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B SOUTHERN NEWS, Albert Pike’s Letter to Jeff. Davis, The Latest from Dixie. [From the Grounds Appeal, Oct. 23.] ALBERT PIKE'S LETTER TO JEFF. DAVIS, SHOW Ing Ar Bindwan, Fort McGunrocs, Oxodaw Nation, July 3d, 1862. , Sun— As “of a private citizen“ of Arkansas, having a wife and children in Little Rock, though myself happily beyond the reach of the P. Material, who holds the liberty and liven of citizens in the hollow of his hand, I invoke the attention of the Chief Magistrate of the Confederacy, solemnly sworn to P#ReBAVE, PROTECT, and DEFEND the Constitution ‘and the levy to her orders, which I enclose, of Major General Hindman, commanding the Trans-Mississippi District. I might well deep in my military capacity since I have come time been in command o the Indian country, created a military de partment in November last, but now part of that district; because I may well apprehend that the absolute deepotsem established over the town of Little Rock, the County of Pa lecki, and other parts of the State, may be attempted to be extended to the Indian country, and the dilemma be presented to me of enjosuch orders here, or refusing to obey unlaw orders, and because, indeed it is already announced in “General Orders, that, on the recommendation of a Provost Marebs, enthroned at Little Rock, martial law will be declared in any portion of the Trens Miseneippi District, and by a novel poplariation of that novel magistrate, tariff .of prices is established throughout its whole extent. 2 I prefer, nevertheless, to do it in my char acter of citizen, because it is chiefly the rights of the citizen that are thus rudely in vad ed. But still, and because it makes the state of things in Arkansas,and, in some respects, elsewhere, eye unfounding, I do far remem ber that am © military service, as to mark the incredulous strides that usurpation has made within a few months, by placing before the eyes of the Chief Magistrate a eneral order, issued by me on the 27th of ebruary of the present year, occasioned by an interference in the Chickasaw Nation of Indians, on the part of a Chickasaw officer in the service of the Confederate States, with the prerogatives of the civil authorities and tribunals of that Indian tribe, and by, the compulsory enlistment, by the same officer, of certain individuals, in our service. I then declared to the Chickasaw people, that it was the pride and beast of the Con federate States that, no where within their limits, since the present revolution com menced, had the laws been suspended, the sittings of the courts of justice interrupted, or the military power placed above the civil authorities. And that was then true. A little more than a year has elapsed; and without any shadow of right or authority, in direct defiance of the Constitution, we set with astonishment, the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus suspended and martial law declared wherever in these Confederate States it pleases a General of any grade to sunstitute himself and his Provost Marshal in place of the law and the Constitution. In Arkane+s,“a Chief Provost Marshal is ap pointed and assigned to duty as Chief Pro vost Marshal of the whole Trans-Mississippi District, which includes a vast territory, oc cupied by five allied Indian tribes. On his recommendation, martial law is to be de clared, and Provost Marshals appointed, wherever necessary. He is authorized to enroll and compel to serve as Provost Guard, als white male persons between the ages of sixteen and forty five years, who are not sub ject to conscription, and not exempt from military service. He is to arrest and punish, all persons, who, anywhere in the district, suspend the ease of any produce, wares or merchandise, drug or commodity, in order to evate the Major General’s regulations con cerning the same; all persons who manifest or incite disaffection toward the Confeder ate States; and prereny guilty of any dis orderly or immoral conduct; as, also, all persons who refuse to receive Confederate notes as currency, st par, in business’ trans actions; and all who ask or receive, for any produce, goods, wares, or merchandise, drug s competiy, any higher price than fixed him. By decree of this Chief Provost Marshal, all merchants within the District of Arkavess, are required to keep open their stores from a certain hour in the morning to a certain hour in the evening, every day except Sun day, and are required to receive “in exchange for all articles of merchandice,” Confederate money, if tendered. A tariff of prices is an nounced to his ofjects, to be mainly enforced everywhere in the district; and all persona are informed that “all