From Washington

WASHINGTON, Jan. 31

Jesse D. Bright will be expelled from the Senate, but probably not till Tuesday, as there will be a long executive session on Monday.

The postal receipts for letters carried during the last quarter of 1861 are but little less than during the same period last year, when the mails went all over the Union.  The cost of transportation is three millions less.

A new development in reference to the Morgan purchase of vessels for the government has just been made.  It appears that before the Savannah steamers were sold, the owners agreed to give a certain broker two per cent if he would sell the property to the government.  He sold to Morgan, to whom he paid two and a half per cent.  The broker now sues the owners for his two per cent.  The owners contest the claim, insist that they are not bound to pay, and declare that they can prove that a plan was formed by some parties to fleece the government in the purchase of these ships, by making five per cent on exorbitant prices.  The matter will be exposed in Court.

Times’ Dispatch.

Private letters received in Washington from persons abroad, confirm the impression that the governments of England, France and Spain meditate an early recognition of the Confederate States.  This recognition, it will be pretended, is made in the cause of humanity.

It is now confidently asserted that there are not 10 Republican members of the House who are prepared to advocate the immediate and unconditional emancipation of salves.  All hope of legislation favorable to this class of politicians is abandoned, and the administration programme of preserving the Union and constitution and enforcing the laws is said to be omnipotent [sic] in the House.

Herald’s Dispatch.

The President has submitted to Congress the correspondence in reference to the Spanish bark seized by our cruiser, and brought in as a prize.  Lewis Taylor, who was approved by the government and accepted by the Spanish Minister as reference, has awarded $2,791,91 [sic] damages to be paid by the government to the master of the bark.

A deserter from the 1^st N. C. Cavalry who gives his name as N. T. Emmett, confirms the statements of previous deserters as to the condition of the rebel troops an entrenchments about Manassas.  The term of enlistment of over 80,000 men, he alleges, expires at the end of this month.  Of this number not one-tenth will reenlist, and if an attempt at coercion is made, he prophesies desperate and bloody resistance.

The President, Secretary of War and Q. M. General have been in consultation with parties from the West to-day, in regard to the frauds in the Q. M. Department at Cairo.  Frauds in the way of contracts are said to exist, which will be investigated to the fullest extend

The investigating committee find that parties in Philadelphia claim from government, for army supplies of different kinds, over $16,000,000.  Specimens of some of the goods, for the payment of which a portion of this enormous sum is demanded, were brought here by the committee, and are positive evidence that government has been defrauded.

Messrs. Covode and Odell reported the result of their investigation to the Secretary of War to-day.

The Richmond Dispatch admits that the aggregate force of the rebels now in the field is but 250,000.

Special to the Commercial.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1.

It is reported that the transports of the Burnside expedition are nearly all of heavier draft than was represented by their owners.  This was the cause of all this difficulty at Hatteras bar.

The House committee of way and means are more confident to-day of their ability to pass the legal tender clause of the hundred million note bill.

Tribune’s Special.

Secretary Chase’s answer to the committee of ways and means was received this morning.  Their resolution required him to express his opinion as to their propriety and necessity of the immediate passage by Congress of Mr. Spaulding’s legal tender bill.

The Secretary begins by saying that the condition of the treasury is such that the committee’s bill should be passed at the earliest possible moment.  The general features of the bill he admits to be correct, and to have his approval.  In regard to the legal tender feature, he urges the passage of this scheme of banking, recommended in his report as a means for funding a considerable amount of the public stock, and concluded by suggesting some unimportant formal amendments, to which in no way affected the principles of the bill.

A letter received here this morning, from one of the most distinguished merchants in New York, says that only eight bank presidents in that city coincide with Mr. Gallatin.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport Iowa, Monday Morning, February 3, 1862, p. 1