by John Beauchamp Jones
FEBRUARY 4TH.—Clear and pretty cold. We have news of another brilliant affair at Kinston, N. C., where Gen. Pickett has beaten the enemy, killing and wounding and taking some 500 men, besides capturing another gun-boat! Thus the campaign of 1864 opens auspiciously.
And Gen. Early has beaten the foe in HardyCounty, Northwest Virginia, capturing, it is said, some 800.
It is supposed that Gen. Pickett will push on to Newbern, and probably capture the town. At all events we shall get large supplies from the tide-water counties of North Carolina. General Lee planned the enterprise, sending some 15,000 men on the expedition.
Yesterday the Senate Committee reported against the House bill modifying the act making all men liable to conscription who have hired substitutes. But they are debating a new exemption bill in the House.
It is true Mr. Toombs was arrested at Savannah, or was ejected from the cars because he would not procure a passport.
To-day Mr. Kean, the young Chief of the Bureau of War, has registered all the clerks, the dates of their appointments, their age, and the number of children they have. He will make such remarks as suits him in each case, and submit the list to the Secretary for his action regarding the increased compensation. Will he intimate that his own services are so indispensable that he had better remain out of the field?
The following “political card” for the Northern Democrats was played yesterday. I think it a good one, if nothing more be said about it here. It will give the Abolitionists trouble in the rear while we assail them in the front.
The following extraordinary resolutions were, yesterday, introduced in the House of Representatives by Mr. Wright of Georgia. The House went into secret session before taking any action upon them.
“WHEREAS: The President of the United States, in a late public communication, did declare that no propositions for peace had been made to that government by the Confederate States, when, in truth, such propositions were prevented from being made by the President of the United States, in that he refused to bear, or even to receive, two commissioners, appointed to treat expressly of the preservation of amicable relations between the two governments.
“Nevertheless, that the Confederate States may stand justified in the sight of the conservative men of the North of all parties, and that the world may know which of the two governments it is that urges on a war unparalleled for the fierceness of the conflict, and intensifying into a sectional hatred unsurpassed in the annals of mankind. Therefore,
“Resolved, That the Confederate States invite the United States, through their government at Washington, to meet them by representatives equal to their representatives and senators in their respective Congress at ______, on the ___ day of ______ next, to consider,
“First: Whether they cannot agree upon the recognition of the Confederate States of America.
“Second: In the event of such recognition, whether they cannot agree upon the formation of a new government, founded upon the equality and sovereignty of the States; but if this cannot be done, to consider
“Third: Whether they cannot agree upon treaties, offensive, defensive, and commercial.
“Resolved, In the event of the passage of these resolutions, the President be requested to communicate the same to the Government at Washington, in such manner as he shall deem most in accordance with the usages of nations; and, in the event of their acceptance by that government, he do issue his proclamation of election of delegates, under such regulations as he may deem expedient.”
Eighteen car loads of coffee went up to the army to-day. I have not tasted coffee or tea for more than a year.
