Latest from the North.
Northern dates, of the 31st ult, contain some interesting news. The capture of the California steamer Ariel, by the Alabama, is the most important, though it would have been more to. If she had treasure aboard. This she had left behind, through fear of the very thing that happened. The news of her capture credited a great sensation in New York and Washington. Her commander. Capt. Jones, went to Washington to make a report of the affair. The following are the particulars:‘ On the 7th of December she captured the California steamer Ariel, with her crew and one hundred and forty marines. Her officers, after giving up their side arms, were paroled. Lieut. Low, of the Alabama, boarded the Ariel, took possession of all arms and equipments, $3,000 in Treasury notes, and $1,500 in silver. The Ariel brought no gold, for fear of having it captured. Having destroyed all the sails of the Yankee steamer, and removed one of her steam valves, she was bonded for $125,000, and the cargo and freight for $135,000 more, making a total of $260,000, the whole to be paid to the Confederate authorities within thirty days after the establishment of the independence of the Confederate States.
’ The underwriters in New York after the perception of this news doubled the risk on American vessels, raising it from 2½ to 5 per cent. The armed steamer Connecticut was to be sent to Aspinwall for the treasure there.
News of War Movements.
There was a fight at Dumfries on Saturday last, between Gen. Stuart and three regiments and a section of artillery on the part of the enemy. At this point the Herald says Stuart was worsted, though it also says he captured one gun, but was compelled to leave it. Stuart also had a brush with Col. Candy, at Occoquan, in which the Yankees sustained considerable loss. Stuart next made his way to Annandale, by way of Bull Run and Wolf Run; thence to Vienna, which place he passed through at midnight. The Herald says all he got was some sutlers' wagons and some ambulances.The Herald reports that Fort Hudson has been captured.
The retreat of Gen. Hatch across the Tallahatchie is confirmed.
Gen. Morgan made a successful raid to Elizabethtown, Ky., on the 27th, and drove the troops from their stockade defences, capturing six hundred prisoners, and so destroyed the Nashville and Louisville Railroad, the Herald says, as to suspend communication by this line for at least thirty days.
Banks's expedition had arrived safely at New Orleans, and the General has assumed command of the department of the Gulf. The State of Texas has been added under the new regime. Banks issued an order on the 16th announcing that he had assumed command.--On the same day he dispatched a fleet and a strong force to Baton Rouge. The place was garrisoned only by a few Confederates, who retired upon the advance of the gunboats.
The Herald states that the C. S. steamer Florida, with a crew of one hundred men, had succeeded in running out from Mobile in the darkness of night, unseen by the blockaders. The Herald says ‘"four of these piratical crafts are now scouring the seas."’
The Washington Chronicle, of the 31st ult., says Stuart and his cavalry crossed the Potomac on Monday night, and Tuesday morning were twelve miles this side of Point of Rocks. The Chronicle supposes that he will burn the Monocracy bridge, dash into Frederick, destroy the stores there and move to the western part of the State, destroy the stores there, and then recross into Virginia. It says the Potomac is rising, and hopes the whole party will be captured.
The Governor of Missouri has sent in his message. He says that his State has furnished 38,000 men to the Federal cause. He also recommends gradual emancipation.
Gens. Blunt and Herron have taken Van Buren, Arkansas, capturing 100 prisoners, three steamboats, and camp equipage; killed six Confederates and wounded a few.
Proceedings of the Northern Congress.
After an adjournment of a week, the Yankee Congress met again yesterday. The proceedings of the last day before the adjournment are interesting. We give some extracts:The Vice President laid before the Senate a message from the President transmitting the report of Hen. Reverdy Johnson, United States Commissioner at New Orleans, with regard to the return of $800,000 to the agent of Hope & Co., by Mr. Forstall. He says the circumstances attending the payment, and the object of Mr. Forstall in depositing the coin with the Consul of the Netherlands, are stated in their depositions, and so clearly, and with such evident frankness, that it is impossible to doubt their truth. He states that the deposit in question was made to preserve the faith of the bank with the State of Louisiana, whose bonds were the basis of the capital of the bank; and gives a history of the alleged harsh and illegal measures of the pretended Government to compel the suspension of specie payments by the New Orleans banks and to legalize Confederate currency, involving, on their part, only "submission to tyrannic power threatening its more tyrannical exercise," after resisting "as long as they dared," at the risk of every dollar of their coin. At the coming of the Federal troops, fearing the anarchy of the populace, and the possible license of the troops, the money was placed in the hands of the agent of Hope & Co.
Mr. Lane, of Kansas, gave notice of his intention to introduce a bill to raise two hundred regiments of infantry, composed of persons of African descent, to aid in suppressing the rebellion.
