epend for
information upon the correspondents, who catch news and ideas at
random, and nourish with them their employers and the public.

_January 11._--Senator Sumner has made a motion to give homesteads
to the liberated Africo-Americans. That is a better and a nobler
action than all his declamations put together.

_January 12._--Sentinels in double line surrounding the White House.
Odious, ridiculous, unnecessary, and an aspect unwonted in this
country--giving the aspect to the White House of an abode of a
tyrant, when it is only that of a shifting politician. It is
Halleck, who, with the like futilities and absurdities, amuses
Lincoln and gets the better of him.

Mr. Lincoln is very depressed at the condition of the Army of the
Potomac, and decides--nothing for its reorganization. But for
Halleck, Stanton would reorganize and give a new and healthy life to
the army. I mean the upper grades, and not the rank and file, who
are patriotic and healthy.

After Corinth, Halleck-Buell disorganized the Western, now Halleck
is at work to do the same with the Potomac Army. I know that in the
presence of a diplomat, Halleck complained that he is paid only five
thousand dollars, and earned by far more in California. He had
better return to California and to his pettifogging.

Since the beginning of this Administration, Mr. Seward wrote, I am
sure, more dispatches than France, England, Prussia, Russia,
Austria, Spain, and Italy put together during the Crimean war, and
up to this day. Great is ink, and paper is patient!

_January 13._--It is more than probable that Mr. Mercier stirred up,
or at least heartily supported the mediation scheme. The Frenchmen
in New York maintain that Mr. Mercier derives his knowledge of
America and his political inspirations from that foul sheet, the
_Courrier des Etats Unis_. There is some truth in this assertion, as
the reasons enumerated to justify mediation can be found in various
numbers of that sheet. I am sorry that Mr. Mercier has fallen so
low; as for his master, he is a fit associate for the _Courrier_.

_January 13._--Ralph Waldo Emerson, inspired and not silenced by the
storm. He alone stands up from among the Athenian school. He alone
is undaunted. So would be Longfellow, but for the terrible domestic
calamity whose crushing blow no man's heart could resist. I never
was a great admirer of Emerson, but now I bow, and burn to him my
humble incense.

_January 15._--The patriotic, a