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NAHANT, August 25. GENTLEMEN: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 20th, addressed to me in New York.

If your letter were in effect an appeal only to my own sentiments in favor of a re-union of parties, I should not hesitate to renounce my personal views, but would be entirely ready to defer to the public opinion which your names represent.

the great questions of principle and national existence which are at stake.

Thanking you, gentlemen, for the evidence which your letter gives me of your confidence in my disposition to do everything in my power for the interests of the country, I am, very truly yours, J. C. FREMONT. This is General Fremont's letter of withdrawal:

NAHANT, Sept. 17.

GENTLEMEN: I enclose you my letter of reply to an invitation of some of my Republican friends to meet me at Faneuil Hall.

In declining their invitation, I have informed them of my intention to stand aside from the Presidential canvass, and assigned my reasons for doing so. To avoid repetition,

In this decision I have the approval of such of our friends as I have been able to consult. I have thought it not prudent to incur the longer delay of consulting others, but I have reason to believe that they will unite with me fully upon the propriety of the step I have taken.

But the conditions are no longer the same as when II enclose you the letter in communicating to you now offiexpressed my readiness to retire in the event of a contin- cially my desire to withdraw my name from the Presidengency which might have occurred at Baltimore. Having tial candidates. now definitely accepted the Cleveland nomination, I have not the right to act independently of the truly patriotic and earnest party who conferred that honor upon me. In any event it would be necessary first to consult with them. It might, besides, have only the effect still further to unsettle the public mind, and defeat the object you have in view, if we should disorganize before first proceeding to organize something better.

To this end I suggest that a direct effort be made to obtain an immediate understanding between the supporters of the Baltimore and Cleveland nominations, in order that the friends of both may coalesce, and unite upon an early day for holding such a convention as you propose. I am satisfied that I do not assume too much in saying that my friends will unite heartily in such a movement.

A really popular convention, upon a broad and liberal basis, so that it could be regarded as a convocation in mass of the people, and not the work of politicians, would command public confidence. Such a convention, acting in the large and liberal spirit in which it was called, without considerations of persons or political cliques, and without reference to bygone situations, rising to the level of the occasion and taking the conditions of the country as they present themselves to-day, could safely be trusted to propose such a policy and name such a man as should, and un. doubtedly would, receive the cordial and united support of the patriotic masses of the people. To the great body of these, so far as my information allows me to form any opinion, I think that the following propositions would be acceptable:

1. Respect for the practical liberty and the constitutional rights and dignity of the citizen.

2. The maintenance of the dignity of the United States in their relations to foreign Powers.

3. The re-establishment of the Union; by peace if it is possible; by war, if the employment of peaceful measures cannot be made to succeed.

But in withdrawing from the post of candidate, I do not in any way intend to withdraw from my share in the labor, which we jointly undertook, to secure the triumph of the ideas represented by the radical Democracy.

Whatever the next Administration may be, we owe it to ourselves to form a phalanx compact and capable, by its thorough unity, of exercising a pressure strong enough to secure the eventual success of the principles for which we have been contending the re-establishment of the Union, the abolition of slavery, and practical respect for liberty.

In the present composition of parties, it is indispensable that earnest men should devote themselves to watching the progress and insuring the success of these issues, regardless of men or parties.

Mr. Lincoln says he does not lead, but follows the will of the people. It remains, then, for the people, in the event of his re-election, vigilantly to require the following at his hands, and, further, to require that, in the execution of his duties, he keeps scrupulously within the Constitution and the laws; to make him recognize that he holds his place and his power, not as belonging to himself, but as a really faithful servant of the people.

This is the important duty which we have now to perform.

Although, as representatives of the Cleveland movement, we surrender our functions, the duty of watching party politics, the Constitution remains. What steps are necessary in the performance of that duty must be the subject

for future consideration.

I am, gentlemen, respectfully and truly yours, &c., JOHN C. FREMONT. To Messrs. WORTHINGTON G. SNETHEN and others, a committee, &c.

This letter is upon the same subject:

BOSTON, September 21. GENTLEMEN: I feel it my duty to make one step more in the direction indicated by my letter of the 25th of August, and withdraw my name from the list of candidates.

