ghts of the people.

Mr. V. said nothing to indicate that either he or the party had any
other idea than that the Union would be reconstructed under Democratic
rule. The President indorsed, with his own pen, on this document, that,
in regard to invasion of the North, experience proved the contrary of
what Mr. V. asserted. But Mr. V. is for restoring the Union, amicably,
of course, and if it cannot be so done, then possibly he is in favor of
recognizing our independence. He says any reconstruction which is not
voluntary on our part, would soon be followed by another separation, and
a worse war than the present one.

The President received a dispatch to-day from Gen. Johnston, stating
that Lt.-Gen. Kirby Smith had taken Milliken's Bend. This is important,
for it interferes with Grant's communications.

Gov. Shorter writes that a company near Montgomery, Ala., have invented
a mode of manufacturing cotton and woolen handcards, themselves making
the steel and wire, and in a few weeks will be turning out from 800 to
1000 pairs of cards per week. This will be a great convenience to the
people.

Gen. Whiting writes that the river at Wilmington is so filled with the
ships of private blockade-runners that the defense of the harbor is
interfered with. These steamers are mostly filled with Yankee goods, for
which they take them cotton, in the teeth of the law. He pronounces this
business most execrable, as well as injurious to the cause. He desires
the President to see his letter, and hopes he may be instructed to seize
the steamers and cargoes arriving belonging to Yankees and freighted
with Yankee goods.

It is a difficult matter to subsist in this city now. Beef is $1 and
bacon $1.65 per pound, and just at this time there are but few
vegetables. Old potatoes are gone, and the new have not yet come. A
single cabbage, merely the leaves, no head, sells for a dollar, and this
suffices not for a dinner for my family.

My little garden has produced nothing yet, in consequence of the
protracted dry weather. But we have, at last, abundant rains. To-day I
found several long pieces of rusty wire, and these I have affixed
horizontally to the wood-house and to the fence, intending to lead the
lima beans up to them by strings, which I will fasten to switches stuck
between the plants. My beets will soon be fit to eat, and so will the
squashes. But the potatoes do not yet afford a cheering prospect. The
tomatoes, however, are coming on