-The North do not war on the South, but they | of the deadly conflict that must ensue no mordefend their country's flag to the man and to tal can conjecture. One thing is certain, revothe death. There is no disunion here; to-lutions never move backwards. Once the tide gether we stand in the name of our country and of our God." The Christian Chronicle, of Philadelphia, publishes a letter from a Massachusetts correspondent, containing the following statement: "The peace men have all been transformed into men of war. Even the ministers of the Gospel deem it proper on the Sabbath to stimulate the patriotism of their people and even bid them to imitate their own examples in volunteering to take the sword; and the consciousness of the righteousness of their cause and the undoubted favor of the God of Battles makes all hearts strong and even joyful. "There is one prayer often to be heard on the lips of Christian men-Pray God it may be a death-blow to slavery!' I doubt not that in those who have never felt any thing of the kind before, there will be generated an hostility to slavery of the most uncompromising nature. Nothing is more common than to hear the determination expressed-to oppose the recognition of slavery on the part of the General Government in future-to follow the counsel of our English friends, and 'pluck from the flag those blood-rotted strands,' and to make 'freedom national,' and 'slavery sectional,' to the fullest extent." The Watchman and Reflector has an article on "The Doom of Slavery," in which it predicts that "if the conflict is protracted a single year, Virginia will be lost to slavery." "Virginia too must become the seat of war, and with fifty or a hundred thousand free-men encamped on her soil, and every part of the State convulsed with agitation and turmoil, slavery cannot maintain its existence." It alludes to the collision between the mob and the soldiers in Baltimore, and adds: "But the mobocracy may as well be quiet. Baltimore is now at the mercy of our guns, and Maryland is one of the most vulnerable States in the Union." The Mississippi Baptist, after describing the war policy of President Lincoln with reference to the Confederate States, adds: "If he carries out this policy fully, we see no alternative but a general war, a war both by sea and land; a war which will carry desolation, carnage, and blooodshed wherever the contending forces meet in battle array.-President Davis has a policy as well as President Lincoln, a policy which he will as assuredly carry out,-a policy which he indicated in his speeches before his inauguration, and in his inaugural address; a policy, in which he will be supported by the Congress of the Confederate States, and by thousands of the brave hearts and stout hands of the people of those States. "And not only the Confederate States will sustain him, but thousands of the citizen soldiery of the border slave States will rush to his aid. And what will be the alternate result begins to move it will rush on with increased impetuosity, breaking over every barrier in the way of its onward progress. Once relieve passion from the restraints of reason and conscience, and arouse the feelings of bitter resentment which a long series of oppression has excited, and there will be no bounds to the excesses that will be the unavoidable result. "But, it may be asked, may not all this be avoided? "Which question is answered as follows: "Now, we say, let the Congress and the Executive of the United States cease offensive operations against the Confederate States, and evacuate the forts within their borders, and then enter into a treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, with the Government, and the dreadful alternative of a sanguinary, desolating conflict will be avoided, otherwise, we fear the war has but just begun." 66 The Biblical Recorder, of North Carolina, shows the unanimity of purpose existing on both sides, and says: What then? Will Mr. Lincoln and his cabinet pursue to the bitter, bloody end their fiendish purpose? Can the madness of fanaticism go so far? We hope not. Surely reason will return in time to avert so direful a catastrophe. But if war must come, and we can have a united South, we entertain no fears as to the result. The conflict may be long and bloody; many evils and much suffering may be inflicted; commerce may be crippled, and many brave men lie down in death on the battle-field, but victory and peace will at last be ours. Men conscious of right, and fighting for their liberties, their honor, their homes, and all that they hold dear, cannot be subdued. When the North shall have learned this by sad experience, we shall have peace, and, freed from the shackles which have hitherto held us, we shall enter upon a career as glorious as can be found in the annals of the world. "The South has been slow to assume her present position. It was only after she had patiently submitted for long years to aggression and insult, repeated and aggravated, that she consented to break up the old nationality. Now confiding in the justice of her cause, and looking to the Ruler of the Universe, she can calmly and hopefully await the result." The Tennessee Baptist is strongly in favor of secession." Rev. J. R. Graves, its principal editor, just returned from a journey through the South, says :-I learned something more about the politics of the masses of Mississippi and Louisiana. I had read in certain newspapers that the