hree years is no more than was experienced
by our forefathers of the Revolution. We must bear it to the end, for it
is the price of liberty. Yet we sigh for peace--God knows I do--while at
the same time we will endure the ordeal for years to come, rather than
succumb to the rule of an oppressor. We must be free, be the cost what
it may. Oh, if the spirit of fanaticism had been kept down by the good
sense of the people of the United States, the Union would have been
preserved, and we should have taken the highest position among the
great powers of the earth. It is too late now. Neither government may,
for a long series of years, aspire to lead the civilized nations of the
earth. Ambition, hatred, caprice and folly have combined to snap the
silken cord, and break the golden bowl. These are the consequences of a
persistency in sectional strife and domination, foreseen and foretold by
me in the "_Southern Monitor_," published in Philadelphia; no one
regarded the warning. Now hundreds of thousands are weeping in sackcloth
and ashes over the untimely end of hundreds of thousands slain in
battle! And thousands yet must fall, before the strife be ended.

NOVEMBER 2D.--A refugee from Portsmouth reports the arrival of 6000
Federal troops at Newport News, and that Richmond is to be menaced
again.

Brig.-Gen. H. W. Allen, Alexandria, La., reports 8000 deserters and
skulking conscripts in that vicinity, and a bad state of things
generally.

Gen. Lee has written three letters to the department, dated 30th and
31st October. 1st, complaining of the tardiness of the Bureau of
Examination, and the want of efficient officers; 2d, complaining of the
furloughs given Georgia officers as members of the legislature, causing
a brigade to be commanded by a lieutenant-colonel, etc.; 3d, relating to
an order from the Secretary to respite certain deserters, condemned to
execution. He says executions are necessary to keep the army together,
but he _feels_ the painfulness of the sad necessity.

Mr. H. D. Whitcomb, Superintendent Central Railroad, applied for and
obtained passports for his mother and sister to return to the United
States. He is a Northern man.

Brig.-Gen. S. A. Meredith (United States) writes from Fortress Monroe,
proposing that prisoners west of the Mississippi be exchanged at
Galveston. Mr. Ould, our agent of exchange, indorses on it that there is
no necessity for immediate action, for the United States are not
exchanging any