Mr. Lewis, disbursing clerk of Post-Office Department, has sent in a communication asking an investigation of the conduct of Mr. Peck, agent to buy supplies for clerks. What will Mr. Seddon do now?
The Commissary-General says 100,000 bushels corn for Lee’s army may be got in Southwest Virginia.
January 17th.—Cloudy, and spitting snow.
Mr. Foote’s release from custody has been ordered by Congress.
The news of the fall of Wilmington, and the cessation of importations at that port, falls upon the ears of the community with stunning effect.
Again we have a rumor of the retirement of Mr. Seddon.
There are more rumors of revolution, and even of displacement of the President by Congress, and investiture of Gen. Lee. It is said the President has done something, recently, which Congress will not tolerate. Idle talk!
Mr. Foote, when arrested, was accompanied by his wife, who had a passport to Tennessee. He said to the Provost Marshal, Doggett, Fredericksburg, that he intended to accompany his family, passing through Washington, and to endeavor to negotiate a peace. He deposited a resignation of his seat in Congress with a friend, which he withdrew upon being arrested. He was arrested and detained “until further orders,” by command of the Secretary of War.
Lieut.-Gen. Hood has been relieved, and ordered to report here.
The rumor gains belief that Gen. Breckinridge has been offered the portfolio of the War Department by the President. This may be the act alluded to which Congress will not agree to, perhaps, on the ground that Gen. B. remained in the United States Senate long after secession. The general is understood to be staying at G. A. Myers’s house, which adds strength to the rumor, for Myers has a keen scent for the sources of power and patronage.