proclaim, as a military measure, the freedom of the slaves. The warning was generally rejected and defied, but the proclamation which it heralded was duly issued. As the National armies advanced into the insurrectionary territories, slaves in considerable numbers accepted their freedom, and came under the protection of the National flag. Amidst the great prejudice and many embarrassments which attended a measure so new and so divergent from the political habits of the country, freedmen with commendable alacrity enlisted in the Federal army. There was in some quarters a painful inquiry about their moral capacity for service. That uncertainty was brought to a sudden end in the siege of Port Hudson. The newly raised negro regiments exhib- | ited all necessary valor and devotion in the military assaults which were made, with desperate courage, and not without fearful loss by General Banks. This protracted operation engaged nearly all General Banks' available forces. While it was going on, insurgent troops which were called up from Texas re-occupied much of the south-western portion of Louisiana, which he had before reclaimed. The surrender of Port Hudson, however, set his army at liberty, and he has already made considerable progress in restoring the National authority thus temporarily displaced. The complete occupation of the Mississippi by the National forces has effectually divided the insurrectionary region into two parts, and among the important features of this division, one which is of the highest practical significance is, that the field of military operations of the insurrection is chiefly on the eastern side of the river, while its supplies have been mainly drawn from the prairies of Arkansas and Texas, which stretch away from the western shore. These prairies can no longer supply the insurgents with cattle for sustenance and use in the field, and, on the other hand, arms, ordnance and ammunition can no longer be sent from the eastern manufactories and deposits to forces employed or in garrison in the West. The value of the acquisition of the Mississippi in this respect was illustrated only a few days since in the capture by General Grant, near Natchez, of five thousand beeves and two thousand mules, which had crossed to the eastern bank, and at the same time many hundred thousands of cartridges and other stores which had just been landed at the western end of the same ferry. upon the forts and batteries whlch defend the harbor, failed because the rope obstructions in the channel fouled the screws of the iron-clads and compelled them to retire after passing through the fire of the batteries. Those vessels bore the fire of the forts, although some defects of construction were revealed by the injuries they received. The crews passed through an unexampled cannonade with singular impunity. Not one life was lost on board of a Monitor. The defects disclosed have been remedied, and an attack is now in progress, with good pros pects of ultimate success, having for its object the reduction of the forts in the harbor by combined sea and land forces. We occupy more than one half of Morris Island with land forces, which, aided by batteries afloat and batteries ashore, are pushing siege works up to Fort Wagner, a strong earthwork which has been twice assaulted with great gallantry, but without success. On the 17th of June, the Atlanta, which was regarded by the insurgents as their most formidable iron-clad vessel, left Savannah, and came down the Wilmington river. The National iron-clads Weehawken, Captain John Rodgers, and Nahant, Commander John Downs, were in readiness to meet her. At 4.54 o'clock the Atlanta fired a rifle-shot across the stern of the Weehawken, which struck near the Nahant. At 5.15 the Weehawken at a range of three hundred yards, opened upon the Atlanta, which had then grounded. The Weehawken fired five shots, four of which took effect on the Atlanta. She surrendered at 5.30. Our lines have not changed in North Carolina. All attempts of the insurgents to recapture the towns from which they had been expelled have been repulsed. Much damage has been inflicted upon their communications, and valuable military stores have been destroyed by expeditions into the interior. North Carolina shows some symptoms of disaffection toward the insurgent league. Similar indications are exhibited in Mississippi Alabama, Arkansas and Texas. The situation on the York and James rivers has remained unchanged since the withdrawal of the army of General McClellan from the Peninsula a year ago. Attempts by the insurgents to retake Williamsburg and Suffolk have been defeated, but the garrison at the latter place has been withdrawn for purely military reasons to a more defensible line. I now return to the Army of the Potomac, which was left resting and refitting after putting an end to the first insurgent invasion of Maryland. General McClellan recrossed the Potomac and entered Vir A vigorous blockade has been maintained at Charleston, and although fast steamers, of light draught and painted with obscure colors, occasionally succeed in slipping through the blockadingginia in November, and obliged the invading forces squadron in the morning and evening twilight, many are destroyed and more are captured. An attack by the fleet, made on the seventh day of April last, under Lee to fall backward to Gordonsville, south of the Rappahannock. When the Army of the Potomac reached Warrenton it was placed under com SECRETARY SEWARD'S CIRCULAR. 