The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-24 00:00:00

,„,,,,........ kie....., .......
THE C 'lva WAR. IN AMERICA,

(11 .6,7 f the Tiinv Correspondent.)
BALTIMORE, June 7.
The remarks of a portion of the English press,
which seem to at lmit that Gen. Grant has hitherto
had the advantage in the campaign against Rich-
mond, have been received in this city with great
surprise. So far from having had the advantage,
Grant in every movement he has made has been
foiled, if not defeated. He has been forced to
abandon every -position he has assumed, and after a
month's strategy and fully a fortnight of hard fight-
ing he has lost one way or another close upon
100,000 men in killed, wounded, missing, and pri-
soners, and finds himself upon the Chickahominy, a
place which he could have reached without the loss
of a battalion if either he or the authorities at 'Wash-
ington had not been so perverse as to reject that
mode of approach to Richmond because it was the
favourite route of Gen. 1141‘Clellan. Having made
along detour from the North Anna he was confronted
at his next halting place at Mechanicsville by
the whole strength of the Confederate army. No-
thing daunted by his repeated and costly failures
ho essayed during a whole week to force that
position ; but finding his supplies in danger of
being out off, and having lost upwards of 7,500
men on Friday, the 3d inst., in one futile asaault
upon the enemy's works in front of him, he has once
again found it necessary to change his plans, to
abandon Cold Harbour and Mechanicsville, which
he discovered to be as strongly fortified as any place
with which his brave but luckless legions have come
into contact; and to make a new and, it is to be
supposed, a fir.al endeavour to reach Richmond by
crossing the Cnickahominy below Newbridge. This
was M'Clellan's plan, and from all present appear-
ances a few days will show whether he can make
more of it than his predecessor, Up to this
moment, however, he has gained nothing. He has
exhibited a bulldog pertinacity. He has sacrificed
his men. He has practically declared that heknows
no such word as "fail." He has been knocked
down and getup again. He has been repulsed and
returned to the encounter. He has taken but slight
heed of difficulties, and has exhibited a degree of
courage which is the result either of heroism or of
ignorance. Finally he has sat down to besiege a
city which is strongly fortified in front and has all
its communications open in the rear, which rear he
cannot reach. Even the New York papers, which
are always shouting " victory' when there is no
victory, begin to admit, with wry faces and the
worst possible grace, that a siege thus begun may
last the whole summer, and that before the summer
is half over, the besieging army, settled in a swamp
and sweltering in the rays of a Southern sun, are
much more likely to lose half their numbers by fever
and dysentery than to produce the slightest effect
upon the courage or the resources of the besieged.
The battle of Friday last, of which but very
slight and cursory mention has been made by the
War Department, but of which the full details have
been communicated to the public by witnesses of
and participators in its horrors, was precipitated
by General Grant with the intention of making it
the crisis of the campaign. The position assailed
was supposed to be the key to Richmond, tea the
Chickahominy ; but as on all previous occasions
since the passage of the Rapidan, the Federal com-
mander found it impossible either to surprise or (le=
feat his ever-vigilant opponent. In less than ten
minutes the battle was ended. The Confederate
Ehot poured through the masses of the Federals,
cutting them down by hundreds at one discharge—
so thick were their advancing ranks; and in almost
less time than it takes to write down the sentence
which records their braveryand their doom upwards
of 6000 men received their death wound and lay
sprawling and helpless on the bloody field. Even
the stoicism of Grant, though not outwardly moved,
as far as the eyes of his watchful aides could dis-
cover, gave way. He ordered no renewal of the
charge that had cost him so many thousands, inclu-
sive
of five generals and 20 colonels ; and after hasty
consultation with Gen. Meade, and afterwards with
Generals Hancock and Warren, appears to have
made up his mind that he was not on tha right
rJad to Richmond, and that he had either to besiege
it by regular process or find some other and
more available route by which he could carry it by
strategy or a coup de main.

