The Northern papers are filled with what purports to be the
intercepted correspondence of Mr. Benjamin with Messrs. Mason and Slidell. Lord
John Russell is berated. The Emperor of France is charged with a design to
seize Mexico as a colony, and to recognize Texas separately, making that State
in effect a dependency, from which cotton may be procured as an offset to
British India. He says the French Consuls in Texas are endeavoring to detach
Texas from the Confederacy. If this be a genuine correspondence, it will injure
the South; if it be false (if the allegations be false), it will still injure
us. I have no doubt of its genuineness; and that Mr. Sanders, once the
correspondent of the New York Tribune, was the bearer. If Texas leaves
us, so may Louisiana — and the gigantic Houmas speculation may turn out well at
last.
Mr. Curry has brought forward a copyright bill; Mr. Foster, of
Alabama, has introduced a bill to abolish the passport system — leaving the matter
to railroad conductors.
A dispatch from Gen. Bragg assures us that our cavalry are
still capturing and destroying large amounts of Rosecrans's stores on the
Cumberland River.
Col. Wall has been elected Senator from New Jersey. They say
he is still pale and ill from his imprisonment, for opinion sake. I hope he
will speak as boldly in the Senate as out of it.
I met Gen. Davis to-day (the President's nephew), just from
Goldsborough, where his brigade is stationed. He is in fine plumage —
and I hope he will prove a game-cock.
Major-Gen. French, in command at Petersburg, is a Northern
man. Our native generals are brigadiers. It is amazing that all the
superior officers in command near the capital should be Northern men. Can this
be the influence of Gen. Cooper? It may prove disastrous!
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 244-5
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