Much has been said of late about peace, and you will therefore excuse me if I say here what I understand by it. For me, peace signifies the integral re-establishment of the Union without slavery; because slavery is the source of all our pontical dissensions, and because the institution itself is condemned by the cutightened and liberal spirit of the age. These are to me the essential conditions of peace. If it is practicable to attain this result, it would not be payThe Presidential question has, in effect, been entered ing too dearly for it-taking also into consideration the inaupon in such a way that the union of the Republican party terial strength which the South has been permitted to ac- has become a paramount necessity. The policy of the quire by the conduct of the war-to make concessions upon Democratic party signifies either separation or re-establish some points of secondary importance, such as that of payment with slavery. The Chicago platform is simply sepa ing an indeninity for their slaves to those who have remained in a sort of neutral condition during the unhappy war which has convulsed the country. To terminate this we are now expending life and money; it would certainly be a gain to reduce it simply to a question of money.

If, in spite of all these efforts to spare the South humiliation, or losses of capital likely to be too severely felt, the political chiefs who direct the South persist in war, then the policy of the Convention should be to pronounce in that case for war with all the force and energy of the nation. For peace upon any terms, and merely because it is peace-a peace recognizing a North and a South-would not bring about a stable equilibrium. It would only prepare the way for new struggles, and for a condition of disastrous anarchy.

The paramount question is the Union. By peace, if it can be had on honorable and right terms-by war, if the political leaders who are directing the South insist upon

war.

ration. General McClellan's letter of acceptance is reestablishment with slavery.

The Republican candidate, on the contrary, is pledged to the re-establishment of the Union without slavery; and, however hesitating his policy may be, the pressure of his party will, we may hope, force him to it.

Between these issues, I think, no man of the liberal party can remain in doubt, and I believe I am consistent with my antecedents in withdrawing-not to aid in the triumph of Mr. Lincoln, but to do my part towards preventing the election of the Democratic candidate.

In respect to Mr. Lincoln, I continue to hold exactly the sentiments contained in my letter of acceptance. I consider that his administration has been politically, militarily, and financially a failure, and that its necessary continuance is a cause of regret for the country.

There never was a greater unanimity in a country than was exhibited here at the fall of Sumter, and the South was powerless in the face of it; but Mr. Lincoln completeThe situation of our country is unquestionably critical.ly paralyzed this generous feeling. He destroyed the It demands the devotion and patriotism of all men who really love their country, and it is one of those moments when all personal aspirations should vanish in the face of

strength of the position and divided the North, when he declared to the South that slavery should be protected. He has built up for the South a strength which otherwise

they could have never attained, and this has given them an advocate on the Chicago platform.

The Cleveland Convention was to have been an open avowal of that condemnation which men had been freely expressing to each other for the past two years, and which had been made fully known to the President; but in the uncertain condition of affairs, leading men were not found willing to make public a dissatisfaction and condemnation which could have rendered Mr. Lincoln's nomination impossible, and their continued silence and support established for him a character among the people which leaves now no choice.

United, the Republican party is reasonably sure of success; divided, the result of the Presidential election is at least doubtful.

I am, gentlemen, very truly, yours,

J. C. FREMONT.

To Messrs. GEORGE L. STEARNS and others, a committee, &c.
GEN. COCHRANE'S WITHDRAWAL.

To the War Democrats of the United States:

A convention of men of various political tenets assembled at Cleveland on the 31st day of May last, for the purpose of discharging from the suppression of the rebellion the infraction of the rights of both individuals and States which attended it. The presence of a large number of War Democrats unexpectedly contributed to my nomination by the convention for the Vice Presidency, preceded by that of John C. Fremont for President.

The principles which dictated my acceptance of the nomination approved themselves at the time to very general regard, and have since, in my opinion, lost none of their original virtue or vigor. Their practical assertion was required, it was thought, by the success with which personal liberty had been assailed, and the extremities to which constitutional freedom had been reduced. Not the least inducement, however, was the consideration that the redress of grievances, in the manner proposed, could not interrupt, but would entirely consort with a vigorous prosecution of the war. It certainly was not contemplated that the success of the candidates should, in any degree, impair or endanger that most important part of the platform which resolved "that the rebellion must be suppressed by force of arms, and without compromise."

term policy, the direct vote of the people for their nati nal Chief Magistrate, the Monroe doctrine, the confining exclu sively to the representatives of the people in Congress the reconstruction of States, and the amendment of the Federal Constitution to prohibit slavery, are principles of primary magnitude and importance. But before all these is our country. It is menaced by rebellion. Loyal armies alone protect it. Should those armies retreat, and our protection be withdrawn; or should they advance, and our safety be established? Shall there be peace through the concessions of politicians, or peace through the actions of war? That is the question.