515 wounded and captives, fell into the hands of General Meade. It is not doubted that this second unsuccessful invasion cost the insurgents forty thousand men. Our own loss was severe, for the strife was obstinate and deadly. General Meade crossed the Potomac. Lee retired again to Gordonsville, where he is now understood to be in front of our forces. While the stirring events which have been related were occurring in the East and in the West, General Rosecrans advanced upon Bragg, who, with little fighting, hastily abandoned his fortified positions of mand of General Burnside. He marched to Falmouth, hoping to cross the Rappahannock at Fredericksburg, and to move at once upon Richmond. Delays, resulting from various causes, without fault of the General, permitted the insurgents to occupy the heights of Fredericksburg, and when, at length, in December, General Burnside crossed the Rappahannock, his assault upon Lee's well fortified position failed. He skilfully recrossed the river without loss. General Hooker succeeded to the command, and it was not until the beginning of May that the condition of the roads permitted a renewal of offen-Shelbyville and Tullahoma, in Southern Tennessee. sive operations. The General crossed the Rappahannock and accepted a battle, which proved equally sanguinary to both parties, and unsuccessful to the Army of the Potomac. The heights of Fredericksburg were captured by General Sedgwick's Corps, but the whole army was compelled to return to the north bank of the river. After this battle, Lee, in the latter part of May and in June, withdrew his army from General Hooker's front, and ascending the south bank of the Rapidan, toward the sources of the Rappahannock, entered the Shenandoah Valley, and once more tempted the fortunes of war by invading the loyal States. General Rosecrans took, and he yet holds them, force of one thousand five hundred men left Corinth, on the northern border of the State of Mississippi, and made an expedition, in which he broke military communications, destroyed stores, and effected captures through the length and breadth of the State, and, finally, without serious loss, joined the army of General Banks, then engaged in the siege of Port Hudson. A severe cavalry engagement at Beverly Ford un-burg and Port Hudson, Colonel Grierson, with a masked this movement. The Army of the Potomac broke up its camps and marched to the encounter. The militia of Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York flew to arms, and occupied Baltimore, Harrisburg, and the line of the Susquehanna. The two armies met at Gettysburg, in Pennsylvania. and after a fierce contest of three days' duration, and terrible slaughter on both sides, the insurgents recoiled from the position held by General Meade, who had been then only four days in command of the Army of the Potomac. On the 4th of July, the day of the surrender of Vicksburg, Lee retreated, passing through Chambersburg and Hagerstown to Williamsport, where the proper disposition to attack him was made by General Meade. Deceived concerning the state of the river, supposed to be unfordable, General Meade, hourly expecting re-enforcements, delayed the attack a day too long, and the insurgents, partly by fording and partly by floating bridges, succeeded in withdrawing across the river by night, with their artillery and a great part of their baggage. Much of their baggage, as well as the plunder which Lee had collected, was destroyed by cavalry, or thrown out of the wagons to make room for the wounded whom Lee carried off from the battle-field. He had buried most of his dead of the first day's conflict at Gettysburg. The remainder, together with those who fell on the second and third days of the battle, in all four thousand five hundred, were buried by the victorious army. Many thousand insurgents, John Morgan, hitherto the most successful of the insurgent partisans, recently passed around the lines of General Burnside, crossed the States of Tennessee and Kentucky, moving northward, and avoiding all large bodies of our troops, he reached the Ohio river at Brandenburg, below Louisville, and seized two steamboats, with which he crossed into Indiana. Thence proceeding rapidly westward, subsisting on the country and impressing horses as his own gave out, he traversed a portion of Indiana and nearly the whole breadth of Ohio, destroying railroad stations and bridges, and plundering the defenseless villages. The people rallied to arms under the calls of their Governors. Some of them occupied the most important points, while others barricaded the roads or hung upon the rear of the intruders. Morgan found no disaffected citizens to recruit his wasted ranks, and when he reached the Ohio his force was prevented from crossing by the gunboats and driven backward with great slaughter. His force was between two thousand five hundred and four thousand horse, with several pieces of artillery. Only some takes on the habits of war. Large voluntary enlist ments continually augment our military force. Al supplies are abundantly and cheaply purchased within our lines. The