Mr. Mellen earnestly desired to do the right thing. Much abused as he has been, I have never seen an official charged with such weighty responsibilities, and so liable to slanderous accusations, whatever course he should take, who seemed more earnestly and sincerely bent on simply finding out his duty, and then doing it with his whole mind and heart. But as to the general policy of making the most out of the effects of the Rebel Government, whatever might be his own opinions, his instructions left him no discretion. The work of cotton seizure therefore began. Before these records of Southern travel are finished, there will be ample opportunity to tell how it ended. * * * * * Alabamians had as yet scarcely recovered from the shock of the surrender, and few in the country adjacent to Mobile had formed any definite plans for the future. Some thought of going to Brazil; some wanted to plunge into Mexican broils; a few wanted to get away from the “sassy free niggers” by going North. Scarcely any seemed to regard their chance of cultivating their lands by free negro labor as hopeful, and the most had a vague, uncertain idea that in some way or another they would have to give up their lands. Still there were scarcely any sales, and prices had found no settled standard. Some would take one-tenth of what used to be considered the value of their estates; others would be satisfied to sell their plantations for the cost of the buildings which stood upon them. Nearly all were without faith in greenbacks. If they sold at all, they must get something for their lands. They didn’t want much, but what they did want must be in gold. There was general uncertainty, however, as to whether they had any right to sell, or whether the titles they might execute would be valid. They were not willing to believe it possible that an attempt would be made to enforce so absurd a piece of legislation as the Yankee confiscation law, but still there was no telling! Communication with the interior was still very difficult. They could reach Selma and Montgomery by a week’s steamboating, and the Tombigbee would take them to Demopolis, but trips were rare; and though Mobile was the necessary political and business heart of the State, this heart’s circulation was yet so impaired, that it neither strengthened nor was strengthened thereby. What was said at Mobile, therefore, was not, as formerly, the concentrated thought of the State, gathered there through all its converging lines of approach, but rather the thought of those who were accustomed to speak for the State, at a period when almost completely isolated from their constituents.