Cooper visited the President _twice_ to-day, the Secretary not
_once_. The _Enquirer_, yesterday, attacked and ridiculed the Secretary
of War on his passport system in Richmond.

The Northern papers contain the following letter from President Lincoln
to Gen. Grant:

"EXECUTIVE MANSION,

"WASHINGTON, July 13th, 1863.

"MAJOR-GENERAL GRANT.

"MY DEAR GENERAL:--I do not remember that you and I ever met
personally. I write this now as a grateful acknowledgment for the
almost inestimable service you have done the country. I wish to say
a word further. When you first reached the vicinity of Vicksburg I
thought you should do what you finally did--march the troops across
the neck, run the batteries with the transports, and thus go below;
and I never had any faith, except a general hope that you knew
better than I, that the Yazoo Pass expedition and the like could
succeed. When you got below and took Port Gibson, Grand Gulf, and
vicinity, I thought you should go down the river and join Gen.
Banks; and when you turned northward, east of the Big Black, I
feared it was a mistake. I now wish to make the personal
acknowledgment that you were right and I was
wrong. A. LINCOLN."

If Pemberton had acted differently, if the movement northward had been
followed by disaster, then what would Mr. Lincoln have written to Grant?
Success is the only standard of merit in a general.

SEPTEMBER 10TH.--A Mr. J. C. Jones has addressed a letter to the
President asking permission to run the blockade to confer with Mr.
Bates, of President Lincoln's cabinet, on terms of peace, with, I
believe, authority to assure him that none of the Northwestern States,
or any other free States, will be admitted into the Confederacy. Mr. J.
says he has been on intimate terms with Mr. B., and has conceived the
idea that the United States would cease the war, and acknowledge the
independence of the South, if it were not for the apprehension of the
Northwestern States seceding from the Union. If his request be not
granted, he intends to enter the army immediately. He is a refugee from
Missouri. He assures the President he is his friend, and that a
"concentration of power" in his hands is essential, etc. The President
refers this paper, with a gracious indorsement, to the Secretary of War,
recommending him either to see Mr. Jones, or