From Washington.
view of Affairs at the seat of Despotism.
The Washington correspondent of the Baltimore Exchange, writes (July 4) as follows: ‘ Under the name of liberty, many brutal atrocities were perpetrated by the French Revolutionists. With the "Stars and Stripes," always heretofore the flag of the stranger and the persecuted, now the emblem of a prosecuted sectional party, and with the cry of "Union," the janissaries of Mr. Lincoln destroy all State rights and civil liberty whenever it suits their pleasure or malice.
Without alluding to the despotic outrages which have characterized the soldiery now quartered in your won beloved city, I have to go no further than this, the Capital of the North, to see and hear of crying shames against civilization and the acknowledged though broken Constitution.
The common amusement of the soldiers here is to fire their loaded pieces in the street, promiscuously, and even the journals of the Administration are forced to allude to this dangerous and unwarrantable license. Please remember I do not speak of an extraordinary occasion like to-day, but at all times. Yesterday a woman was shot, though not seriously injured. Tradesmen, especially liquor dealers, are obliged to close their stores early in the evening, and to day there are but few taverns open, although there is no official prohibition. Ladies are not to be seen in the street in numbers at any time, and their appearance at night, even accompanied by a gentleman, is a rarity.
Arrests for the expression of sentiments still continue. Mr. James Kauffman, of your city, who was arrested day before yesterday on the charge of resisting the passage of the Massachusetts Volunteers on the 19th of April, is incarcerated, and will probably be confined until a cessation of hostilities. He was arrested without any specific charge being made at the time, and without the legal process to which he was entitled being fulfilled. Habeas corpus is of no avail here.
Strenuous efforts will soon be made to divide Tennessee. The neutrality of Kentucky will be destroyed, and a military department established in that region, it is reported, under Major General Fremont.
Two other steamers, the Baltimore and the Philadelphia, left the Navy-Yard yesterday, with the Minnesota regiment, fully equipped, with entrenching tools, camp utensils, &c.--It is supposed that they are destined to Mathias and White-House Points, there to action conjunction with the Pawnee and Pocahontas.
The Confederates are strongly fortifying themselves on this side of Manassas, and have a large force of cavalry, under Col. Sumpter. It is the opinion of Quartermaster General Meigs (the best engineer in the Northern army,) that a great brow will be struck within two weeks, and, if it is not, the delay will cause vexation generally, a needless expense, and likely to cause a loss of confidence on the part of the people towards the Administration, and ultimately a reversion of the radical sentiment which now pervades the entire North.
Col. Samuel Colt, of pistol notoriety, is seeking a military position in the State of Texas. It appears that he has property in that State of the value of $26,000, and desires to give it the protection of the Government.
The House met to-day at 12 o'clock. The attendance of members from the Border and Northern States was pretty full. Among the absentees, we noticed John S. Phelps, of Missouri; John J. Crittenden, of Kentucky, and Henry May, of Maryland.
At the calling of the roll, the absence of the able statesmen who formerly represented six millions of people in eleven sovereign States of this continent, caused some sorrowful hearts, whose patriotism had not yet been crushed, to exclaim within themselves:--Alas ! my poor country, now no longer a nation, but disunited sections, divided by the mercenaries who thus willingly sacrificed the peace and liberty of their country for gold, to the gratification of a sordid ambition. It was a mournful sight to see Grow, Blair, Covode, Colfax. Washburne, and others of their school, holding the position of a monopolized Legislature of a country. Where now are the able and honest Letcher, Stephens, Miles, Davis, Smith and others? Absent, comes the thrilling answer, but untrammeled in their patriotism and independence.
