Franklin Repository

A number of most significant articles have recently appeared in various leading rebel papers. These journals were among the most earnest and influential in bringing about the rebellion, and their reluctant confessions now of their inability to cope with the general government in a protracted war--confessions made in defiance of the remorseless tyranny that has shackled the freedom of opinion--point conclusively to the closing of this bloody drama at an early day, unless unexpected and most improbable triumphs should be won by them in the coming spring campaign.

We have before us articles from Virginia and other rebel papers which, despite the studied effort to conceal the whole truth, tell a tale of exhaustion in military resources; of abject want for all the necessaries of life, and of growing distrust and disaffection touching the Davis usurpation, which clearly foreshadow revolution within the dominions of treason, unless peace shall soon give them deliverance. The Richmond Examiner pronounces the last year "the gloomiest year of our struggle;" and adds that "no sanguine hope of intervention buoys up the spirits of the Confederate public as at the end of 1861; no brilliant victory like that of Fredericksburg encourages us to look forward to a speedy and successful termination of the war as in the last weeks of 1862." It laments that their "interior has been fearfully narrowed by the federal march through Tennessee," and that "another daring raid (Averill's) has been carried out with comparative impunity to the invaders." It complains also that the rebel cavalry are becoming inefficient for want of horses, while "Lincoln's squadrons of horse threaten to be as universal a terror, as persuasive a nuisance, as his squadrons of gunboats were some months ago." It says that "the Confederacy has been cut in twain along the line of the Mississippi, and our enemies are steadily pushing forward their plans for bisecting the eastern moiety;" "that financial chaos is becoming wilder and wilder--hoarders keep a more resolute grasp than ever on the necessaries of life," and that "what was once competence has become poverty; poverty has become penury, and penury is lapsing into pauperism." Such are the startling confessions of one of the leading journals published at the rebel capital. Their dominions are cut in twain--the remaining moiety about to be severed--their cavalry exhausted and no means to give it efficiency; their financial chaos becoming deeper and deeper; competence is exchanged for poverty on every hand, and poverty is beggary.

The Richmond Whig, another leading rebel paper, publishes a leader the day following the appearance of the dismal picture drawn by the Examiner, in which it shows conclusively that it is madness to attempt to increase the rebel armies, for the reason that the producing population is now unequal to the consumption. It says that there are now, in mid-winter, 3000 barefooted men in Longstreet's corps alone; that from Bragg's army comes "a piteous appeal for blankets and clothing;" that Lee's army is sadly deficient in blankets and that woolen yarn is not to be had even for socks for the soldiers. It argues also that younger cattle are slaughtered every year, and that soon a resort must be had to milch cows to supply meat. It sums up on this point by declaring that "the prospect at home does not encourage the belief that we shall be able to clothe armies larger than those which are now shivering in nakedness." It says "very little bacon is left; beef is going and mutton will hardly feed great armies, even if the supply were double what it is." It laments that East Tennessee, on which they relied mainly for supplies, is wrested from them, and reminds the rebel authorities that to supply their present armies, "the sanding crops of entire counties have been impressed at one fell swoop," and that "flour of a low grade is this day selling in the confederate capital at $120 per barrel." It concludes, therefore, that "the prospect of feeding the army already in the field, much less one twice or thrice as large, is not encouraging." It insists that however indispensable men may be to replenish their shattered armies, they are needed still more to produce food and clothing, and admits that "the fear of insurrection" among the slaves are wide-spread because of the absence of the white men in the field; that the slaves being without masters, are increasing in "natural laziness," and that a "rapid and yearly increasing diminution of crops" is the consequence. It also confesses that they have not horses, are deficient in forage, in wagons, cars, muskets, cannon and ammunition. It declares that Lee lost Gettysburg for want of powder and ball, and adds that with the ports "almost hermetically sealed, and the nitre beds of Tennessee wrested from us, it is not likely that we ever will have more than a full supply for the army on its present footing." It sums up as follows:

"Thus, in the last analysis, we find we have an army poorly clad, scantily fed, indifferently equipped, badly mounted with insufficient trains, and with barely enough ammunition. To remedy the evil, we are going to double, and if possible, quadruple the number of men and horses, taking away every efficient master from the agricultural districts, and leave the laborers on whom both men and horses depend for existence a prey to natural idleness, and with every inducement to revolt. If this be not judicial madness, the history of desperate measures adopted by feeble and affrighted councils does not present an example."

