved and under cultivation. The population of the county is ten thousand, of whom four thousand are slaves. The occupations of the people are similar to those of Accomac, but the inhabitants are more Southern in their feelings, and a majority of them have been in league with the enemy during the whole time from the commencement of the troubles. It is well known that before General Dix took command of this department a system of regular and daily communication took place between the rebel sympathizers in Baltimore and the rebels in Yorktown, by means of the people of Northampton County. Letters and newspapers were regularly sent and received every day, and thus the rebel leaders were kept fully posted about our movements. Since that time this communication has been attended with more difficulty, but it has by no means been broken up. Some idea of the adroitness of the rebel sympathizers in Northampton may be formed from the fact that the New York Herald has often been received at Norfolk, by this route, on the second day after its publication, and the Baltimore papers on the day after their publication. The agricultural productions of Northampton are similar to those of Accomac County, the aggregate annual production of wheat, corn, oats and rye being proportioned to the latter. There are thirteen churches in Northampton County, of which three are Episcopal, two Presbyterian, one Catholic, two Baptist, and five Methodist. The county seat is Eastville, and the other villages are Hadlock and Franktown in the north, Bridgetown at the head of navigation at Hunger Creek on the west, and Capeville, near Cape Charles, on the south. The county seat of Accomac is Drummondtown, and the other villages are Horntown, near the mouth of Pocomoke River, on the north; Assawoman and Modesttown, near Assawoman Inlet, on the cast; Onancock and Pungoteague on the west, and Turkey's Pen at the south. Before the war broke out the following lighthouses existed on the coast of these two counties, all of which have been dismantled by the rebels:-One at Watts' Island, Chesapeake Bay, at the entrance of Pocomoke Sound; one at the entrance of Pungoteague Creek; one at the entrance of Occohannack Creek; one at Cape Charles; one on Smith's Island, east of Cape Charles; one on Hog Island, east of Eastville, and one on Piney Island, southeast of Horntown.

The objects of the expedition have been clearly set forth in the proclamation of General Dix.* The troops composing the expedition were transported from Baltimore, Md., to the scene of action in steamers. They landed at Newtown, in Somerset County, Md., and marched through to Horntown. Here great numbers of the proclamation of General Dix were scattered among the people, and were taken by them into the interior. Wherever the proclamation was read to the people, they expressed the greatest gratification and pleasure. Whatever supplies the troops needed, were freely brought in by the people, and were bought and paid for by the soldiers. What few rebels there were among the people, immediately departed for a more congenial clime. Before he advanced further southward, General Lockwood sent out a strong detachment to reconnoitre as far as Drummondtown. The commander of this expedition ascertained that there were no rebels in Accomac County in arms; that those who had arms had laid them down, and were ready to give them up if required; that the citizens of Drummondtown had voluntarily raised the Stars and Stripes over the Court House, and were eager to welcome the advance of the troops, but that the indications were that there might be some trouble in Northampton, as all the rebels had congregated there, apparently to resist the approach of the troops. The whole column, therefore, proceeded to Drummondtown, where they were at last accounts.

FURTHER ACCOUNTS.

BALTIMORE, November 21, 1861. Information was received last night at headquarters from Accomac County of the most gratifying character, giving assurance that the expedition despatched by General Dix to the two eastern shore counties of Virginia, will meet with little or no opposition.

On Sunday the flag of the Union was hoisted at Drummondtown, the county seat of Accomac, on a pole which bore the rebel flag the day before. The people of the county had submitted to the authority of the United States, and declared their intention to do so in advance of the arrival of the troops. A flag of truce was sent by General Lockwood to Drummondtown on Saturday. On Friday night three thousand rebel troops disbanded, most of them drafted militia. Wherever the officer who bore the flag of truce went, he was importuned for General Dix's proclamation, which had been sent among them the day before. We annex some extracts from his statement. Meeting some of the disbanded men, he asked them why they had broken up so suddenly.

