Bright and cold.
Very cold, and fuel unattainable.
The papers speak of
heavy raids in process of organization: one from Newbern, N. C., against
Raleigh, and one from East Tennessee against Salisbury and our communications.
The news from South
Carolina is vague, only that the armies are in active motion. So long as
Sherman keeps the initiative, of course he will succeed, but if Beauregard
should attack, it may be different.
Yesterday some
progress was made with the measure of 200,000 negroes for the army. Something
must be done—and soon.
Gen. Wise sent me a
letter of introduction to Gen. Breckinridge yesterday. I sent it in to-day. I
want the system of passports changed, and speculation annihilated, else the
cause is lost. I expect no action, for impediments will be interposed by
others. But my duty is done. I have as little to lose as any of them. The
generals all say the system of passports in use has inflicted great detriment
to the service, a fact none can deny, and if it be continued, it will be indeed
"idiotic suicide," as Gen. Preston says.
The weather is
moderating, but it is the most wintry 14th of February I remember to have seen.
Yet, as soon as the weather will admit of it, the carnival of blood must begin.
At Washington they demand unconditional submission or extermination, the
language once applied to the Florida Indians, a few hundred of whom maintained
a war of seven years. Our cities may fall into the hands of the enemy, but then
the populations will cease to subsist on the Confederacy. There is no prospect
of peace on terms of "unconditional submission," and most of the
veteran troops of the enemy will return to their homes upon the expiration of
their terms of enlistment, leaving mostly raw recruits to prosecute the work of
"extermination."
Meantime the war of
the factions proceeds with activity, the cabinet and the majority in both
Houses of Congress. The President remains immovable in his determination not to
yield to the demand for new men in the government, and the country seems to
have lost confidence in the old. God help us, or we are lost! The feeble health
of the President is supposed to have enfeebled his intellect, and if this be
so, of course he would not be likely to discover and admit it. Mr. Speaker
Bocock signs a communication in behalf of the Virginia delegation in Congress
asking the dismissal of the cabinet.
The Northern papers
mention a gigantic raid in motion from Tennessee to Selma, Montgomery, and
Mobile, Ala., consisting of 40,000 cavalry and mounted infantry, a la Sherman.
They are resolved to give us no rest, while we are distracted among ourselves,
and the President refuses to change his cabinet, etc.
Gen. Grant
telegraphed the Secretary of War at Washington, when our commissioners were in
his camp, that he understood both Messrs. Stephens and Hunter to say that peace
might be restored on the basis of REUNION.