The Richmond Enquirer, the only remaining organ of the rebels at the rebel capital, has an editorial in its issue of the 12th inst., fully coroberating [sic] the more candid confession of its contemporaries. It says:

"Where are we drifting? The tendencies of the hour are dangerous. The proceedings at Richmond are well worth the whole attention of our people at this moment. Congress holds in its hands the destiny of the Republic. It has the determination of the question, whether it shall live or die!

"The debates and proceedings of Congress furnish us much occasion for painful solicitude. They evince panic, rather than the cool and grave deliberation becoming such a body. In its anxiety to restore the currency and fill up the army the danger is imminent that congress will bankrupt the country and overthrow the framework of society.

"The proposition of the Special Committee on Finance to tax the present values of the Confederacy to the amount of $700,000,000 would be entitled an act to sell out at public auction for taxes all the real estate of the Confederacy to the people who have speculated and accumulated fortunes by the war; while the bill reported from the Military Committee might be justly entitled an act to establish an irresponsible despotism at Richmond, and to starve the country, including the army."

Thus is the rebellion reeling and tottering at its very capital--in the citadel of its power. Not a single organ devoted to its cause of crime, but points with trembling to the destruction now manifest to all.

From North Carolina we have still more pointed declarations relative to the early crumbling to pieces of the rebel powers. The Raleigh Daily Progress of the 23d ult. says:

"Peace alone can prevent starvation! It is folly to talk to us about their being enough supplies in the country. Such is not the fact, and those who adhere to such a proposition will find out, when it is too late, that they have been mistaken.

"Confederate money is bad enough, we know; but the dearth of provisions in the market is not caused by a want of confidence in the currency, but because the producers have nothing to bring in. Men who can command means are gathering up gold, silver, bank notes and treasury notes, with which to buy pork in adjoining counties and be thankful to get it upon the terms and for the hard substance offered.

"How then will it be with those who have nothing but the pittance in Confederate money earned in sewing or other work? When the currency of the Government ceases to serve as a means of trade and will no longer buy what the soldiers and the people want, the army and the people will resolve themselves into a mob, and those who have misled and ruined them will have to fly for their lives. Do our people realize how near we are to this state of things? If not, let any citizen take a small sum of money and visit the city market some cold morning.

"We tell the people and the authorities that the present condition of things cannot and will not last. The masses of the honest, hard-working people have been deceived and misled long enough, and they will not suffer and endure always. Peace they want, and peace they will have, if not upon such terms as the leaders who have betrayed them desire, upon such terms as they themselves shall prescribe. The rich may house their meat and bread, but we tell them it will not remain with them unless the poor can be provided for. The muscle of the country will not starve while there is bread in the land.

"Peace, such a peace as statesmen and honest rulers might obtain for us, would give us an abundance of all creature comforts at reasonable prices--would reward honest toil with an abundant harvest; but war, a continuation of the war, will rob us of all social and political rights, and make the many the slaves of the few."

In another article, the same paper says that "there is not another man to spare from the farms or other industrial pursuits of the country, and a further draft upon this class will be fraught with the most disastrous consequences."

The Raleigh (N.C.) Standard is also bold in its denunciation of the rebel authorities. It declares that if an attempt is made to enforce the universal conscription "the people of North Carolina will take their own affairs into their own hauls, and will proceed, in conventions assembled to vindicate their liberties." It says "they will not submit to the destruction of their rights personal and civil," and adds--"woe to the official character who shall attempt to turn the arms of Confederate soldiers against the people." It says "we are now reaping the bitter fruits of 'peaceable secession,' in forcing from our once happy and peaceful homes into the army all from 18 to 45," and it appeals to the people of North Carolina to trust the rebel leaders no longer, and calls for a "State Convention of the sovereign people to take into consideration what is best to be done to relieve our people." It does not conceal its purpose to favor immediate peace and return to the old Union.

