treason of the order has been thoroughly exposed, and although its capacity for fatal mischief has, by means of the arrest of its leaders, the seizure of its arms, and the other vigorous means which have been pursued, been seriously impaired, it is still busied with its plotting against the Government and with its perfidious designs in aid of the Southern rebellion. It is reported to have recently adopted new signs and passwords, and its members assert that foul means will be used to prevent the success of the Administration at the coming election, and threaten an extended revolt in the event of the re-election of President Lincoln.

In the presence of the rebellion and of this secret order, which is but its echo and faithful ally, we cannot but be amazed at the utter and widespread profligacy, personal and political, which these movements against the Government disclose. The guilty men engaged in them, after casting aside their allegiance, seem to have trodden under foot every sentiment of honor and every restraint of law, human and divine. Judea produced but one Judas Iscariot, and Rome, from the sinks of her demoralization, produced but one Catiline; and yet, as events prove, there has arisen in our land an entire brood of such traitors, all animated by the same parricidal spirit, and all struggling with the same relentless malignity for the dismemberment of our Union. Of this extraordinary phenomenon, not paralleled it is believed, in the world's history, there can be but one explanation, and all these blackened and fetid streams of crime may well be traced to the same common fountain. So fiercely intolerant and imperious was the temper engendered by slavery, that when the Southern people, after having controlled the national councils for half a century, were beaten at an election, their leaders turned upon the Government with the insolent fury with which they would have drawn their revolvers on a rebellious slave in one of their negro quarters; and they have continued since to prosecute their warfare amid all the barbarisms and atrocities naturally and necessarily inspired by the infernal institution in whose interests they are sacrificing alike themselves and their country. Many of these conspirators, as is well known, were fed, clothed, and educated at the expense of the nation, and were loaded with its honors at the very moment they struck at its life with the horrible criminality of a son stabbing the bosom of his mother while impressing kisses on her cheeks. The leaders of the traitors in the loyal States, who so completely fraternize with these conspirators and whose machinations a it is as clearly the duty of the Administration to prosecute and punish as it is its duty to subjugate the rebels who are openly in arms against the Government. In the performance of this duty it is entitled to expect, and will doubtless receive, the zealous co-operation of true men everywhere, who, in crushing the truculent foe ambushed in the haunts of this secret order, should rival in courage and faithfulness the soldiers who are so nobly sustaining our flag on the battle-fields of the South.

Respectfully submitted.

J. HOLT,

Judge-Advocate-General.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE JAMES, October 8, 1864.

Colonel HOFFMAN, Commissary-General of Prisoners:

Lieutenant-Colonel Mulford leaves Varina to-morrow morning with 1,300 prisoners, officers and men. He will be at Annapolis on the 10th.