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v» ii t u a lift ilresa. City Printer—Official Paper MKKKST Tin PIKITLATION AUOUBTA. UA. FRIDAY MORNING luly 26 186? ALEXANDER 11. STEPHENS. A Visit i. 111. H'-mi— Hi«t fcnrnr lrrl.ll«'* M Vi.H vn ih«* Slid • » Naliannl I‘olltlc. tq.rci.l Camimtlfuct |o lit It* Tvrk Tlmi) C*AWI>>«I‘TILI I, t>A., Jalr IU. It lianiiv »wuk«» a liUiu-e ot ffrowsv imltffctvncr tor m» t.llow ,in*»«‘ii}jer.< bv the tii'.irgia Kailr-atl ms at n village station, si»me h'lmireii odd miles trom Atlanta. the train cnme to h momentary halt an i the conductor announced “Crawfordrille.” Hut letting it sweep onward to Augusta, I here debarked, for l had come many a long league with no other object in the world than to make a pilgrimage to tins same Craw ford vi lie. It is a poor old tumble down Georgia village, of three or four score wooden houses, which straggle over the sad and silent street or two, mildewed and weather worn, ami given over for a generation past to mere somnolence and decrepitude ; placed auiid a sterile and unpictnreaquo country, and inhab ited by a people dull, homely, and pro saic. To me, to you, perhaps to itself, it has but one purpose or meaning—it is the home of a fine spirit, of a shining intellect, of an illustrious statesman. It is the home of Alexander H. Stephens. That is justification enough of Craw fordviile. I had send my letter of introduction to precede me, as it was in the gray dawn when we reached Crawfordville, and after awhile walked to the house, which was pointed out to me by a negro as that of “Masaa Aleck."’ It is but a stone’s throw lrotn the depot, and stands in the midst of a piece of ground of three or four acres. The grounds are surrounded by a paling, and embel lished by some magnificent oaks of a great growth am! age, and half hidden in this grove is a plain and modest wooden house, the home ot Mr. Ste phens. Oil my approach he came out to greet me with a gentle, winning smile, and a warm welcome to “Liberty Hull,’’ which is the familiar name of his home. Having sent for my luggage, he established me dm lui. with the pressing entreaty to stay a week, a month, as long as possible. An open hearted hospitality is one of the promi nent traits ot his character. PKUSOS.NET. OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHEN’S. I have never seen Stephens before, . nor from his portraits should I have known him. imagine to yourself a figure slight and lragile, nearly six feet high, but with the student's stoop in the shoulders, and a pale, wan, care worn, wrinkled face, on which no sign of beard appears- —that would be what first strikes the eye. But this would fail to give the impression of the ensern ble of the man. There is in his whole personnel a certain unearthiness that moves one partly with awe and partly with pity ; awe at what seems almost a disembodied spirit, and pity when you see that it is humanity after all, and suf fering humanity, too. I have frequent ly seen Stephens' face described as the face of a boy, but«, boy has not a face covered with the furrows of grief. To me, it is rather the face of a woman— of a mother who has borne many suf ferings, who lias met these sufferings with gentle resignation, and whose resignation heaven has rewarded by that inward peace which illumines the countenance with an evanescent light from beyond the totnb. In his phy sique he lias just enough of the material tu make him subject to the law of gravi tation. There is a pair of scales on the balcony ; I took the fancy to stand on it and weigh myself. Stephens, with a little laugh, stepped on alter me —how much do you suppose he weighed ? Hindu four pounds avoirdupois! Perhaps there are some other traits that 1 might mention. His head without being imposing, is very fine in its contour, as though modeled by the band of the sculptor, and the brain laid deftly where it best belongs. His hair is of a silky fineness, brown originally, and now growing gray. Finally, he has a pair ot marvedous eyes, dark and liquid, and lull of intensity and power. He is fifty five years of age. Stephens’ life, as you well know, has been one long story of pain and travail, through which the struggling spirit has, in its workings, “ Fretted the feeble body to decay, And o’er informed the tenement of clay." 01 late he has been rather ill, and though I found him much better and up and around, he was still suffering—a fact which he attributed to the east wind, for he is subject to all the skyey influences. He finds that he has better health here, at his birth place, than anywhere else, and he tells tne that he enjoys the air of Crawfordville more than that of any place at which he ever was, except Fort Warren, the summer climate of which he spoke of as en chanting; and this is the only impres sion his six months* imprisonment there seems to have produced on him. HIS CHARACTERISTICS. lii this frail body dwells a very rare spirit. I willingly allow myself to forget, for the nonce, the Vice President ol a Confederacy in whose making he had no hand, and remember only that here is a man who has led a guileless lile. I believe 1 got very close to his inmost nature, and I can say 1 never saw a more pure, gentle, lovable human soul, lie is as free as we ever get to lie in this world Irom the frailties and passions and si; fiihuessesof our earthly nature, and lie has laid up treasure yonder by a life filled with good deeds. He has, for many, many years, spent tiie greater part of the largest profes sional income of any man in Georgia, in helping the needy, in educating poor young men, and in other multifarious benevolences, and I have heard from his neighbors innumerable stories, that bring tears to one's eyes, of bow he has befriended and defended and upraised the wretched and the ignorant and the criminal. Though far from rich (the value ot his estate would be under ten thousand dollars), lie yet spares, by abridging bis own modest wauls, a wonderful deal for charity, and is the almoner of unnumbered poor people, and especially, ns I have seen, of poor, helpless, shiftless blacks, who seem naturally to flock to “ Massa Aleck” in every time of need. This much 1 have said of his moral nature, because I fancy there is good even in the report ot a noble lile. Os his intellectual traits theie is no call for inu to Hpeuk, since the quality of his mind is already universally known. What is astonishing, however, is to see such mental vigor, such sustained and subtle thought, associated with a body su leeblu, so worn by disease. The relationship subsisting between the physical and moral parts in man forms one of the obscure and intricate prob lems in physiology nnd psychology, and certainly one of the strongest phe nomena in this pro Mem