We have received a copy of the Washington Chronicle of Tuesday, the 21st instant. Gold, 198 1-2.
The fall of Charleston.
The Chronicle has just such an insolent editorial as might have been expected about the fall of Charleston.--The article is headed "The Nation Avenged. " We give a paragraph:Charleston has fallen! That proud, insolent and wicked little city, the cradle of the rebellion, protected by its position, and by fortresses built by the Government of the United States, has resisted the most terrible cannonading on record for nearly two years; but it could not withstand one of Sherman's "flank movements!" He turned away off to the west, as if to avoid the pestilent place, and the country began to fear that it had received a new lease of life, when suddenly the news flashes over the wires from Fortress Monroe that the place had been abandoned!
The article continues in a similar strain about the "gay and dashing insolence of the South Carolina chivalry," &c.
The Yankee Congress — Government of the Rebel States.
In the Yankee Senate, on Monday, in debate, Mr. Saulsbury, of Delaware, said--It was a delusion to suppose that peace was near at hand — a delusion oft repeated about sixty days and ninety days. Charleston, and Savannah, and Columbia might fall, and Richmond might fall, but still the war would not end. There were years of war before this country under the policy of the present Administration. It appeared from the President's message that the obstacles to peace were the terms which he offered — refusing to treat with rebels. It should be remembered that the British lost their American colonies because George III. refused to treat with rebels in arms against him.
In the House of Representatives, the bill providing governments for States "subverted or overthrown by the rebellion" being up,--
Mr. Dawes, of Massachusetts, opposed the bill at length. It was not founded on any principle commonly called the war power of the Government. The very first section provides for the appointment of officers, who will be multiplied to thousands, to lord it over the miserable, poverty-stricken, wretched citizens of the rebellious States. It would afford an asylum for broken-down politicians, whose presence would darken the heavens like the locusts of Egypt. In addition to these people being the objects of free plunder, he said the bill proposed to levy taxes to the precise amount to which they were liable the last year before they went into rebellion. The provisions of the bill, if carried out, instead of winning back the people to loyalty, would have the effect of alienating them. He expressed his desire that government should be re-established by loyal citizens, and not placed at the mercy of the aggravated people in the disloyal States.
The bill, he said, was based upon the erroneous policy that there could be no government unless formed by the majority. The loyal people should be left to work out their organic law in their own way. He hoped that the bill prescribing an iron, unbending rule, would fail to become a law.
Mr. Schenck sent up to be read a dispatch, inclosed to him by the Secretary of War, from Lieutenant-General Grant, saying the Richmond Examiner of to-day states that Charleston was evacuated on Tuesday.
The reading was succeeded by applause in all parts of the House.
Mr. Fernando Wood congratulated the House and the country that at last was heard the language of conciliation from the Republican side of the House.
Mr. Garfield wished to know whether the gentleman referred to the dispatch just read of the news about Charleston.
Mr. Fernando Wood repeated he congratulated the country that a gentleman from Massachusetts had uttered words of conciliation, and had spoken of the South as a great people, and used language of kindness and respect toward them. Heretofore we have heard threats of subjugation, devastation and annihilation, but not before now had they heard that those people are entitled to any rights, respect, or regard whatever. This gave him more hope for his country than anything which had yet transpired. He considered the pending bill as infamous, unconstitutional, and as emanating from the worst species of fanaticism which ruled the majority of the House. Because certain States had done wrong in passing their ordinances of secession, it did not justify us in violating the Constitution. Congress has no power to make conditions on which a State may resume its position in the Union. Whenever the people of a State should lay down their arms, and recognize the Federal Constitution and laws, and send representatives to Congress, he should like to see the power which would prevent the return of those States.
The recent peace conference, though it failed in its purpose, was calculated to give the country hope. Since then the military position has changed. And should they heap coals of fire on those now borne down into the dust, and already weakened, and almost humbled, imposing conditions that will render it impossible for them to submit, having regard to manhood and proper self-respect? He was for extending the friendly hand to the South, and condemned the bill as of an oppressive and tyrannical character.
Mr. LeBlond expressed his views about the confiscation law as subversive of the Constitution, and also condemned the proposed anti-slavery amendment and the bill now under consideration. The latter, he argued, was based on the false assumption that the States in rebellion are out of the Union.
Mr. Blow, of Missouri, spoke in favor of emancipation, and of its beneficial effects upon the country; but as to the question of suffrage, his State must be left to settle it in her own way, and he was content that Louisiana and Arkansas should have the same privilege.
Mr. Edgerton, of Indiana, said that John Brown received more respect in this House than the patriotic men who made our system of Government, and bequeathed it to us as a priceless heritage. He remarked he had always been an anti-slavery man, but the bill before the House failed to commend itself to his approbation, on the ground of constitutionality, policy and expediency.
Miscellaneous.
Thirteen regiments of cavalry are to be raised in Missouri, and the draft thereby averted.The Confederates are reported to be purchasing small schooners to run the blockade on the coast of Florida.
The Yankees estimate "that there is over one hundred and sixty million dollars' worth of cotton stored from Wilmington along the line of railroad reaching into South Carolina and the southern part of North Carolina, which the enemy will order to be burnt as soon as our forces approach."
