The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-29 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.

(From the Times Correspondent.)
NEW YORK, Feb, 12.
__..

In the present military condition of the North
and the South, it would be a great advantage to both
if an exchange of prisoners could be effected. There
are said to be at least 40,000 men of each side held
in captivity by the other, and the Confederate Go•
vernment is believed to be willing, if not anxious, to
exchange man for man, irrespective of colour. The
South deputed a Mr. Ould to treat with any
Northern Commissioner that Mr. Lincoln might
appoint for this purpose. Mr. Lincoln's choice fell
upon General Butler, the only man in the Northern
service with whom it was impossible for the South-
ern Co mmissioner to treat, inasmuch as he had been
declared an outlaw, and a price put upon his head
by the Confederate Congress. It would seem as if
this section were made for the express purpose
either of thwarting the negotiations or of compelling
the Southern Government to annul its decree against
Butler; However that may be, there can be no
question that under the circumstances, if the Federal
Government really desired to effect an exchange, it
could not have appointed a worse man for the pur-
pose than General Butler, who in Southern eyes
is the incarnation of all that is horrible and brutal,
and with whom the slightest personal contact is
considered to be moral as well as physical con-
tamination. As might have been expected, the
negotiations ended as soon as the Southern Com-
missioner was made officially aware of the name
of the person with whom he had to treat, but not
without such an intimation of the reasons for de-
clining the intercourse as highly incensed the
temper and ruffled the dignity of General Butler,
In an evil hour for his military reputation, which
never stood very high, the General took the brave
resolve of seizing by force of arms, and by a bold
coup-de-main, the prisoners whom he could not
otherwise liberate. Mr. Lincoln and his War Secre-
tary were consulted on the subject, and, as neither
of them has the slightest knowledge of military
affairs, they allowed the offended and impetuous
Butler to persuade them into co-operation with his
scheme. General Sedgwick, in temporary command
of the Army of the Potomac, during the absence
from indisrosition of General Meade in Philadelphia,
was to cross the Rapidan at the head of three corps
d'armee, and make a feint of advancing upon Rich-
mond by that route, so as to occupy the attention
of the main body of the Confederate army, while
General Wistar, appointed to the duty by General
Butler, was to move simultaneously upon Richmond
from Fortress Monroe by way of the Chickahominy.
It was hoped that the Confederates would be taken
unawares, that Richmond would be left undefended,
and that the city would fall an easy prey to the in-
ventive strategist. General
.Sedgwick performed
the part set down for him, crossed the Rapidan,
lost several hundred men, found the enemy too
strong for him, and crossed back again to his former
quarters. General Wistar was equally unsuccess-
ful. Richmond, it is true, was greatly excited at
his app:roacb, but was well prepared to receive him.
Wistar had to retreat more rapidly than he ad-
vanced, but fortunately succeeded in getting back
to Fortress Monroe without the loss of a single life.
The whole North, instead of raising shouts of
triumph, as Butler anticipated, rings with loud
laughter at his achievement.
The blessings of Heaven have been invoked by
General Garibaldi, M. Victor Hugo, Mr. Horace
Greeley, and thousands of other well•meaning men
upon the head of Abraham Lincoln for having, by
a stroke of his pen, emancipated four millions of
slaves. Mr. Charles Sumner, one of those who most
earnestly and persistently urged the President to
issue his Proclamation and who most zealously de-
fended its policy, its justice, and its necessity, has
just come to the conclusion that the famous docu-
ment is a nullity; that the act of the President is
only sufficient to free a few slaves, but not to abolish
slavery ; and that nothing less than an amendment
of the Constitution of the United States can set free
henceforth and for ever the bondsmen of the
South. In pursuance of this idea he introduced
at the beginning of the week seven resolutions into
the Senate, with the object of making the neces-
sary amendments to the constitution, and thus abo-
lishing slavery by the solemn act and agreement

of a majority of the American people. The resolu-
tions were referred to the Judiciary Committee of
the Senate, which body, after one day's delibera-
tion, reported against them. Even the Tribune
admits that Mr. Sumner's proposition was ill-timed
and injudicious; and that the cumbrous machinery
by which alone an amendment of the Constitution
could be legally effected could not be employed in
a time of war without serious danger to the public
tranquillity. The press generally is of the same
opinion, though the reasons given are not identical

in every case. Some journals argue that the re-
storation of the Union, and not the abolition of
slavery, is the matter in hand ; others, that slavery
will die itself in due time from the blows which
the war has necessarily dealt against it ; and others,
that a peaceable amendment of the Constitution,
while so many of the States that originally con-
sented to it are in rebellion, is a legal and consti-
tutional impossibility. The iutroducaon, however,

of such resolutions by such a man as Mr. Sumner

is a proof that even the ultra-Abolitionists are be-
coming aware that the proclamation has no validity

