He says the reason why the people give credence to such statements is owing to the fact that the citizens of the Confederacy "are not so intelligent as those of the North in matters of history and geography; in fact, they know little or nothing of either. " Again:

Their present ignorance leaves them below the standpoint of reason and argument, drawn from the history of other people.

In another part of this letter he says:

I hope none of our blood will hold back in this war. Let them all stand up to the Government and help to put down this infernal crew of secessionists, these rattlesnakes and cotton months, with whom you can no more be at peace than you could with a shovel of live coals in your bosom. Tell them if they don't root up and destroy secession that secession will root up and destroy them. The nigger is the very core of this rebellion, and it can no more be put down without the destruction of chattel slavery than you could abolish hell and leave the devil in the full plenitude of his power. Slavery, chattel slavery, slavery upheld by law and recognized as a right, must be destroyed or it will destroy all freedom in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

This is a very lengthy letter and is filled with such sentiments .

In a letter to James M. Baldwin, of New York, dated 7th of October, 1863, this same party writes: "If I were to plan a campaign against Texas I would land at the mouth of the Brazos River," &c., and then goes on to detail a plan of attack by which Texas would be swept from one end to the other. In another letter to this same brother, Baldwin, in giving a description of the society in Texas, says:

Good men, true-hearted men, have had their minds so wrought on that they entertain sentiments and perform acts at which sanity shudders and humanity turns pale. Wells to be poisoned, suppers to be given with assassins lying in wait to stab the victims when well engaged in enjoying the hospitable board.

He says even the ladies advocate such things in their midst. He calls our Government "the hell-born Confederacy," and hopes he may be instrumental in assisting "Uncle Sam" to regain the 'stolen stars. " The correspondence of Peebles, the letters of Baldwin, together with his diary, would fill a large volume, and what is here given to the public taken from these documents is a fair specimen of the whole.

The evidences against Zinke are obtained from citizens. He was constantly in Baldwin's office, and just before the publication of "Common Sense" he was often seen in close conversation with its author. He has been looked upon for a long time as an enemy to the Confederacy, and the fact is established that it was upon his press the "Common Sense" circular was printed. He has been regarded in the community as a dangerous and designing man, in a political point of view, before and since the war. The public have sufficient before them to determine what grounds there were for having these characters placed in such a position as to be harmless. *

OFFICE COMMISSIONER FOR EXCHANGE,

Fort Monroe, Va., November 25, 1863.

Major General E. A. HITCHCOCK,

Commissioner of Exchange, Washington, D. C.:

SIR: I have the honor to report to you the result of an interview which I have just had with the rebel agent of exchange, Mr. Ould.

In consequence of the reports of the terrible cruelties inflicted upon our prisoners in Richmond, given to me by the Federal surgeons just

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*For other correspondence (not herein published) relating to the arrest of Peebles, Baldwin, Zinke, et al., see Series I, Vol. XXVI, Part II, pp. 301,313,328,458.

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