people in Louisiana are sound Union men at heart, and that secession is the work of politicians. So far as I travelled in Mississippi and Louisiana I found the people thoroughly secessionists-those who voted the "coöperative ticket" are now firmly fixed in sentiment. says: You may write it down as a settled fact to | people, will claim and receive the respect, adbe reckoned from, that these States will never iniration, and esteem of the world." form an alliance again with the Abolition States The South Western Baptist, of Alabama, of the North-never while the world stands. An army of a million soldiers could not force them back. They will die to a man first, save, | perhaps, here and there one who has neither "cotton nor negroes to fight for," and who would be glad to see no one better off than himself. Party lines are now annihilated. | There is no longer any Whig or Democrat, Southern man and Yankee, but "Southern Confederacy men." Tennesseeans are now called upon to decide whether they will fight the South or the North. We rejoice to see the change the political mind of Tennessee is undergoing-Nashville is overwhelmingly for secession to-day. All the men I left Union men, I find now thinking with me, save one-i. e., all I have yet conversed with. I learn that a similar change of opinion is universal, except in the mountainous districts of Tennessee. I regard that the fate of Tennessee is determined by the next vote that is cast for Governor. Whoever the man may be, let him be for a United South. Union men of Tennessee, with few exceptions, are among the very foremost in the call for arming the State, and resisting the machinations of the Black Republican tyrant and his conclave at Washington. The Christian Index, of Georgia, throws the whole blame of the war 66 upon Lincoln and his advisers;" says that upon the part of the South it is a war to maintain the right "of sovereignty pertaining to each State of the old Union and of the new Confederacy," in which we are but defending our firesides, our families, our honor, and our independence." After speaking of the apparent policy of the United States Government, the editor adds: Well, the war is upon us! We have exhausted every effort for peace which duty and honor demand. Our peace offerings are spurned, our commissioners sent home from Washington with the insulting declaration that they cannot be received, and now the roar of artillery on our Southern borders announces the purblind policy of an abolitionized government, bent on the ruin of the country as well as its own! Let it come! "In the name of our God, we will set up our banners;" and by the blessing of Him who ruleth in the armies of heaven, the sword will never be sheathed until the last invader shall be driven from our shores. The battle of New Orleans, fought by Southern soldiers, commanded by Southern officers, may suggest to these hirelings of Mr. Lincoln what Southern men can and will do when their wives and children are behind them and an invading foe is before them. Let no man's heart fail him for fear. The spirit of our people is aroused, and hundreds of thousands stand ready to fly to the standard of our Southern Confederacy to maintain its integrity or perish in the attempt. "Let us play the man for our people, and for the cities of our God, and the Lord do what seemeth him good." Let prayer be made without ceasing unto God, and the result is not doubtful. The Methodist Protestant, of Baltimore, says: We make no pretensions to statesmanship, we are no cabinet officer, we know little of state-diplomacy, but we think we know enough of Christ and his religion to be certain that war, and especially civil war, is a most cruel and wicked thing. It is anti-Christian, and a nation like ours ought not engage in it. Moral force at an era of civilization like that in which we live, ought to be able to settle State difficulties. The points of national honor upon which men dwell so eloquently, are as likely to be overrated as the points of personal honor in the ordinary duel. And what is this war likely to be? A gigantic duel between the two sections, North and South. A duel between broth "The tendency of these movements will be to bring Virginia and Maryland into the Southern Confederacy, and also Kentucky and Tennessee, and perhaps Arkansas; and if Lincoln persists in his coercive policy, President Davis will have no other alternative but to conquer a peace by attacking Washington city, and, on the tented field proving the superiority of South-ers. ern to Northern prowess. "Thus will we force the ill-advisers of Mr. Lincoln to acknowledge and recognize our secession; we will compel an equitable division of the national property; and while the North will sink at once to the position of a third-rate power of the earth, we, from our Capitol at Washington city, will cause ourselves to be regarded as the valiant American Government that, by martial supremacy, asserted its right to a place among the first nations of the earth, and which, by its liberal policy towards other nations, and its possession of King Cotton, will but bind to itself in friendship all other countries, and which, by the enlightenment, religion, urbanity, and high-toned principles of its Both are to be injured, cruelly. Sorrow unspeakable is to be carried into the bosoms of innocent connections-and then, when mutual satisfaction IN BLOOD shall have been rendered, amicable relations will be