“The Southern Confederacy has nearly completed its sixteenth month of existence. In common parlance, in universal conviction, in actual fact, in everything but formal diplomatic recognition, the Confederate States are an independent power. The armies that have so long ravaged their frontiers, and at last emboldened by a great superiority of numbers, and a still greater advantage in arms and material, have ventured on an advance into their territory—come there not as partizans in a civil war, but as invaders; they are and act as the enemies not of a faction but of a nation—nay, of the entire population. They find little sympathy, far less than was enjoyed by the French invaders of Spain. They obtain no information except that very scanty supply which the most hated enemy can always obtain from deserters; they get no provisions except what they take by force; they have no friends, and no power beyond their own lines. In saying this, we except, of course, that strip of mountains in Kentucky, Tennessee and Western Virginia, occupied by Northern colonists, and which is part of the Confederate States, simply by geographical position. It is very rare, as is evident to the most ignorant and violent of Northerners, to find a man that is within the Confederate lines who is not a devoted adherent of the Confederate Government, and a resolute defender of a country invaded by foreign armies. The Confederate Government has raised in proportion to its population as large an army as any country ever yet mustered; it could have a still larger force if it had arms to put into their hands. It has sustained several great battles, won several brilliant victories, and rallied without difficulty or discouragement after one or two severe defeats. There is no division among the people; no Unionist faction; there is no voice raised in favor of surrender. As the United States and the Confederate States form two separate and hostile nations, so the Confederate Government is clearly as independent of that of the Union as the Crown of Denmark of the Germanic Confederation, and is as completely organized and absolute within its own dominions as that which is waging war against it. It is no question now of “Secession” or Rebellion, but of a war between two distinct powers, unequal in numbers, but perfectly equal in strength and status, equally sovereign and equally national. One may wrest territory from the other, may plunder its lands, burn its towns, and blockade its ports by virtue of superior naval and military force; but the relation in which they stand to each other is not rebel and tyrant, not subject and sovereign, but that of wholly separate and independent belligerent nations. The Northern armies in Virginia or Tennessee are as the French in Spain, or Russia in Turkey—the soldiery of a foreign government engaged in the invasion of a soil to which they have no other claim than may be established by the strong hand, or bestowed by the fortunes of war. The conquest of one nation by another, rarely as it has occurred, is not wholly unknown or impossible. Poland is a conquered country, but for western intervention Turkey might have been. But the conquest of a country as large as half of Europe, which brings three or four hundred thousand of her sons to her defence, which is fortified by primeval forests and impenetrable swamps, and impregnable by sheer extent of uninhabitable surface, is one of the wildest schemes ever proposed by the wickedness of demagogues, or entertained by the madness of conceit. A Napoleon with a half million of soldiers would recoil from the task. Is a Lincoln with a half a million of disorderly ruffians to achieve it? The subjugation of the South is impossible, provided only the citizens of the Confederate States display in defence of their hearths and homes, of their rights and their country, the valor and the resolution which have always characterized the race from which they sprang. They are a superior race, and the children of cavaliers, and can never yield to such an enemy. They have shown as yet no signs of wavering or discouragement, and they have only to be resolute in endurance, as they have shown themselves courageous in action, to be sure of a final victory. We see in the surrender of Island No. 10, in the doubtful operations in Virginia, in the battle near Pittsburgh, no signs whatever of any approach to the termination of the war in that way in which the North proposes to terminate it, viz: by the total prostration of the Southern States, the dissolution of the Confederacy, and the reconstruction of the Union. The Northern Government must be aware of the futility of its promises, the utter impracticability of its professed designs; but the ignorant and fanatical North believe absolutely and passionately in their own omnipotence, and its rulers are not the men to undertake the unpopular, difficult and dangerous task of bringing the people to a more modest frame of mind. Nothing but a severe lesson, either a crushing defeat, or a long, expensive, result-less and disastrous war will enlighten a people whose virtues or Weakness alike make them obstinate and unreasonable in such a contest as the present. If left to themselves, i. e., without foreign intervention, they will probably prolong the war into another year. One thing at least appears certain, that the summer must stay for some months, even under the most favorable circumstances, the onward march of the Federal armies. If they are able then to hold their actual positions—if they retain possession of the greater part of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Northern and Western Virginia—they will remain encamped on Southern soil, wasting the crops, burning the houses, taking property of the unhappy citizens of those rich States, but making no progress whatever. Their vessels may continue to keep up a nominal blockade of the Southern coast, and a real embargo on the cotton supply, which affords bread to South Lancastershire, England. In the meantime the Confederates will be daily gaining strength, recruiting their forces, and receiving supplies of arms and ammunition, the want of which has done more to thwart their heroic efforts than either the valor or bravery of Northern troops or skill of Northern commanders. On the return of cold weather their position will be better, and the termination of the war still more remote. In the interval they cannot invade the South, and cannot hope to hang the Confederate leaders, but they will still be starving English operatives, unless England and France grow weary of seeing their subjects made the victims of the war, and insist on terminating a struggle, which, while it cannot lead to the result desired by the aggressors, inflicts on neutrals losses almost as great as the immediate objects of the aggression.”
A fellow prisoner showed me a beautiful love-letter he received from his affianced this morning by the “Underground railroad.” The object of his affections is not permitted to visit him, because she has been herself a prisoner on account of her “Secession” convictions, but she brings a letter from Alexandria nearly every day, and sends to the “handsome Lieutenant:”
The letter! aye, the letter!
“’Tis there a woman loves to speak her wishes;
It spares the blushes of the love-sick maiden,
And every word’s a smile, each line a tongue.”
Thursday, June 19th. The only event of interest to me to-day has been the visit of an attached lady friend, Miss E. A., who brought me some necessary articles of clothing, quite acceptable under the circumstances, but more appreciated on account of the motive which prompted the mission. This lady has two brothers in the 17th regiment of Virginia volunteers. As an old friend, our interview of fifteen minutes afforded me much pleasure; but the Yankee officer present seemed desirous to institute an espionage, more to annoy than to discharge his orders, and which caused me to wish him in a climate where we are told that the heat is intolerable—at all events during my short interview with this to me beautiful angel of mercy. In this despotic government I have noticed the ladies as well as the sterner sex fear to express a sentiment against the tyranny of him whom they call a Republican President. On the contrary all must praise Abraham Lincoln, or be considered a traitor! Great God, it seems as if they wish to honor themselves through their master; they elevate him on their shoulders as a pedestal; they surround him with a halo of light, in order that some of it may be reflected on themselves. It is still the fable of the dog, who contents himself with the chain and collar, so that they are of gold.
June 20th. I received some excellent smoking tobacco and cigars this morning, a present from a lady in Prince George county, Maryland. God bless the ladies!
The “New York Times” of yesterday contains the following in reference to my friend Captain Monaghan, of the sixth Louisiana regiment, who was paroled in the city during the first three or four days after he arrived here:
(COPY OF PARAGRAPH.)
“THE LOUISIANA TIGER.”
“Captain Manahan, of the Louisiana Tigers, who has been lionizing at Willard’s hotel for several days, has been sent to the old capitol prison by order of Secretary Stanton. A gentleman, formerly of New Orleans, and well acquainted with the Captain, states that he does not wish to be exchanged, and is loyal to the “Stars and Stripes.””