Progress of the war.
We give some further items of interest from our latest Northern papers:
The English Abolitionists and Lincoln — a letter and address to him.
‘"His Excellency Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States,"’ is thus addressed by the British Anti-Slavery Society, located in London:
Sir:
It has seemed desirable to the Committee of the British and Foreign Anti Slavery Society to issue at the present crisis an address to the friends of the anti slavery cause, of which a copy is annexed.
In directing your attention to it the committee would take advantage of the opportunity to assure you of their personal respect and sympathy, and of their appreciation of the exceeding great difficulties of your position. Since your accession to office they have watched with deep interest the progress of events, and especially the gradual development of a policy tending to promote negro emancipation. If certain measures in furtherance of that policy, and some apparently inconsistent with it, have not recommended themselves to the approval of the committee, they have nevertheless recognized the majority of them with satisfaction, as conducive, in the main, to the interests of the enslaved portion of the African race.
The committee earnestly desire that the sanguinary conflict between the two sections of the Union may ceases, and that, with the removal of the sole cause of this strife, a way may open for a reconciliation upon the enduring basis of a community of interests and a mutual forgiveness of injuries.
No. 27 New Bond St., E. E., London, Nov. 17, 1862.
Address of the committee of the British and Foreign and slavery Society.
The Committee of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society having observed, with the deepest sorrow, the efforts which are being made to infuse into the minds of the people of this country sentiments friendly to slavery, feel it to be their duty to reiterate and to commend to the serious consideration of their fellow countrymen, the fundamental principle of the anti slavery movement in England; that ‘"slaveholding is a sin and a crime before God;"’ and, therefore, that unconditional emancipation, wherever slavery is maintained, is alone consistent with the Divine law and with the requirements of justice and humanity.While the committee believe that the efforts referred to have not yet pervaded the community at large, the tone and spirit of certain articles in a portion of the public press, the misrepresentation and perversion of facts, the biassed addresses of many men of influence, all with the manifest tendency to bespeak favor for those who are contending for the extension and consolidation of slavery, and to disparage and discourage efforts directed to its extinction, impress the committee with the painful conviction that in some quarters a demoralizing effect has been produced.
The committee deplore and regard with profound grief the fratricidal conflict between the two sections of the American Union; but, while anxious to avoid expressing any opinion likely to be construed into an approval of a war policy, they regard it as established beyond disproof that the South was not only the aggressor, but designedly provoked an armed contest with the United States Government, with the express, sole object of founding a Confederacy to perpetuate slavery. On the other hand, the United States Government, embracing the political anti-slavery party of the North, commonly called the Republican party, has initiated and carried into effect measures in furtherance of negro emancipation which entitles it to the sympathy of all true friends of freedom — It has enforced the statutes against slave trading, which former Administrations, being pro slavery, had allowed to become inoperative, and has prosecuted slave traders to conviction and punishment; it has entered into a new anti slave trade treaty with Great Britain, conceding a right of search which former Governments, overruled by the Southern party, had steadfastly refused; to promote the speedy settlement of the Territories by a non slave-holding population, it has erected a homestead hill, giving a hundred and sixty acres of land to every immigrant, irrespective of his national origin; and moreover, carrying into effect the policy of Jefferson, ratified by act of Congress in 1789, it has prohibited slavery for ever in those Territories, upon which issue alone the Southern candidate for the Presidency was defeated at the election which immediately preceded the present rebellion; it has also abolished slavery from the District of Columbia; it has virtually repealed the fugitive slave act, by prohibiting the rendition of slaves escaping from the rebel States to the lines of the United States army, providing compensation on account of such as may belong to loyal citizens; it has recognized and entered into diplomatic relations with the negro republics of Liberia and Hayti; by the confiscation bill — considerately made non-retrospective — it, in effect, proclaimed emancipation to the slaves in the rebel States within a specified period; a majority in Congress has ratified the President's plan of compensated emancipation for such slave States as may elect to take advantage of it, and only recently the President has announced that the details of the measure will be submitted to the next Congress, with a view to its immediate practical application.
Lastly, the President has lately issued a proclamation declaring absolutely and forever free all the slaves in those States which shall be in rebellion on the 1st of January next, and pointing to the measures in progress for the abolition of slavery in the loyal States upon the principle of indemnification.
While the committee deprecate a resort to arms, even with the avowed purpose of promoting the extinction of slavery, they reiterate the opinion that the friends of the slave in the United States, under whatsoever designation, have established a just claim upon the sympathy of the friends of freedom throughout Europe.
In this spirit, and with the object of evoking such an expression of sympathy as shall encourage the emancipation party in the United States, in their most difficult position, to persevere in their endeavors to obtain justice for the slave, the committee issue the present address, earnestly commending it to the favorable consideration of their fellow-countrymen and to the friends of humanity in all lands. On behalf of the committee:
S. A. Chameroyzow, Secretary.
No. 27 New Bond st., E C., London, Nov. 17, 1862.