Peace and division, or war and the Union. Other alternative there is none. And, as I am still of the mind that once led me to the field with the soldiers of the Republic, I cannot now hold a position which, by dividing, hazards the success of all those who, whatever their differences at other points, agree, as upon the question of the first consequence, that the restoration of the Union cannot be effected without the uninterrupted continuation of the I, therefore, withdraw my name from the Cleveland ticket. Very truly yours, JOHN COCHRANE.

war.

NEW YORK, September 21, 1864.

Rebel Items.

AN IMPORTANT AND SIGNIFICANT CIRCULAR.

The Richmond Examiner of Sept. 17 alludes to an "important circular," issued to the people of Richmond recently. We quote the substance of the circular:

Captain Coke, enrolling officer for this district, will proceed to-day with the enforcement of a circular issued from the War Department, providing for a registry of all white males between the ages of seventeen and fifty years, not actually in service in the field; with the grounds of their exemption or detail; also a registry of all boys who will arrive at the age of seventeen years within the next twelve months, with the month at which they will attain that age. To obviate the possibility of any alarm that the enforceInstead of the Democratic party, as was then hoped and ment of the order, unexplained, might tend to create, we expected, co-operating at this point, they flouted the war will state that it is not intended to enroll the citizens fallat Chicago, and prouounced for unconditional peace. When, ing within this category. The registry is simply intended "to exhaust the resources of statesmanship," and to allow as a basis upon which the Government may hereafter act "the spirit of conciliation and compromise to prevail," in the matter of conscription and enrollment, as the emerGeneral McClellan virtually asserts that there should be agencies of the service may require. We trust that every "cessation of hostilities," he is in agreement with the convention which nominated him. When, however, he proposes, in the alternative of the war, that the rebellious States shall be restored to precisely their former condition in the Union, with precisely the same political representation as when they departed from it, he rejects a convention of States, on which, as the peaceable means, the Chicago Convention evidently relied for reconstructing the Union out of States physically debilitated and politically shorn. While, therefore, General McClellan resolves upon an impossible Union as it was, through war, the convention resolves upon an impossible Union as it should be, through peace. That the candidate does not stand erect upon his platform, though admitting a question whether, if elected, he would negotiate a peace, permits none that, if elected, he could not effectively prosecute the war.

The success of the Chicago nominees would therefore, at the best, but place in power a party of divided councils, of uncertain policy, and of indecisive action. Clearly, such an event would be at the farthest from a suppression of the rebellion by force of arms, and without compromise."

The Baltimore platform, however objectionable at other points, is unimpeachable at this; and while it fails to vindicate personal rights, and the rights of free speech and the press, it does not fail to refer the re-establishment of constitutional liberty and the restoration of the Union to the arbitrament of arms, in which, and in which alone, the national safety is to be found. We stand within view of a rebellion suppressed; within hail of a country reunited and saved. War lifts the curtain and discloses the prospect. War has given to us Atlanta, and war offers to us Richmond.

Shall we exchange the proffered victory for a "cessation of hostilities?" No! As we fought at the beginning, we should fight at the end; and when rebellion shall have laid down its arms, may we peacefully reconstruct whatever the war for the Union shall be found to have spared. "Lay down your arins," then; as it was at the commencement, Bo it is now, all that is demanded by loyal Americans of their rebellions brothers.

I would certainly prefer that the American people could be brought to a vote on the several propositions peculiar to the Cleveland platform. The right of asylum, the one

man and boy within the jurisdiction of the circular will respond with alacrity to the call, and that they will give the enrolling officers as little trouble as possible in obtaining the desired registry.

THE ENROLLMENT IN RICHMOND.

The military registry, ordered by the Bureau of Conscription, of all males between the ages of seventeen and fifty years not actually in the army in the field or with the reserves, commenced yesterday morning in Monroe ward, at No. 306 Broad street, nearly opposite Lacey's shop, and will be continued to-day. The order is very emphatic and must be executed, and the present mode has been adopted as most agreeable to the citizens. The exemptions in Richmond embrace only those with the army in the field and those in the reserves attached to the regiments of Colonels Evans and Danforth. It may as well be understood that this is not an enrollment, but a military census. Citizens failing to report lay themselves liable to arrest by the enrolling officers. Time, temper and trouble will therefore be saved by reporting promptly to the advisory board in the respective wards.-Richmond Examiner, Sept. 21.

