From Washington.
[special Correspondence of the Dispatch.]Civil war is as certain, in my judgment, as anything in the future can be. I had an interview last evening with Lovejoy, the pro slavery brother of the abolitionist of that name. He is one of the few Northern men who have studied the subject of slavery thoroughly. His views go the full length of any Southern man's. He says we of the South are a purer people than the North, and that our form of society ensures at once a higher morality and a more stable government. How war is to be averted, he cannot tell. The abolitionists will not yield; the South cannot and ought not to abandon its rights. Deprecating fraternal strife, he yet thinks it inevitable. --The inflammation of intersectional feeling is so violent, that it can be cured only by bloodletting.
The Republicans, fresh from a visit to their constituents, confirm this opinion. They are more defiant than ever. Doolittle, in his speech in the Senate yesterday, haughtily and insultingly told the Southern Senators that it was idle to talk about amending the Constitution, for they (the Republicans) intended to amend it to suit themselves. This is what Seward is after in his proposition to admit all the Territories at once as States. Kansas, Nebraska, Washington, Idaho, Nevada and Utah will become Northern States, adding twelve to the Republican strength in the Senate. Very soon they will have the two-thirds requisite to amend the Constitution, and reconstruct the Supreme Court according to their own notions. Meantime, the fact of Anderson's holding South Carolina in check, will stiffen the Republican neck. They foresee that Fort Monroe will do as much for Virginia. With the navy they will blockade all our ports. Of a certainty, they will whip us in if they can.
What can we in Virginia do? A good deal. Our Military Institute has filled the State with competent officers. Our citizens are brave. We are better organized than any other State in the Union. Every county has its volunteer company, armed and equipped, most of them, and accustomed to military discipline. We are well supplied with guns and ammunition. The Harper's Ferry raid has put us on a war footing, and events have kept us so. In the U. S. army we have the greatest military genius of the age — so pronounced by General Scott and all the army officers. I mean Major General Lee. He is a son of Virginia, and will be true to her. At home, in Richmond, you have one of the finest Regiments in the world. Its Colonel has in his veins that Celtic blood which always seeks the hottest front of battle and conquers there. Its General has proved his courage on the plains of Mexico. Moreover, we have Henry A. Wise — a two-edged sword of living fire.--Would to Heaven, he was Governor now.--Yes, we can do a good deal. We can fight. It the Abolitionists are determined to try conclusions at the point of the bayonet, Virginia is prepared to meet them.
Our only danger is from treachery in our own camp. More than thirty letters have been received here from the Valley and Northwest Virginia, in regard to a question of taxation to be raised in our State Convention, if we hold one. It is believed, nay, it is virtually known, that these letters owe their origin to the suggestions of high authority. The man who, for selfish purposes, and when civil war is impending, could stir up the embers of an extinct quarrel and divide the house against itself, is denounced as infamous beyond the power of language to express. Such a man would not hesitate to murder his own mother, if by so doing he could secure the object of his contemptible ambition. His motive, in the present instance, is as transparent as glass.--He will meet his reward.
Virginia's long silence has provoked the condemnation of both Northern and Southern men. A distinguished man, formerly a Senator from one of the Northern States, said to an acquaintance of mine, "We always knew that Virginians were sluggish and low-spirited. Your recent course shows that you can never be aroused until we come down and prick you with the bayonet. John Brown speared you into a momentary wakefulness. You soon sunk back into sleep. Sleep on now, and the first thing you know you'll be squeezed like an orange, until you are perfectly dry."
Our members have been tardy in acquainting the people with the imminency of danger — the impossibility of peace. It gives me pleasure to state that the member from your district, Mr. Dejarnette, has been less derelict than the rest. Ten days ago a paper was drawn up in his room while I was present, setting forth the simple fact that there was not the least hope in Congress, and that the people of Virginia had no other alternative than to rely on themselves. This paper Mr. Dejarnette carried around to all our Representatives, but obtaining only five signatures, thought it inadvisable to publish it. It is but justice to make known this fact in regard to a man who is as true to the honor of his State and the best interests of the South as any man living. The paper to which I have alluded will probably be signed to-day, and at once forwarded to your city. Harris (Letcher's successor) and Millson will hardly sign it. Clemens is doubtful.
I have written a long letter, because I am anxious exceedingly that Virginia should act promptly and becomingly. A single quotation from an article addressed to Southern conservatives by the Tribune, and I have done:
"Union men of the South! the day of compromises is over. We want to retain the Union, but it must be as equals. You have a right (as against us) to sustain slavery; we have a right to reject and condemn it. If you have a right to seek its diffusion, we have an equal right to resist it. If those who wish slavery extended are stronger than we, they will beat us; if we are the stronger, we mean to beat them. If we admit that we, standing in your shoes and seeing through your eyes, would do as you do you should admit that you, standing on our ground, would do as we do. May the victory endure to the Right!"
The reply of our Conservatives will be that the Tribune does not represent the North. I answer that it represents to the very letter the opinions and purposes (declared by Lincoln himself to be fixed and unchangeable) of the party which is going to control this Government, and that in less than ninety days from this very hour. It is the blindest madness to talk of Union now or to delay action. True conservatism, like charity, begins at home. When we have secured our own preservation, it will be time enough to think about preserving the Union. The fact is, the only hope even for reconstruction rests solely and entirely upon the prompt action of Virginia. Zed.