What the Yankee Opinions were before the fight.
A correspondent of the New York Times, writing before the fight from Burnside's army, says:‘ It is a notable fact in military history, that though the crossing of a river in the face of an enemy is justly esteemed as one of the most difficult of tactical operations, there is no example on record of the passage of a river being successfully defended against a determined assailant. Napoleon crossed the Danube at Eseling and at Wagram, in presence of an army of 120,000 men, provided with 400 pieces of cannon, and at a point where the bed of the stream is broadest. This may be owing to the fact that, on account of its very difficulty it is rarely attempted without good hope of success.--The necessity of subdividing the force and disposing it over an extended line, is of course an element of weakness for the defensive, while, if the line should not be thus guarded, the force would all the time be exposed to flank and rear assaults from the enemy.
Depend upon it, the rebel leaders are sensible of all the weakness, as well as of all the strength, of their position at Fredericksburg; and you may at any time expect to learn that they have taken advantage of the opportunities before the operations of Gen. Burnside are fully developed, to retreat, ere retreat is rendered perilous or impossible.--They have already derived from their occupancy all the benefit it is capable to afford them; they have delayed the army here now nearly three weeks, which is triumph enough for Fredericksburg. As soon as they find themselves seriously exposed to a flank movement which will bring us on their rear, they will hasten to evacuate. Indeed, we know that already their chief force is not at Fredericksburg itself, but at Bowling Green, twenty miles South of that place — and which you will observe to be significantly placed with relation to the roads leading obliquely South from what you will perceive, from a topographical study of the map, to be the most available point of an assault from this place.
There is, therefore, good reason to hope that Fredericksburg — indispensable to us as a depot of supplies for hospital accommodations, &c.--will yet fall into our hands without any fatal encounter. It so — that is, if we do not meet and rout the enemy, which it will be his aim to prevent — we may rely upon being again met at one or more points between Fredericksburg and Richmond. The next place selected by the rebels for a stand will probably be the North Anna river, thirty miles South of Fredericksburg, and about a mile and a half North of Sexton's Junction. We shall have a stream here equally formidable with the Rappahannock to traverse, at the same time that the strength of the rebel position, the shortness of their lines of communication, and the length and exposed condition of ours, will work powerfully on the rebel side. Relying, probably, on that same ‘"want of enterprise"’ on our part, on which Lee, to our shame, has lately said he has proceeded in many operations, they will expect to detain us at the North Anna for an interval equal to that which has kept us at Fredericksburg. As the main object of their man courses is understood to be to delay us by second-rate operations and sieges, until all the good weather shall have been exhausted, and the labor of movement shall have been an hundred-fold increased, this will be in the direct line of their present desires.
’
Capture of a Confederate scout.
A Yankee letter, noticing a reconnaissance of theirs near Fredericksburg, Va., a few days since, says:‘ The reconnaissance resulted in the taking prisoner of one of Stuart's scouts. More of the enemy were seen, but they managed to escape. The prisoner was taken to Gen. Hooker's headquarters and a guard stationed over him. He is a tall, well-proportioned man, with a rough, hard visage. He stated that he enlisted in the 4th Virginia cavalry at the commencement of the war, but had been for the past year serving as scout to Gen. Stuart. Accord-
ing to his statement, that General had at his disposal a body of men whose exclusive business was scouting. The prisoner congratulated himself upon having been taken by a whole brigade, as his reputation would suffer, in Stuart's estimation, if he had been surrounded by a less force. His horse, which is a fine looking and valuable animal, was purchased by him not more than three days ago.--In regard to the position and strength of the rebels at Fredericksburg, his information is contradictory and unreliable.
’
The Launch of the Nantucket.
The iron clad ship Nantucket was launched at Boston on the 6th inst. The Traveller says:‘ The place was extremely exposed, and the wind high and blustery, but there were five or six hundred persons present, including some twenty ladies, who sheltered themselves in the forge rooms.--About an hour was occupied in shoring up and knocking out the blocks, and when she started at last the bow was a little ahead, but the stern being heavier caught up with the bow, and the Nantucket went into the water softly and beautifully. She swayed a moment and then was steady, while a gigantic wave, caused by her displacement of the water, rolled away towards the Chelsea shore.
Had she careened no accident could have happened, as she is water-light, and would have righted instantly. Some thirty men were on board, holding by a robe. There was no ceremony of baptism whatever. With the side to the water she could not no more than thirty yards, and she was speedily hauled up and secured to the dock.
The Nantucket is 190 feet long and 38 wide, and that portion above water is covered with five inches of iron, in inch plates, and her turret, to be put on hereafter, will be 21 feet diameter, 9 high, and 11 inches thick, all iron. She has six water-tight bulkheads. It will probably sake six or eight weeks to put her in service. Her appearance in the water is very similar to that of the original Monitor.
’