"The reply was, they had got General Dix's proclamation, and believing they could not stand out against the force we were about to send against them they thought it better to disband. But others came up in the mean time who were part of the militia, and they boldly

*See page 367, Docs., ante.

answered that they never did want to go into the business, and had all the time disapproved of it, but were compelled to it by hot-headed secessionists.

"The greater part of the persons I met were of the disbanded militia. Three cheers for the Union were given with such zeal and zest as to make me conclude that there was something more in them than expressions arising from fear. I met many in squads of five, ten, twenty, etc., and they would sometimes run across the fields to meet us, expressing the deepest gratitude for the deliverance from oppression and want, for they are in want of many of the necessaries of life.

"I will here state that along the road I was besieged for General Dix's proclamation, a few copies of which had been scattered about the country through which I passed. It had even reached this place yesterday. When it had got among the militia organizations, it was made the pretext for giving open expression to their latent feelings of opposition to the Confederate

rulers.

"The great majority of the people, I believe, look upon the troops about to be sent among them as their deliverers from cruelty and oppression. Hurrahs for the Union were quite frequent. At one place the American flag was hung out. It was a curiosity to the people, and they looked in astonishment when they saw that one owned in their very midst."

We may conclude that the people of Northampton will follow the example of Accomac. The secret of the success of the expedition is to be ascribed to the large and well-disciplined force sent into those counties. It is always a measure of humanity, as well as a right military rule, to employ a force so overwhelming as to prevent bloodshed. If half the number of troops had been sent, there would no doubt have been resistance, and very likely a sanguinary and protracted guerilla warfare, for which the country is well adapted.

We believe that the same exhibitions of returning loyalty will be made in other districts of country when we go into them with a like preponderance of force, and that the deep-seated feeling of attachment and devotion to the Union which lives in the hearts of a majority of the Southern people, will break out into open expressions when they feel that they are to be protected and sustained.

Another letter, dated on Sunday, says:

the Purnel Legion, a portion of the Sixth Michigan, the Seventeenth Massachusetts, and some companies of the Second Delaware regiment."

The United States revenue gunboat Hercules, Rufus Coffin, Lieutenant commanding, arrived cruise in Pocomoke Bay and Tangier's Sound, in port about ten o'clock yesterday, from a and brings information from the eastern shore of Virginia up to Monday night. BrigadierGeneral Lockwood was still at Newtown, with five thousand men, and also had one thousand men at Snowhill. He designed marching to Drummondtown and establishing there his head-quarters.

The place was held by a squadron of cavalry, and the national flag was waving over it. The greater proportion of the inhabitants are Union Maj.-Gen. Dix with delight. in feeling, and received the proclamation of

into Northampton County, with a force suffiIn a few days General Lockwood would move cient to overcome any opposition from the secessionists, who would be obliged to succumb.

Lieutenant Coffin left General Lockwood on

Sunday, and on his way to his vessel found that a number of bridges over the streams south of the Pocomoke River had been burned, and trees felled and placed over the roads, compelling him to take a circuitous route.

On Saturday four boats, with armed seamen, were despatched from the gunboats Hercules and Reliance, lying in Pocomoke Bay, under the charge of Lieutenants Tompkins and Gambrill, of the Reliance, and Lieutenant Hall and Quartermsater Berry, of the Hercules, to Syke's Island, in that bay, near the mainland of Accomac County, and of which possession was taken. Formerly there were about one hundred and forty inhabitants on the island, but on account of the apprehension entertained that they would be impressed into the rebel service, all but thirty had left. These gladly received the proclamation of General Dix, and were promised the protection of the United States. The Hercules and Tiger will return to those waters as soon as they can recoal, and with the Reliance, Captain McGowan, will cruise along the Virginia shore in connection with the military forces.

Doc. 180.

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, CONVENTION. THE Richmond Enquirer of November 20th contains the report of the committee appointed by the Virginia State Convention to report on amendments to the Constitution.

The committee set out with an assertion of the old abstractions of the Virginia school, and then proceed to discuss the amendments which

schools abolished. The following are some extracts from the report. Let freemen note the progress of the rebellion:

VIEWS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY.