ENROLLMENT OF NEGROES.*
*

Hake's Weekly Bulletin, of the 14th, 18th and *This Order from General Canby contains an additional indication of purpose:

HEADQ'RS MIL. DIV. WEST MISSISSIPPI,
NEW ORLEANS, La., Oct. 11, 1864.

General Orders No. 58.

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21st August, published at Galveston, contains the prescribed period will, upon the expiration thereof, be forthwith assigned to the army. the following intelligence:

NEGROES IN THE SERVICE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
HEADQ'RS DEPARTMENT TRANS-MISSISSIPPI,
SHREVEPORT, LA., July 20, 1864.

General Orders No. 45.

I. In accordance with an act of Congress, entitled "An Act to Increase the Efficiency of the Army by Employment of Free Negroes and Slaves in certain Capacities," approved February 17, 1864, all male free negroes and other persons of color, not including those who are free under the treaty of Paris of 1803, or under the treaty of Spain of 1819, resident in the Confederate States, between the ages of eighteen and fifty years, will be immediately enrolled under the direction of the Bureau of Conscription.

II. The Bureau of Conscription will take the necessary steps, through the enrolling officers, to enroll immediately one fifth of all the male slaves in this department between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years.

rolls.

III. All free negroes and slaves so enrolled will be sent to rendezvous designated by the commandants of negro labor for the several States, accompanied by descriptive IV. Requisitions for negro labor must be made upon the commandants of negro labor of the several States. V. All officers and agents of the Government, in charge of slaves, will furnish monthly, to the commandants of negro labor of the several States to which the slaves belong, correct and certified muster rolls of those in their charge. By command of General E. Kirby Smith: S. S. ANDERSON, Assistant Adjutant General

REVOCATION OF DETAILS.

[OFFICIAL.]

*

ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL'S OFFICE,
RICHMOND, October 5, 1864.

3. All persons called out by this order, who claim exemption on acount of physical disability, will be examined by select medical boards, after their arrival at the camps of instructions.

4. All men found for light duty, who are unassigned, will at once report to the camps of instruction, under the penalty of being forthwith assigned to the active forces. By order. S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General.

NEGROES AS REBEL SOLDIERS.
[From the Richmond Enquirer, Oct. 6.]

The general order for the revocation of details will be found in this issue of the Enquirer. This step has been taken by the Government to fill up the army. It is necessary and proper, and if this order is promptly enforced the increase of the army will be speedy and rapid. We should like to see steps taken to promptly enforce the law of Congress for the employment of negroes in the army, as teamsters, &c. The law of Congress on this subject is plain, and though it does not go far enough, yet by promptly enforcing its provisions, many soldiers will be returned to their com mand and the army very greatly strengthened. The details should come forward promptly; their services are greatly needed; and if they are speedily collected and sent to the front there will be no danger at Richmond, and the condition of the country present the most encouraging aspect. It is useless to seek to conceal that more men are greatly wanted. The President has emphatically announced the startling fact that two thirds of the army are absent from the ranks. There would be no need of reinforcements but for this most disgraceful straggling and deserting. But as the fact exists, and the evil must be repaired, the details are called upon to do service. How long their service will be required cannot now be said, but sixty to ninety days will terminate the active operations of the campaign, and then details may be resumed. But, at present, all are needed, and all must come forward. Those that delay or shirk will be hunted down, and permanently sent to the

army.

GENERAL ORDERS, No. 76.-1. All details heretofore granted, under authority of the War Department, to persons between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years, are revoked, and all such detailed men, together with those The law of Congress authorizing the employment of newithin the said ages who hold furloughs or temporary exgroes, if fully carried out, would give ten thousand men to emptions by reason of pending applications for details, will the Army of Northern Virginia. The slaves and free nebe promptly assembled at the camps of instruction, and ap-groes can be impressed just as any other property, and the propriately assigned among the armies for service; except law provides for their support and clothing, and pays the that men detailed and now actually employed in manufac- owner soldier's wages. turing, providing, collecting and forwarding munitions and other indispensable supplies for the army and navy, or in work indispensable to military operations, will be continued in their present employments until their details shall be revised.