is the oft witnessed association ot extraontinnrv mental powers with bodily disease. I'crimps if we were to accept that philosophy which holds that men aru subject to supernal influences, we might sav that these influences require to ai t through organisations which, Irom some nhunrtmii tendency or some exceptional nerve, are what we may call negative. Such beings draw on sources of inspi ration beyond the realms of the con scious intellect, and are guided by unseen powers. Well, Stephens is one ■of these rare organizations ; so that in place of their being any occasion to wonder at what seems the paradox Ot so |xiwertul a mind joined to so feeble a body, one inav rather conclude that there is a necessary connection between the two. 1 shall end this brief charac terization bv saying that the same thing that endows him with the power of speculation impairs the quality of action, lie was out of place ns a leader in the rebellion, as indeed soon appeared ; for alter a while he spent most of his tune quietly here iu Cruwtordville, making only rare and rarer visits to Richmond. Not the type of nmii fitted to rule the elements in the storm and stress of that tremendous revolution, he was rather the seer who first of all seized its central meaning, and then the Cassandra, who in his brooding and prophetic soul read the omens ot its doom and dowufall. CONVERSATION. Mr. Stephens lias never been married. The result is that life iu “Liberty Hall” takes on a very free and easy character. There are no pestering (pardon, charm ingly pestering) women folks around to claim attention and break the compo sure of a pipe. He is a great smoker, and as I am myself somewhat of a votary of the weed, we soon fell in pleasant rapport, and passed the day sitting on the piazza, smoking and chatting; under the shadow of the great oaks. Mr. Stephens immediately opened the subject of the war by some kind allusions to certain poor contribu tions to its history by the present writer. From the military part of the war, iu which he takes a great interest, he diverged to its civil and political aspects, to secession, its rights and wrongs, to the. nature and history of the American Government, to the conduct of the rebellion, to his own relations thereto. As you may be aware, lie is engaged in writing a work ou the “War Between the States.” It is. however, as I gather, to be a monograph rather than a history, and will treat only of special points in the causes, conduct and results of the war of secession. lie shrinks from the amount of morbid anatomy that would be required in a complete history. “No right hearted Confede rate,” he observed to me, “can write the history of the war; it would be like a man raking up and exposing to view the follies and errors of his brother. Stephens is perhaps the only man who could, if he would, write the secret, internal history of the Confederacy, and as he is not so minded a great deal of it will die with him. The work on which he is now engaged cannot fail to possess a very high value; it need not, however, be looked for soon, as it is yet in no considerable degree of forward ness. THE ERRORS OF THE SOUTH. I may generalize the conclusion of a long, wide spreading talk regarding the conduct ot the South in this way: The South was guilty of two great mistakes —the first was secession itself, and the second the object lor wjiieh the war was made, to wit: independence. Add to these a third, namely the errors in the civil and military management of the war when it was once begun. I shall endeavor in the subsequent part ol this letter to develope some of tho leading points he made in regard to these several matters, and first of all as to bTRI’IIENs' POSITION ON SECESSION. As 1 have said, he regarded secession as a prodigious political blunder. I must now add that he believed in the perfect right of secession. This brought up iu our talk the whole vexed question of the sovereignty of the States, a theory firmly held by Mr. Stepht ms and believed by him to be the sole conservative principle in the Amer ican government, without which it runs into a mere government of the numeri cal majority, and ettding, one easily sees where, since all simple forms of govern ment ultimate in despotism. I will certainly not report my feeble attempt to break a lance, on this high issue, with this master of logical fencing. He went over the whole subject, tracing it through the debates in the Constitu tional Convention of 1787, and so down through the earlier and later times. the authorities he brought up were Calhoun and Webster, whose great debate he asked me to read. He looks upon these two speeches as the most perfect presentation and summation of the whole question, and as such lie intends to print th* m entire in his book. Calhoun he thinks utterly annihilated his antagonist, who, indeed, never replied; and he says that Webster afterward, while at Capron Springs, in Virginia, confessed that the States were sovereign. I ventured to say thut if it be conceded, as Webster concedes, on the revolt ot the Colonies, the entire sovereignty lapsed to the States, then one is caught in the meshes of Cal houn’s logic and must accept his con clusion ; for if we grant with Webster that the States were sovereign under the Confederation, then they remained sovereign under tho new Union; but perhaps the truth is that tile States never were sovereign even under the Confederation—that on the revolt there inhered in the States only such partial sovereignty as they shared with the other members of the British Empire, and that all that other paramount sovereignty which had before resided in the British Government lapsed, on the revolt, to the people ol the United States as a whole. But he replied that “ to prove that vou would need to upturn whole mountains ol history ; ’ and so after a long dissertation the matter ended where that debate generally ends. But while Stephens held dearly to the right of secession, he was convinced that at the time it was made it was a prodigious folly ; and these two views lie regards as justifying as well as his support of secession, when the deed was once done, as his opposition to it at the beginning. I brought this matter up in relerriug to his lamous Union speech before the Legislature at Milledgeville, m November, 18(i0, for lie lmd given me a copy ot his speeches, and I was glancing again over that one, which always struck me as the dying swuu song of Unionism in the South. “ People are greatly mistaken,” said he, “in regard to that speech. When I went North my friends said: ‘Oil, if you bad only held to the sentiment of that speech ; but we suppose you were over slaughed,' etc. But there was no inconsistency between that and my I action. They forget that while 1 