—that it will not stand the judgment of the Su-

preme Court, and that it is as idle as Mr, Lincoln,
its author, described it to be before he issued it.
Another incident in the Senate deserves a word of
mention. Mr. Sumner drew attention to the fact

that a black man holding the rank of major in the

Federal army had been forcibly ejected. from a
railway carriage in the city of Washington for no
other offence than his colour. He expressed his

indignation at such an outrage, declared that he

would rather see every railway in America broken
up and destroyed than that such things should be
tolerated, and that their constant recurrence did
more to injure the Federal cause in Europe
and at home than a defeat in battle. This
led to s somewhat personal discussion, in

which a senator from Indians declared that no

law could establish the social equality of the white
man and the bleck ; that the negro in question was
rightly served, inasmuch as a special car was at-
tached tr.l the train for people of his colour, and in
dalitierately thrusting himself into a place not in-
tended for him he meant to insult, and did thereby
2 fifth, every
white person present. This senator, it
Mould be observed, was not the representative of a
slaveheldiet community, bat of the free State of In-
diana; so that the question of slavery did not influ-
ence his judgment. Indiana detests slavery, but it
ralso detests the negro ; and though Mr. Charles
Sumner and mans American women and clergymen
have a true philanthropic regard, if net esteem, for
the black man, the great mess of the American po.
pulation agree with Indiana rather than with Mas-
sachusetts on the subject. They will consent to po-
litical equality with negroes, bat they will never
consent to social intercourse ;and no law that Mr.
Sumner or the combined wisdom of the Senate can
frame will ever break down the barrier that sepa-
rates the two races. Only last week in this city a
mulatto, wealthy, and not very dark-
moused, was
refused a drink in a public saloon by a saucy bar-
keeper just returned from the army, on the ground
that " Diggers" could not be allowed to drink in the
presence of white men. The bar-keeper paid the
penalty for his offence with his life ; for the mulatto
drew a revolver from his breast and shot him dead
behind his counter, and is now in prison awaiting
his trial for the murder. Such incidents as these
show the antagonise:. of the races whare slavery does
not exist,
The House of Representatives has not only been
busy during the week with this old question of the
negro and his political and social status, but with
the new and perhaps equally embarrassing question
of the conscription. It yesterday resolved that the
slaves of loyal owners, if conscripted, should be en-
rolled in the army, and that their masters should
receive compensation for their loss to the extent
of 300 dole., which is far less than the current value
of negroes in some of the Border States. It re-
solved at the same time—with gross injustice—that
conscripted negroes thus made free should not be
entitled to the bounty of 100 dols. offered by the Go-
vernment to white conscripts, but that this addi-
tional sum should also go to their masters. The

subject of their pay has yet to be decided; the
friends of the negro asserting that he ought to have
exactly the same pay and allowances as the white,
and the opposite party maintaining that he should
only be paid what he is worth, which is much less
than a white man, and justifying the establishment
of a differential rate by the example of the British
Government in India, that allows its Sepoy soldiers
a much smaller sum than it finds it necessary to give
to its European troops. As several negro regiments
have threatened mutiny unless they are allowed
equal pay with the whites, it is probable that Con-
gress will concede the point, the more especially as
the need of the Government for men is great, and no
one can tell where they are to come from if the
negroes as a body be disheartened by what they
consider injustice.
An amendment having been offered to a clause of
the Enrolment Act to the effect that clergymen not
engaged in trade or any secular business should be
exempt from military service—an amendment
which, if carried, would have compelled such
preachers as the Rev Henry Ward Beecher to farego
the secular business of lecturing, or take their chance
of shouldering the rifle—Mr. Cox, of Ohio, expressed
his opinion that the clergy had done more than
any other body of men in the country to produce,
embitter, and prolong the war ; and that such
" pestiferous" persons ought by no means to be
exempted from military duty. Mr. Eldridge, of
Wisconsin, while agreeing with Mr. Cox that the
preachers were intermeddlers and stirrers-up of
mischief, was willing to accept any preacher who
would declare on his honour that he never had
introduced, and never would introduce, politics into
his sermons. This suggestion was received with
loud laughter; but the amendment having been put
to the vote was summarily rejected. As the bill now
stands the clergy of all denominations are liable to
military duty with the rest of the community, and
must either fight or pay. At a later stage of the
debate Mr. Fernando Wood proposed to exempt
from the draught all persons " who, from conscien-
tious disbelief in the humanity. necessity, or even-
tual success of the war, are opposed to its further
prosecution until an effort should have been made,
and failed, to end it by negotiation." As, notwith-
standing the madness of the hour, this wide ex-
emption would have included a full half of the
American people—the women and the preachers
excepted, Mr Wood's proposition fell to the ground,
though 23 Democratic representatives were found
to vote in its favour. On the following day it was
moved to exempt members of the Society of Friends,
and all other persona having conscientious scruples
against fighting, upon condition that they would
make themselves useful in taking care of escaped
and freed negroes. A representative from Connec-
ticut said there were at least half a million of per-
sons in the country who held the doctrine of non-
resistance; and if they were to be exempted the
probability was that the ranks would be recruited
very much faster than those of the army. The
amendment, like its predecessors, was rejected, and
the non-resistants will therefore have the privilege
of paying for the faith that is in them should an
unhappy turn of the wheel inscribe their names on
the grim roll of battle.