People who are ordinarily rapid for the prosecu.
tion of the war are becoming alarmed at Grant's
contempt for human life. He values his legions no
more than if they were coveys of partridges. Already
it is whispered that nearly 1,100 officers are to be
included in the 90,000 or 100,000 men who have
been killed, wounded, and taken prisoners since he
began his sanguinary march. He is spoken of as the
" butcher," and a requisition is hinted at calling
upon the President to remove him. Not only the
friends of the South but multitudes of earnest
Northern men have already come to the conclusion
that his campaign is a failure—that he has done his
utmost and can do no more, and that he has already
don© as little as M'Clsllan at a cost ten times as
fearful. To-day some English officers and news-
paper correspondents who arrived in this city from
the front, report that the losses on Friday last were
nearer 15,000 than 7,000; that on Saturday and
Sunday 5,000 or 6,000 more were sacrificed to the
obstinacy of the Lieutenant. General, and that a
spirit of disaffection. has arisen in the army which
threatens to become a mutiny, if the men continue
to be driven like mae_ines against impregnable
positions, without the slightest solicitude whether
10 or 10,000 lives are sacrificed in the attempt.
Baltimore, aristocratic and fashionable, is so
engrossed with the war news that it thinks and
speaks of nothing but Grant and Lee. Baltimore,
democratic and unfashionable, is, on the contrary,
wholly absoroed by the
proceedings of the Conven-
tion. The noble art of President-making seems in
its initial stages to require a vast amount of music
and oratory. As the witches could not transform
the Thane of Glamis into the Thane of Cawdor and
King of Scotland without much incantation and a
musical accompaniment, so the delegates who have
come hither to boil the Presidential caldron and
throw their several weird ingredients into the mess,
cannot perform their allotted parts without the aid
of fife and drum, the brass band and the trumpet.
All day long and half the night, the delegations,
who have determined to prolong the reign of Mr.
Lincoln, live in an atmosphere of music. Under
the balconies of the hotels, where they are lodged
in batches—the representatives of each State keep
together—some at Barnum's, some at the Eutaw-
house, some at Guy's, &c., the minstrels gather, to
make the day unpleasant and the night hideous
with " Yankee Doodle," " Hail Columbia," " Star-
spangled Banner," and " John Brown's Body Lies
Mouldering in the Grave," varied occasionally with
the more agreeable melodies of the " Trovatore" and
the " Puritani." These musical performances are,
however, but baits for speeches. The crowds that
assemble under the windows listen patiently while
the band plays, and when the musicians have done
shout for some member of the delegation to show
himself, After short and coy delay he appears, and
addresses his fellow-citisens with loud voice and
violent gesticulation. If the speaker be from New
York, Philadelphia, or Boston, or any civilised part
of the Union, the speech is for the most part prac-
tical, though ornate, and dwells largely upon the
necessity of recruiting the last man, spending the
last dollar to crush the rebellion, and the equally
urgent necessity of re-electing . the statesman, the
patriot, and champion of
liberty, Abraham Lin•
coin" for another term. If the speaker be from the
West—from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, or Kansas, he
is equally stong on the last man, the last dollar, and
the pcculiar fine of Mr. Lincoln for his place, but
far more emphatic in his denunciation of the rebels,
and profuse in the employment of such words as
" hell," " damnation," and the " devil." These and
some kindred expressions seem to form the staple
of Western oratory. " The rebels," said a Briga.
dier-General from Ohio last night to a crowd under
the balcony of the Eutaw House, " have but two
rights to which they can lay claim. The one is a
Constitutional right, and the other is a Divine right.
They have a Constitutional right to be hung—they
have a Divine right to be damned." Another
Western orator at Barnum's declared that " Jeff
Davis would be in hell in less than six weeks, and
that Abraham Lincoln was the noblest man that
God had ever created." He was followed shortly

afterwards by a very fluent speaker, who took much
lower ground, and declared that " Lincoln was a
common man, an ordinary man, a labouring man ;
that a republican form of government required no
other kind of man for a chief magistrate, and that
it was the glory of the country that any hewer of
wood or drawer of water was fit to be a President."
This kind of talk went on all day yesterday, con•
tinned till midnight, and was resumed this morning,
and will doubtless last out the day, until the Con.
vention assembles for the first time for the transac.
tion of business.