opposed I secession as bad policy, I folly believed iu the right, and expressed my deter mination of shariug the fortunes of my Mute. 1 thought the Government of the l nited States was. as 1 then said, * the best Government the world ever saw.' There was no oppression, only anticipated evils, and I thought it was better to bear tlm ilia we had linn fly to others that we knew not of. But the people were iiilutuuied, and 1 was bound to go with them, if we nil went to destruction. You might us well have tried to stop the swine possessed by the devils from rushing into the sea, as to keep the people from rushing into secession.” Then, after a little pause, he added ; “ I did just, as 1 should have dotiwliad 1 been in the Convention that formed the Constitution in ’B7. Tlnsugh I should then have wanted Union, yet if it had been rejected, I would of course have been compelled to yield.” lie then gave me an interesting account of the circumstances under which he made his Milledgeville speech. At the time of the election ot Mr. Lincoln, the Georgia Legislature was sittiiiL'. The secession spirit ran very high in South Carolina, and had in fected Georgia. The most inflammatory speeches were made night after night. The invitation to address tho body came from its more conservative portion, and in response lie went down from here to Milledgeville, where he spoke on the night of the 14th of November. There had been an organized opposition to prevent his speaking ; nevertheless, he spoke. The speech was extempora neous, the inspiration of the moment, not fully reported, and never revised by him. It produced a profound impres sion, North and South, and gave rise to an interesting correspondence between Mr. Lincoln and Stephens. At the close of the speech, Mr. Toombs, his warm personal friend, but bitter politi cal opponent, who had the night before delivered a powerful and impassioned speech in favor of secession, called for three cheers for Stephens, “one of the brightest intellects and purest patriots thut now lives.” The Legislature, rampant on seces sion, wanted to take the State out of the Union without a convention; but by Stephens’ influence they were per suaded to submit it to the people. So finally the resolution was adopted for an election to be held oil the Ist ol January, 1801, to send delegates to a convention. But here again luck was against the Union men, and an illustra tion of this, Stephens went on to give me a curious account of HOW A RAIN STORM TOOK GEORGIA OUT OF THE UNION. Mr. Stephens had wanted a Conven tion of the people to be held about the 15th of December. lie knew that Georgia would not secede, and he was also sure that South Carolina, which had not yet seceded, would not, hot though she was, go out alone. But he could not effect this purpose. The slection for delegates was ordered for the Ist of January, which was after South Carolina had taken the leap. "Well,” he went ou to say, “on the Ist of January, there was a rain storm more violent than the oldest inhabitant remembered—notsiuce the flood on the Yazoo had there been such a storm. Ihe result was tiiat the country people could not get out to vote, and gave a preponderating influence in the election of delegates to the towns and villages, where you know, political epidemics are always stronger than elsewhere. We lost at least twenty Union members by this. Even Koine, up in the Chero kee country, where the Union sentiment was vastly in the ascendant, sent a secession delegate. 1 went over myself to the Court House yonder to vote, and the room was filled with dripping people, with wet saddles iu their hands, who had come through the flood and mire with immense difficulty. 1 made them a little speech there, and said then that 1 /eared the rain would lose us the election. And so indeed it did.” SI’IKIT OF THE GEORGIA CONVENTION. Mr. Stephens* was elected to the Covnvention—of course as as Union dele gate. The Union sentiment was at first considerably in the majority, but the disunioijsts pushed the fighl a I'outrunce. “The disappointed ambition ot who had expected to succeed Buchanan, carried him to great lengths. That man could have saved Georgia. In the Convention it was urged that we must seceilc —that there would be intestine strife if we did not—that the young men (who were mainly secessionists), would regard the old men as traitors. And then there was the great fact thut South Carolina was out, and she must be sustained. But had we not lost our Union delegates by that r.iiu, we would have been strong enough to dictate our own terms to the secessionists, and instead of supporting Carolina ou the line of secession, we would have been able to say ‘you must see to it that South Carolina comes back.’ In revo lutionary times,” he continued, “a phrase is often a great power; well, they got up the phrase ‘we can make better terms out than in,’ and that carried Georgia into secession.” “Was the question submitted to the popular vote 7" “No.” “Do you think there was Union sentiment enough to have voted down the ordinance?” “I think very likely ; but we were swept along by the swift advancing realities of war.” GLIMPSES OF THE EARLY WAK-IMYS. Much to Ilia surprise, Mr. Stephens was selected as one of the delegates from the State ot Georgia to Montgom ery. He hesitated two days, and finally consented to go only from a dictate of duty to aid in saving what could be saved of constitutional liberty in the pending general disruption which seemed to be determined on by one side, and not seriously objected to on the other. He took an active part in the formation of the Constitution for the Provisional Government. The day before the adjournment ol the convention the different delegations had meetings nl their rooms to consult in regard to the important question of a choice of Executive. Stephens was present with the Georgia delegation. It, was there stated that South Carolina did not wish to bring forward any name, and thought Georgia should have it. Mr. Stephens' personal choice was Toombs, whom he regarded as the most powerlul intellect of the South. There was, however, some mention of Stephens himself for the office ; but he then stated that he "wished to bo counted out—that even should lie be chosen unanimously, he would not accept, unless lie saw thut lie could form a cabinet that would agree upon the line of policy on which he thought the war should bo conducted." Hitherto the name of Davis had hardly been mooted ; but at this point some member came in and said bo understood that four Stales had agreed to present Mr. Davis. This was some thing new ; for Davis’ aspiration had been to be at tho bead of the army rather than in the Presidential chair. It was proposed to send out and ascer tain if the report was