The Express.
London, England, 1862-11-17 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS,

Springfield city gives Stewart (demxrat) for
Cougrem, 413 majority ; Allen (democrat), candi-
date at large, 200. ltaujakee county gives Norton
(republican) for Congress, 1,000 majority. Galena
gives 300 democratic majority. Returns from 70
towns give Ingersoll (republican) 3,300 majority.

The New York Times of the 6th inst. attributes
the victory obtained by the democrats to the
failure of the government to prosecute the war
with the vigour, energy, and success which the vast
resources at its command warranted the country
in expecting at its hands, and adds :
. . .

What is the use of trying' to sustain an administration I
which lap so far behind the country, and seems eci
indif-
ferent and incompetent to the dreadful task committed to
its hands.. If the government bad given the people vic-
tories—if it bad even shown any just appreciation of the
need of victories, and had Minn the most ordinary means of
exacting them at the hands of its generals in the field,
the people would have rallied as one man to its support.
They would have spurred with indignation the base
attempts of demagogues to sap their faith in
the administration, and to array them in hostility against it.
The vote in this State, as in Pennsylvania and the West,
indicates a profound dissatisfaction with the method of the
edministration in carrying on this war, and a peremptory
demand for the adoption of one better adapted to tbeawful
emergencies of the case. The President must not hesitate an
hour to respond to this demand. Let the popular verdict
just pronounced dispel whatever of hesitation or timidity
may have hampered his movemen J. There must be an end
of apologies and delays. The country will no longer tolerate
half-hearted counsels in the cabinet, or half-hearted leader-
ship in the field. The fate of the nation must no longer be
committed to generals who, like Essex in the English revolu-
tion, next to a great defeatdread a great victory. The govern-
ment must no loogerbe content with defending itself against
a rebellion. It must act upon the offensive—and act with
the vigour and determination that insure a victory. If the
recent elections shall inspire the administration with this
spirit and prompt it to such action, they will be of more
service than results which might have betrayed it into a
delusive and fatal confidence in the frititler policy it has
hitherto pursued.
The New York Tribune partly ascribes the defeat
of the Republicans to the absence of 100,000 voters
at the seat of war, two thirds of whom it estimates
are ardent Republicans.
But the cause of defeat on which the Tribune
lays most stress is the
General dissatisfaction with the slow progress, or no pro-
gress. of our armies, and a wide-pread feeling that, through
the incapacity, inefficiency, or insincerity of our military
leaden, the blood and treasures of the loyal millions are
saerifiood in vain.
I The Tribune concludes by saying :
. .

We tell the administration most earnestly that the
country cannot endure another month's inaction of our
armies—that a Feroando-Wood dictatorship at the North
in thorough sympathy, if not in open alliance with the
Jeff. Davis rebellion at the South, will inevitably result
from such inaction. The war for the Unioe must be
fought out speedily and resolutely, or it will die out. De-
feat would be calamity, but delay is ruin.

The New York Herald considers the triumph of
the democratic party as most complete and over-
whelming, but states that this popular demonstra-
tion

Does not mean that the war ;ball be ended in an igno-
minious and ruinous peace. involving a division of the Union
into •wo independent confederacies, but that the war shall
be prosecuted for the maintenance of the Union, and for
robing else ; that the malign abolition influence; have
brought defeats and disasters to our armies where we should
otherwise have been crowned with victory, and that the
radical Marplote who in Congress and in the Cabinet have
calmed the squandering of hundreds of millions of money,
and the needless sacrifice of thousands of our brave soldiers,
shall be henceforth repudiated by President Lincoln.
But as the new Congress cannot, unless specially con-
vened, meet until December, 1863, the Herald sanest'
that to enable the new repreeentativcs "fresh from the
people," to give their counsels to the President, they should
hold an informal meeting, after the fashion of the late Al-
toona conference, of the governors of the loyal states, "in
order that they may agree upon s series of recommendations
and declaration' of the general policy which they believe
would meet the cordial support of our loyal people.'

Let a meeting of this character, continues the New York
Herald, be held in this city before the reaseemWing of
!_:ougrees, and it may contribute much to aid the President
in the recommendation of his annual message, and in the
important work of a reconstruction of his cabinet.