power, for the time being, reposes in the hands of the President.

A day of reckoning will come, for the people of the United States will
resume the powers of which the war has temporarily dispossessed them, or
else there will be disruptions, and civil war will submerge the earth in
blood. The time has not arrived, or else the right men have not arisen,
for the establishment of despotisms.

Everything depends upon the issues of the present campaign, and upon
them it may be bootless to speculate. No one may foretell the fortunes
of war--I mean where victory will ultimately perch in this frightful
struggle. We are environed and invaded by not less than 600,000 men in
arms, and we have not in the field more than 250,000 to oppose them. But
we have the advantage of occupying the interior position, always
affording superior facilities for concentration. Besides, our men
_must_ prevail in combat, or lose their property, country, freedom,
everything,--at least this is their conviction. On the other hand, the
enemy, in yielding the contest, may retire into their own country, and
possess everything they enjoyed before the war began. Hence it may be
confidently believed that in all the battles of this spring, when the
numbers are nearly equal, the Confederates will be the victors, and even
when the enemy have superior numbers, the armies of the South will fight
with Roman desperation. The conflict will be appalling and sanguinary
beyond example, provided the invader stand up to it. That much is
certain. And if our armies are overthrown, we may be no nearer peace
than before. The paper money would be valueless, and the large fortunes
accumulated by the speculators, turning to dust and ashes on their lips,
might engender a new exasperation, resulting in a regenerated patriotism
and a universal determination to achieve independence or die in the
attempt.

MARCH 30TH.--Gen. Bragg dispatches the government that Gen. Forrest has
captured 800 prisoners in Tennessee, and several thousand of our men are
making a successful raid in Kentucky.

Gen. Whiting makes urgent calls for reinforcements at Wilmington, and
cannot be supplied with many.

Gen. Lee announces to the War Department that the spring campaign is now
open, and his army may be in motion any day.

Col. Godwin (of King and Queen County) is here trying to prevail on the
Secretary of War to put a stop to the blockade-runners, Jews, and spies,
daily passing through his lines w