All these preliminaries are but interludes to
pass the time and to amuse the people. In the
intervals the several delegations meet in secret to
compare notes and draw up plans for the more im.
portant procedure of the evening. In one thing
only are the delegations from all the States agreed,
which is, that Mr. Lincoln shall be nominated for
President. Whom to place upon the same ticket for
Vice-President is as yet undecided. Mr. Hamlin,
the actual Vice-President, does not seem to be a
favourite; and the names of Governor Andrew
Juhnson, of Tennessee, formerly a tailor and now a
gentleman who is popularly known as the "ribboned
ox," because he is a renegade from the Democratic
party, and declared, while he was yet true to tho
faith, that a renegade was like an ox in ancient
sacrifices—to be led to slaughter with a riband
around:his neck, and who is also celebrated for being
the most accomplished adept in the art of speaking
Buncombe which the United States have produced,
and Mr. Horace Greeley, editor of the New York
Tribune, have been mentiohed for the post. The
first point to be settled, however, is the chairman.
ship of the Convention, for which there will be a
keen struggle, for the reason that any person who
occupies such a position in a nominating Convention
has a claim upon the President thereby elected for
almost any office in the Government to which he
may consider himself entitled. The two most pro-
minent, though not the most likely candidates, are
Mr. Simon Cameron, of Pennsylvania, and Mr.
Raymond, editor of the New York limes ; the
former of whom is said to look upon the Secretary-
ship of State, and the latter upon the Embassy to
Paris as his appropriate reward. Although the
delegations are unanimous for Mr. Lincoln, they are
dissatisfied with Mr. Lincoln's Administration, and
are believed to have exacted a promise that he will
make a clean sweep of all his Secretaries from Mr.
Seward downwards, and appoint a totally new set i
of men if he be re-elected.

It appears that Mr. Lincoln's friends were unne-
aessarily alarmed by the statement that a delegation
of the supporters of General Fremont or Mr. Chase
was in the city and had determined to meet 24
hours in advance of the regular Convention, and
declare themselves in favour of the one term prin-
ciple. If any such meeting was held last night it
was held in secret, and the secret has been well
kept. Nobody seems to have heard or to know
anything about it. It is, clear, however, that the
proceedings of the Cleveland Convention—the ac-
ceptance of the nomination by General Fremont—
and the bold denunciatory letter in which he declares
that he will oppose Mr. Lincoln, bat no other can-
didate of the Union party, have fallen like thunder-
claps from a blue aky among the place•holders,
ofpice•seekers, contractors, and shoddyites, who form
three-fourths, if not nine-tenths of the Lincoln de-
legation. They fear that this great disruption of
the Republican party—unaccompanied, and not
likely to be accompanied, by any similar spirit in
the Democratic ranks—will, in the event of General
Grant's failure, or the prolongation for the next
three months of his bloody and, as yet, bootless
campaign, lead to the success of General M'Ciellan.
The friends of M'Clellan are delighted. They have
discovered in Fremont qualities which they never
saw before. They admire his high principle, his
stern opposition to illegality, his hatred of the Lin-
colnian despotism, and almost wish that he would
he one of them and come over to the camp of the
" Copperheads." The Republican journals in the
Lincoln interest either belabour him with hard but
harmless words, or affect to pity him for the hope-
less shipwreck which they assert he has made both
of his reputation and his chances. But the truth
is, supposing always that Grant be removed from
the arena by his non-success in the field, that the
real struggle is more likely to be between Generals
Fremont and M'Clellan than between Mr. Lincoln
and any:other candidate; and that if the contest
be decided by popular vote, and not by a
military coup d'etat, or the transference of
the decision from the body of the people to the
House of Representatives,—a contingency that may
arise it no candidate out of the many has the atm°s
lute majority of the whole number of voters—Mr.
Lincoln's chances are the poorest of all. Of course
this is not the opinion of the Baltimore Convention.
They were sent to nominate Mr. Lincoln, and they
will nominate him at ail hazards.

