nsured him by a decided majority. What
will it end in?

No successors yet announced to Seddon and Campbell--Secretary and
Assistant Secretary of War. Perhaps they can be persuaded to remain.

After all, it appears that our fleet did not return, but remains down
the river; and as the enemy's gun-boats have been mostly sent to North
Carolina, Gen. Lee may give Grant some trouble. If he destroys the
bridges, the Federal troops on this side the river will be cut off from
their main army.

It is said the President has signed the bill creating a
commander-in-chief.

Rev. W. Spottswood Fontaine writes from Greensborough, N. C., that ----
reports that Senator Hunter is in favor of Virginia negotiating a
separate peace with the United States, as the other States will probably
abandon her to her fate, etc.

I saw Mr. Lyons to-day, who told me Mr. Hunter dined with him yesterday,
and that Gen. Lee took tea with him last evening, and seemed in good
spirits, hope, etc. Mr. Lyons thinks Gen. Lee was always a thorough
emancipationist. He owns no slaves. He (Mr. Lyons) thinks that using the
negroes in the war will be equivalent to universal emancipation, that
not a slave will remain after the President's idea (which he don't seem
to condemn) is expanded and reduced to practice. He favors sending out a
commissioner to Europe for aid, on the basis of emancipation, etc., as a
dernier ressort. He thinks our cause has received most injury from
Congress, of which he is no longer a member.

If it be really so, and if it were generally known, that Gen. Lee is,
and always has been opposed to slavery, how soon would his great
popularity vanish like the mist of the morning! Can it be possible that
_he_ has influenced the President's mind on this subject? Did he
influence the mind of his father-in-law, G. W. Park Custis, to
emancipate his hundreds of slaves? Gen. Lee would have been heir to all,
as his wife was an only child. There's some mistake about it.

The Secretary of State (still there!) informs the Secretary of War
(still here!) that the gold he wrote about to the President on the 18th
inst. for Gen. Hardee and for Mr. Conrad, is ready and subject to his
order.

_Four_ steamers have run into Charleston with a large amount of
commissary stores. This is providential.

JANUARY 26TH.--Clear and cold. No further news from the iron-clad fleet
that went down the river.

Beef is selling at $8 per pound this morning; wood at $150 per c