On motion of Mr. Hale, the Select Committee of the Senate, appointed on the 22d inst., to inquire into the matter of chartering transport vessels for the Banks expedition, were also instructed to inquire into the matter of chartering transport vessels for the Banks expedition, were also instructed to inquire into the manner of the employment of transports generally by the Quartermasters of the army, or by the agents of the War Department, the rate at which they were engaged, by whom, for what purpose, and for how long a time.
The resolution of Mr. Saulsbury, calling on the Secretary of War for information relative to sending troops into Delaware at the time of the late election, came up.
Mr. Grimes said that if troops were sent into Delaware he presumed it was for the purpose of preserving the peace, but the Senators from Delaware had asserted that they committed violence; that part he was content to inquire into.
Mr. Bayard repelled the idea that the troops were properly there at all, unless called to its aid by the State, influencing, or affecting as their presence did, the elective franchise.
The discussion was continued until the close of the morning hour, when the bankrupt bill came up as the special order.
House of Representatives.--Mr. Pendleton rose to a question of privilege. From the reading of the journal he found that the protest and a portion of the resolutions offered by him yesterday was not entered upon the journal. He claimed that the protest, being a part of the resolutions, should have been entered and the journal corrected, for the reason that an important and essential part of the resolutions did not appear, and, second, because by the action of the House the House had determined to entertain the question hereafter, and it ought to be put on the journal.
The Speaker overruled the question.
Mr. Pendleton appealed from the decision of the Chair. The decision was sustained by a vote of 74 to 20.
Mr. Wilson sent to the Clerk to be read a letter, purporting to have been written by J. C. G. Kennedy, Superintendent of the Census Bureau, addressed to Jacob Thompson, late
Secretary of the Interior Department, which was read with the accompanying resolution.
And whereas, The said Kennedy has written other letters and hold communications exhibiting a want of sympathy with the Government in the present struggle.
Resolved, That the Committee on the Judiciary be instructed to inquire whether the said Kennedy is the author of the said letter, and whether the other statements are true, as reported to the House, and of all the facts communicated in the several letters and statements, and whether he is still retained in office, with power to send for persons and papers, and to examine witnesses. Adopted.
Mr. Morehead offered a resolution that the use of the Hall be tendered to James E. Murdoch for the purpose of giving a reading, the proceeds of which shall be applied to the relief of sick and wounded soldiers of the United States.
Mr. Wickliffe objected, and desired to make an explanation.
The House refusing consent, Mr. W. persisted in his objection.
The bill to improve the organization of the cavalry forces was taken up and passed.
Mr. Wickliffe withdrew his objection to Mr. Morehead's resolution, understanding that Mr. Murdoch was a gentleman in every sense. He had feared the applicant was some such man as French, who had desecrated this Hall on the Sabbath day.
The resolution was then passed.
The House then went into Committee of the Whole, and Mr. Allen, of Illinois, addressed the committee in explanation of resolutions offered by him some days ago instructing the Judiciary Committee to inquire by what authority the agents of the Federal Government had introduced negroes into that State in defiance of the Constitution of the State, and what remedy should be provided. Mr. A. denounced this action as a great outrage. His resolution was not intended for buncombe, but for serious consideration. His colleague, (Mr. Lovejoy,) true to his negro friends and false to the Constitution of the white people of his State, had objected to its introduction. Mr. A. read the acts of Illinois prohibiting the ingress of negroes, and, defining the rights of the State, contended that Mr. Secretary Stanton and his agents, who had taken negroes from Southern owners and flooded Illinois with lazy blacks, had committed gross and flagrant violations of law, which were emphatically condemned by his people. His constituents demanded that these negroes should be deported. He condemned severely the conduct of the Administration in neglecting the claims of white men and taking especial care of the blacks, overriding in behalf of the latter the rights of the States.
Mr. Vallandigham explained the resolution offered by him yesterday, and said that it was an exact transcript offered in the British Parliament in 1797 by the Marquis of Granville.
The committee rose and the House adjourned.
The piety of the Confederates.