established, and history will find material for another story of wrong and outrage, or the recital of successive battles, of victories and defeats, leaving the quarrel at the end, just where it was at the beginning-a thing to be settled by peaceful diplomacy. The Examiner, of New York, says: War is an evil from which peace-loving patriots have prayed God to save their beloved country. But there are worse evils than war, and one of them would be a subversion of the ancestral freedom of a great people, by the slavery-propagandist Confederacy which has made Montgomery the seat of its malign power. War, to prevent such a catastrophe, rises to the dignity of virtue acceptable to God. 66 99 66 Again, after denouncing the capture of Fort Sumter as an uncalled-for attack," an aggressive war on the Government and people of the United States," it continues: In maintaining itself against this aggressive war, and in punishing its authors, the National Government will receive the hearty and united support of all loyal and right-minded men. We abhor war in all its forms-but if it must come, it could never be met by the American people with a more determined resolution, or with a deeper consciousness of right, than when it comes in the hateful guise of secession, and slavery extension. Long has the Government forborne to act, lest it might provoke some hostile measure. Its endurance has been beyond all the precedents of history. It must now arouse in its hitherto slumbering might, and assert its determination to rule the country. Already are thousands flocking to its standard from every constitutional State. Its cause is as righteous as ever summoned a people to arms. On it, we need not say, depends the life of the country. It appeals with the fullest power to the deepest sentiments of every patriotic heart to the proud recollections of our national past-to the priceless interests that lie enwrapped in our hitherto happy Republic-to the undying loyalty that clings to our glorious, but insulted flag-to the sympathies we cherish for oppressed and outraged humanity-to the pride we have taken in American civilization, and the faith we have kept in the capacities and destinies of American freedom. The New York Chronicle says: A single blow has cut the Gordian knot which the North has been so anxious to untie peacefully. The question is now as simple as it before was complicated. The life or death of the Government established by our fathers, is the mighty stake for which the game of war is henceforth to be played. We want peace, we all want peace. We are willing to make many sacrifices-to forbear much, and suffer much, to obtain it, but there are some things we may not endure, and some sacrifices we may not make. Great principles have sometimes to pass through the fiery furnace, and we have only to accept whatever sacrifices that ordeal may bring; not vindictively, not in the spirit of revenge for real or fancied wrongs, but simply as a stern duty which, as loyal men, without being recreant to every sentiment of justice and Christian principle, we cannot ignore or evade. There is but one feeling now through the North. It is for vigorous, energetic and decisive measures, not for aggressive warfare, for no one here contemplates or desires it, but because the best peace measure now is the exhibition of such strength on the part of the Govern ment as will prevent further aggressive measures on the part of the South. The Watchman and Reflector, of Boston, Mass., says: We bitterly deplore the necessity of war. As Christian journalists we have counselled forbearance till it has ceased to be a virtue. We have hoped that our brethren of the South, while renouncing allegiance to the national Government, would refrain from any attack on its armed troops. But delay has only aggravated treason, forbearance has emboldened their movements, and civil war is now inevitable. There can be no doubt of the ultimate result. The North has ample resources of men and money. It has the undivided command of the sea for transportation of troops, and a network of railroads for conveyance of armies and provisions by land. If it were needful, a million of men could be mustered in the field in three months. The South is full of enthusiasm, and its people are chivalric and impetuous, but with few monetary resources, and no credit, and no navy, it must yield at length to superior force. The North, too, we must believe, is in the right. It will have on its side the sympathy of the civilized world, and we may hope, also, the favor and protection of Almighty God. On Him we must wait in humble prayer and strong faith, and to him must we look for guidance and deliverance. Doc. 129.