country shows no signs of exhaustion of money, material or men. A requisition for six thousand two hundred remount horses was filled and the animals dispatched from Washington three hundred succeeded in recrossing the Ohio and escaping into the wilds of Western Virginia. Many perished in battles and skirmishes, and the remainder, including Morgan himself, his principal officers and all his artillery, were finally captured by the National forces. An attempt has just been made by the insurgents to invade Eastern Kentucky, which probably was begun with a view to make a diversion | all in four days. Our loan is purchased at par by in favor of Morgan's escape, but the forces, after penetrating as far as Lexington, have been routed by detachments from General Burnside's army, and pursued, with the capture of many prisoners and of all their artillery. our own citizens, at the average rate of one million two hundred thousand dollars daily. Gold sells in our market at one hundred twenty-three to one hundred eighteen, while in the insurrectionary region it commands one thousand two hundred per cent. premium. Every insurgent port is either blockaded, besieged or occupied by the National forces. The field of the projected Confederacy is divided by the Missis sippi. All the fortifications on its banks are in our hands, and its flood is patrolled by the National fleet. This review of the campaign shows that no great progress has been made by our arms in the East. The opposing forces there have been too equally matched to allow great advantages to accrue to either party, while the necessity of covering the National capital in all contingencies has constantly restrained our generals and forbidden such bold and dangerous movements as usually conduct to brilliant military success. In the West, however, the results have been more gratifying. Fifty thousand square miles have been reclaimed from the possession of the insurgents. On referring to the annexed map it will be seen that since the breaking out of the insurrection, the Government has extended its former | North Carolina, half of Mississippi and half of Lousway over and through a region of two hundred thousand square miles, an area as large as Austria or France, or the Peninsula of Spain and Portugal. The insurgents lost in the various field and siege operations of the month of July which I have described, one-third of their whole forces. Missouri, Kentucky, Delaware, Maryland — all slave States support the Federal Government. Missouri has already in convention ordained the gradual abolition of slavery, to take effect at the expiration of seven years. Four fifths of Tennessee, two thirds of Virginia, the coasts and sounds of isiana, with all their large cities, part of Alabama, and the whole sea-coast of Georgia and North Carolina, and no inconsiderable part of the coast of Florida, are held by the United States. The insurgents, with the slaves whom they yet hold in defiance of the President's proclamation, are now crowded into the central and southern portions of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama, while the pioneer slaveholding insurgents beyond the Mississippi are cut off from the main force. On the other hand, although it is less than six months since the laws or customs of the United States would allow a man of African descent to bear arms in de Jefferson Davis, the leader of the sedition, has since proclaimed a levy of all the able-bodied men within his military lines. This, if carried into effect, will exhaust the whole material of which soldiers can be made. The insurgents estimate the total number of conscripts thus to be gained at from seventy thousand to ninety-five thousand. Our armies now confront the insurgents at all points with superior num-fense of his country, there are now in the field twenty bers. A draft for three hundred thousand more is in progress to replace those whose terms of service have expired, and to fill up the wasted ranks of our veteran regiments, and the people, just so fast as the evidence of the necessity for that measure is received and digested, submit with cheerfulness to the ascertained demands. Our armies everywhere are well equipped, abundantly fed, and supplied with all the means of transportation. The soldiers of two years' service bear themselves as veterans, and show greater steadiness in every conflict. The men, aceustered to the camp, and hardened by exercise and experience, make marches which would have been impossible at the beginning of the contest. The nation is becoming familiar with arms, and easily two thousand regularly enlisted. armed and equipped soldiers of that class, while fifty regiments of two thousand each are in process of organization, and sixty-two thousand eight hundred persons of the same class are employed as teamsters, laborers and camp followers. These facts show that, as the insurrection continues, the unfortunate servile population, which was at the beginning an element of its strength, is being transferred to the support of the Union. You will use the facts presented in this paper in such a way as may be most effective to convince those who seek a renewal of commercial prosperity through the restoration of peace in America, that the quickest and shortest way to gain that desirable ADDRESS OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 517 end is to withdraw support and favor from the insurgents, and to leave the adjustment of our domestic controversies exclusively with the people of the United States. I am, sir, your obedient servant, WILLIAM H. SEWARD. Your devotion and patriotism have triumphed over all these obstacles, and called into existence the munitions of war, the clothing and the subsistence, which have enabled our soldiers to illustrate their valor on numerous battle fields, and to inflict crushing defeats on successive armies, each of which our arrogant foe fondly imagined to be invincible. The contrast between our past and present condition is well calculated to inspire full confidence ADDRESS OF JEFF. DAVIS TO THE CONFED- in the triumph of our arms. At no previous period ERATE STATES. In compliance with the request of Congress, contained in the resolutions passed on the fourth day of the present month, I invoke your attention to the present condition and future prospects of our country, and to the duties which patriotism imposes on us all during this great struggle for our homes and our liberties. These resolutions are in the following language. [Here follows sundry resolutions passed by the rebel Congress requesting Mr. Davis to issue an address.] Fully concurring in the views thus expressed by Congress, I confidently appeal to your love of country for aid in carrying into effect the recommendations of your senators and representatives. We have reached the close of the second year of the war, and may point with just pride to the history of our young Confederacy. Alone, unaided, we have met and overthrown the most formidable combinations of naval and military armaments that the lust of conquest ever gathered together for the conquest of a free people. We began this struggle without a single gun afloat, while the resources of our enemy enabled them to gather fleets which, according to their official list, published in August last, consisted of four hundred and thirty-seven vessels, measuring eight hundred and forty thousand and eighty-six tons, and carrying three thousand and twenty-six guns, yet we have captured, sunk or destroyed a number of these vessels, including two large frigates and one steam sloop of war, while four of their captured steam gunboats are now in our possession, adding to the strength of our little navy, which is rapidly gaining in numbers and efficiency. To oppose invading forces composed of levies which have already exceeded thirteen hundred thousand men, we had no resources but the unconquerable valor of a people determined to be free, and we were so destitute of military supplies that tens of thousands of our citizens were reluctantly refused admission into the service from our inability to furnish them arms, while for many months the continuation of some of our strongholds owed their safety chiefly to a careful concealment of the fact that we were without a supply of powder for our cannon. of the war have our forces been so numerous, so well organized and so thoroughly disciplined, armed and equipped, as at present. The season of high water, on which our enemies relied to enable their fleets of gunboats to penetrate into our country and devastate our homes, is fast passing away; yet our strongholds on the Mississippi still bid defiance to the foe, and months of costly preparations for their reduction have been spent in vain. Disaster has been the result of their every effort to turn or storm Vicksburg and Port Hudson, as well as every attack on our batteries on the Red river, the Tallahatchie Within a few weeks and other navigable streams. the falling waters and the increasing heats of summer will complete their discomfiture, and compel their baffled and defeated forces to the abandonment of expeditions on which was based their chief hope of success in effecting our subjugation. We must not forget, however, that the war is not yet ended, and that we are still confronted by powerful armies and threatened by numerous fleets, and that the government that controls those fleets and armies is driven to the most desperate effort to effect the unholy purpose in which it has thus far been defeated. It will use its utmost energy to avert this impending doom, so fully merited by the atrocities it has committed, the savage barbarities which it has encouraged, and the crowning attempt to excite a servile population to the massacre of our wives, our daughters and our helpless children. With such a contest before us, there is but one danger which the government of your choice regards with apprehension; and to avert this danger it appeals to the never failing patriotism and spirit which you have exhibited since the beginning of the war. The very unfavorable season, the protracted drouths of last year, reduced the harvests on which we depend, far below an average yield, and the deficiency was, unfortunately, still more marked in the northern part of our Confederacy, where supplies were specially needed for the army. If, through a confidence in an early peace, which may prove delusive, our fields should now be devoted to the production of cotton and tobacco, instead of grain and live stock and other articles necessary for subsistence of the people and army, the consequences may prove