r
has been whispered here several times during the last few months. No one
believes it. When Vicksburg falls, many an invader will perish in its
ruins.

MARCH 7TH.--The President is sick, and has not been in the Executive
Office for three days. Gen. Toombs, resigned, has published a farewell
address to his brigade. He does not specify of what his grievance
consists; but he says he cannot longer hold his commission with honor.
The President must be aware of his perilous condition. When in
adversity, some of those he has trusted, discuss the bases of
reconstruction; and when we are prosperous, others, in similar
positions, agitate the question of reorganization--the motive of both
being his ruin. But I suppose he has calculated these contingencies, and
never anticipated paving a bed of roses to recline upon during the
terrible, and sometimes doubtful struggle for independence.

The rumor that Vicksburg had fallen is not confirmed; on the contrary,
the story that the Indianola, captured from the enemy, and reported to
have been blown up, was unfounded. We have Gen. Pemberton's official
assurance of this.

Col. Gorgas, Chief of Ordnance, a Pennsylvanian, sent into the
department to-day, with a request that it be filed, his oath of
allegiance to this government, and renunciation of that of the United
States, and of his native State. This would indicate that the location
of his nativity has been the subject of remark. What significance is to
be attributed to this step at this late day, I know not, and care not.
An error was committed in placing Northern men in high positions to the
exclusion of Southern men, quite as capable of filling them.

MARCH 8TH.--Judge Meredith's opinion, that foreigners, Marylanders, and
others, who have served in the army, have become domiciled, and are
liable to conscription, has produced a prodigious commotion. Gen.
Winder's door is beset with crowds of eager seekers of passports to
leave the Confederacy; and as these people are converting their
Confederate money into gold, the premium on specie has advanced.

Judge Campbell, Assistant Secretary of War, has decided that Judge
Meredith's opinion is not authority; and hence his son-in-law,
Lieut.-Col. Lay, who at present wields the Conscription Bureau, acts
accordingly. But Gen. Rains has a contrary opinion; and he intended to
see the President yesterday, who is understood to coincide with Judge
Meredith. It is also alleged that Secretary Sedd