true. 4l'he case was found to tie ns stated. The dele gation then said they would wish Mr. Stephens for tho aecoud office, aud to this he (being absent from the hall) was unanimously elected. “ The office," he observed, ‘‘ was not unpleasing to me; it was Iree from responsibility, nnd 1 thought might afford me the means of doing good.” In apeakimr of Davis ho remarked thut there was great popular miaappre liensiou in regard to Ii in character. “ He was," said he, “ not at all what people suppose—not at all a fire eater; and though he was ol course a Slate Rights man, he could hutdly be called a secessionist.” “ Then he does not deserve to be counted with the conspirators—with the Golibs, and Yanceys, and Wigfatty!” “Certainly not. He wes opposed to secession, but did not have the courage to come out against it. llis course was simply the result of timidity, of the desire to keep the inside track and step into the shoes of Calhoun.” Then among other points Mr. Stephens mentioned that Davis was very averse to having Fort Sumter fired on, and only yielded after it was known that a fleet with reinforcements and supplies was off" the harbor. “ That, we regarded, alter the promises made, as the beginning of hostilities, and held, therefore, that it was not we that commenced the war.” It was universally thought tlia-t the war would be a brief holiday. “ Most of the prominent politicians, when we got through tho work of the Convention, hastened to enter the army, fearing that if they did nut get in quick they would lose the opportunity of making some capital for the future I” '*■ “ Mr. Davis,” he went on to say, “ observed to me soon after we got established at Montgomery, that ‘it would now be a question of brains who should win.’ and the remark was so just that I thought there must be a greatdeal where that came from. But there was manifested from the start a wonderful lack of statesmanship, and even of mere ordinary good sense.” 1 asked him to give me some illustra tions of this. “ Well,” said he, “there is the subject of finance—the sinews of war. Never was a people iu position to start with so magnificent a basis of credit as we. They said ‘Cotton was king.’ Nonsense I It was indeed a commercial king, but no political king. I always regarded the prevalent notion that England would intervene in our behalf on account of Colton ns the most chimerical of fan cies; and I told them at the time that the only effect of locking up our Cotton would be to stimulate its production elsewhere. Now observe,” he continued, •' what a foundation we had for credit, which Chatham calls the ‘ plumage of the bird.’ I proposed to take all the Cotton—say four million bales—at ten cents, paying for it with eight per cent, gold interest bearing bonds. By shipping it to Liverpool (whi.h we might readily have done, for there was no blockade to speak of during the first year) and holding it there till it rose to fifty cents, we would have had SBOO,- 000,000. Well, I early called Mr. Davis’ attention to it, but be told me he knew nothing ot finance, and said “go to Meminger.” Mentinger and 1 talked it all over one day, and who were to have another meeting two days afterward, but in the meantime he came out in the newspapers with an article showing the uncdnstitutionality of the proposed measure, and I never went near him on the subject afterward. But had we acted as I have indicated, we might readily have bought fleets in Europe, and might even have Tired mercenaries to light our battles. I proposed to have fifteen iron clads constructed in Europe, and to have three out by the following March. We might in this way have kept at least one or two ports open, and if the portal system is kept open the organism can live. A man will live if he can breathe through a quill even ; but when, one alter another, we lost all our ports, even to Wilmington, the game was up.” SOUTHERN INDEPENDENCE AND DELUSION. The dominant tone running through the whole ot Mr. Stephens’ utterances on the war, is the egregious folly of the South in waging it with the view to independence, instead of conducting it with the view to an accommodation of existing difficulties and a settlement on a continental basis. “The very physical features of the continent,” he remarked, “necessitate political unity, and even had the South won its independence, it would not have kept it for ten years.” Os course this opinion kept Stephens’ theory of the conduct of the war in sharp antagonism with that held by the Richmond Government. He believed, lor example, that diplomacy •should accompany the war step by step. He believed that “a very large portion of the people of the North was on essentially the same line with the people of the South ; that both wished the preservation of Constitutional liberty,” and his view was that the Confederate Government should have so conducted its policy as to foster, and aid, and support that sentiment, instead of alienating nnd repelling it. “But the gods, designing to destroy ns, first struck our rulers with madness.” STEPHENS’ FIRST EFFORT AT PEACE. Prompted by his ruling idea of losing no opportunity of seeking to accommo date matters between the warring sec tions, Mr. Stephens proposed immedi ately alter the battle of Clianeellorsville to open negotiations. “ The Union army," said lie, “was at that time greatly demoralized and I thought it a good time for a eouferen e. The Hun ter affair had caused a suspension of the cartel, aud tuy design was to open negotiations by discussing the prisoner question. I wrote a letter iu this sense from here to Mr. Davis, but I received no reply for six weeks, who'll on the 21)tli of June 1 got a dispatch asking me to come on to Richmond. On doing so I found that the military situation was greatly changed. Going to the War Office 1 ascertained that Vicks burg was hopelessly besieged, and that Lee was in Pennsylvania. I then saw clearly that nothing would come of it” —as, indeed, it will be remembered, nothing did, for though Mr. Stephens went down the James River to Fortress Monroe, he was net received. FATE OF A PEACE MISSIONARY. lii connection with the peace question and the reluctance of the Richmond authorities to give any countenance to efforts in that direction, Mr. Stephens told me a strange story, which I believe has never been published, of- the fate of an unfortunate pence emissary from the North. It appears that in the spring of ISG4 a person named Caball, trom one of the Western States, was taken prisoner at the battle of Olustee or Island Pond, in Florida, whither he had gone for the purpose of being taken prisoner nnd thus gaining admittance within the Confederate lines. On his capture Caball was taken to Aiiflerson ville, from which place he wrote a letter to Stephens, who ivus then at his home here, letting forth that the writer had come, after consultation with the lead ing peace men in the West and in Washington, with the view of opening negotiations for a cessation of the wur, and that he desired to be allowed to visit Mr. Stephens. “I got this letter in April, and immediately wrote to Richmond, asked that he should be permitted to come up and see me. In reply, I received word that an officer would be sent to ascertain wliat Caball bad to sav. But this was never done, und in June I received another letter from Caball, stating that be was dying, aud begged intercession on his behall. 