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THE WASHINGTON GAZETTE. JAS. A. WRIGHT, AGENT, THE WABHW6TON 6AHTTB, T*jou—Three DotLirs a year, io advance. jeftosoh iuvib n qm< The Prison Link on Jefferson Davis —By Lt. Col. John J. Craven, M. D, late Surgeon U. S. Volunteers and Phy aieian of Uie Prisoner. Carleton: New York. We make no apology for haring de* voted so much epaoe, in oar paper, to the prison history of Mr. Daria, believing that we ean in no way contribute so much to the gratification of readers. The work will no doubt soon be for sale by our book sellers, when all may satisfy the desire, sharpened by tbs extracts we have given, to read the work entire. It is a remarka ble volume, and though apparently trench ing on strict propriety, is written with such admirable taste and judgment as to violate in no way the trust imposed in the confi dential relations existing between the illus trious prisoner and his biographer. BE AVERS THE FURRY OF IUB MOTIVES. “They charge me with crime, Doctor, but God knows my innocence. I indorsed ao measure that'was not justified by the lawt of war. Failure if all forms of guilt in one, to men who occupied my position. Should I die, repeat this for the sake of my dear wife, and poor darling children. Tell the world I only loved Ameriea, and that in following my State I was only car rying out doctrines received from reveren ced lips in my early youth, and adopted by my judgment as the convictions of riper years.” Mr. Davis spoke with intense earnestness —the solemnity of a dying man, though not then in my judgment, in any immedi ate danger. ilia words, as quoted, were taken down on my return to quarters, and are here given for what each roader may think them worth. They certainly impres sed me as sincere, and as if—whether true or not, judged by the ataodard of law— the speaker uttered them iu the good faith of a religious mao, who thought death might'possibly be.near, if not imminent and certain. CRITICAL STATE OF nEAI.TH.—VITIATES AIR THE CAUSE. September I.—Was called at daylight by Gmpt. T.(h>w, officer of. the day, to tee, State prisoner D»v*, ’WhoVppeared" rapidly sinking, and ws * believed in a critical con dition. The carbuncle was much inflamed, bis pulse indicating extreme prostration of the vita! forces. Thoerysipelastwhioh had subsided now re-appeared, and the febrile excitement ran very high. Prescribed such remedies, constitutional and topical, as ware indicated; but always bad much trouble to persu .de him to use the stimulants so ur gently needed by his condition. Let me here say, however, that in docility and a strict adherence to whatever regimen was prescribed, Mr. Dsvia waa.the model patient of my practice, lie seemed to regard the doctor as captain of the patient's health, and obeyed every direction, however irk some, disagreeable, or punful, with milita ry exactness. Mr. Davis renewed bis complaints of the vitiated atmosphere of the casemate, de claring it to be noxious and pestilential from the causes before noticed. Mould gathered upon bis shoes, showing the damp ness oftire -place; and no animal life could Mospdf in ui atmosphere that granted these hfrpbometoas fungi. From the ris ifaantf fefcing of the tides in the loose cf the casemate, mephitic fun ilft tis in .[l. the sports of which, floating BmMnnrs thrown off in such quan- Hpies, incessant repetitions of ro ttpdtHffioßs, as to thoroughly pervade the ottering the lungs and blood r redeveloping their the citadel of life. <Om of {fosse fungi were ebar 4pteri»iio jpf noosphere in which a»4 other *» *f plague were (trial vankiy genera^, as La«l been eatafo ttdhttr fcytfes Rev. W'- in a long Wresting ser,«s of experimental re •UMlips with the microscope dsukSC tlto cholera visitation .>f 1854 In Eedbwd. Men in rolrnrt Wto mUrf deiythese mimmatic Snftueffinj; b'* him so physically reduced ,Ae nt. »o* phere that generated mould found no vk tal force sufficient to resist its poisonous inhalation. BIS VIEWS OF THE FUTURE OF THE SOUTH. Speaking of the negroes, Mr. Davie re marked, as regards their future, be saw no reason why they must die out, unless re maining idle. If herded together in idle nma and filth, as in the villages established by our military power, the small-pox, licen tiousness and drunkenness would make short work of them. Whenever so herded, they bad died off like sheep with- the -mur rain. Bat remaining an the plantations, as heretofore, and employed for wagee, they were a doedt and procreative people, altogether differing from the Indians, and not Ikely to die out like the latter. Their labor was needed, and though they could not jgijlliply sg fori in freedom s> under WASHINGTON, WILKES COUNTY, GA-, FRIDAY MORNING, JULY 18,1866. their wholesome restraints, he saw no good argument for their dying out. In ten years, or perhaps less, the