violations of this order will be met with ‘punishment commensurate with the offenge.” These prices, by General Order No. 14, he is empowered to regulate from time to time, at his discretion. By the third paragraph of the same Gen eral Order, martial law is declared through out the County of Pulaski, and Colonel Ben. ¥. Danley, Commandant of the Post and Pro vost Maj, is charged with the maintenance of order and discipline, and the suppress ing of vice, disorder and immorality, within that unfortunate county. And the power is also given him to proscribe and inflit penal ties, for all offenses coming within his juris diction, and to establish such regulations in regard to trade and traffic and the punish ment for violation of orders in respect there of, AS HE MAY DEEM PROPER. When Lieutenant Colonel Solon Borland, a little more than a year ago, prohibited the exportation of provisions and other articles necessary for the public forces, from Arkan sas, by way of ite and Black Rivers, the Governor of the State asserted the superior majesty of the law, and a superior officer promptly rescinded the order, relieved the offender of his command, and orddered him to headquarters. I have heard, but I do not know, that he was tried for the offense. The distance on the road to slavery traveled since then is immeagurable. The Chief Provost Marshal possesses all the powers, the concentration of which in the hands of one man constitutes the most in tolerable despotism. . Surely this ought to recommend us to the favorable consideration of three legitimate monarchs of Europe who have been supported heretofore to favor, as most absolute and legitimate, the cause of Abraham theiFirst. He is the legislator— for he defines the offenses and prescribes the naties, in his discretion, taking care that is some means known only to himself, it shall in every cage be “commensurate with the offenses.” He is the judge, because he tries the accused, renders the verdict and pronounces the sentence. And he is the exe cutioner, because it is he who is to inflict the punishment. He may whip, hang, brand, crown or quarter, for there is no limit to his powers; but he is simply an incarnate, mon strous and hideous despotism. Like a tripple headed deity, he wears the robe of the Sena tor and the ermine of the Judge, and wields the bloody forces of the Lictor at once: an order of the Major General, dated the 3d4 of June, all cotton in the Trans Mis sissippi District, except in the Choctaw country, is seized, for account of the Gen / and’placed under the control fof a single person, who is to make whatever deposition of it as will effectually prevent it from falling the hands of the enemy.” By a subsequent order, vast powers are , in this “offeer, £ 0 command sheriff, offi cers, conscripts and citizens, impresses, teams and he and to give away to neces sitous persona, polity of cotton for white person and slave. If any 1d eecrete cotton, and refuse to tit out, the offente is constituted treason, and he is to be ‘sied as a traitor, as also are not only persons resisting the execution of the order, but aso those who fail to give the captain. aid when called ’ = . Thus, ‘ oar ene all te ¥, nor the State, is declared to be dive an R in one b in the Con‘ed srate in utter contempt of that provision of the ‘tel entment between the States, ch declareg that no man shall be deprived of eet or property without due process ’ . It is only owing to the forbearance of the rebuttary powse, that lands, horses books and furniture, are not also Paci aoe on a ~* the ee Btatee. ur enemies, the Northern ‘28, ect at naught the of the old Consti tution, py #which they have agreed to deliver Be tes yeas ae ea at the co aa that, ae cange, o rie end poceriou'nightful remedy. . Ba Pave, seis the alened, and in» ohee the lity of loyal men, declares it treason for, loyal citi zen to corceal his own lawful property, to ones unnecessar and wanton and his the whole Ce end all the law st ard men and dare to ¢ of decors after nine o'clock (mang nd wos! 6 sexe nate to a Sha, seloores must be age the curfew johed, sad r th ad set, their 1 pm cure I need not enlarge upon these extendi ary orders. ‘I do not for an'instant e look upon then wi other feelings Shoes of ligeror on if in of common #e e as scorn to the declaration of el ew ae whole extent of wholly loyal 8 ptor ing, in my opinion, 5 : source. Ot ie de see, even be rigedier whole 2 A Generis: it is a deprivation on of 4 sgalzat which the paratid instinctively revolta. 