2. The heads of departments and chiefs of bureaus will, within the next twenty days, forward to the Generals of Reserves lists of all detailed men in their employment, in the several States, specially distinguishing and certifying those who are experts and those absolutely indispensable for the performance of the above-mentioned Government work and business; and all detailed employés not so certified within

war.

to the enemy. He must play an important part in the
He caused the fight, and he will have his portion of
the burthen to bear. We have learned from dear-bought
experience that negroes can be taught to fight, and that all
who leave us are made to fight against us. I would free
all able to bear arms, and put them in the field at once.
They will make much better soldiers with us than against
us, and swell the now depleted ranks of our armies.
I beg you to give this your earnest attention.
With assurances of my friendly regards and very high
esteem, I remain, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
HENRY W. ALLEN,
Governor of Louisiana.
The class of persons to whom it refers will not be con-
scripted into the armies of the United States if they come
within our lines. All will be freed, and they will be re-
ceived and treated as refugees. They will be accepted as
volunteers, or will be employed in the public service, and
their families will be cared for until they are in a condi-
tion to care for themselves. If a draft should become ne-
cessary, no discrimination against them will be made on
the enrollment or draft.

By order of Major General E. R. 8. Canby:

C. T. CHRISTENSEN,
Lieutenant Colonel and A, A. G.

The Richmond Dispatch of September 12, 1864, makes the authoritative statement that "there are 114,000 men detailed as farmers, and some 32,000 exempt as necessary in some form to the Government and public institutions of the States."

The law of February 17 makes all "male free negroes, (with certain exceptions,) between the ages of eighteen and fifty" liable to perform such duties in the army, or in connection with the military defences of the country, in the way of work upon fortifications, or in Government works, &c., as the Secretary of War may from time to time prescribe, and provides rations, clothing and compensation. The Secretary of War is also authorized to employ for similar duty twenty thousand male negro slaves, and their owners are guaranteed against escape or death. The Secretary is authorized to impress the slaves when he cannot hire them; and General Orders No. 32, March 11, 1861, directed the enrolment of the free negroes, and their assignment to the performance of the duties mentioned in the ordered by the same general orders, and the provisions of act. Also the employment and impressment of slaves was General Orders No. 158, of the 24th October, 1863, pointed out as governing in this matter. Has this law and general order been enforced?

The General Orders No. 138, Oct. 24, 1863, says: "No impressments shall be made of slaves employed in domestic and family service exclusively, nor upon farms or plantations where there are not more than three slaves of the age specified, and not more than five per cent. of the population of slaves shall be impressed in any county at the same time, unless the necessity is very great, and after consultation with this department or the Governor of the State in which the impressment is to be made." Here is the law and the general order. Have they been enforced? If they have not been executed, no longer delay should be allowed. We call upon the authorities to enforce this law immedi ately.

The question of making soldiers of negroes, of regularly enlisting them and fighting them for their safety, as well as our own, must have presented itself to every reflecting mind. Because the Yankees have not been able to make soldiers out of their drafted negroes, it does not follow that we cannot train our slaves to make very efficient soldiers. We believe that they can be, by drill and discipline, moulded into steady and reliable soldiers. The propriety of employing negroes as soldiers we shall not at present discuss; but whenever the subjugation of Virginia or the employment of her slaves as soldiers are alternative positions, then certainly we are for making them soldiers, and giving freedom to those negroes that escape the casualties of battle.

We should be glad to see the Confederate Congress provide for the purchase of two hundred and fifty thousand negroes, present them with their freedom and privilege of remaining in the States, and arm, equip, drill and fight them. We believe that the negroes, identified with us by interest, and fighting for their freedom here, would be faithful and reliable soldiers, and, under officers who would drill them, could be depended on for much of the ordinary Bervice, and even for the hardest fighting. It is not necesBary now to discuss this matter, and may never become so, but neither negroes nor slavery will be permitted to stand in the way of the success of our cause. The war is for national independence on our side, and for the subjugation of white and the emancipation of negroes on the side of the enemy. If we fail, the negroes are nominally free and their masters really slaves. We must, therefore, succeed. Other States may decide for themselves, but Virginia, after exhausting her whites, will fight her blacks through to the last man. She will be free at all costs.

USING THE SLAVES.