South will have recovered the pecuniary lossee of the war. It has but little capital iu manu factories. Its capital was in land and ne groes. The land remains productive as ev er. The negro remains, but thejr labor baa to be paid for. Before the war there' had been 4,000,000 negroes, average value, 8500 each, or total value, two thousand millions of dollars. This was all gone, and the interest upon it, which bad been the profits of the negro’s labor in ex cess of bis coat for food, clothing and med cines. Still their labor remains; and with this and such European labor as will be imported, such Northern labor as must flow South, the profits of the Southern staples will not be long io restoring mate rial prosperity. In his freedom, if capable of being made to labor at all, the negro will not average more than six bales a year; but as the price of cotton has more than doubled, and is not liksly to recede, even this wilt yield an enormous profit. Six bales, of 400 pounds each, will be worth 8600 at twenty five cents per pound, while the cost of this species of labor will be about 8150 a year per band found—a profit of cetainly not less then 8300 a year on each blaok labor er employed. The land will not pass to any great ex teat from its former proprietors. They will lease it for a few years to men with capital, and then resume working it them selves ; or sell portions of it with tame ob ject, not materially decreasing their own poeessions. When the country is quiet, and profits of the crop come to bo known, there will be a rush southward from the sterile New England regions and from Eu rope, ecly equalled by that to California on the discovery of gold. Men will not stay in the mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire cultivating little farms of from fifty to a hundred acros, only yielding them some few hundreds a year profit for inces sant toil, when the rich lands of the South, under skies as warm and blue as those of Italy, and with an atmosphere as exhilara ting as that of France, are tbrowo open at from a dollar and a half to three dollars per acre. The water power of the South will be brought into use by this new immi gration and manufactuiit* will spring in all r HIS TREATMENT OF PRISONERS. Mr. Davis remarked that when bis tray of breakfast bad been brought in one morning he overheard some soldiers in the guard room outside commenting on the food given our prisoners during the late war. To hold hint responsible for this was worse then absurd—criminally false. For the last two years of the war, Lee's army had never more than half, and was oftener on quarter rations of rusty bacon and oorn. It was yet worse with other South ern armies when operating in a country which bad been campaigned over any time. Sherman with a front of thirty or forty miles, breaking ioto anew country, found no trouble in procuring food; but had he halted anywhere, even for a single week, must have starved. Marching every day, his men eat out anew section, and left be hind them a starving wilderness. Colonel Northrop, hi* Commissary-Gen eral, had many difficulties to contend with; and, not least, the incessant hostility of cer tain opponents of his administration, who, by striking at Northrop, really meant to strike at him. Even General , other wise so moderate and conservative, was in duced to join this injurious clamor. There was food in the Confederacy, bnt no means for its collection, the holders hiding it after the currency bad become deprecia ted ; and, if collected, then came the diffi culty of its transportation. Their railroads wereover-taxed, and the roiling stock soon gave out. They could not feed their own troops; and prisoners of war in all coun tries and ages bare canes of complaint. Some of his people confined in the West B Rd st Lookout Point, had been nearly starved at certain times, though be well knew, or well believed, full prison rations had becn-ordered and paid for in these clas ’set* Jlcrd men together in idleness within an arms taken from them, tbeir < /gpafcatiai*' lost, without employment for t you will find it difficult to keep them • good health. Tbyc-Were or dered t« r* ive precisely the same rations given to A' troops guarding them; bnt' dishonest t, » . i*saries and Provost Mar shals wet's, %' ‘ -nfaed to any people. Doubtless tfo- cm both aides often suffered thpf Ac ifth-ra,jiving charge of them might rjrii, bat wherever such dishonesty could be brought borne, prompt punishment followed. General Winder and Colonel Northrop did the beat they could, he believed; but both were poorly obeyed or seconded by their subordinates. To bold him responsible for such nnanthor ixed privations was both cruel and absurd. He orderafter order on the subject, and, cOnscfoui # the/«»r«Sl*d»SeuU* .of feeding tb» al offers for exchange—almost willing to accept