The evidences of exhaustion in the South become every day
more frequent. The intercepted letters of President Davis showed a great want of men, and on 1st August he issued a strong appeal to all soldiers absent from duty. He declares that the number of deserters would suffice to raise the army to an equality with that of the North, and grants a general pardon and amnesty to all officers and men absent without leave, provided they return to their duty in twenty- one days. So urgent, indeed, is his need, that he breaks through all precedent to e the wives and daughters of the Confederacy to take care that no deserter is sheltered. This want of men is, we doubt not, the cause of the rumours, rapidly growing thicker, of a design to promise emancipation to all able-bodied negroes on condition that they shall serve in the army as soldiers. It is yet on the cards that the South, maddened with conflict and defeat, may yet pull out their own "corner-stone," and destroy the institution which they went to war to extend.
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