1h Jodie Eelawr, and even the Constitution, as worthless and impotent, and impeaches the civil aa as incompe tent or corrupt. It is, in Arkansas, an obscure person, suddenly eye to the Pro vost Marshal, arbiter of men, the lawmaker, the judge, and execu . Men begin to ask themselves, if they da’ ask it of others, even in a whisper, les whis er chould be heard, whether po frees ‘em, only to be thus obtained, is worth the sacrifice of manhood and independence at once. = = To substitute an irresponsible and un ded military despotiem in place of the constitution, the laws and the courts of jus tice, is like an unjust cause. It “reconciled men to desertion, sacrifices want of zeal, and is a pretext for cowardice. It renders hard ships more Shaping more obnoxious are agi less satisfactory to the mind of the soldier.” The swiftness with which men vents the unnecessary and insolent substitution of armed violence for the peaceful sway of the law and the wholesome vigor of the ciritri bunals, is a most evil symptom, indicating the virulence of the disease within. It can not but nend to make the people think their cause is desperate, when such desperate rem edies are resorted to, and received with un bounded apprecation. But the eway of martial law never is for any length of time ,wisely adapted to cir cumstances.” It remains, after all, but the absolute despotism of one man, with no other guide or rule for his conduct than his own will No man can define what martial law is, or what its boundaries are. No man ever attempts to do it. When power, unbridled and uncontrolled by Constitution, Bill of Rights, Law, Usage or Custom, is placed in the hands of one single man, it is too gene rally the case that he is found to mistake vio lence for energy, and prefer the display of petty power to the interests of the common cause. When the Portugese Regency wished Lord Wellington to take the punishment of of fenders into his own hand#‘he informed them that, although he advised the adoption of severe meatures, he would not be made the despotic punisher of the people, while the actual laws were sufficient for that pur pose.” ‘A system of terror has always been the resource of those leaters, who, being en gaged in great undertakings, were unable to recur to discipline. Enthusiasm started in front of their bands, but punishment brought up the rear.” And human nature must have become something that it never has been heretofore, if a life of toil and danger, re peated defeats, the depreciation of money, the ecarcity and high price of the most necessar copplies, the weight of the burthen of oak and all made ten fold heavier by the discon tent of the people at the sudden birth of a whole brood of local despotisms, abridgin snl their civic and many of their natur rights at once, do not soon abate their desire , continue the struggle, and inactivity be come the sign of subjection. As a citizen of Arkansas, with everything I have on earth at stake in this controversy, one, as the leader of a force of Indians, a scaffold in perspective, in case of our failure, I protest against these great wrongs. For the echo of the country, of the honest, trusting, patriotic, saking people; for the sake o iberty, strangled, like Lassord, by military despotism; for the sake of the dignity of human nature itself, I beg the President, in the name of thousands upon thousands, who dere not lift their voices in condemnation or protest, not only to annul all these illegal and ar measures,everywhere, but to mark them with his signal disapprobation.. For it is most certain that by-and- by the people will regain their reason, will claim the pro tection of the constitution and the magis trates swarm to defend it, and will become alive to the great truth, which now seems almost obsolete, that the way to Liberty does not run by the road to slavery. _I am, with the greatest respect, the Pre sident’s most obedient servant, ALBERT PIKE. LETTER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR REPUDIAT ING HINDMAX. Contrprints States of Ammsica, Was Detainment, Riehmonn, September 5, 1862. , Sir: I] have received the two resolutions adopted by the House of Representatives on the 1st instant, and referred to this Depart ment for report by your Excellency. In reply have the honor to report: II. The Department has no official informa tion of the conduct imputed to Gen. Hind man; but having seen ordera espera to come from him declaring martial law and adopting oppressive police regulations in Arkavess, Gen. Holmes has been instructed to inquire into it, and, if he found such to be the case, to recinct thatleclaration of martial law and the regulations adopted to carry it into effect. General Holmes is also in structed as to the mode of executing the Con script Law. General Hindman was not sent to Arkan sas by the Department, and has never been a Commencing General of the Trans-Missis — einen ; ery , your obedient servant, to God W. RANDOLPH, bas Secretary of War. ANOTHER LETTER FROM T. A. BR. NELSON. The following letter we find in the Green ville (Terin.) Banner, of the 15th inst . Major Janes Fe MeDowell, Clad’ Briton, Major James P. McDowe 16 Wm. M. Lowry, EB. W. ee James Britor, A. W. Howard, Samuel Mul ligan, J. H. Robinson, Thos. L. Williams, and others. Gunrixmey:—Your favor of the 6th inst, requesting me to address the people of Hast Tconeses, and especially of Green County, at an early day, rescbed here during my absence at Elizabethton Court, and since my return I have bestowed upon it and various other letters of smilar import from different quarters of East Tennessee, that attentive consideration which an earnest desire to gratify, if possible, the wishes of so many respectible citizens, on the one hand, and a proper sense of duty to my family and my clients, on the other, de manded. It would be a source of much gratification to me to meet my fellow citizens face to face, and to show by quotations from my own speeches in Congress and elsewhere, and Mr. Lincoln’emes j and other documents, to which I did not have access when my recent address was prepared, that in the publication of that address I was animated by no other earthly motive than to redeem my solemn ledges, and to prove that Union men, who have stood upon p' 16 in opposing the Southern movement,will still stand upon rinciple when they sustain it. If they have a coin to shift their ground it has not been use they destred to do so, but because Mr.Lincoln, after zeaching compensation to the owners of slaves in border States; after disowning Hunter's Proclamation of Emancipation; after refusing begio regiments, ai wen after his letter to Horace Gr —ia 23 Well as in other. in the ae he was eseabee teen aangle agesnet the abolitionists who hold that: there be no property in. man, suddenly turned a somerset, forgot his boasted to support bulletin that 2a himself would have nau It would, Le sy ney desirable to wou re be me peer e ad ———— alation ‘of messed,and to meet my especially, in‘spirit of kindness and? but the duties which I owe at the courts, ¥ ae a _ and the compat necessity of a g to my own dom and pivote ‘affairs, compel me, at least for the Slants iogresis of Opeenvil it woud be oO almost imle to decline other fric tions, and I am strained to ask you to Saute ply with your requee respectfully, your obedient servant, a Fos. A. R. NELSON, GENERAL PEMBERTON. This officer has gone to Jackson to assume command of the Department of Mississippi. He belonged to the United States Army, and was the officer, we learn, who led the Fed eral troops through Baltimore, when they were set upon and stoned by the pu bscene in arrerion, Pem berton ,immy came to johmond, wid Pat Richmo President Davis appointed him to command in the Confederate twice. Prabeeq Ueki Ganbes Pemberton was sent GresRAL MAGRUDER The Richmond Whig, of the 16th, says: “This brilliant, See and abie officer has been enignee oe the Trang- Mis sissippi pe parent at heart fi meriie Texas, Now Me We are sure that e “bing pment oe de fence Coal Will be'done' by Gen. Magruder, poing as means and men are furnished him. The public had hoped that they would SEeeetn the be than in Texas; nevertheless, they are sure that, wherever he ' s who was is gn 10 , who was 1 in that ones wed been wed in that city, stating that But ler, the beast, sad, about 7,000 Yankees, had landed at Pensacola. The object had not been developed, but It, was thought that no early advance on Polardé was contemplated. The place in at the junction of the Mole and Percecols. With the Montgomery and Pensa cola Roads, about sixty miles north of the latter place. The Montgomery Adv of yesterday, containg nothing about the reafter.—[Columbne Times, 17th. GEN. SMITH Reviewed all the infantry stationed here on Cen afternoon, at the old race couresy, above the city. The troops made a very bancsome display, and went through the different evolutions in fine style. The Gen eral was highly one with their perform ances, and paid them a very handsome com pliment for their exemplary state of disci pline.—[Vicksburg Whig THE SOUTHERN PEOPLE Expect now only one thing—war—until they are destroyed, or a peace is made with a beaten enemy, on his own soil. What Europe is going to do, what the North is going to do, are questions which perplex us no more. We are determined on that simple and clear road to our end, which is measures by the pride of the sword. The South will now fight while i remains in it It hunts for no silver, and will look for no terma.