We have received Northern papers of Friday, the 6th instant.
Latest from Hood.
A telegram from Courtland, Alabama, via Decatur, January 4th, says:‘ The cavalry belonging to Major-General Steadman have pursued, captured and burned Hood's pontontrain. They also captured six hundred mules, one hundred wagons and two hundred hogs, Forrest is reported near Russellville. A deserter from Hood's army reports that Hood has been ordered to Tuscaloosa to re-organize his shattered army. Roddy's cavalry command is almost entirely disbanded.
’
A peace discussion — the Blair mission — Greeley Mixed up in it.
In the Yankee House of Representatives, on Monday, during a debate on Lincoln's message,Mr. Cox (Ohio) said he was touched by the earnest appeal of the gentlemen's in the name of God and humanity to vote for the amendment to abolish slavery.--He desired, in the name of the God of Mercy, to appeal to the gentleman to help stay the effusion of blood and restore peace. Instead of hospitals, wounds, taxes, mourning and death, to substitute order, peace and Union. Such sentiments bring reproach.
This side of the House has been reproached to-day by the gentlemen from Maryland, Mr. Creswell, and Pennsylvania, Mr. Stevens. The epithets of the campaign are re-applied because we favor attempts to make peace; yet while the gentleman from Pennsylvania is using his epithets of copperhead and traitor, I see on the other side of the House the editor of the Tribune, Mr. Greeley, conferring with members as to measures of peace. That editor, in his issue of yesterday, urges that attempts be made for peace, at least that, as a Christian people, we are bound to ascertain what the rebels will do.
Mr. Stevens--I do not agree with Mr. Greeley, though I think him a patriot.
Mr. Cox--Yet you denounce the Chicago Convention, General McClellan and my colleague, Mr. Pendleton, by odious words, for saying what the patriot, Mr. Greeley, published yesterday. I ask to have the article read for the instruction of the other side.
The Clerk read the Tribune article on the Blair embassy, taking ground in favor of reaching the rebels by a mission of peace, and that no harm could come even if it failed, etc.
Mr. Cox inquired — Why does not the gentleman denounce Mr. Greeley for saying only what we have ever said? He is frank and outspoken, yet he dare not denounce the elector of New York, who is to vote for Mr. Lincoln. I am not prepared to say that Davis will agree to any peace except on the basis of independence; but, as Mr. Greeley says, there is no harm in trying. A million of men in the North believe that an attempt would result in peace and union. The gentleman asks us to give up our views of State and municipal control in domestic matters and change our form of government by voting the amendment abolishing slavery. I appeal to him just to try to make peace and bring the South back to the unamended Constitution. If you fail, we on this side may then consider the question under new lights. I do not say we can vote for it; but let the gentleman make an honest effort for peace; give up something; his desire for vengeance, his notions of negro equality.
Mr. Stevens--I do not believe in negro equality.
Mr. Cox--Does not the gentleman believe all men are created equal?
Mr. Stevens--Equal before the law.
Mr. Cox--Black and white equal before the law? Then give up that, and instead of your pagan ideas of vengeance, follow Mr. Greeley's advice, be civilized and Christian and seek to know, authoritatively at least, what the South will do. No harm can come from the trial. Send the gentlemen, Mr. Blair and his son, who now sits in this House, to confer, no doubt, on this matter, to Richmond, or the gentleman from Pennsylvania himself.
Mr. Stevens--They would not let me come back.
Mr. Cox--The persuasiveness of his not appeals to "God and humanity" could not be resisted. At least make the trial. If it fails you will secure unity in the North. One million seven hundred and fifty thousand voters also agree with us in this trial. Mr. Greeley asks for it. I will offer a resolution in his language, and, when in order, try to get a vote on it.
The resolutions are as follows:
Whereas the country hail with manifestations of patriotic joy and congratulation the victories recently achieved by our brave armies; and
Whereas, the recognized object of war, at least among civilized and Christian nations, is an honorable and satisfactory peace, and that although we do not know that the insurgents are yet prepared to agree to any terms of pacification that our Government either would or should deem acceptable, yet as there can be no possible harm resulting from ascertaining precisely what they are ready to do, and in order to refute the imputation that the Administration "contemplates with satisfaction" a continuance of hostilities for their own sake, on any ground of mere punctilio, or for any reason than because it is compelled by an absorbing regard for the very ends of its existence;
And whereas an established and rightfully-constituted Government, combating an armed, menacing rebellion, should strain every nerve to overcome, at the earliest moment, the resistance it encounters, and should not merely welcome, but seek satisfactory, however informal, assurances that its end had been obtained; therefore,
Resolved, That now, in the present hour of victory, which ought to be the hour of magnanimity, and before any action be taken to change the Constitution of the United States, it is eminently the duty of the President, on the basis of the present rightfully-constituted Government, either to send or receive commissioners or agents, with a view to national pacification and tranquility, or, by some other national means known to civilized and Christian nations, to secure the cessation of hostilities and the union of the States.
Mr. Pruyn (New York) said he and those on his side claimed that the Union had never been dissolved, and that it exists in its entity this day; that there is a rebellion against the laws and the Constitution, and that the whole object of the war is to put down the rebellion and bring back the rebels to obedience. In a very memorable speech made last year, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Stevens) said that we had acknowledged the South as belligerents and as a foreign power, and that the rebels had all the rights of belligerents and had been treated as such by all the powers of Europe, and that we were bound to treat them in the same way. Now he understood the gentleman had reversed his position, and claimed that these people were simply rebels, that we are to put down the rebellion, and that they do not occupy the position they did last year.
Mr. Stevens--To what does the gentleman refer?
Mr. Pruyn--Your speech of last year!
