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"Old Abe Mad!"

A private letter, dated September 5th, from one in Washington who "knows a thing or two," says:

"The President's anger is up, for once, and now look out to see the fur fly. He has been disappointed and mortified beyond measure by recent events. It will take a week or two to repair matters, and then for vigor. Some of the peacock officers who have failed to come up to the scratch will now have to give place to men of brains and stability. No more fooling — no more trifling, will be allowed. "Old Abe" is mad — his old western dander is up, and I have heard him use some pretty strong language within a few days past, in private conversation. The mousing politicians, who come here from the North pretending to represent the wishes of the whole world, and almost annoying the life out of the President and his Cabinet officers by asking impossible things of them, will now be tabooed. They have kept the wheels of the war machine locked long enough, and the President and Halleck will now run the machine themselves and entirely on war principles. You folks in the West cannot possibly feel more chagrin at the discouraging situation of affairs at the present moment than we do here, and the President feels worse than any other man in this nation possibly can. But we are full of courage. "Are we going to be whipped to death?" asked an Ohio Congressman of the President indignantly. "There's no such think in the books — these Southern rascals will find themselves buried under a Northern avalanche sooner than you think, and like the boy who was struck by lightning, they won't know what ailed them. Never say whipped while there is a God in Israel." This the President said with much emphasis. He does not dream of such a thing as failure in this war. He sees how great mistakes have been made, and they will be remedied as far and as soon as possible, and guarded against in the future. His great wish just now is that he was a military man. If he was, I actually believe he would himself go forth and lead our army to battle."

In another place this same correspondent remarks: "Don't be alarmed at what you may hear from the Upper Potomac or from Maryland within the next week or two. The rebel advance will continue until it will one day knock its head against a stone wall more stunning that a Stonewall Jackson, and the fortunes of Jeff. Davis will be as suddenly overwhelmed with disaster and ruin as they have recently taken the ascendant. Keep a stiff upper lip and don't lose heart. This contest will surely all come out right in the end as there is power in the people, and justice in the world — and the end is not near as far off as it now seems."