1 sent ail indignant protest to Rieh insud, but heard nothing further of the matter till July, when I got word from the commandant of the post at Auder sonville that Caball was dead !’ THE CHICAGO PLATFORM. Stephens hailed the Democratic movement that found embodiment iu the Chicago platform as “ the first ray of light that came to illumine the darkness of the war.” And following out his line of policy, namely that of aiding nnd fostering the peace senti ment of the North, his desire, of course, was to give a hearty response to this effort. “ The Democratic Party. ’ said he, “ was pledged to mnke proffer of a proposition for a convocation of all the States. It is true it was rathir a kangaroo ticket, and they would have done better to have taken an out and out peace man. But whatever might have been McClellan’s personal views, he would have represented the State Rights Party. To be elected, he would have had to have such number ot States that with those of the South there would have been a two thirds majority. Together we might have reaffirmed the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions and established peace on a permanent basis.” He himself, in a speech at Augusts, made some remarks favorable to meeting the proposition of the Dem ocratic Party ;. but he was condemned by the whole press. The South sin cerely wanted Mr. Lincoln reflected, and Mr. Davis, at this time, in a speech at Macon, expressed his views in the saying that “ the only way to' make spaniels love you was to whip them 1” THE CONFEDERACY A DESPOTISM. 1 bad, in the course of our talk, many interesting revelations of the inner workings of the Richmond Government, and of its civil and military polity. Its war measures, especially, were animad verted oil most severely ; and promi nent among these conscription, which Stephens regarded as an enormous blunder, and a flagrant violation of the very prineip'e ou which the war was waged on the part of the South. “The result was,” lie observed, “that as the war went on, desertion, absenteeism, assumed prodigious proportions. Mr. Davis, in his Macon speech, stated that there were 150,000 deserters from the army. Now, the men had not grown lukewarm in the cause.” “But they found anew cause?” “They found anew cause. They had seceded for State Rights ; they lound a centralized despotism, aiming at a dynasty. Long before the end, think ing men began to realize that there would have to he a revolution. As for the manner in which supplies were raised, by impressment, that was mere robbery, and was attended with the most gigantic corruption the earth ever saw.” “And you had arbitrary arrests, too? ’ “ Oh, of the most shameful, shocking kind. Why, when I came out to Georgia, in 18G3, 1 found 1.100 persons in prison up here in Atlanta, without shadow of law.” Then, recurring to forced conscription, he added : “It was a satire to see free citizens dragged in chains to fight for liberty 1” “ Do you think, then, it would have been possible to have conducted the war purely on the voluntary, laisscz alter principle V” “Most assuredly. If it was not a free will war it was a crime. Before Cass ar crossed the It hi tie, when he was about to enter the wilderness, he put it to liis soldiers whether they would follow him, and only wanted such as were willing to go. The result was that, though the great body of the army had been opposed to the expedition, yet scarcely one refused to go. It is one tiling in such enterprises to coerce, and another, while really commanding, to seem to follow the popular impulse. All statesmen understand this ; and war without statesmanship and diplomacy is mere stupidity.” A SCENE IN THE SENATE. In December the proposition came up for a second suspension of habeas corpus. After a protracted debate in the Senate it came to a tie, and it remained with Mr. Stephens, who, as Vice President of the Confederacy, was President of the Senate, to decide the matter by giving the casting vote. “ I arose to announce my vote, and stated that I felt it to be my duty to explain the reasons that influenced me in what I was going to do, when a Senator objected to my speaking ” “ They all knew you were going to vote against the bill ?’’ “ Oh, yes I They had heard me a hundred times speak in private against the suspension of the habeas corpus." The Senator objected to Mr. Stephens speaking, because he was Vice Presi dent. and, alter sortie sparring, another Senator arose and declared his desire to change his vote to the affirmative, which would have carried the hill. Stephens ruled against his so doing, seeing that the debate was concluded; hut the members appealed from and overruled his decision and passed the bill. Upon this Mr. Stephens declared to Secretary Hunter his determination of resigning ; and this probably got to the ears of the Senators, tor, a few days afterward, they invited him to address the Senate in secret session. Accord ingly he did so in an elaborate speech, reviewing the internal and external policy of the Confederate Government. He took the ground that an entire change in the conduct ot the war was demanded, and urged that such over tures should be made as would call to their aid the conservative sentiment of tile North and lead to a settlement of the difficulties. Notwithstanding the injunction of secrecy, it seems his views got to the ears of tnentoers of the House, and when tile bill fur the sus pension of the habeas corpus came to a vote before that body it was killed by a majority of sixty seven. “If it had then been brought before the Senate it would not have received three votes.” Mr. Stephen’s views ou the proper policy to be pursued, were afterward thrown into the form of a bill, which was to be brought forward for consid eration the following week. Meantime, however, the whole matter was sus pended by THE BLAIR MISSION. And this part of the secrot history of the war, as well as what ocourreii during the Fortress Monrue conference, Mr. Stephens holds as confidential. There is, howovor, a bit of history regarding the Blair mission, which I hud ftoin a distinguished t onteiio rate officer in