8S. C. Hayes to After writing the above my attention was attracted by a letter from, January 6, 1864

Richmond, January 6, 1864.

Governor VANCE:

I regret to learn that because of an interest of your State in the steamer Don, objection is made to its conforming to the regulation about taking out Government cotton. The necessities of the Government really require adherence to this regulation, and I earnestly hope that you will not encourage or allow in your name the infringement of it.

J. A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

RICHMOND HOUSE, Richmond, January 6, 1864. His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS, President Confederate States of America:

DEAR SiR: I beg leave to call your attention to a weak point in the enemy’s lines to which your mind may not have been directed. I allude to the Irish element in the Northern population.

that the former had burned their churches in 1844; the Know-Nothing party had proseribed every man who had a Me or an O to his name during the winter of 1857 and 1858, driving many thousands of families into starvation during the continuance of that short but certainly most severe financial storm which raged throughout the North at that period. Failing to accomplish theirfull purpose at each of these times by reason of the steady opposition of the South, and especially Virginia, where Know-Nothingism met its death, they changed their name and tactics, and by a loud outery for the negro, for whom they had no real sympathy, but used him as a weapon against both the Irish and the South—their chief aim and object being to free the negro as far as they could, bring him North, put him in competition with the white labor, believing that they would work cheaper than the Irish, and, above all, they would not be permitted to vote. The effect of these short conversations, I can assure you, were most happy, and what added point to my argument was that many of these men had been driven from places of public employment during the winter of 1857 and 1858 by the Know-Nothing party, which was then in power in the select and common councils of Philadelphia. After the first battle of Manassas, T. F. Meagher came to Philadelphia to drum up recruits for his Irish Brigade. He made a capital speech; I feared a telling one. I worked night and day to neutralize his speech. His treatment of the Irish girl who aided him in making his escape from Australia, and his subsequent marriage with a Yankee girl, was an admirable argument against him, which I failed not to use on every occasion. The result was he obtained but few recruits in Philadelphia—not more than a corporal’s guard. I mention these circumstances to show you that the great body of Irish at the North feel a deep interest in our success, more especially in Pennsylvania, where they have been subjected to bitter persecution. Although I am anelder in the Presbyterian Church, yet I had conversations with quite a number of Roman Catholic priests at the North, all of whom, with one exception, expressed the utmost confidence and sympathy in our success. Private letters which I received from James A. McMaster, editor of the Freeman’s Journal, allude to the efforts which the North were making most cunningly to identify the South with these objectionable parties; a fact that I had noticed such artists, with those who had any knowledge of the subject, would awake only a feeling of indignation and contempt; but we know there are many Irish (those but recently arrived) who would believe the statement; and I have no doubt that the burning of the convent at Charlestown, Mass., by a mob has ere this been located at Charleston, S. C.

I owe you an apology for thus troubling you with this communication, but I do it from the best motives for our good. The views generally met the cordial approval of Hon. James A. Bayard, of Delaware, and Hon. Charles Brown, of Philadelphia, with the latter of whom I had frequent interviews before I left, March, 1862. In your judgment you may see some plan by which this party might be strengthened and encouraged by some complimentary allusion to the Trish in our Confederacy.

Begging pardon for the liberty I take, I remain, dear sir, yours,

very respectfully,

8S. C. HAYES,

C. S. Register’s Office.

After writing the above my attention was attracted by a letter from

Mr. Smith O’Brien in the Sentinel, which I concluded to read before I sent this, thinking possibly that the same suggestions I make might

meet your eye in a more agreeable form. I see nothing, however, in

the letter or the editorial but additional evidence to my mind that we