The Express.
London, England, 1861-05-16 00:00:00

AMERICA.

(MOM • COEIRE8P01114117.)
CHICAGO, Aram 28.

Until within the last 48 hours it can hardly have
been said " Washington is safe from the traitors."
The evacuation of Fort Sumter by Major Ander-
son's force took place on April 13 ; and of course
from that moment the sentence was for open war.
Nine days after that date, on the 22nd instant, not
more than 4,500 Northern men had made their way
to Washington, of whom a large proportion were
the militia of the district of Columbia (many of
them at that time of questionable fidelity to the
North) ; and it can scarcely be doqbted that it
10,000 Southern rebels had appeared before Wash-
ington any time between the 13th and the 23rd
instant, the President and his cabinet must have
fled, and the national archives and public buildings
have fallen into Jeff. Davis's bands. From this
disgrace wo have been providentially preserved,
though I can hardly say that we owe it to the prompt
activity of the North so much as to the lathes of
the South. While I write there must be near
20,000 fighting Northern men at Washington ; the
communication with the North through Chesapeake
Bay, rid Annapolis, is opened, and there is plenty
of force to keep it open, and, in proper time, to
burst through the barrier which has been erected
against the passage of Northern troops through
Baltimore, and every one breathes freely once
more.

It would be vain to attempt to describe to you
the agony which those days of terror and shame,
finam Monday, the lbtli, to Monday, the 22nd,
brought to every loyal Northern heart. As to the
ultimate result of the struggle, no one who is not
blinded by prejudice can pretend to have a doubt.
The North has burst from sleep, and woe be to the
puny rebels, misguided by their leaders and en-
feebled by whisky and a southern sun, who stand
in the way of the hardy eons of New England
But many a cheek flushed with shame, many an
eye shot fire, as the thought came Lome during that
memorable week that the national metropolis might
fall into the hands of the rebels, and the loath-
some Goddess of Slavery might ride above the
capitol. If the South bad followed up their suc-
cess at Fort Sumter by the capture of Washington
it is not too much, for one who known this impas-
'humble people, to say that, in all probability, for
every mouth during which the struggle will now
last, it would that' have Mated one year.
Few people who witnessed the excitement of
these last ten dive will ever forget their incidents.
New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, and
Cinoinnatti have gone mad with rage ; and I am
constantly reminded of the saying of the late Lord
Ellesmere, that if he were asked who were the most
military people of the nations of the earth, he
should say the United States. All party differ-
ences have melted away before the glow of patriot-
ism, and the North is now 19 millions of homoge-
neous freemen, borne along upon a current of
enthusiasm, which is strangely characteristic of
this American people, who, in their best exemplars,
combine with the fire and glow of the Frenchman
the stern and steady purpose of their Eng-
lish sires. Through every street and alley
of these several towns, the eager volunteers
are marching by thousands ; the stars and
stripes float from every building • the fife
and the drum give everywhere "dreadful note
of preparation ;" and no one can fail to observe the
ready alacrity with which men fresh from the
plough and the loom acquire 'moldier-like precision
and habits. You are familiar with the same paradox
in England as regards your own voluuteers, and
have seen how much more malleable as a soldier is
the intelligent, self-relying, well-educated civilian
than the Russian serf or the reluctant conscript.
Certainly America will plead forcibly in favour of
Garibaldi's theory, and against La Marmora's.
Chicago, from which I now write, Ls aglow with •
its own enthusiasm—not quite so intense as that of
New York and Boston,tbe twin leaders of American
sentiment, but not less uuiversal and deep-seated.
Many towns will be injured and thrown back by
the war ; but it seam to me that the same good
fortune which has built up Chicago like Aladdin's
palace will attend her during awl after the war, if
she gets rid of her present incubus—viz., a most
corrupt and unsound currency. Her two groat
staples, grain and pork, have risen, and are likely
to be in vast request during the war ; and when it
is over her happy position will secure to her pre-
eminence
over her present rivals, Cincinnati and
St. Louis. The latter of these is in a slave state
(Missouri) which has not yet seceded, but which
seems saved (if saved at all) by the skin of its
teeth • the former, Cincinnati, is on the .dividing
line between slavery and freedom, and it seems
likely that timid capital, scared by this fmeete,
will take root farther from the border. The
United States arsenal is likely to be moved
from St. Loins to Chicago ; and the general senti-
ment of this city seems to be that the war will be to
the State of Illinois what the Irish famine has been
to the Emerald Isle.
Three noticeable fed& seem to stand forth from
the history of these last two weeks. Thu first is
that the South, which appeared to be very wisely
steered during the long vacillation which followed ,
Mr. Lincoln's installation, hue been wanting in
energy or in resource since Fort Sumter fell into
their hands. 1 have said that a bold dash at
Washington could hardly have failed to be moms&
ful before the 23rd inst. As matters now stand,
the discomfiture of the South, whether it come soon
or late, is inevitable, and, in my judgment, cannot
long be averted, if the blockade of Southern ports
is complete. Mysecond feet is that the government at
Washington have, even now, hardly risen to a level
with this momentous crisis. That the calm sagacity
of General Scott, and the honest good sense of the
President, will he vindicated in the end, I have no
doubt ; hut it must not be forgotten that (deny it
who may) Washington has only just escaped front
a great danger. It would be easy to point out
two or three other instances of short-sighted care-
!estate:es, snider a mum of which we are still smart-
ing. For mouths past Pleven states have been in
open rebellion, and Virginia has covered her in-
tended treason under the thinnest disguise. Under
such circumstances why was not the government
areeual at Harper'm Ferry, in Virginia. denuded of
its arms 1 Nothing but the apparently spontaneous
action of au United States officer, named
Captain Jones, has saved these arms (by
their destruction) from falling into the rebels,
hands. Again, why were not preparations made for
securing the United States vessels in Gosport Navy-
yard, and reinforcing Fort Monroe, directly the
first gun was fired ? Fort Monroe is one of the
most important fortresses in America. It com-
mands the entrance to Chesapeake Bay, and ad-
joins the navy yard at Gosport, in which nine or
ten United States vessels, awl among them the
famous frigate Merrimac, were riding. If these
ships had been placed under the glum of the fort
they might have been saved, aud every ship is at
this moment very valuable to the government.
They were scuttled in order to prevent their falling
into Southern hands, and a terrible sacrifice of
national property is the result. My thinl fact is
of less width, but of great significame. It relates
to the noble conduct of the State of Massachusetts.
Before a single New York moan was in Washington,
and when only a handful of Peunsylvauiana had
arrived, a Massachusetts regiment forced its way
through Baltimore, and brought its seasonable aid
to the beleiguemd capital. Almost simultaneously,
two Boston steamers landed 1,000 Massachusetts
troops at Fort Monroe, amid secured that fortress
against all fear of attack. Lastly, just as the re-
nowned 7th Regiment of New York (the first men
from that state), were hovering off Annapolis, an-
other Massachusetts regiment joined then], and
together they were strong enough to disembark,
without molestation by the Maryland rebels. If
the government is saved (and what lover of freedom
tan doubt that she will be 1) it will be due less to
its own sagacity than to the spontaneous uprising of
a people in arms and to the prompt loyalty of
Massachusetts.

A Toulon letter says :—" The first-el:1m sailing
brig Janus is now being fitted out bore to serve as a s
of instruction for the young Alan of the squadron of
evolutions. The ni i tostvi 'a despatches especially recounnetad
the instruction of their young man in pinctical ssrinanslulb
as good hands are daily becoming waiver."