June 15, 1863, The New York Herald
It is evident from all the ascertained movements of General Lee’s army that an active campaign is now in operation against the Union forces on the Rappahannock, and that at any moment a most important phase in the state of affairs there may be developed. Harper’s Ferry, the Shenandoah valley and the upper fords of the Potomac are the points indicated by the recent rebel movements as the theatres of approaching complications. Our army appears also to be changing its base. The supplies are being transported from Aquia creek to Alexandria.
The last despatches from Vicksburg and vicinity, received last night via Cairo, and dated the 8th inst., merely repeat the accounts previously published. The army continues in good health and spirits. The siege advances with every prospect of success.
We give an extended and highly interesting account today of the recent operations of the rebel privateers, which is worthy of attention, as showing the activity of the enemy on the seas. Two new privateer steamers have made their appearance, and it would appear from all the report that they are scouring the Atlantic Ocean as far down as Cape Horn, and from that point round into the Pacific, to intercept our vessels from China and India. The reports of these bold proceedings on the part of the rebel navy appear to have waked up our Navy Department, for four United States vessels were sent from this port on Saturday night; three were ordered out from Hampton Roads at the same time, and others are under orders to follow immediately to hunt up the Clarence (or Coquette).
We publish in another column the reply of Mr. Lincoln to the resolutions adopted at the Albany meeting of the 16th ult., relative to the arrest of Mr. Vallandigham, the vindication of free speech and so forth. The President deals with the question elaborately, justifying the suspension of the habeas corpus, and arguing with much logic and sophistry the claims of the administration to act as they have done in the matter of summary arrests, trials by military courts, and the necessity of not waiting for the commission of defined crimes to put troublesome persons out of the way. He says that he regrets the necessity of Mr. Vallandigham’s arrest and banishment, and will be glad to discharge him, provided the public safety will not suffer by it. At the same time he intimates that if he had exercised his own discretion he would not have ordered the arrest of Mr. Vallandigham at all. The President’s letter, on the whole, is most interesting.
Our correspondent in Vera Cruz, writing on the 1st of June, furnishes a very interesting and important resume of the conditions of affairs in Mexico to that day. He states that Puebla was defended to the last moment, and that Ortega surrendered only when hunger compelled him to do so. It was said that nine thousand of the defenders of the place had reached Mexico City. The French were in possession of Vera Cruz, Cordova, Orizaba and Puebla, but the writer alleges that the other portions of the republic were universally hostile to them. Napoleon’s officers were, nevertheless, driving on some very huge public works in the shape of railroads, bridges, viaducts and so forth, paying over thirty thousand dollars weekly in wages to the laborers, independent of the salary of engineers and mechanics. One viaduct is to be built at a cost of two millions of dollars. The cash and material for these undertakings are landed from France, and laborers in hundreds from New Orleans. The French officials in Vera Cruz assert that all these undertakings will soon be completed, and they seem to entertain no idea of leaving the country. Over fifty civil officers are said to be on their way from France, in order to assist in reorganizing the civil government in the departments. The war had produced an extensive disorganization of the commerce, the executive administration, the postal arrangements, finances, and naval and military departments of Mexico. In and around Vera Cruz, as well as in the city and port of Minititian and other points of the sea coast, the French enforced the most watchful and rigorous system of military repression against all who opposed them. The British officials said nothing, and seemed rather to approve of the action of their late allies. The Egyptian negroes impressed by Napoleon had murdered nine women and children in a village near Vera Cruz. Colonel Labrausse, French Commandant in Vera Cruz, had died of vomito, as had also the chief of the negroes. It was reported at Panama, our correspondent writes, that the affairs of the French progressed most favorably in Mexico, and it was thought that Mexico City would soon fall after Puebla.