The Mobile (Ala.) Register, the ablest and fiercest secession journal in the Gulf States, joins in the protest against the attempt to increase the rebel armies. It says it is demanded by the rebel authorities "that nine-tenths of the producers be put in the field, and women, children and dotards [sic] be left alone to clothe and feed our army. In other words, we want everybody to go into an army already naked, hungry and ill-equipped; and nobody to support them." The Atlanta (Ga.) Intelligencer says that "Congress desires what was never known in the civilized world--the entire population of the country abandoning all civil pursuits and taking up arms." The Montgomery (Ala.) Mail, speaking of the preparation to enforce a general conscription in the South, says: "Carry out the recommendation in reference to increasing the army, and put the whole male population in the service, and we are vanquished and over-run before the first of next September; not by Lincoln's army, but by starvation." The Macon (Ga.) Telegraph also joins in the protest, and the Columbus (Ga.) Sun says that the proposition would "make Davis as much an autocrat as is the Czar of Russia."

Such are the most intelligent views of the situation from a rebel stand point. Exhausted in every element of power; their whole land desolated; poverty and want encircling all classes and conditions in their cruel embrace, the leaders and authors of this bloody war stand aghast at their infernal work, and their people, long deluded, are about to demand Peace and the protection of the Old Flag. If refused, they have their remedy foreshadowed in the declaration of the Raleigh Progress that "the army and the people will resolve themselves into a mob, and those who have misled and ruined them will have to fly for their lives."

The Spring campaign will open with our foe in the gloom of despair and on the very verge of self destruction. Let our armies but be so strong that hope will be shut out from the dominions of treason, and the Union will be restored without another great battle.

We have the Annual Report of the State Superintendent of Common Schools, from which we learn that Franklin county has now 222 schools, and still requires 8 to meet the wants of the people. The average time the schools are kept open is five months and 21 days. Chambersburg keeps schools open 9 months; Letterkenny, Mercersburg, and Southampton are next highest, keeping their schools open six months; Fannet, Greencastle, and Warren are lowest--having but 4 months. There are 150 male teachers employed in the county at an average salary of $22,84--Chambersburg paying the highest, $35 per month, and Lurgan the lowest, $18,43. There are 50 female teachers employed, at an average salary of $15,98--Antrim paying the highest, $24 per month and Greencastle the lowest, $16. There are 6,344 male and 5,149 female scholars in our schools, out of which the average attendance is 6,558, at an average cost per month of 50 cts. There are 78 learning German in the schools. The amount of tax levied in the county for school purposes for the year 1863 was $33,380 62, and for building purposes, $3,272 87--making a total levy of $36,653 49. The tax is 3 mills for school purposes and 1.2 mills for building. The State appropriation received was $3,925 60, and amount received from taxes $35,410 42. During the year the sum of $27, 530 70 was paid for instruction; $4,20 29 for fuel and contingencies; $6,192 76 in purchasing, building and renting buildings. At the close of the year the balance on hand was $3,433 39; the permanent debt $11, 685, and temporary debt $2,030,31. It will be seen that Franklin is most liberal in her system of general education.

Sawnee, a contraband about 18 years of age, was picked up in our streets in Chambersburg a little more than a year ago, by Mr. Robert Criswell, formerly of this county, but now a resident of Brooklyn, New York. Sawnee was without clothes, habitation, name or employment when Mr. Criswell took him, but he put Sawnee on his farm, learned him to read, and has at considerable expense, cultivated the little contraband's wonderful musical powers. He can imitate an organ with wonderful correctness, and utters the sweetest musical tones with very little effort. He can also imitate with singular fidelity almost every conceivable sound and sings plantation songs in regular southern style. He has been exhibited to large audiences at the Cooper Institute, New York, the National Hall, Philadelphia, and at other points. He was to have given an entertainment here on Friday and Saturday last, but no room could be obtained. We learn that he will probably be here again in the course of the Spring and we doubt not that he will be liberally patronaged [sic].