A noticeable feature of the voting was the ballot cast for presiding officer by C. L. L. Leary, of Baltimore. Give it to the world as an index of his future policy. When Mr. Leary's name was called, he cast his vote for Francis P. Blair, of Missouri, a man who took up arms against the State to which he owed his first allegiance; who has been, and now is known as a radical Republican of the Seward, Hale, and Greeley school; and, when Mr. Leary had an opportunity to change his vote, it was then cast for Galusha A. Grow, a Republican, whose principles are ultra Republican, and who has always, in Congress and out of it, opposed the sovereign rights and domestic institutions of the South. When the name of Samuel C. Upton was called, who pretends to represent the district of Fairfax, (7th) Virginia, a member arose whose integrity is beyond impeachment, (S. S. Cox, O.,) and stated to the House that the Virginia Representative was not a citizen of that State, but voted in Ohio last fall. He also said that he knew Mr. Upton to be the publisher of a paper in his (Cox's) State, Ohio.
The galleries were thronged with spectators long before the hour of organization, and presented such another excited scene as on the occasion of the passage of the Kansas (Lecompton) Constitution. Even the lobbies outside the doors were occupied with anxious listeners. Ladies in number were present, and their gay dresses relieved, in a measure, the stern melancholy appearance which would have possessed the House, in the eye of one familiar with former associations of the House of Representatives. The gallery of the diplomatic corps was graciously given to the fair sex, while the friends of Col. Forney were enabled, through a pass from the Clerk, to fill the spacious apartment devoted to the press.
The present Congress will not hesitate to endorse the unconstitutional acts of Mr. Lincoln, the Cabinet and his military officers.--They will pass appropriation bills quickly, and it will be no matter of astonishment should they agree to suspend (legally) the writ of Habeas Corpus, a right which Mr. Lincoln has already usurped, and for which he is liable to impeachment.
The people of the border States have staunch friends in H. C. Burnett, of Kentucky, John S. Phelps, of Missouri, C. S. Valiandigham and Geo. H. Pendleton, of Ohio, and, let it be hoped, in Henry May, of Maryland. These gentlemen will stand by the people and their constitutional rights while they have voices to lift in freedom's cause, but they will be overpowered. There is a strong feeling against them among the soldiery and many private citizens, and were it not for their rights guaranteed them by the Constitution, especially as members of Congress, they would probably be, on adjournment, incarcerated in the jail of this city; for there are parties now there who have said less than Phelps, Valiandigham and Burnett will say on the floor of the United States Congress.
The Administration expect two grand battles to-day or to-morrow. One between Gen. Wise's and Gen. McClelland's armies at Huttonsville, forty miles from Phillippi; and the other between the forces of Generals Patterson and Johnston, near Martinsburg.
’ ‘ Baltimore Exchange
The forces under the respective commanders is believed to be about as follows:
| McClelland | 20,020 |
| Wise | 11,000 |
| Patterson | 23,000 |
| Johnston | 16,000 |
The usurped, or Western Virginia Government, were about to disorganize to-day for want of means. But I believe they have managed to steal a considerable sum from the State proper, which, together with an enormous tax on the Yankee squatters in the Panhandle, will keep them going for a few weeks. Governor (?) Pierpont has taken $27,000 which was deposited by the State in the Exchange Bank of Virginia, at Weston, Lewis county. There is a law in the State known as the ‘"law for the distribution of the proceeds of the sale of public lands,"’ due the State under the act of Congress, September, 1841, and amounting to $41,000. This fund will be accepted by the Pierpont dynasty; it has hitherto been steadily refused by the Government of Virginia.
Washington, July 5. --The picket guard of the New York troops, stationed about five miles from the city, are being constantly fired at by scouting parties of Virginians. The New Yorkers say that the rebels are excellently armed. Lieut. Bass, of the Washington Zouaves, was, a few nights since, shot through the collar of his overcoat by a man who he believed to be over a mile distant.
Twenty drunken soldiers were arrested yesterday for gross misbehavior. On night before last a party of Zouaves went into the Arlington House, and after shamefully beating the bar-tender, demolished all the moveables of the establishment.
A drunken soldier yesterday fired a pistol at a fence on Seventh street, near Ninth, and the ball, after passing through the board, narrowly escaped hitting the person of a woman washing in the yard of Mrs. F. Thompson.
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