any terms that would release his people from their burden. Non-exchange, however, was tbs policy adopted by the Federal Government—just as Austria, in her campaigns against Frederick the Great, refused to exchange; her calcula tion being, that as her population was five - times more numerous than Prussia’s, the refusal of exchange would be a wise meas ure. That it may have been prudent, though inhuman, situated as the South was, he was not prepared to deny; but pro tested against being held responsible for evils which no power of his could avert, and to escape from which almost any con cessions had been offered. WHAT CONSTITUTES 4 REBEL. Mr. Davis said it was ooalrary to reason and the law of nations to trait as a rebel lion or lawless riot s movement which had been the deliberate action of an entire people, through their duly organized State governments. To talk of treason in the South, was to oppose ao Matrary epithet against the authority of all writers of in ternational law. Vattel deduces from his study of all former precedent—and all subsequent international jurists have agreed with him—thet when a Ration separates into two parts, each claiming independence, and both or either setting up anew gov ernment, their quarrel, should it come to trial by arms, or by diplomacy, shall be re garded and settled precisely as though it were a difference between two separate na tions, which the divided sections, de facto, have become. Each must observe the laws of war ic the treatment of captives taken in the battle, aud such negotia tions as may, from time to time arise shall be conducted as between indepen dent and sovereign powers. Mere riots, or conspiracies for lawless objects, in which only limited fractions of a people are irreg ularly engaged, may be properly treated as treason, aud punished as tb. publio good may require ; but Edmund .Turks had ex hausted argument on the subject, in his memorable phrase, applied to the first Amerioan movement for independence: ‘I know not how an indiotmput against a whole people shall bo framed But for Mr. Linooln’s untimely death, Davis thought, there could Jiive been do question raised ufes*.-4bojMity#w,, That event —more a calamity t«#’ .) South than -North, ttma.»»Ljp«n»Sm l Sfofo. r<gtg»K piring bad ijijbunes popular passions to' the highest pitch, aud made Aha people of the seotion which had lost tifoir chief now seek as an equivalent the life of the chief of the section conquered. This was an impulse or passion, not a conclusion which judgment or justice could support. MR. DAVIS ON FEDERAL GENERALS. To my question what bethought of Gen eral Grant, Mr. Davis replied that he was a great soldier beyond doubt, but of anew school. If he had not started with an en ormous account in bank, bis checks would have been dishonored before this culmina tion was reached. At Shiloh he was de feated tbo first day, and would have been destroyed or compelled to surrender next morning but for Buell’s timely arrival with a fresh and well disciplined reinforcement, the strength of which had teen variously stated. When Secretary of War, he thought McClellsn the ablest officer In the army and had employed him on two important services—as Military Commissioner iu. the Crimes, and to explore a routs for the Pa cific Kail Road—both of which duties, bad been discharged in a manner to increase his reputation. Jla organized the Army of the Potomac admirably, but it required a'commander of more dash to wield the weapon in the field! McClellan’s caution amounted closely to timidity— moral timidity, for he was penonally brave. On his first laoding on the Peninsula there bad been only seven thousand troops to meet him, and these he should have rushed upon and overwhelmed at whatever cost. Cautious, and wishing to spare the blood of bis men, be commenced a regular siege, at Yorktown, giving bis enemies time to concentrate sufficient numbers and drive bimback. Asa magnanimous enemy he. respected McClellan, bnt thought he bad been promoted too rapidly for bis own good—before he had ripened in command and gained the experience requisite, for the supreme position. Ilsd be been kept in a subordinate capacity the two first Years of the war, rising from • » division to a corps, and thence to command in chief, be would have been the'greatesg of our sol diers. He had the best natural .gifts and highest intellectual training,tml was just .becoming fitted, and best fittod, for. bis po sition when removed. Had he been •sup ported by the government hfr might, have taken Richmond two years earlier, and it was with joy Mr. Davis hoard qf His removal after the battle of South Mountain and Anlictnra. Such sacrifices of officers to the ignorance of an unwariifce {jeOpli, anx ious to find in him a scapegoat" for tbeir own lack of discipline or endurance, were unavoidable in the