Governments are instituted for the protection of the rights of persons and property; and any system must be radically defective which does not give ample security to both. The great interests of every community may be classed-under the heads of labor and capital, and it is essential to the well-being of society that the proper equilibrium should be established between these important elements. The undue predominance of either must eventually prove destructive to the social system. Capital belongs to the few-labor to the many. In those systems in which capital has the ascendency, the Government must, to some extent, partake of the character of oligarchy, whilst in those in which labor is predominant the tendency is to what Mr. John Randolph graphically described as "the despotism of king numbers." It is the office of enlightened statesmanship to secure to each its appropriate influence, but to give the absolute control to neither.

NORTHERN LABOR TOO POWERFUL.

The political condition of the Northern States presents a striking illustration of the evils incident to the preponderance of the element of labor. In the early periods of their history these evils were not so apparent as they have since become. Their population was sparse, and the Western Territories afforded a convenient outlet for their restless citizens; property was easily acquired, and consequently the line of demarcation between labor and capital was not strictly drawn, because the laborer of to-day might readily become the capitalist of to-morrow. But within the last twenty years a marked change has taken place in the North. Population has become dense, and the safetyvalve afforded by emigration to the Western Territories has been greatly obstructed. Wages have not kept pace with the cost of subsistence, and the difficulty of acquiring property has greatly increased. The tendency of this new condition of things has been to divide society into two distinct classes, and to array the one against the other.

FREE SCHOOLS DENOUNCED.

This tendency to a conflict between labor and capital has already manifested itself in many forms, comparatively harmless, it is true, but nevertheless clearly indicative of a spirit of licentiousness which must, in the end, ripen into agrarianism. It may be seen in the system of free schools, by which the children of the poor are educated at the expense of the rich; in the various forms of exemption and homestead bills; in the popular cry of "lands for the landless," and "homes for the homeless;" in Fourierism and communism; in the habitual disregard of the ordinances of religion,

and of the institution of matrimony; and more distinctly in the form of abolitionism.

FREE SUFFRAGE NOT TO BE PERMITTED,

In the opinion of your committee no system of government can afford permanent and effectual security to life, liberty, and property, which rests on the basis of unlimited suffrage, and the election of officers of every department of the Government by the direct vote of the people. The tendency of such a system is to demoralize the masses; to encourage the habit of office-seeking; to foster corruption at the polls, and to place unworthy and incompetent men in positions of trust and responsibility. These, however, are the vital principles of the social organization of the North, and, as before stated, their bitter fruits are already in a course of rapid development.

In the Southern States more conservative and rational principles still prevail. This is due mainly to the institution of slavery, which constitutes a partial restriction on the right of suffrage. In the North men of every class and condition of life are entitled to vote. In the South all who are in a condition of servitude are necessarily excluded from the exercise of political privileges, and the power of the country is wielded by the more intelligent classes, who have a permanent interest in the well-being of society.

Slavery also constitutes an effectual barrier against that tendency to antagonism between labor and capital which exists in the North. There capital is the usual employer of labor, and is interested in diminishing its wages. Here capital is the owner of labor, and naturally seeks to enhance its rewards.

[The above report emanates from a committee which was appointed by the Convention in May last to consider such amendments to the Constitution of Virginia as may be necessary and proper. The Hon. A. H. H. Stuart, of Augusta County, is the chairman of the committee.]-National Intelligencer, Dec. 3.

Doc. 181.

GOV. TAYLOR'S PROCLAMATION, AT HATTERAS, N. C., Nov. 20, 1861. To the People of North Carolina:

On Monday, the 18th of November, 1861, a provisional or temporary Government for this Commonwealth was instituted at Hatteras, Hyde County, by a convention of the people, in which more than half the counties of the State were represented by delegates and author ized proxies. Ordinances were adopted by the Convention declaring vacant all State offices the incumbents whereof have disqualified themselves to hold them by violating their official oaths to support the Constitution of the United States, which North Carolina has solemnly accepted as the supreme law of the land; pro