-PROCLAMATION BY GOVERNOR LETCHER, MAY 3, 1861. THE Sovereignty of the Commonwealth of Virginia having been denied, her territorial rights assailed, her soil threatened with invasion by the authorities at Washington, and every artifice employed which could inflame the people of the Northern States and misrepresent our purposes and wishes, it becomes the solemn duty of every citizen of this State to prepare for the impending conflict. These misrepresentations have been carried to such an extent that foreigners and naturalized citizens who, but a few years ago, were denounced by the North and deprived of essential rights, have now been induced to enlist into regiments for the purpose of invading this State, which then vindicated those rights and effectually resisted encroachments which threatened their destruction. Against such a policy and against a force which the Government at Washington, relying upon its numerical strength, is now rapidly concentrating, it becomes the State of Virginia to prepare proper safeguards. a To this end and for these purposes, and with determination to repel invasion, I, JOHN LETCHER, Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, by authority of the Convention, do hereby authorize the commanding-general of the military forces of this State, to call out, and to cause to be mustered into the service of Vir *** ginia, from time to time, as the public exigen- | taneously, at as many places as possible, and at cies may require, such additional number of the same hour at night. This is to be done the volunteers as he may deem necessary. night before the attack on Washington. To facilitate this call, the annexed Schedule***has the direction of the whole plot. One will indicate the places of rendezvous at which the companies called for will assemble upon receiving orders for service. Given under my hand as Governor, and under the seal of the Commonwealth, [L. s.] at Richmond, this 3d day of May, 1861, and in the 85th year of the Commonwealth. By the Governor. GEORGE W. Munford, JOHN LETCHER. Secretary of the Commonwealth. SCHEDULE. The following places of rendezvous are designated as the point at which companies called from the annexed counties will assemble: Harper's Ferry, Staunton, Alexandria, Warrenton, Culpepper C. H., Gordonsville, Lynchburg, Abingdon, Fredericksburg, King George, Gloucester Point, West Point, Norfolk, Smithfield, Petersburg, Buffalo, Barbourville, Charleston, Parkersburg, Moundsville, Grafton, and Richmond. -Charleston Evening News, May 6. Doc. 130.-NEW YORK TO BE BURNED. NEW YORK, May 3. A WEEK or two since, Mr. Kennedy, Superintendent of Police of New York, received information of a design to burn the city, the supply of water to be cut off at the time the city was fired. A guard was placed over the mains of the aqueduct in the two counties through which they run, and was made so strong that no attempt to cut the pipe could be successfully made. Since then full evidence of the design has been obtained, and additional | evidence that the cities of Philadelphia and Boston were included in the list. The leaders of the enterprise were well-known secessionists, some of whose names are now in possession of the police, but whose voices have been silenced by the recent uprising of the people. The whole police force has been on the alert since the first intimation of the probability of the attempt being made. Here is a letter received last evening from a source entitled to consideration: LOUISVILLE, April 30, 1861. Sir:-I have travelled four hundred miles to be able safely to mail this letter. A thoroughly organized plot is now in progress of execution to burn New York, Philadelphia, and Boston. A portion of the men assigned to your city are already in your midst, and others are on their way. I know what I say to be true. I dare not tell you how I know, for that would lead to my inevitable detection, the consequences of which you can readily guess. The intention is to fire the three cities simul hundred and twenty-five men have been assigned to your city and Brooklyn, and eighty to each of the others. This is not a movement of the Government, though known to Davis. At first he discouraged it, but since Lincoln's proclamation, he has withdrawn his opposition. The men intrusted with the execution of the plot all belong to the inner temple of the Knights of the Golden Circle. The plan has been maturing for two months past, but did not include New York until within a week or ten days. The men assigned to Boston and Philadelphia have been at their posts for a week, but the determination to include New York has caused a delay, and now the time will depend upon how soon Davis is to attack Washington. I have told you not all that I know, but all that I can with safety to myself. The chances are you will disregard this warning; but I feel that I have at least discharged my duty. ****** I am not your friend-I am one of the most unrelenting of your enemies; but I am an open, and, I hope, honorable foe. I expect to fight you to the death, but not with lucifer inatches and camphene. Do not do the people of the South the injustice to believe that one out of ten among them would for a moment sanction this hell-begotten scheme. It is foreign to their nature. -N. Y. News, May 4. * Doc. 131.-A PROCLAMATION WASHINGTON, Friday, May 3, 1861. WHEREAS, existing exigencies demand immediate and adequate measures for the protection of the national Constitution and the preservation of the national Union by the suppression of the insurrectionary combinations now existing in several States for opposing the laws of the Union and obstructing the execution thereof, to which end a military force in addition to that called forth by my Proclamation of the fifteenth day of April in the present year, appears to be indispensably necessary, now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy thereof, and of the militia of the several States, when called into actual service, do hereby call into the service of the United States forty-two thousand and thirtyfour volunteers, to serve for a period of three years, unless sooner discharged, and to be mustered into service as infantry and cavalry. The proportions of