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* THE COUNTRYMAN. 217 Thb Rebels and their Leader.—The popularity of Jeff Davis, is just now at a very low ebb in Dixie. The rebels, gen> erally, have a notion that he is somehow responsible for the great reverses that have overtaken them ; and, without scru ple, they are casting at hitn the sharpest reproaches. He is stigmatized, both for incapacity, and for neglect—for lack of brain, and for lack of heart. The pre vailing criticism upon him is all adverse; and his iorroer lieges now make him out to be a man very much to be despised. Now, we don’t feel ourselves called up on to say one word in behalf of Jeff Da vis. There is not a man on the footstool, whom we so utterly abhor. In our delib erate judgment, there has never lived a human being—certainly not in modern civilization—who attempted so enormous a crime, or wrought such a terrible ca lamity. Nothing is more certain than that, one or two centuries hence, when the last remnant of slavery has died out of the world, and history has made up its calm, irreversible verdict upon these times, the name of Jeff Davis, the slavery cham pion, the conspirator, and the traitor, will be put on the scroll as, beyond all cempar- ison, infamous. We say we have no plea to make for Jeff Davis. Yet we protest that it does not look well for his fellows in guilt to turn upon him, because be is not success ful. There is something in this act, ex quisitely paltry. We were going to say devilish, but about that we are not. so sure. If Milton is any authority, the devils don’t do 6Uch things ; for, among all the speeches he reports from the ter rors of Pandemonium, not one of them— whether from Moloch, or Mammon, Belial, or Beelzebub—contains a syllable of re proach against the rebel leader, or the ‘ sad overthrow, and foul defeat.’ The whole crew recognized that there had been ‘ equal hope, and hazard, in the glo rious enterprise,’ and were content to t ike, without complaint, the ‘equal ruin.’ The disposition of our American rebels, to make their chief responsible for their hard fate, belongs to the meanest elements of the human soul. It is very like the blind spite of the baffled reptile.- Bad as Jeff Davi* is, he has served the rebels well, and they have no right to complain of him. He was made their president by a unanimous vote. They had known him long, and thoroughly, and could not be mistaken, either about his faculties, or his devotion to their princi ples. It is the judgment of the whole world that they were not mistaken. They could have found no man in their borders so consummately qualified fur their leader ship. Cold, reseived, imperious, he could be the tool of no man. Ever audacious, yet never rash ; inflexible in his purpose, yet veisatile in the use of means ; of very- clear apprehension in general matters, and yet of a most bigoted attachment to the great rebel idea; of a temper of soul incapable alike, of undue elation, or de spondency ; of tireless industry, and of firstrate executive ability; he was precise ly fitted to be the chief of this tremen dous enterprise. The wonder ever will be, not that he at last sinks exhausted, but that he was ever able to stand against our government at all. History may be searched in vain for another instance of so prodigious a power organized from such limited materials, and holding out *o long against such terrible trials. The ability, and energy, with which he has consolidated, and sustained the rebellion, have extorted, not only the admiration of Europe, but of even the loyal north ; for the qualities are, in themselves, none the less admirable, though employed in the most wicked cause. Of course it cannot be pretended that Jeff Davis has made no mistakes. Were this so, it would prove him more than human. There never was human energy yet, which did not some* times flag, nor human judgment which did not sometimes miscalculate. Our point is, not that the rebel leader was perfect in his management, but that he was as near ly so, as any living man, in similar circum stances could have been ; and that, there fore, he cannot justly be reproached, in any measure, for the failure of the rebel enterprise. He has surpassed all the ex pectations his confederates in treason could have reasonably formed ; and he is just as much entitled to the confidence of his fellow-traitors, now, in their day of disaster, as he was a year ago, when, in the flush of victory, they shouted his name to the stars. The simple truth is, that this rebellion fails, because it was not possible for it to cope successfully, for any long period, with the mightier po.rer arrayed against it, especially when that power has right on its side. It was ceitain, from the outset, that if the north should once really gath er, and put -forth its vastly superior strength, the confederacy would have to yield sooner, or later, unless it should re ceive help from abroad. The desperate efforts which have been made by its en voys, to secure such help, have all the while betokened a lurking consciousness that this was its only chance. In the ear lier stage of the rebellion, before the first great uprising of the north, the southern people would have sooner ‘ brooked the infernal devil,’ to have set up a cotermin ous empire, than have endured Napoleon III. in Mexi<&. But, ever since, they have hai'ed every step of the French Em peror there, and, at the present time, would even be glad to accept, not only his close neighborhood, but his direct protec tion. We have no belief that Jeff Davis him self, with all his traitorous spirit, would have ever entered into open rebellion, had he not counted upon a divided, and paral yzed north, or speedy foreign intervention against the national government. Bold as he is, he, otherwise, never would have committed himself to on enterprise with-such terrible odds against it. Once in, of course be could not go back; and it is marvelous with what potent, and daunt less energy he has, ever since, been fight ing his fate. Accursed as he is, for all the ruin he has plotted, and the sea of blood he has caused to be shed, wo yet do not hesitate to testitfy that he has been as tfue to his work, as his fellow-traitors have to theirs. Having together sown tha wind, they must together reap the whirl wind. They deliberately challenged their fate. Though it comes in a different shape than they expected, let them meet it like men. This cursing of their is pitiful.—.New York Times, August 19* 1864. The Express Company Working to Rk- lieve the Soldiers.—“Col. F. W. Sims, Chief Inspector Railroad Transportation, on the 21st of February, at Richmond, issued the following address to Virginia soldiers : The soldiers in the field, trom Virginia, can have provisions sent them, free of ex pense, by the Southern Express Compa ny. - Packages should he plainly marked, with the name of the soldier, company, regiment, and brigade, ‘Care Captain P. H. Mayo, A. Q. M., Richmond, Va.,’ who who will see that they are sent to tha proper command. The agreement made with the Southern Express Company, February 20th, 1864, still continues in force, and the friends of soldiers in other states will mark their packages as formerly, in the care of their respective associations. F. W. Sims, Lt. Col., and Chief Ins. R. R. Trans. To this address, the following, from the superintendent of the company, is annex ed : Agents and Messengers Will receive, and forward promptly, any packages marked as above stated, and let charges be collected at Richmond. Shippers will be required to put their packages in good shipping condition, and our agents will always regard these goods as preferred freight. J. F. Gibson, Asst. Superintendent Southern Express Co. M Yankee News.—“ Senatobia, Maroh 28.—Northern dates to the 24th hare been received. The Sk Louis Republican'says, that re ports from New York show that metropo lis to have been excited, on the 23d, *>y reports that Sherman had arrived in front of Raleigh, and, in a great battle, had de feated Joe Johnston. This contributed to a fall in gold, -and a decline in the mar ket generally. John D. Stockton, democrat, has been elected U. S. senator from New Jersey, in place of Ten Eyck, republican. Orders had been received at Paducah, Ky,, for the transportation of ten thou sand prisoners, who are to be exchanged at Eastport, according to an agreement made by Gen. Thomas, with the confede rate authorities. Capt. Beauregard, a brother of General Beauregard, has passed through the city of Mexico, en route for Sonora. Jere Clemens, who has been residing in Philadelphia, for a year past, is about to return to his home in Huntsville, Ala.” ‘ One act of charity is worth a century of eloquence.’