Virginia, aud which, as it was freely communicated, i may men lien here. It appeara that one of the proposi tions which Mr. Blair carried to Hichmond was that the Union army would make a landing on the coast of Texas io a posi tion menacing io the French in Mexico, that the Confederate army should, otter a show of following it up, hot that the two should unite in common cause iu vindica tion of the Monroe doctrine. Tho war meanwhile would bean adjournedquostion, and out of this probably a settlement would arise in tbo end. After tbe fiilure ot the Fort Monroe Conference in January, ’fis, Mr. Stephens returned tu his home fully impressed with the conviction that the collapse of tho Confederacy was nigh. It was reported in the papers that he went to Georgia with the object of making speeches to an use the people, but this is nonsense, though, indeed he was urged to do so. When Mr. liaris asked him what he irks going to do in Georgia, he told him he was going to do nothing, but stay quietly at home and wait for the end. RECONSTRUCTION. In reply to my question as to his view of what would have been the best method of restoring the Union, he stated that he would have boon giad to have seen the flherman Johnson capitulation ratified.— President Johnson, ho thought, had the power to do it, for Mr. Lincoln bad ren dered the Executive omnipotent, and John son might have done almost anything with tiiat prestige before Congress pricked it and found it a bubble, tie was opposed to the Constitutional Auiuodmcut, for tbe reason that if Georgia was not a State in the Union she could not act on the question at all, and if she w <s a State in tbe Union tbe measure was not prepared in a constitu tional form. ife, however, made a full expression of his views ou reconstruction in a speech delivered on the 22d of Febru ary, ififih, before the Georgia Legislature, by he request of that body. The key note he struck was that if liberty was to be pre served and the Government to be perpetu ated, it must be by bringing it back to tho principles on which it was made. On that foundation he thinks it might be made to embrace the continent and endure for ail time. SI. WES AND FKEFDMEN. Mr. Stephens freely admits that negro rutfrage is a necessary result of freedom. “To take them from under the protection of their masters and leave them without the protection of law would be most unjust.” “But will tho system work? ’ “I sincerely hnpo so; and if it does l shall believe the long expected millennia) has arrived." Therefore he got down De Tocqueville from the library, read the views of that distinguished political philos opher touching the fate of the negro on this continent, and agreed with him that the blacks were destin.d to go down before the faxon race. After this he diverged to a disquisition on slavery, which had always neon grossly misundirstood, and which lie regarded as a tuisnom r for the Southern institution, “tqir system,” be remarked, “was not at alt of the character as Roman slavery; it was the natural subordination of an inferior race. I should have certainly been an abolitionist, had 1 believed in the equality of tbe black species,” and there upon ho entered into a long ethnological disquisition. “It is true our system needed many improvements and ameliorations, and these would have come. Fur example, the year before tho war the Georgia Legis lature came within one vote of removing from the negroes the disability in regard to reading. It was only outside inter ercuce that retarded the necessary ameliorations, for when there is foreign intermeddling in social changes the friends of reform are always put in the attitude of sympathizers with the enemy. “Then the ‘corner stone’speech, which always seemed to mo a gigantic piiece of irony, truly expressed your views ou slavery “Surely; but that speech too has been misunderstood I did not regard our system as establishing any new Govern ment; the Government remained exactly as it was under the Constitution ; and all that I did was to define the term of our social hierarchy." Then he added; “The world, however, would have given us a bad name ; there was a great deal of talk at Montgomery about what name we should give the new Government; but I told them ‘ you need not trouble yourselves about that —the world will give us just the name you call your enemies; they will call us the Black Republic.” THE PHILADELPHIA CONVENTION. “ Did you go to the Philadelphia Conven tion,” I asked, “aud what did you think of that movement ?” “ Yes,” he rejoined, “ I went to Phila delphia, for I had many urgent letters from the North. But as soon as I got to Wash ington I saw the movement was doomed to failure. It had not tbe elements of suc cess iu it. It should have been made as free as the gospel and thrown open to ail— old rebels, Copperheads, and what not —all that favored a return to the Constitution as it was. But in the form the movement took I clearly foresaw that it was doomed to fall between the ridge of tho two great parties—the Radicals and tho Democrats.” AN EPISODE. While we were sitting on the porch, during the afternoon, the negro member of tbe Board of Registration came up to see Mr. Stephens. tie is a bright, fellow, named Ned, who lives in the adjoining county, and is well acquainted with Mr. Stephens He gave us the statistics of the day’s work in the registration of Taliaferro County, which is going on at the Court house here. The result showed that lour hundred and seventy persons had registered, and that the blacks had a majority of seventy five. “Massa Aleck,” said Ned, “I was looking to you to come down to the regi t alien, and was wailing to help you up the steps.” “Would you have ictmo registered, Nod?” “I would have done my best, Massa Aleck.” ‘•Well, Ned, said Mr. Stephens, “I have never voted since I voted against secession. '* Then to me, ‘T never voted during the Confederacy.