r- *
T H E j E ? S 0 U T H.
PORT BOfAI, SAT., HOV. 22, 1862.
The Removal of McClell&n.
1
The most important item which reaches us in
our budget of news from the North is the removal
of M^j. Gen'l. Geo. B. McClellan, from the command
of the army of the Potomac. After a long
trial the judgment has at last come like the writing
on the wall, " Mene, raene, tekel upl^n^m.'' It is
. , ' needless to say that this news is received with very
different leelings by the anny and people at large
?still the most staunch adherents and supporters
of Gen. McClellan cannot but feel that the Admin-;
istration waited a long, very long time, for some- !
thing to be accomplished; an J the alternative was
^ at last presented of a change or a discontinuance of j
the war. No General in history ever assumed
command of so large and so well appointed an
qrrny under brighter auspices than did Gen'l.
McClellan. He was lauded to the skies by the en
tire press and possessed the confidence and sympathy
of the whole people, even before he had drawn
his sword or aagmned his rank. Having failed
to fulfill all the bright hopes entertained of him,
the time has come when his firmest friends?withQUt
abating a jot of their confidence or esteem?
can yield to what must appear to every patriot the ;
best interests of the country. We cannot forget j
that Gen'l. McClellan was made Commander-inChief
of the army almost at the beginning of the ;
war, when the need of the country was calling
peaceful and naeful citizens from their quiet avocations
into the ranks. Our army composed of
this material was at that time without order or
discipline. His remarkable skill and energy
quickly turned this crude material into welldrilled
and effective soldiery, and for this the
country owes him a debt of gratitude,
saa Trt Ho foAt thai Maior General Burnside has
been placed in command of the army bf the Potomac,
may be attributed the satisfaction with which
the people have accepted the change. He has the
sympathies and confidence of the entire people, j
Without assuming the knowledge of strategy and {
tactics which would entitle us to criticize his abil- j
ities as a military letter, we may say, judging from
# the past, we have high hopes that the confidence
rppoeed in him is not Displaced, and that th: Autumn
campaign under him and other noble Generally
ill prove the death-blow to rebellion.
The Hational Debt
ThA riitwt taxation to which the country has
been subjected to pay the interest of oar war debt,
has been found ^o be unnecessarily onerous and
severe, and will probably be modified by the next !
Congress. It is ascertained that the preseht rate
of taxation will return a total of $400,000,000 at
the end of a year?a sum equal to more than half
our wdole national debt. Up to the end of last
month our national debt had reached the sum of
less than $700,000,000. This amount includes the
entire circulation and every species of note, and
between seventy and eighty millions (^bt of the
]*te administration, making, also^l aHlwance of
more than twenty millions for ciffiBi ftff which no
requisitions have yet been made, bat wMch, adj usted
and unadjusted, cannot exceed this sum. <l'hus it;
will be seen, by these figures, that thi$ immense
war debt contracted by eighteen monthsjEtttpensive
fighting, necessitating the maiiitenancewnd clothing
of an army of half a million of men?a debt
bearing the enormous interest of more than 7 per
cent., can be liquidated, principal ftad interest, in
two years from this time?can be cancelled, by the
North alone, during the administration under which
it was contracted, and that too by a direct taxation
not as heavy as that which has for ages burdened
England, in paying merely the interest of her
debt. IIere is food for the reflective British mind,
and for those croakers who are so fond of predicting
the utter ruin of this country?who can see
* - - - * - -1 J
nought but defeat ana caustropne aueau. r mmc
events will show that if we as a nation have been
temporarily submerged in the sea of troubles,
it was not like the water-soaked log, which
alowly sinks to rise no more, but rather like the
cork, which, soon rid of the superincumbent pressure,
rises swiftiy to the surface as buoyant as
before.
The 4< Cursed Negro."?Under this heading
the Concord (N. H.,) Patriot and, SUte Gazette
launches a tirade of vulgarity against the " black
wretches whom Hunter and Mitch' 1 have been
feeding, clothing, educating and arming at the expense
of the nation," based upon the statement of
some scribbler at Beaufort who asserted that the ;
ol ject of the late expedition to Pocotaligo was de-1
feated and hundreds of our brave soldiers were
killed and wounded through the treachery of four
rascally negroes, who left Hilton Head with our j
troops and were afterwards seen fighting in the |
ranks of the enemy. Other papers just as unprin- j
cipled as the Patriot, as far as the interests of humanity
and civilization are concerned, and as careless
of the truth, have echoed the maiiguant lie, 1
and commented upon it in a similar manner. The 1
story is so palpably absurd that only editors of 1
scanty brains arid narrow prejudices could have 1
been gulled into believing it. We should like to j
see the brave fellow who, in the heat and ardor of (
battle, got so far hi advance of his comrades and
so near the rebd) lines as to bo able to distinguish 1
the dusky features of these four negroes. Let him \
reveal himself. Such modesty coupled with keen (
vision should not remain in shadow ! (
Raxpant.?Ad^eserter recently from Savannah J
reports that one of <he rams was ready for service,
and on the 3d iust., Beauregard had said that he
would attack and capture FortPuhski in fourteen
days. Beauregard as usual has not told the truth. '
As for the rams, they have been reported ready so '
often that we begin to weary of hearing of them. 1
If they're ready, why d$n't they come? They
must be waiting for their Lnu to grow. "We re ,
anxious to cotton to 'cm and they need not pull 1
their wool over V>ur eyes any longer. We aren't 1
sheepish and can t be cow-A?in fact we're ready
to go-at 'em at aay moment.
LOCAL HEWS.