each arm and the details of enrolment and organization will be made known through the Department of War; and I also direct that the regular army of the United States be increased by the addition of eight ble naval force wherewith to carry on the war with England, which I considered could only be done with effect through her being victoriously struck at on an element over which she deemed herself sole mistress. This appeared to me to constitute her most tender point. regiments of infantry, one regiment of cavalry, | necessity for, and the high policy of a formidaand one regiment of artillery, making altogether a maximum aggregate increase of 22,714 officers and enlisted men, the details of which increase will also be made known through the Department of War; and I further direct the enlistment, for not less than one nor more than three years, of 18,000 seamen, in addition to the present force, for the naval service of the United States. The details of the enlistment and organization will be made known through the Department of the Navy. The call for volunteers, hereby made, and the direction of the increase of the regular army, and for the enlistment of seamen hereby given, together with the plan of organization adopted for the volunteers and for the regular forces hereby authorized, will be submitted to Congress as soon as assembled. In the mean time I earnestly invoke the cooperation of all good citizens in the measures hereby adopted for the effectual suppression of unlawful violence, for the impartial enforcement of constitutional laws, and for the speediest possible restoration of peace and order, and with those of happiness and prosperity throughout our country. "By this movement I found myself judiciously located to enable me to urge upon Congress any patriotic measures which seemed best calculated to meet and discomfit the self-sufficiency and arrogance of our oppressive enemy. "Mr. Calhoun's age, I thought, approximated my own, which was thirty-four; and being a man of the highest order of talent, and representing a State in our Union which scarce ever permitted themselves to be represented by inferior ability in the national councils, I could not have commenced my object with one more fitted for the purpose I had in view. He was also a high-minded and honorable man, kind and friendly as well as open and confiding to those he deemed worthy. We soon formed an intimacy, and I frequently had long conversations with him on the war, the subjects relating thereto, and matters growing out of its existence -the navy being the most prominent-the gunboats, the merchants' bonds then on the tapis in Congress, and other matters of political or minor interest. One evening I struck on the Done at the City of Washington this third divided views of our sectional interests of the day of May, in the year of our Lord one thou-war-stated to him that the opposite feelings sand eight hundred and sixty-one, and of the Independence of the United States the eightyfifth. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. By the President. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. Doc. 132.-LETTER FROM COMMODORE "BORDENTOWN, May 4, 1861. "On the assembling of Congress, in the early part of December, I found that an important portion of the leading democratic members of Congress had taken up their quarters at Mrs. Bushby's boarding-house, among whom was Mr. Calhoun, a new member from South Carolinaand I believe this was his first appearance in the House of Representatives. In consequence of this I took Lieutenant Ridgley, my confidential officer, and the first lieutenant of the frigate Constitution, of which vessel I then held the command, and was preparing for sea at the Washington Navy Yard, left our lodgings at Strother's, and obtained board at Mrs. Bushby's with them. Ridgley was a witty and able talker, who could aid me in demonstrating the on this subject had puzzled me exceedingly, and asked him how it was that the planting States were so strongly and so decidedly in favor of the war, while the commercial States were so much opposed to it. With this latter section of our country it seemed to me that the punishment of England, through the medium of war, ought to meet their highest approbation and call for their greatest efforts, as they were the greatest sufferers, through her instrumentality and power over our commercial affairs, since 1792, which were so arrogantly urged by plunder and impressment on the highway of nations, while the southern portion of the Union had felt but little in comparison. I observed, with great simplicity, 'You in the South and Southwest are decidedly the aristocratic portion of this Union; you are so in holding persons in perpetuity in slavery; you are so in every domestic quality; so in every habit in your lives, living, and actions; so in habits, customs, intercourse, and manners; you neither work with your hands, heads, nor any machinery, but live and have your living, not in accordance with the will of your Creator, but by the sweat of slavery, and yet you assume all the attributes, professions, and advantages of democracy.' "Mr. Calhoun replied: 'I see you speak through the head of a young statesman, and from the heart of a patriot, but you lose sight of the politician and the sectional policy of the people. I admit your conclusions in respect to us southrons. That we are essentially aristocratic I cannot deny, but we can and do yield |