— [Richmond Examiner. THE CONFEDERATE CONGRESS Has appropriated six millions of dollars for the defenses of Tennessee and Cumberien Rivers, and ordered the building of a suffi cient number of punbos's for the protection of thore rivers. Whatever is done in this particular should be done at once. Let the channels on some of the shoals be obstructed. It is too late to commerce the construction of gunboats. CONSCRIPTION IN MIDDLE TENNESSEE. We understand that Governor Harris has issued an order for the enforcement of the Conscript Law in all the counties east of Da vidson, in Middle Tennessee, that is, in those counties in our possession. This will mate by increase the forces from our State. 86 f the Chattenooga Rebel. _ GSN. S08 B. JOHNSTON Was expected to reach Knoxville on the 16th inst. I I seems to be the general under standing that he will take the command of the Army of the West. GEN PRESTON SMITH. We learn that the brigade of General Pres ton Smith wee not engaged in the recent fight in Kentucky. We make this statement for the benfit of those having friends in that brigade.—[Chattanooga Rebel. EAST TENNESSEE. . The Knoxville Register of the 16th instant says that the thinking, intelligent and inde endent men of the former Union party of ast Tennessee, are rapidly declaring their adhesion to the cause of the South. They would not have the country overrun by lib erated slayer, who shall compete for employ ment with the laboring whites, who shall become as they have everywhere in the free a atec—an idle, thieving and wretched popu ation. JEFF. THOMPSON The Richmond papers announce the arrival of J. ff. Thompson, THE VICTORY IN MISSOURI. HrppovArtisns iN THE Fisip, Exx Horn, Oct. 4, 1862. To Major General 7. ©. Hindman, 7 Grxnat—Colonels Cov, br Phe oha palsed the enemy, four to .\’° , arp tems strong, at Newtonia, on the 13th.. Dred ber, killing one hundred and fifty, cap. : one hundred and fifteen prisoners; number 6. wounded not known. The enemy, com manded by Brigadier General Solomon, fell back to Sarcoxie,a distance of fifteen miles, which pace they now occupy in considerable force, having been reinforced from Kangar. The entire force at Sarcoxie is from Kansas. The prisoners taken, are of the Wisconsin 9th, Solomon's brag regiment. = The enemy still occupy Springfield and Mount Verretn, with two thousand at Oste Creek, twenty-five miles south of Spring field. Respectfully, your ob’t serv’t., JAMES S. RAINES, Brig. Gen. THE YELLOW FEVER AT WILMINGTON, WH. 0. The Wilmington Journal, of the 13th, has the following: Tex Fryer — We had hoped that, although the epidemic now raging here had by Friday last reached an unprecedented extent as ra garde the number of cases, yet the worst of mortality was over. And it might have been 80, but for the violent change in temperature which occurred on Saturday night. About 10 o'clock on Saturday night a cold rain came on. With but little lightning, and the thermometer fell rapidly, almost imme diately, come sixteen degrees. The effect upon over five hundred cases of yellow fever may be imagined. The mor tality on Saturday night and Sunday ex ceeded anything that had been known since the epidemic commenced, or since Wilmig ton was a town. Coffins—coffins, was the great want, and so continues. Coffins can not be obtained as people die. Drip, —_ from the lenten cky. Death and sickaces all around. . This last Sunday, to which we had looked forward with come hope, was the precentess and saddest of all the days that we are seen yet. We cannot today obtain a report of the in terments at the cemetery, and the doctors do not generallyvpost the deaths, but we feel convinced the number of deaths since our last report will not fall short of thirty if it does not freely exceed that number. The note of new cases on Saturday was 53; what it was.on yesterday (Sunday) we have not yet heard: Pro about . the time. We have just heard the number was 40. A slip from the Wilmington Journal office, dated the 16th says: “The reports of the one for the last two days, show no alling off in the number of new case, nor from all we can go certain, does the mortalit at all diminish. On Monday there wer eighty-seven new cases, and on yesterday, Tuesday, there were seventy four. We are unable to ascertain the number of deaths, but from what we have heard, we think it can not have been less than fifteen in each of the two days just past. SEIGMISEING AT GERMANTOWS, Honiy Spraines, October: 23.—A of Yankee Infantry, numbering two hundred, attacked a squad of Confederate Cavalry at Germantown yesterday. After a en gagement our cavalry retired. Lose trifling.
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Cincinnati Daily Commercial
Cincinnati, Ohio, US
Mon, Nov 03, 1862
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