T?ft*r?A thrill of iov Dulsated
through every heart ou Tuesday last upon the arrival
of the btearner Delaware, Capt. Cannon, from
New York, with the only mail which had come
to us for twenty-one days. The reception of news
from home seemed to lift the gloomy pall which
has lain upon us for more than three weeks, while
pestilence was stalking at noonday; and matters
and men, under the influence of the encouraging
tidings, have assumed a cheerful aspect. The
enormous accumulation of mail matter kept the
Post Office Department actively employed for fortysix
consecutive hours. There were seventy-one
mail-bags, thirteen of which contained letters?
about 85,000?and the remaining fifty-eight, newspapers
; and considering the cramped quarters in
which the assorting and distributing had to be per.
formed, the work was accomplishes m a wonderfully
short time. The Dri&vcart had a stormy passage
down and in tha'Tieight of a gale off Cape
Hatteras, she sprung a leak, making it almost necessary
to lighten her by throwing the cargo overboard.
By judicious management, however, and
untiring vigilance on the part of Capt. Cannon and
his oflmrs, this wa9 avoided, and the vessel weathered
the storm. There were a large number of
passengers, including eight ladies, M%jor Van
Brunt, our excellent Provost Marshal, Major Butt, i
of the Vol. Eugineers, Major Gosler, of the 47th |
Pa, and Capt. J. Hamilton, U. S. A., of the Battery, j
%
A Swinish Trick.?Last Thursday a little transaction
occurred between two eating-house keepers
on the dock, which for sharpness would have
struck envy to a Jew's heart, were it not that pork
entered into it. For obvious reasons we shall not # .
divulge the names of the parties, tut designate
them as Restaurateurs Xos. 1 and 2. It seems that
a Ko/1 Koian n/\mm!ou"Ant? 1 Kir pAefunrotpnr
0 OVUV uau WWII VVIUUIIOVIVIIV a MJ W?vw.
No. fto bring him down a pig from one of the adjacent
islilnds, and while Sambo with the unclean
beast was standing on the dock, waiting for No.
1 to come and claim his property, Restaurateur
No. 2 made his appearance. Fresh meat being
scarce just now he coveted the pig. and immedi- ^
ately began to revolve schemes in hrs head to obtain
the animal. Hereupon Restaurateur No. 1
appeared, and No. 2, perceiving him began to examine
the pork and make sundry comments upon ^
its strange appearance, dropping hints of measles,
yellow fever, &c. These re. arks were not lost
upon No. 1, who immediately showed signs ol uneasiness
and began to doubt the p g. 'i he spirit of
these':! was soon caught by the by-standers, who
chimed in so well thai No. 1 was airly frightened
out of his bargain and walked away d sconititted,
whereupon the pig was immediate y p rchasecl by
No. 2 at a reduced price and car iedoti'in triumph
amidst the applause of the crowd. The joke is
that No 1, loth to lose his prize, came back to
take another look ;tnd found the pig gone, lie
immediately "smelt a large mice" and departed
minus pork and plus experience, fr-hrewdne s
may sanction that at which Honesty .rowns.
A Missixq Steamer.?Apprehensi .ns are feit
for the safety of the steamer George Peabody,' apt.
Graham. The vessel left New York on Sunday
the 9th inst., for this port, with cattle, commissary
stores, and a few passengers, and up to the time of*"*
our going to pi ess nothing has beeu heard of
her. It is not unlikely that in coming down the
coast, she was compelled to put in at Ilamp.on
Roads, ll.itteras Inlet or Newbern where she may
have been detained by stress of weather but the
Quartermaster at New York is scarcely justified
In sending a small steamer, like the Gtorge Peabody,
only fitted for river navigation, on so long
a ?nraw pbtuvmaIIv at thi? season of the \ ear It
was intended that she should bring down a mail,
but fortunately through a misunderstanding, she
left New York before it was brought from the Post
Office.
A Deserter to be Shot.?W. W. Lunt, a private
of the 9th Maino Vols., deserted from Fo?nandina.
in April last, and made good his escape to
the rebels, to whom he gave important information
of our movements. While with them he committed
several thefts and was found guilty of suih low
s.tions. that even the ret els became disgusted with
bim and finally, as a punishment for stealing a small
Bum of money from a poor old woman gave him
up into our hands. He was tried for de&rtionby
a Court Martial, of which General Terry, who was
at that time CoLnel of the 7th Connecticut Kigt..
was President, and was sentenced to be shot. The
finding of the Court has been approved by President
l.incnln and the sentence will be carried into
effect on Monday morning Dec. 1, under the direction
of the Prov.st Marshal and in presence of the
whole command.
Disappearance of the Yellow Fever.?We
rejoice to be able to announce that no new cases
of yellow fever have made their appearance
this week. We cannot but feel that we have escaped
a dreadful pestilence, and our readers will
think with us that we have good cause to be
thankful that Providence has spared us more than
a passing visit of the raftron Knight, the ravages
of whose presence have been decimating Key
West. \Ve all owe a debt of gratitude to 1 r. < rane,
the Medical Director, and also to Dr Craven,
for their untiring efforts to prevent the spread of
ho rti&pnsp imlpprl. nnnp nf lis bnnw hnw mtmli
our safety may be due to their excellent sanitary
measures. Notwithstanding that all alarm about
the fever has subsided, these Precautions will bo
continued for a short time longer. The doctors
all agree that the disease was local.
Steamers tor the Express Co.?Mr. Ralph
Trembly has been authorized by the president of
Adams' Express Co. to purchase two large screw
steamers to be used in the service of the Company
along the coast, and he is now looking up
two such as are best fitted for the service. Wheu
this happy purpose is accomplished, we shall have
two re|uiar steamers, stopping at all the ports held
by us on the coast, and we shall at least receive our
expfcss matter regularly, and be in a measure free
from the annoyance of the Quartermaster's Department
in New York.