A Baltimore correspondent, writing to the London Index, says:‘ But before I close I must tell you of the beautiful humility and heroic piety which seemed to pervade the hearts of all the Confederates I saw. I have never seen a strong religious sentiment so generally prevalent as I find it among them. Of twenty men with whom I conversed one afternoon, seventeen were professors of religion, and the eighteenth said he was a man of prayer, and looked to God as his protector. A plain, unlettered Georgia boy said: ‘"In all my intercourse with these Yankees, I have never heard them allude once to what God can do. They talk about what twenty millions of men can do, and what hundreds of millions of money can do, and what their powerful navy can do; but they leave God out of the calculation altogether; but, sir, the Lord is our trust, and He will be our defence."’ The Rev.--was with me during a part of my tour. He was asked on one occasion to lead in prayer, in a barn filled with wounded, near Sharpsburg. After a season of most solemn and affecting devotion, a young man called the reverend gentleman to his side, and said: ‘"I am dying, sir; but I am not afraid to die, for I hope to go to heaven. Nor am I sorry that I have been slain in battle, for I would willingly sacrifice a dozen lives if I had them for such a cause as we are fighting for."’
’ Time and again I heard the 124th Psalm quoted: "If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us; then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us. Blessed be the Lord, who bath not given us as a prey to their teeth. Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth."
They are not given to vaunting themselves; there is nothing as all of the spirit of bravado about them; and so far from manifesting a ferocious disposition, they very frankly confess they are tired of the war; but at the same time they are animated by a determined resolution that, God helping them, they will never be subjugated. When one of them was asked if he did not fear that the prodigious armies now organizing against them would utterly overwhelm them, he replied that, "with God above, and General Lee at their head, they feared nothing that man could do." History, sir, furnishes no legends more touching and glorious than are exhibited in the sacrifices and endurance of the Southern people. Such a people merit the admiration of the world, and deserve to achieve their independence.
Pardon me for saying so much, but incident after incident arose in my mind, and so clamored for relation that I could not sooner stop.
The neutrality of the English people as explained by a Yankee correspondent.
The London correspondent of the New York Times, under date of November 21st, writes:‘ The report that Mr Secretary Seward has written to Mr. Adams, blaming the British Government for its complicity in the fitting out of the Alabama, caused a small flutter and considerable indignation on the Stock Exchange. The English have wished to be perfectly neutral as between the two belligerents. They recognized the Confederates as belligerents in the beginning in their own interests, expressly that they might sell arms, ammunition and ships to both parties, and their only regret is that the blockade has prevented them from carrying out their intentions of neutrality with perfect impartiality. There is a keen regret felt in every Englishman's pocket that they have been compelled to be unfair to the South, and that they have sold ten times as much contraband of war to the North as they could to the Confederates. Their consciences have pricked them to that degree, for this compulsory partiality, that they are now fitting out a fleet of the fastest steamers that ever crossed the ocean, expressly to run the blockade with munitions of war. These are small, sharp steamers, of light draft, made of steel plates, all paddle-wheel and funnel, that will run off twenty knots an hour, and that no blockading vessel can think of taking. The success and impunity of the Alabama will also lead to the fitting out and arming of a dozen more, if the war continues; and the answer to any complaint will be, "Didn't you help Russia in the Crimean war? Did not President Pierce assert the right of Americans to build ships and sell ammunition to both parties? How, then, can you complain of us for doing what you did, and justified?"
"Besides, you have bought artillery, powder, everything you wanted, in England, without hindrance. Why should not the Confederates do the same? You call Capt. Semmes a pirate; but he is no more a pirate than Stonewall Jackson is a brigand; and you treat him according to the rules of war. A Confederate naval officer is entitled to the same consideration as one in the land service. You take Confederate and neutral contraband cargoes wherever you can. Why may not the Confederates do the same?"
’ This is the answer that will be given to Mr. Adams. If Capt. Semmes has had the misfortune to capture a British ship in mistake his Government will pay for it.
The distress in Lancashire deepens. The bounty of a nation will be exhausted in palliating the suffering. Surat cotton comes, but it cannot be worked to profit. The English are beginning to see that Lancashire is ruined and the cotton trade itself, unless they can get cotton from America. Hence the protest against the war — hence the protest against the Abolition policy of the Government. England is less abolition than she was a year ago. Never was any measure more universally denounced than that of the proclamation. The freedom of the slaves in America is the ruin of the manufacturing interest in England. Lancashire has built up and extended slavery. Out
off from that it is ruined. Sentiment is a very fine thing; but Englishmen know the beauties of bread, of beef, and beans. They blubbered freely over Uncle Tom's Cabin, but never bought one bale of cotton she loss, and are ready to take all they can get. Manchester is the centre, heart, and soul of American slavery. Manchester has grown rich on its profits, and participates in, its reverses. Can you expect sympathy from Manchester in an effort to destroy it? If so, you reckon without your host.
Miscellaneous.
Brigadier-General Henry Prince has been assigned to an important command in North Carolina.Horace Greeley has been summoned to Washington. Rumor says he will be tendered the command of a negro brigade. Great dissatisfaction exists in the army in regard to the enlistment of negroes.
Gold was 133 in New York on Monday.
