From the North.
The standard by which to judge General Booker
The New York Tribune, printing General Hooker's evidence before the Congressional committee on the conduct of the war, with reference to McClellan and Burnside's campaigns, says:‘ So far as Gen. McClellan is concerned, if he had any reputation left this evidence would annihilate it. On the general conduct of his campaigns, and on the half-dozen most conspicuous instances of his incapacity, General Hooker's testimony is equally conclusive — more so than anything we know of except McClellan's own account. If there be still one man so demented as to think him a General, we beg him to get a copy of the first volume of the Report of the Committee, and read what George B. McClellan has to say in his own behalf. If that does not convince him, his insanity may be set down as hopeless.
Aside from its historical value, Gen. Hooker's evidence has a special interest at this moment when he is in command of the Army of the Potomac, and supposed to be nearly ready to begin what is meant to be a final campaign. It is not merely an account of what he did while holding a subordinate command; it is a frank declaration of what he thought his General in-Chief ought to have done; it is a criticism not less than a history. The nation which has trusted him with its chief army will look to this record for a standard by which to measure his performance; it will expect to discover in him those soldierly qualities and the ability for command which McClellan had not; and in the broader field now open before him will anticipate the display of that courage and genius which will lead the Army of the Potomac to victory and to Richmond.
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A Yankee picture of Washington.
The Washington Chronicle gives a picture of Washington "under Northern rule," which of course is as flattering as possible. It says:‘ A stranger standing to-day at the Capitol, and looking toward the President's House, would see nothing, save perhaps the unfinished Washington Monument, to remind him of Dickens's pleasantry. On the contrary, he would see a broad and sightly avenue, thronged with persons and vehicles, flanked by structures, many of which would do credit to any city. No longer a seedy, misnamed metropolis, Washington begins to wear the aspect of a thriving and prosperous city. Oyster cellars and gambling shops and unlimited dust are not now its chief features, as in bygone years.--The opera, first-class theatrical entertainments, and legitimate trade are in vogue. Under the inspiriting influence of Northern enterprise and Northern thrift, with the tastes and culture that always accompany them, the change is rapidly going on. It is the drama of "the Deformed Transformed" played in real life.
For a single illustration let any one look at the work of the last week. Pennsylvania avenue, for the second time in its momentous history, has been relieved of the encumbrance of unlimited mud and dust, between which twin miseries it so sweetly alternated in years gone by. Nor is this a spasmodic eruption of a desire for neatness, but only the first expression of the improvement that is to come upon the whole city. Before many months Virginia and the entire South will be renovated by a new spirit of industry. Around Washington, along all the beautiful streams and valleys and hillsides, there will be a people who will turn the magnificent advantages now lying unused to account. This city will then be a nucleus for a population whose numbers it is idle to estimate, but sufficient to sustain a great city. Some ancient and venerable antediluvian may mourn the departure of the good old days, and lament over the degeneracy of the new society that is to be created here. So did the ancient noblesse over the society of the Napoleon dynasty. But France is to-day a vindication of the wisdom which wrought out so grand a destiny. So will it be here as soon as peace once more returns to bless the land.--Then Washington will no longer be a theme of satire and jest, but a city worthy of its name, and of the great nation of which it is the metropolis. No longer the lavish, prodigal, wasteful, indifferent hospitality and extravagance of a social life, and ideas which have culminated in shameful rebellion; but we shall have here a society which shall be a fit representative of the grand principle of human liberty on which the nation is founded, and a city to whose spacious avenues, and tasteful dwellings, and all the outward signs of culture and refinement, one can point with pride and hope.
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Particulars of the arrest of Vallandigham.
The Cincinnati Commercial gives the following account of Vallandigham's arrest:‘ A special train left this city at 12 o'clock Monday night with a company of the Thirteenth United States infantry, sixty-seven men, with directions from Gen. Burnside, commanding the Department of the Ohio, to arrest C. L. Vallandigham at his residence in Dayton. The train reached Dayton at half-past 2 o'clock, and, proceeding to Vallandigham's house, placed guards on the streets in the vicinity, and the Captain commanding, with a squad of men, surrounded the house.
The door bell was rung, and Vallandigham appeared at the window and inquired what was wanting. The Captain told him, but he was not disposed to go along peaceably. He shouted for the police loudly, and the female members of the family joined their cries to his. The Captain told him he might as well stop the disturbance, as he had the force to arrest him, and would certainly do so.
Vallandigham then said he was not dressed. The captain told him he would have time to dress himself, but he redoubled his shouts for the police, when an attempt was made to force the front door. The door resisted the efforts of the soldiers, and Vallandigham flourished a revolver at the window and fired two or three shots without effect.
A side door was then force, and the squad finding all the doors in the house fastened, broke open four of them before they reached the apartment occupied by the individual with whom they had business, who was soon taken and escorted to the train, which was in waiting.
Some of Vallandigham's friends, hearing what was going on, rung the fire bells with the intention of gathering a crowd to attempt a rescue. But few persons appeared, and they gave no trouble. Vallandigham was brought to the city and lodged in the prison on Columbia street, between Sycamore and Broadway, where no one was permitted to see him without an order from General Burnside.
The official charges against Vallandigham set forth that on or about the first of May, at Mount Vernon, Ohio, he publicity addressed a large meeting of citizens, declaring that the present war is an injurious, cruel, and unnecessary war — a war not being waged for the preservation of the Union, but for the purpose of crushing out liberty and establishing a despotism — a war for the freedom of the blacks and the enslaving of the whites; and that, if the Administration had so wished, the war could have been honorably terminated; that peace might have been honorably obtained by listening to the proposed intermediating of France; that propositions by which the Southern States could be won back, and be guaranteed their rights under the Constitution, were rejected the day before the battle of Fredericksburg. He is also charged with having said that order No. 38 of General Burnside was a base usurpation of arbitrary authority, and that the sooner the people informed the minions of usurped power that they will not submit to such restrictions the better. He declared also his purpose to defeat an attempt to build up a monarchy upon the ruins of our free Government, and that he believed the men in power were trying to establish a despotism.
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The feeling in Yankeedom
The New York Evening Post, under the head of "The Confidence of the People," has the following paragraph. If it had said the hopeless despair of the people it would have been nearer right:‘ The confidence of the people in the final triumph of our cause and the maintenance of the Government in all its majesty and force is no mere figment of the imagination, which a breath can dissipate or a blow break in pieces. Checks and reverses may depress, but they cannot destroy it; they oftener, indeed, strengthen and ennoble it. A fine illustration of this is found in the temper of the people under the news of yesterday, which here and elsewhere was firm and determined, as though no shadow had darkened our hopes. Everywhere the Government bonds stood firm, and in many places the sales were as large as on any previous day. In Philadelphia the subscription agent announces an aggregate sale of $700,000 of five-twenties, almost wholly by local subscription. These subscriptions, be it remembered, were made directly in the face of the intelligence from Hooker's army. Who can doubt that the patriotism of the masses will yet, properly directed, bring the nation safely through its trials?
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