*’ Air. Stephens to day made all bis negroes go and register. ‘*iiy aud bye," said he, “they will come and ask me how to vote. What can 1 tell them but to go with their race ?” A VISIT TO TUB FARM. Before tea, Mr. Stephens gave me a drive to his plantation, whioh is a couple of miles from his residence. It is a tract of a thousand acres, and is the place owned by his father and grand lather before him. Tbo old homestead bus long since disap peared, and though there is a good farm house on the place, he never occupies it, but has given it over to “ Bob/’ his princi pal negro man. All of Mr. Stephens’ former slaves (about thirty, l believe,) have remained on the place, lie has divided out the plantation into live farms, which ho lets to tho live heads of families, who live in separate houses, each one on his own place. The arrangement he makes with them is somewhat peculiar; thoy furnish everything, and he, for the rent of the land, receives one quarter the crop, which is a very generous arrangement for the negro. The relations they bear to him is that of a most affectionate reverence. Mr. Stephens told me with a good deal of glee that under the free labor system he is making some money out of his farm, which is something he never did before. Last year he realized S7OO, and as he does not value the place at above $5,000, this makes fourteen per cent, on the in ves; merit, lie wont on to contrast this with the small yield of Northern lands, and mentioued that ?everal farmers from New York and New England had boon down to see him and stated that three percent, is as much as they can muke. Stephens is an excel lent farmer, and during our ride prelected long and learnedly on the mysteries of agriculture, on rotation and manuring, ou ploughing aud phosphates. But as it was not to hear about such things that the present writer came to see Alexander 11. there shall no report thereof be made by him. SPECULATIONS, POLITICAL AND PHILOSOPHIC. After supper, as we sat smoking on the piazza, Stephens talked until long into the night ou a groat range of speculative and historical themes. Here are two or three llag ends of m3' reminiscenco. “Ln the development of human society/* said he, “actualities often outrun nomen clature. It was so when the United States Government was formed, for it was a Gov ernment of a novel type, for which there is no precedent, and consequently no appella tion. Be Tocqueville had a glimmering fight of thin. Ife «aw the immense change made in tbe federative system by allowing tho Government to a«'t on individuals; but be fails into error when he says, ‘Evidently this is no longer a Federal Government, but an incomplete National Government.’ It was in no respect a National Govern ment— ad that happened was anew devel opment of the Fudetal system. The Fede rative character was in no sense disturbed by tbe fact, the United States Government was accorded tbe power of acting on indi viduals, for between Governments mere treaties often operate in the same way.” He then got down and proceeded In quote from Calhoun’s ‘Discourseon Government “It is an acknowledged principle,” says that writer, “that Sovereigns may by com pact, modify or qualify the exercise of their power, without impairing their sovereignty” —and so on at length ; and when he closed the book he aJded, “This 1 have always re garded as one of the few books that will outlive the language in which they are writ ten.” Still more interesting, but still more difficult to report, are his views on rupre seutation. He had not seen J. Stuart Mill’s work on that subject; but from what I could tell him of the scheme in regard to a plurality of votes, the representation of minorities, etc., he did not seem to think much of it. llis own system contemplates the representation of society in its organic structure through the representation of its different classes, and orders, and interests ■ but it is rnueh too subtle for me to attempt any report. About wars lie said they were generally a mistake, and aggressive wars he regarded as almost always unjustifiable. “ I doubt,” said he, “if war ever accomplished any good. Even in the case of the American Colonies, if they had waited twenty years they would have had their independence without fighting. The Mexican war de moralized the whole country, and brought about most of our latter troubles—tho names made there were the pestilent poli ticians that bred our late troubles.” “ Will history adjudge secession as you did in your Union speech ?” “ I fancy not —it will look to principles. Historians do not take account of the five nerves of soci ety ; thoy are rough surgeons. Mr. Greeley deals with the issues in American history as a conflict throughout—a method of treatment that would be in place in discus sing English free trade or the corn laws, hut entirely inapplicable if we have regard to the nature of tho American Govern ment.” Os the moralists, he flouted Psley because be did not recognize a “moral sense” in man, and he thought if Paley and Wayland were burned and Cicero, lie Officiis, substi tuted in their place, it would be a great improvement. He spoke bighl of one or two of Swedenborg’s books that he bad been reading. “ His idea of future pun ishment is tbe only rational one, for it is against reason to believe in a vindictive deity.” i asked him if he had known Lincoln, and he said, “Yes, very well, we were in Con gress together, and Lincoln was*otie of the beven Young Indians.” To my query who they were, he said they were seven members of Congress, consisting of Stephens and Lincoln, together with Toombs, of Georgia, Flournoy, Pendleton, and Preston, of Vir ginia, and Cabell, of Florida, who, in 1847, banded together for the purpose of making Gen. Taylor President, and who received the name of the “seven young Indians,” from their alertness and adroitness in po litical skirmish-work. ‘ Oar people during the war,” said he. “had a wonderfully erro neous notion of Lincoln’s intellectual ability. To be sure, bn had very little idea of the nature of the Federal Government; but he was a woe man and knew the heart of the people well—a trait in which be re sembled Andrew Jackson. He taught in fables, like zEsop; and in Congress his speeches were mainly a string of anecdotes —and then a point. He invented the most of them; but they were generally extreme ly apt, and a full collection of them would be one of the most interesting of books.” To my question if he believed that there are supernatural influences and inspirations that move certain men (a question that grew out of a little discussion we had as to Stonewall Jackson’s character), he replied that, according to tho doctrine of proba bilities held by the Stoics, ho thought it at least likely. “I regard man as triparte,” said he—“body, soul, and spirit.” “That i- the doctrine of Epictetus?” “Yes,” he rejoined, “and of Pythagoras, before him. I do not see why the spiritual sense, that which reaches out toward the unseen, may not be cultivated as well as tho bodily senses or the intellectual power.” Aud from this he went on to tell me some re markable phenomena that had come within the range of his own experience, accompa nied with anecdotes which, from their ghostly character, befitted the hour iu which we were, for it was now the very witching time of night when grave, ards yawn. Fi nally the talk fell away altogether and we went to bed. Such is a most inadequate account of a day’s converse with this remarkable man. I sincerely trust that while the report may not be uninteresting to the reader.it will not have violated that courtesy 1 owe the gentle-hearted speaker. Libra. Special Notices. Consignees per South Caro lina Railroad, Jul3- 25, IS67.