[From the Enquirer of October 18.] The proposition to extend the Conscript Law to the slaves of the States was first formerly advanced by the Enquirer in the issue of the 6th instant. Since that time, we have received many assurances of its popular favor, and none whatever of opposition to it. We learn that the planters in the extreme Southern States favor the proposition, and some have signified their readiness to free five, ten, or fifteen of their slaves, if they will enter the army. The near approach of the time when the Congress meets again requires that expression be given to the sentiments of the country upon this important measure. We there fore earnestly invite its discussion, and open our columns to opponents as well as friends of the proposition. The result of the late elections is still in doubt, and whether Lincoln or McClellan will be elected it is yet impossible to determine; but there is no uncertainty as to the question of carrying on the war. Whether Lincoln or McClellan be the next President, the voice, and the almost unanimous voice, of that people is for a vigorous prosecution of the war. The duty of preparing to meet that issue will be before the approaching session of the Confederate Congress; that body will have before it, for consideration, the ways and means, as well of men as of money, for carrying on the war on our part.

There are those who doubt whether sound policy would trust negroes with arms. We are not of those who entertain any fears upon that subject. Drill and discipline make valuable soldiers of Russian serfs, and no negroes in these States are so ignorant and brutal as those serfs. Between service with the Confederacy and with the Yankees, between living among us with all their strong local attachments, and going among strangers, who are now openly buying and selling them to recruiting officers, our slaves will find no difficulty in choosing. And, when once it is understood that freedom and a home in the South are the privileges offered by the Confederate authorities, while the enemy extend the beggarly hospitalities of Yaukee philanthropy, not only will desertion from our ranks be unfrequent, but the drafted negroes of the Yankee armies will exchange services.

This subject addresses itself to the consideration of our people, at this particular time, with great force. The prospect of four more years of war are before our people; the enemy will not even "parley" with us without uncondi tional surrender, the fruits of which would be the confisca tion of all property, the deportation of whole communities, the degradation of the people, and the domination and tion which does not embrace a surrender first, which will tyranny of Yankee masters. There can be no reconstrucnot permit confiscation afterwards, which does not insure enslaving the white, without freeing the blacks.

If there are any weak-kneed people who imagine they the Shibboleth of all parties in the United States "No can save their property by reconstruction, let them study parley with rebellion in the field; no compromise with slavery in the adjustment." Unconditional surrender is first demanded before even a parley. We are to lay down Shermans, and Sheridans; to the fate of New Orleans, the our arms and submit to the kindness of the Butlers, Grants, condition of the Valley, the misery of Atlanta, and, after all that degradation, to give up all our slaves in the adjustment. If there are any reasons against extending the conscription to slaves, we should like to have them stated; but we are decidedly of opinion that the whole country will agree to the proposition, and that at an early day the next Congress will be called upon to provide for it by law. CONFERENCE OF THE GOVERNORS. [From the Richmond Sentinel, October 24.]

In another column we publish the resolutions adopted at a conference of the Governors of a number of the Confed

The war cry of the enemy-"No parley with rebellion in the field; no compromise with slavery in the readjusterate States. The united resolve of the Governors to use ment"-fully informs our people that, in plain vernacular, the whites of those States are to be subjugated to slavery, and their slaves reduced to the miserable condition of Yankee free negroes. This is the view of the people among our enemies, and this will be the result of the war, whether ended by Lincoln or M-Clellan, if the people of these States permit themselves to be conquered.

The conscription of negroes should bo accompanied with freedom and the privilege of remaining in the States; this is no part of abolitionism; it is the exercise by the master of the unquestionable right of manumission; it is remunerating those who defend our cause with the privilege of freedom. Nor should this important subject be prejudiced with questions about putting the negro on an equality with our friends, brothers, and fathers. Many of the soldiers in their childhood were fondled and nursed by faithful negro nurses, and yet no question of equality was ever raised. Many a man has manumitted laves without ever being subjected to the suspicion of being an abolitionist.

The issues involved in this war are too exalted in their importance and character for us to permit them to be compromised by being degraded to a question of property. The liberty and freedom of ourselves and of our children, the nationality of our country, the right of enjoying any kind of property, the houses over our heads, and the very graves of our children and friends, are involved in this struggle. Failure makes slaves of all, white and black; robs all of property, real and personal; divides our lands among our conquerors, who will plongh up the very graves of our dead as fertilized ground for making money. We have in our midst a half million of fighting material which is property-shall we use that property for the common cause?