early stages of every popular scat, . r * Pope, while Secetary of War, he had never been able to make serviceable, and Pope held bis own gallantly. His mind was not less inflated than his. body. He was a kind of American gascon, but with scientific attainments. Summer and Sedg wick were gallant and able soldiers—excel lent commanders in notion, courteous and reliable in all the relations of life. Hun ter, oi whom I asked him specialy as one of my old commanders, was his beau ideal of the military gentleman—the soul of in tegrity, intrepidity, true Christian piety, and honor. Mr. Davis had long been asso ciated with him, both in the service, and socially, and believed Hunter’s want of sucoess due in a great measure to his un willingness to bend to anything mean or sinister. He was rasb; impulsive; a man of action rather than thought; yielding to passions which he regarded as divine in stinots or intuitions—the mental temper of a devotee or fanatic. HIS ESTIMATE OF CONFEDERATE GENERALS. Os the officers of the Confederate side, Mr. Davis spoke in high terms of Gener al Lae, as a great soldier, and pure, Chris tian gentleman; also, in praise of Bragg and Pemberton, though the two latter, from unavoidable circumstances, snd the hostility of the party opposed to Mr. Da vis had not been accorded the position due to their talents by publio opinion in either Bectiou. Pemberton made a splendid de* fence of Vioksburg, and might have been relieved if the officer commanding the army'sent to relieve him (General Johnson) had not failed to obey the positive orders to attack General Grant which Mr. Seddon then Secretary of War, had sent. If the same officer, who was upheld in command by the anti-administration party, had vig orously attacked Sherman at Atlanta when direoted, the fortunes of the] war would have been changed, and Sherman burled bank to Nashville, over a sterile and wasted country—bis retreat little leas dis* aatrous than Napoleon’s from Moscow. Ha did not do so, snd was relieved—Gen eral Hood, a true and spirited soldier, taking his place—but the opportunity was then gone; and to this delay, more than to any other cause, the Southern people will attribute tbeir overthrow, when history comes to be truly written. Bragg's victory w ttosocrsw st Chio amauga .Mr. Davii regarded as one of „ Tfrr TwstjtevwnwwSw of to*. ' tsar eom'upS&iftwM disparity of the forces. TbesdMPP concentration of Grant and Hooker with Rosecianz and the victory of their combined foroes at Lookout Mountain, was the result of sn audacity or despiration whioh no military prudent' could hero forseen. So confident was Bragg in the iropregnabiility of his posi tion, that immediately after Gbicamauga.be detaohed Longstreet, with 16,000 men— about a third of his entire foroe—to make a demonstration against Knoxville, thus in directly tbeatening Grant’s communication with Nashville. Bragg’s position was final ly carried by tbo ovewhelming nunjdersof the enemy. Opponents of the adinistrstion censured Bragg for detaching Longstreet, but the subsequent events which made that movement unfortunate were of a character which no prudenco could have foreseen, no military calculation taken into view as, probable. All such reflections ware idle, however concluded Mr. Davis, and he must not be again betrayed into their indulgence. Success is yirtue and defeat crime. This is the philosophy of life—st least the only one the great Masses of mankind feel ready to accept. Woe to the conquered it is no less a popular cry in the nineteenth cen tury than when the barbarians first yelled it as they swarmed with dripping swords to the sack of Rome. DAVIS OH HIS CAPTURE. On leaving Richmond he went first to Danville, because it was intended that Lee should have moved in that direction, fall ing back to make s junction with John ston's force in’ the direction of Roanoke River. Grant, however, pressed forward so rapidly," and swung so far around, that Lee was obliged to retreat in the direction of Lynobburg with his main force while his vanguard, which arrived st Danville, insis ted on falling back and making the rally ing point at Charlotte in North Carolina. In Danville Mr. Davis learned of Lee's surrender. Immediately started for Golds boro’, where be met and had a consulta tion with General Johnston, thence going on South. A,t Lexington be received a dispatch from Johnston requesting that the Secretary of War (General Breckinridge) should repair to his headquarters near Ral eigh— Geheral Sherman Laving submited a proposition for laying down arms which was too comprehensive in itsscope for any meTe military commander to decide upon. Breckjnridge and Postmaster-General Rea gao immediately started for Johnston's camp, where Sherman submitted the terms of surrender on which ao armistice was de clared—the same terms subsequently dis approved by the autboritiei at Washing ton, - One of the features of the proposition YOL. I.