Wilmington Journal

Admiral Semmes.

The New York News thus speaks of the letter addressed on the 15th of January, by Admiral Semmes to the President. Frank, fearless and able as is this letter in all its parts, it is the concluding paragraph which impresses us most deeply, and which will linger longest in the thoughts of most men. Right bravely and worthily does the proud old Admiral, speaking as an American citizen to the Chief Magistrate of the American Republic say:

We live in times of high party excitement, when men, unfortunately, are but too prone to take counsel of their passions; but passions die, and men die with them, and after death comes history. In the future, Mr. President, when America shall have a history, my record and that of the gallant Southern people will be engrafted upon and become a part of your history, the pages of which you are now acting; and the prayer of this petition is, that you will not permit the honor of the American name to be tarnished by a perfidy on those pages. In this paper I have stood strictly upon legal defenses; but should those barriers be beaten down, conscious of the rectitude of my conduct throughout a checkered and eventful career, when the commerce of half a world was at my mercy, and when the passions of men, North and South, were tossed into a whirlwind by the current events of the most bloody and terrific war that the human race had ever seen, I shall hope to justify and defend myself against any and all charges affecting the honor and reputation of a man and a soldier. Whatever else may be said of me, I have at least, brought no discredit upon the American name and character.