JUNE 9.
Contrary to expectation the chairmanship of the
Convention has been settled without a struggle,
neither of the favourites, Cameron or Raymond,
having manifested a desire to contest it. The pro-
visional chairmanship was conferred on Dr. Brecken-
ridge, of Kentucky, an uncle of General Brecken-
ridge of the Confederate army, who made a very
tru.2.ulent speech, in which he asserted that the

liberties of the American people required a great
deal of blood to consolidate them, and that the more

that was shed the longer the Republic was likely
to enduz e. The reverend gentleman, however, did
not say that he was prepared to offer up his own
blood for the cause which he has at heart, which is
perhaps a pity, if it is his intention to make any
more such speeches as that with which he inaugu-
rated the proceedings of the Cinvsntien. The per-
manent chairman, elected by unanimous vote, vies
Mr. Denison, formerly Governor of Ohio, who en-
tered on his functions in a milder manner and spoke
more like a man of business and less like a fiery zea-
lot than his temporary predecessor. The first busi-
ness was to decide upon the credentials of the
several delegations ; and as Louisiana, Florida, Vir-
ginia, South Carolina, and even the outlying ter-
ritories of the Union in the Far West which have
not yet arrived at the maturity of States were re-
presented, it became a matter of some interest to
knew how their pretent ions would be received. Mr.
Thaddeus Stevens, of Pennsylvania, who has no
hope of restoring the Union, and insists upon treat-
ing the Confederacy as a foreign nation with which
the Repeve
iat s war, objected to allow any dele-
gates from Southern States in partial occupation of
armies to be admitted, declaring his
othpeiniFoendratehalt
any
recognition of their claim to seats
in the Convention would be the establishment of a
fatal principle, that would be more injurious to the
loss of a pitched battle. After
IFeondge Federal cause
deatixcsiet
et than
debatesanthe
t
'was decided to admit the
delegations, with the exception of that from South
Carolina, which was partially composed of negroes.
This was a descent from the
high position assumed
forby thethe bulkne
g r
oo ft
hikartr.hLeiinscaollnw,ya
Lincoln's supporters, who claim
a s
good as a white
man, and sometimes a great deal better (as most
people would admit if they saw Mr. Frederick
Douglas and Senator Lane, of Kansas, together,
and
heard them make speeches). This knotty
Point dis-
posed of, in a manner which can scarcely meet
the
approbation of Mr. Wendell Phillips, Mr. Ward
Beecher, the strong-minded women, and the
Churches, a new difficulty arose as to the admission
of a second and anti-Lincoln deputation from Mis-
souri. Angry debates took place on thesubject, bates
the deputation was the only dissentient, and its ad-
mission could have no effect upon the final decision,
it was admitted under protest. It registered 22 votes
for Gen. Grsnt, but afterwards supported the n0..2:-
nation of Mr. Lincoln, which was thus made unani-
mous. Mr. Hamlin was somewhat contemptuously
set aside as Vice-President, and Governor Andrew
Johnson, of Tennessee, named in his stead, also by a
unanimous vote. With the adoption of a "platform,''
or series of resolutions, the proceeding terminated.
Nothing further remained but to hold the ratifi-
cation meeting in the open square in the evening.
The people of Baltimore were invited to attend
—about Vio people—mostly soldiers, car-drivers,
labourers, and ne.„.s
of the town obeyed thse;a
roe
sutmthoensfi:boauttintgheproepwualastnioont
even a sprinkling of the trading, professional, and
wealthy classes to bear them company. A transpa-
rency was exhibited at the place of meeting, setting
old flag woald bruise the
forth that " the heel of the