—NO. I*. submitted by!General Sherman was 5 de claration of amnesty to all persons, both eivil and military. Notice being called to the fact particularly, Sherman said: "I mean just that," and gave as his reason that it was the only way to have period peace. He had previously offered to filr a vessel to take away any suoh persons as Mr. Davis might select, to be freighted with whatever personal property they might want to take with them, ana to go wherever it pleased. Field-Marshall BeneDeß, the Aus trian Comwandkr-jn-ChCS?.—BebMh, May 26.—The military correspondent sis the Kolniche Zeitung has lately given soma information respecting Field-Marshall Ben* edek, which possesses considerable interest from the important part that he will proba bly play in the approaohing campaign. He says that Benedek is not to be looked np* on with a loving eye by the Austrian no bility, who regard him as a mere porvmue. Unfortunately, there is ao Austrian general who was not beaten in 1859, snd conse quently Beaedek has become so unpleasant necessity, in spite of his want of aristoora* tio birth. When the Emperor offered him the command of the Army of the Nortb f he consented to accept it only under cer tain conditions. The first of these was that it should consist of 890,060 men. He is reported to have said that the Prus sians were a dangerous, and for the time * more hated, enemy than the Italians, and that the only proper plan was to attack them with suoh overwhelming foroe, sad to deal them such colossal blows, as to crush them in the first instanoe. Hie Prussian needle gun and rifled cannon would probably occasion the Austrians ve ry severe losses, but that the latter most push on regardless of any saorifieo of life, however great, In Italy, on the other hand, Austria should at first sot on the de fensive, and only after Prussia had been thoroughly vanquished, Silesia reoonquerej and Berlin burned to the ground should Austria direct her victorious armies to tha south and settle her account with Italy. Ii would appear from this that Eenedek is a General of the School of Gen. Grant. The Emperor has agreed to this condition, and iq consequence the army intended to operate against Prussia will oonsist of aey* en complete army corps, in addition to % strong cavalry rc«erya whereas the <w.tu ern army will consist of only three army hare been a somewhat bitter pill for an * Imperial Hapsbnrg, but it has bean swal lowed nevertheless. It was, namely, that no arohduke should be present with the. army. None of the archdukes are regar ded as prodigies of military genius and they will sooordingly do garrison duty in fortresses of the south. Hjs third condi tion was that be should select all the offi cers of his staff, which, from his known proclivities, is nearly equivalent to the ex clusion of Germans from suoh important commissions. Correspondence London Star,. ■ • ’ TJ A Romance of this Liverpool E*.- change.— As illustrative of the business which produced the late panic in England, the following story is told of one of the, great firm in Liverpool: “The firm in question have recently compounded with tbeir oreditors for a sum. under ten shillings in the pound, and in five instalments, extending over about eigbeen months. There is, however, just a probability that they may again be placed in a position to resume business and pay tbeir debts in full. It appears that their, chief losses have been in cotton, whioh is now, of course, relatively at a great depre ciation. They purchased some time ago, either in Araerioa or Egypt a very exten sive shipment of cotton, at about the high est price of the market at the time. The ootton was insured to its full value, but the chip on board which it was stowed, though considerably overdue, has not yA arrived at this country. If the vestal is is lost, therefore, the underwriters will have to pay over the full marketable value of the cotton st the time it was porehosed, and the firm will be enabled not only to pay tbeir debts in full, but to realize a handsome surplus. Should the vesessel and her cargo yet arrive in safety, the firm will be compelled to adopt tbecom positon above described. Persons at a distance from the centers of commer cial excitement and cpeculatlon perhap hardly realize the effects of a sudden fdepreciation or rise in cotton, but wa may statute as an illustration that in the cose of a vessel which recently arrived io Liverpool from Bombay, laden with cotton, depre ciation iu the value of this single oargo amounted to £63,000. The man who. made a shoe for the foot of a mountain is now engaged on a hat for the head of a discourse—after whick be will manufacture a plume for Gen. Intel ligence. What relation is the door-mat to till scraper? A stop father,