Mr. Stevens--I still maintain that the South, having proclaimed itself independent of this Government, and taken up arms to support its position, is, by the law of nations, a belligerent, and I hold that they should never come back into the Union except as new States from conquered territory.
Mr. Pruyn said he had quoted from the gentleman's speech to show the gentlemans' position was utterly inconsistent with that which he took last year; now the gentleman says they are not a conquered nation.
Mr. Stevens--I said no such thing!
Mr. Pruyn--Then the gentleman quoted from Scripture to show that we ought to execute vengeance on these people.
Mr. Stevens--I applied Scripture to show the Lord punished us for not abolishing slavery, and that he will continue to punish us until we do.
Mr. Pruyn--I certainly understood the gentleman to say it was our moral and religious duty to put down the rebellion as a rebellion, and not as the conquest of a foreign power.
The committee then rose and the House adjourned.
A Washington telegram says:
‘ Francis Blair, Sr., feeling himself aggrieved by the story told of his recent attempt to get to Richmond, is preparing a letter for publication to explain the whole affair. Horace Greeley is here.
’ Another dispatch says:
‘ It is a noticeable fact that, during the debate in the House this afternoon on the subject of peace, both Mr. Greeley and Mr. Blair were present. It will be seen from the Congressional report that Representative Cox said he saw the former on the Republican side of the House conferring with members as to measures of peace, while he (Mr. Cox) was in favor of sending Montgomery Blair to Richmond to learn authoritatively what the South will do.
’
Secretary Stanton gone South.
A Washington telegram, dated the 5th instant, says:‘ The Secretary of War has gone to Fortress Monroe, Hilton Head and Savannah to consult with General Grant, Foster and Sherman on important matters relating to the service. The supplies and exchange of prisoners, organization of colored troops, raising the blockade of Savannah, and the seizure of rebel property and products, are among the subjects of consideration.
’
From Savannah.
A letter from Savannah, dated the 31st ultimo, has an account of the review of the negro fire companies on the day before by Generals Sherman and Geary.About military matters, it says:
‘ There was a little stir on the other side of the river this morning. For several days rebel sharpshooters have been giving considerable annoyance to our boatmen and hands employed in clearing the obstructions out of the river below the city. Last night detachments from the First and Third divisions of the Twentieth corps were sent across, and early this morning a skirmish occurred, in which the rebels were scattered in every direction. They are supposed to be a portion of Wheeler's cavalry. We had a few men wounded, but suffered no other loss.
As you are aware are this time, no doubt, General Foster's expedition up Broad river was not successful. The rebels still hold the railroad, and are likely to continue in possession of it till a larger force is sent to dislodge them, which, by the way, can very soon be done when the proper time comes for Sherman to move.
’ As for the city, everything is quiet and well regulated. We are pleased to announce, as a matter of record, that the schooner Maryland, Captain Cathcart, yesterday, was moored at one of our wharves, she being the first sail vessel that has arrived since the re-occupation of the city by the Union forces.
Looking for Mosby.
A dispatch from Washington, dated the 5th instant, announces the failure of a scout for Mosby. It says:‘ A scout set out, last week, to look for Mosby, under command of Major Frazer. They proceeded to Mr. Lake's house, where Mosby was wounded, near Rector's cross-roads, and learned that be was moved, within half an hour after he was wounded, to Mr. Glasscock's, about one and a half miles distant, where he remained three days. The ball was there extracted, having passed round, or, perhaps, through his bowels, coming out behind the right thigh. The Major conversed with persons who saw him. He was reported as very low the first two days, but better the third. He was then tracked to Piedmont, and from thence to Salem, and out of Salem towards the Warrenton pike.
’ Several persons who saw him in the ambulance report his spitting blood, and the belief that he cannot live seems to be general. He is probably concealed in the country, seriously, if not fatally, injured. A farmer who saw him last Sunday said he was not expected to live.
Miscellaneous.
Fessenden, the Federal Secretary of the Treasury, has been nominated for the United States Senate by the Republicans of the Maine Legislature.Governor Yates, of Illinois, has been elected United States Senator from that State.
A telegram from Memphis says that General Dana's raid on the Mobile and Ohio railroad was completely successful. Twenty-five bridges were burned; four thousand carbines, a large amount of ammunition, and three hundred army wagons were captured. Many officers and men were taken prisoners, and thirty-two rail cars were destroyed.
The Albany Argus, in an editorial on Governor Fenton's message, sets out with the following assertion: "With the expiration of Governor Seymour's term, the office of Governor of the sovereign State of New York ceased. A proconsul of the Administration at Washington henceforth fills the executive chair of the State."
Lincoln, at the instance of George D. Prentice and W. R. Gist, has acceded to the request of Lieutenant-Governor Jacobs, of Kentucky, to return from his exile in the South.
John Steel, the wealthiest man in Pennsylvania, made so by oil transactions (his receipts were three thousand dollars per day), died a few days ago, in Philadelphia, from injuries received from the kick of a horse.
The friends of Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, at Peekskill and vicinity, who were recently edified by that gentleman's enthusiastic eulogy on the apple, as a fruit, made him a New Year's present of a huge apple pie, two and a half feet in diameter.
Eight thousand dollars is saved to the nation this year by omitting the usual Christmas gift of a knife to each Government clerk.
There are said to be 126,000 bales of cotton stored at Mobile, principally all on British and French account.
A delegation of leading Canadian merchants are at Washington, endeavoring to prevent the abrogation of the reciprocity treaty.
In Congress, Mr. Blair offered a resolution creating the office of lieutenant-general for General Sherman, but Grant still to keep supreme command.
Owensboro' has been taken possession of by the Confederates, under Major J. Walker Taylor, the Yankee forces evacuating. [Owensboro' is the county town of Davies county, and is on the Ohio river.]
Gold, in New York, 227 1-8.