Justice and sound policy demand that we make freemen of those who fight for freedom. We conscript the master and we impress his horses, cattle, wheat, and every other property except slaves. This very exception is an imputation that this war is for slavery and not for freedom. By conscripting the negroes we show to the world the earnestness that is in our people; we prove to our enemies that at the moment of our supposed exhaustion, in the fifth year of the war, we shall meet them with larger armies thau we have before raised; and we explode the false accusation that we are fighting for slavery, or a slaveholders' Confederacy.

every effort to increase the effective force of the army; to strengthen the Confederate authorities in the discharge of their duties; to consider the interests of all the States as identical, and to favor the sending of State troops beyond the State limits when their services are needed; to favor stringent laws for the arrest by the State authorities of stragglers and deserters, will be greeted with the popular acclamation. The determined resolve which they declare for themselves and their constituencies, "to maintain our right of self-government, to establish our independence, and to uphold the rights and sovereignty of the States, or to perish in the attempt," is an exhibition of the spirit proper to their high positions, and shared by our people throughout the country.

The Governors also recommend to the Confederate Gov ernment to send all able-bodied civil employees into the field, and to dispense in a great measure with provost and post guards. They further propose a course of action in reference to slaves near the enemy's lines, and the employment of slaves in the Confederate service, which is eminently proper, and in accordance with a growing sentiment among the people.

On the whole, we trust the conference of the Governors will be productive of much good.

THE CONFERENCE.

At a meeting of the Governors of the States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, held in Augusta, Ga., on the 17th inst., Governor William Smith presiding, after a full, free, and harmonious consultation and interchange of counsel, the following, among other views, were expressed:

Resolved, That there is nothing in the present aspect of public affairs to cause any abatement of our zeal in the prosecution of the war, to the accomplishment of a peace based on the independence of the Confederate States. And to give encouragement to our brave soldiers in the field, and to strengthen the Confederate authorities in the pursuit of this desirable end, we will use our best exertions to increase the effective force of our armies.

Resolved, That the interests of each of our States are identical in the present struggle for self-government, and wisdom and true patriotism dictate that the military forces of each should aid the others against invasion and subjugation, and for this purpose we shall recommend to our sev

eral Legislatures to repeal all such laws as prohibit the LETTER OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS ON PEACE. Executives from sending their forces beyond their respective limits, in order that they may render temporary service wherever most urgently required.

Resolved, That, whilst it is our purpose to use every exertion to increase the strength and efficiency of our State and Confederate forces, we respectfully and earnestly request that the Confederate authorities will send to the field every able-bodied man, without exception, in any of its various departments, whose place can be filled by either disabled officers and soldiers, senior reserves, or negroes, and dispense with the use of all provost and post guards, except in important cities and localities where the presence of large bodies of troops make them necessary, and with all passport agents upor railroads not in the immediate vicinity of the armies, as we consider these agents an unnecessary annoyance to good citizens, and of no possible benefit to the country.

Resolved, That we recommend our respective Legislatures to pass stringent laws for the arrest and return to their commands of all deserters and stragglers from the Confederate armies or State troops, and that it be made the special duty, under appropriate penalties, of all civil and military officers to arrest and deliver to the proper authorities all such delinquents.

And whereas the public enemy, having proclaimed the freedom of our slaves, are forcing into their armies the able-bodied portion thereof, the more effectually to wage their cruel and bloody war against us; therefore, be it Resolved, That it is the true policy and obvious duty of all slave owners timely to remove their slaves from the line of the enemy's approach, and especially those able to bear arms; and when they shall fail to do so, that it should be made the duty of the proper authorities to enforce the performance of this duty, and to give to such owners all necessary assistance as far as practicable.

CRAWFORDSVILLE, GA., September 22, 1864. GENTLEMEN: You will please excuse me for not answer ing your letter of the 14th instant sooner. I have been absent nearly a week on a visit to my brother in Sparta, who has been quite out of health for some time. Your letter I found here on my return home yesterday. The delay of my reply thus occasioned I regret.

Without further explanation or apology allow me now to say to you that no person living can possibly feel a more ardent desire for an end to be put to this unnatural and merciless war upon honorable and just terms than I do. But I really do not see that it is in my power or yours, or that of any number of persons in our position, to inaugurate any movement that will even tend to aid in bringing about a result that we and so many more desire.

The movement by our Legislature at its last session, at the suggestion of the Executive, on this subject, was by authority properly constituted for such a purpose. That movement, in my judgment, was timely, judicious, and in the right direction. Nor has it been without results. The organization of that party at the North to which you refer may justly be claimed as a part of the fruits of it. These, it is to be hoped, will be followed by others of a more marked character, if all in both sections who sincerely desire peace upon correct terms will give that movement thus inaugurated all the aid in their power.