serious, if not disastrous, especially should the present season prove as unfavorable as the last. Your country, therefore, appeals to you to lay aside all thought of gain, and to devote yourselves to securing your liberties, without which these gains would be valueless. It is true that the wheat harvest in the more Southern States which will be gathered next month promises an abundant yield, but even if this promise be fulfilled, the difficulties of transportation, enhanced as it has been by an unusually rainy winter, will cause embarrassments in military operations and sufferings among the people, should the crops in the middle and northern portions of the Confederacy prove deficient. But no uneasiness may be felt in regard to a mere supply of bread for men. It is for the large amount of corn and forage required in the raising of live stock, and the supplies of the animals used in military operations, too bulky for distant transportation; and in them the deficiency of the last harvest was mostly felt. Let your fields be devoted exclusively to the production of corn, oats, beans, peas, potatoes and other food for man and beast; let corn be sowed broadcast for fodder, in immediate proximity to railroads, rivers and canals, and let all your efforts be directed to the prompt supply of these articles in the districts where our armies are operating. You will thus add greatly to their efficiency, and furnish the means without which it is impracticable to make those prompt and active movements which have hitherto stricken terror into our enemies and secured our most brilliant triumphs. It is Having thus placed before you, my countrymen, the reasons for the call made on you for aid in supplying the wants of the coming year, I will add a few words of appeal in behalf of the brave soldiers now confronting your enemies, and to whom your government is unable to furnish all the comforts they so richly merit. The supply of meat for the army is deficient. This deficiency is only temporary, for measures have been adopted, which will, it is believed, soon enable us to restore the full rations; but that ration is now reduced at times to one half the usual quantity in some of our armies. known that the supply of meat throughout the coun try is sufficient for the support of all, but the distances are so great, the condition of the roads has been so bad, during the five months of winter weather through which we have just passed, and the attempts of groveling speculators to forestall the market and make money out of the life-blood of our defenders, have so much influenced the withdrawal from sale of the surplus in the hands of the producers, that the government has been unable to gather full supplies. The Secretary of War has prepared a plan, which is appended to this address, by the aid of which or some similar means to he adopted by yourselves, you can assist the officers of the government in the purchase of the corn, the bacon, the pork and the beef, known to exist in large quantities in different parts of the country. Even if the surplus is less than believed, is it not a bitter and humiliating reflection that those who remain at home, secure from hardship and protected from danger, should be in the enjoyment of abundance, and that their slaves also should have a full supply of food, while their sons, brothers, husbands and fathers are stinted in the rations on which their health and efficiency depend. Entertaining no fear that you will either misconstrue the motives of this address, or fail to respond to the call of patriotism, I have placed the facts fully and frankly before you. Let us all unite in the performance of our duty, each in his sphere, and with concerted, persistent and well directed effort, there seems but little reason to doubt that, under the blessings of Him to whom we look for guidance and who has been to us our shield and strength, we shall maintain the sovereignty and independence of the Confederate States and transmit to our posterity the heritage bequeathed to us by our fathers. JEFFERSON DAVIS. Executive Office, Richmond, April 10, 1863. THE VALLANDIGHAM CASE. MR. LINCOLN'S REPLY TO THE PROTESTANTS. EXECUTIVE MAY ION, Washington, June 12, 1863. HON. ERASTUS CORNING and others: GENTLEMEN: Your letter of May 19, inclosing the resolutions of a public meeting held at Albany, N.Y., on the 16th of the same month, was received several days ago. The resolutions, as I understand them, are resolv. able into two propositions-first, the expression of a purpose to sustain the cause of the Union to se cure peace through victory, and to support the Administration in every constitutional and lawful measure to suppress the Rebellion; and secondly, a declaration of censure upon the Administration for supposed unconstitutional action, such as the making of military arrests. And, froin the two propositions, a third is deduced, which is that the gentlemen composing the meeting are resolved on doing their part to maintain our common government and country, despite the folly or wickedness, as they may con ceive, of any Administration. This position is eminently patriotic, and as such I thank the meeting and congratulate the nation for it. My own purpose is the same; so that the meeting and myself have a common object, and can have no difference, |