—Stovall A E, Clark <6 M, u A Cheatham & Bro, W Craig, P Collins, Geo Jackson, C T & Cos, R Schley, J T Napier, J D Roundtree, J 0 Matbewson, T Root, Teague <£ Cos, J W Moore, 11 J Greenwood, C A Williams Cos, Stenhouse & Cos, Geo T Jackson & Cos. Blair, S & Cos, Fleming & R, J J Breden burg, B A S, Hyams A, Cos, J D Butt & Bro, Lovy & Jacobs, 13 A Cos. Consignees per Central Rail road, July 25, 1867.—C A Williams A Cos, B W, J Bender. J K Garmany. J R3*an, Cook M, Wyman &M, V Richards <fr Bro, 13 13 A Cos, J G Balie A Bro, E Mustin, C A Robbe, A Bleakley, Augusta Factory, G A J Rappold, T C R, A Stevens, E O’Donnell, Barry A 13, E R Dorry, O'Dowd A M, R De Martin, T R Rhodes, A John son, A M Bruce, Mrs E L Walker. AUGUSTA, JULY 23d, 1867. J. P. CARR, Esq., will act as my Attorney during my absence from the City. jy24—fit. C. C. DRAKE. B@-THE UNDERSIGNED HAS received the appointment of UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER, for the South ern District of Georgia. Office at Augusta. may7 —Smo JACOB R. DAVIS. Jfcsr* IN THE CITY COURT OF AUGUSTA, MAY TERM, 1867.—The fol lowing named persons having been sum moned to attend the present Term of this Court, as Grand Jurors, and having failed to attend or render any excuse, they arc fined in the sum of Twenty Five Dollars each, to-wit; John r.I. Clarke, James Sim mons, Thomas P. Stovall, Joseph M. Newby, William E. Evans, and Win. M. Baily. And the following persons having been summoned to attend said Court, as Petit Jurors, aud failing to attend they are fined each Fifteen Dollars, to-wit: Mathew Markoy, Dennis Desmond, Pat, Mahoney, McKinney Law, William Luke, and James P. Parnell, unless they file good and suffi cient excuses, under oath, witli tho Clerk of this Court, ten days before the first day of tho next August Term of this Court. And it is further ordered that this order bo published in one of the City papers once a month for three months. A true extract from tho Minutes of the City Court of Augusta, this Ist day of June, 1867. JOHN W. TALIAFERRO, Clerk of the CPy Court of Augusta, jui—Jmltem At a M T ' r , lbllte ° f Re *P^. At a Meeting of the tv,i Car Factory, Georgia Rail,,'/* * % Evening, July 25th, ]g fi7 , ’ Thur 'i>; preamble and resolutions WRunes., Providence i„ superior judgment, ha, deenJ ;, *'• call from among us „ or „ 1 prf 'tetti efficient Superintend™, in"./* 1 ®" 4 »M JOHN E. MACMURPIiy ~ * 1 whose excellence demand; tribute of respect: “* •»' Tiierefore be it— Resolved, That ; n *v mented Superintendent* wtf 6 ° f °«1«. efficient and worthy offi™. “‘‘ re lost »„ ever ready in the disci,a,A dissolved, That whi'e 2 duty, bow to the supremacy ~fa .’* t ®iwiwl» deeply deplore the lo«, ,£ ,n ‘ *«!, *« miss his many virtues. Wlt “ sorrow JltH'tlvtd, That we wilU cherish with respect the who was „ur guide, end .j, h t'V h i» ate disposition » ( , n tire a d.n=- wi.h whom he came i„ and ell honor his memory for his J! 1 strict regard f.. r truth. ' manll nea, lLi • Rewired, That without affect,,- do sincerely offer our cond'u " )11 > * 9 relatives and friends, and we m sympathize with his ilmedUm th*ur pad bereavement, knu-vin I?® 1 * lost a kind husband and affection k,7s which is relieved only lit the v lation that his great suffering Co ‘’"' that his imiortal ! m Heaven. “ cn EJitig rest Resolved, That a copy of thee i . bo font to the different naauS' tamny. W. PAINTEK ' B- ROGF.KS ’ ju26—lt I-W.WHITJ. Louim'tUt' New Advertisements^ Dairy Farm fir Sale, A P A* M OF , - ]Xir five acp.es Ja. within a mile of, and south of thcCitv of Augusta. It is everyway suited f,, r Dairy and Truck Farm; is'well watered* has a beautiful Meadow, and. with amide water power; has a GRIST MILL, with two run of Stone, for fine and coarse feed. I n . mediate possession given. —ALSO— One Hundred and Kighty-Five (155; Acres neai Double Branches, east of, and bordering on tho Savannah Road, and run. ning hack to within a few yard, of n e Augusta and Savannah Railroad. Sold in lots to suit purchasers. 4LSO - Farms within two miles of the City of Augusta. Terms easy, if applied for at once. LOUIS DeLAIGLE, ju2f> 4t Trustee. For Sale, My residence, corner of Rey nold’s and Campbell .Streets—one of the most desirable locations in the City. Tho House con’ains nine Rooms, seven Closets, two Pant.-ics, four Rooms for Ser vants, one Smoke House, Carriage House, Stable and a good Garden. Cali ou me oa the premises for further particulars. ju26—4t C. A. HUDSON. LOST, ~ Either on broad or Campbell streets, between tho office of the ton. elitiUionalist aud the Georgia Railroad Car shed, a Package of THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS. The finder will be handsomeiy rewarded, and the tnind of a poor uiaa much relieved by leaving it at the ju26—it* DAILY PRESS OFFICE. Wool and Btcswax Wanted. The very highest cash pufce paid fur Washed and Unwashed WOOL aud JBJSJSSWAX, by 11. MOKIUSON, 101 Reynolds Stroct. Agent for Moles, Goldsmith a- fc'nn, ju2rt—tf Charleston aud bv)6ttm. A'NEWANDFAST SCHEDULE NOW IN OPERATION, WITH COM PLF.TE AND CONTINUOUS CON NECTIONS, FROM AUGUSTA, Via Wilmington , Richmond, H ashing ton, Baltimore , Philadelphia, JNct o York , Boston, etc. Trains now run through from AUGI STA to WILMINGTON, thus enabling passen gers to effect a rapid transit, and also to avoid ihe inconvenience of changes between the two poiuts. y&f- Passengers will take notice that tho 7 a.id. train from Augustaconnects with tlio Old Hay, and Richmond, Wilmingtou, aud Washington Routes. Take sleeping cars at Kingsville. W. J. WALKER, Gcue.al Agent. ISAAC LEVY. Agent. ts JUST RECEIVED BY I. Kahn & Cos., No. 262 BROAD STREET, case NEW YORK MILES O cases 7-8 and 41 Hill’s eEMI’EK IDEM | | case WAMSUTTA J cases James* STEAM MILLS g cases LONSDALE J case TUSCARORA, and various other brands too numerous to mention. In fact one of tho best assort ments of IILEACIIED GOODS ever offered in the City, to be sold at NEW Y<>RK PRICES. jy2s-eod* Family Meaicines. r\R. HOLSONBAKE’S > FEVER AND AGUE PILL?. DR. HOLSONBAKE’S VEGETABL PURGATIVE PILLS. DR. HOLSONBAKE’S CHOLERA AND DIARRHOEA SYRIT. At the request of many who have those medicines, I offer them to the public, in a cheap and convenient form, li» T * B S used them many years in my private prac tice I can recommend them with enure confidence. ffsgf* See circulars around the boxes. To be had at Wholesale aud Kefailot W. 11. Tutt, 264 Broad street, August*, A. II OLSON BAKE? Ah J* jy2l ts White Lead AND LINSEED OIL! OQQ GALLONS LINSEED OIL. 5,000 POUNDS PURE WHITE LEAD- Jjist received by Concentrated Lye. 5Q BOXES, For sale low by _>!» Wll. 11. TUTT. PRINTS. A FE "’ CASES - NEW ETVtES-