The resolutions of the Georgia Legislature, at its last session, upon the subject of peace, in my judgment, embo died and set forth very clearly those principles upon which alone there can be permanent peace between the different sections of this extensive, once happy and prosperous, but now distracted country.

Easy and perfect solution to all present troubles, and those far more grievous ones which loom in prospect, and Resolved, That the course of the enemy, in appropriating portentously threaten in the coming future, is nothing more our slaves who happen to fall into their hands to purposes and truth upon which all American constitutional liberty than the simple recognition of the fundamental principle of war, seems to justify a change of policy on our part; is founded, and upon the maintenance of which alone it can and whilst owners of slaves, under the circumstances, should freely yield them to their country, we recommend be preserved--that is, the sovereignty, the ultimate, abso to our authorities, under proper regulations, to appropriate lute sovereignty, of the States. This doctrine our Legis such part of them to the public service as may be required. lature announced to the people of the North and to the Resolved, That the States have a right to export such world. It is the only key-note to peace-permanent, lastproductions and to import such supplies as may be neces-ing peace-consistent with the security of the public libsary for State use, or for the comfort or support of their erty. troops in service, upon any vessel or vessels owned or chartered by them; and that we request Congress at its next session to pass laws removing all restrictions which have been imposed by Contederate authority upon such exports or imports by the States.

And, lastly, we deem it not inappropriate to declare our firm and unalterable purpose, as we believe it to be that of our fellow-citizens, to maintain our right of self-government, to establish our independence, and to uphold the rights and sovereignty of the States, or to perish in the attempt.

Resolved, That the chairman be requested to send a copy of these resolutions to his Excellency President Davis, one each to the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives, to be laid before their respective bodies, and one to the Governor of each State in the Confederacy.

The old Confederation was formed upon this principle. The old Union was afterwards formed upon this principle. No league can ever be formed or maintained between any State, North or South, securing public liberty, upon any other principle. The whole framework of American institutions, which in so short a time had won the admiration of the world, and to which we were indebted for such an unparalleled career of prosperity and happiness, was formed upon this principle. All our present troubles sprung from a departure from this principle, from a violation of this essential law of our political organization.

In 1776 our ancestors, and the ancestors of those who are waging this unholy crusade against us, together proclaimed the great and eternal truth for the maintenance of which they jointly pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, that governments are instituted amongst men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, and that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of those ends for which it was

The Richmond Whig, of the 24th, thus com- formed, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it ments upon the above:

THE GOVERNORS IN COUNCIL.

and institute a new Government, laying its foundations on such principles, and organizing its powers in such a form as to them may seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

It is needless here to state that by "people" and "governed," in this annunciation, is meant communities and bodies of men capable of organizing and maintaining a

The Governors of several of our States have been in consultation in Georgia, and have agreed in making a number of recommendations to Congress, the Confederate Execu-government, not individual members of society. The con tive, and the Legislatures of the several States, the adoption of which, it is thought, will promote the cause in which each of these States have so vital an interest. There does not appear to have been any discord or diversity of opinion in this conference; and, indeed, it may be said there is no difference among our people, except in some matters, as to the wisdom with which the means placed at the disposal of the authorities are employed.

The paramount question with all--the one question-is, how can the power of the Confederacy be most efficiently and successfully employed for the defence and deliverance of the Confederacy? All agree that its entire military resources, to the last man and the last dollar if needed, must be thrown into the struggle. No one thinks of turning back, or so much as looking back, till the work is finished. No one dreams of any adjustment that would compromise our independence. Liberty or death is the language and purpose of all. With such a resolve animating the whole body of our people, armies, authorities, and citizens, suljugation is impossible.

sent of the governed refers to the will of the mass of the community or State in its organized form, and expressed through its legitimate and properly constituted organs. It was upon this principle the Colonists stood justified before the world in effecting their separation from the mother country. It was upon this principle that the original thirteen co-equal and co-sovereign States formed the Federal compact of the old Union in 1787. It is upon the same principle that the present co-equal and co-sovereign States of our Confederacy formed their new compact of Union.

The idea that the old Union or any Union between sovereign States, consistently with this fundamental truth, can be maintained by force is preposterous. This war springs from an attempt to do this preposterous thing. Superior power may compel a Union of some sort, but it would not be the Union of the old Constitution or of our new. It would be that sort of Union that results from despotism.

The subjugation of the people of the South by the peo ple of the North would necessarily involve the destruction

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