The Express.
London, England, 1864-11-22 00:00:00

LoNDON, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22.

THE great political crisis to which millions of
American citizens hare been looking forward with
profound anxiety, which for a time absorbed the
best energies of the Government, and to which even
the operations of armies in the field have been sub-
sidiary, is past. The terrible incidents which the
fear of some nervous citizens foresaw as destined
to mark the fatal eighth of November are not
found in the history of the day. No towns have
been tired, no peaceful citizens shot down at the
poll. The people of the cities, counties, and atates
of the Union have voted as they liked, many for
M'Cititax, but more for LINCOLN, and as the
result the author of the Emancipation Proclama-
tion has been re-elected Chief Magistrate of the
Republic for the next four years. The elective
presidency is the weakest of many weak points in
the constitution of the United States : the renewal
every four years of a contest for the highest prize
to which an American can aspire has probably
done more than anything else to make Union
politics a vile trade. But on this occasion the
critical circumstances of the Republic and the
solemnity of the issue before the citizens gave
the struggle a grandeur in presence of which the
corruption and profligate ambition inseparable
from such a contest shrunk to the dimensions of
impotence. It may be safely affirmed that no
free nation was ever called to make so momen-
tous &decision. The Preaidential Election of 1860
hail consequences more signal and immediate, for
it determined the formidable secession out of which
the war arose. But that effect was not in the in-
tention of the voters. On this last occasion, how-
ever, every citizen may be said to have had the
means, or rather to have been under the neces-
sity, of estimating the tendency of his vote. The
events of the last three years, bringing the state
of the country within the comprehension of the
meanest capacity, and interfering with the
arrangements of every household, have made
politics the personal concern of all the citizens.
And it is to this knowledge, and not to the ignor-
ance of the public, that the friends of Mr. LINT vie
have made their appeal. Every family iu the Free
States has its maimed and wounded non, many
have several, and hundreds of thousands mourn
those who have fallen never to rise again. If ever
a people looked their troubles in the face, the
Americans are doing so in this crisis. There is no
talk of "ninety days " now, no disposition to blink
the enormous national debt, or the fearful expen-
diture of human life. At the great meeting of
hanl.ers and merchants held at Wall-street oil the
4th of November, and at which it is computed
three-fourths of the cipital of New York were
represented, au address to the people of that
city wes voted, in which reference was made to
the national debt, and these were the words which
were deliberately adopted with that assembly of
responsible citizens :--" You are told that the
" nation has already eontracted a debt of three
" thousand millions. We heed not tell you that
" this is a gross exaggeration, made after the
" manlier of the eneunee of the Government ; but
" we answer, ferther, :het it is better to have a
" national debt of tiro thousand or ten thousand
" millions than not to have a nation at all."
Equally frank was the language held respecting
the more painful sacrifices of the war. Mr.
We I.ER Inu E, who was deputed to speak
for the members of the Produce Ex-
change, commenced his address by stating that
within three years three hundred thousand men in
the vigour of health and in the pride of early
manhood bad died, and two hundred thousand
mere were maimed :sod crippled in the service of
the I:epublic. It is on the purview of such ter-
rible trials that the people of the United States,
believing that the only way out of their troubles
is through them, have re-elected a President who
is pledged to continue the war until its object is
gained in the re-establishment of the national
unity.

Comparatively little was said during the contest
about the personal merits of the candidates on the
side of the Republicans. There was no dial osition
to claim the praise of a faultless administration
for Mr. LINCOLN. Ilis Covernment was for a
time wanting in the quality of political courage,
and its fears betrayed it into arbitrary arrests,
interference with the liberty of the press, and the
like. The Democratic party of course did not