The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-05 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.

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NEW YORK, Aug. 23.

Though the military situation is anything but
hopeful, and the financial situation is that of a
gloom rapidly deepening into darkness, the political
situation is so much more important than either as
ro almost entirely engross the attention of the pub-
lic. It is not whether Grant will take Richmond,
Sherman Atlanta, or Farragut Mobile, that people
are now asking, but, who will be nominated for the
Presidency at Chicago on Monday next. Mr Fessen-
den's popular loon is a proved failure ; but the ques-
tion of finance, and ninety-nine people of a hundred
are far less interested in knowing what Mr Fessen-
den will do, than in speculating upon what is likely
to be done with the currency when Mr Fessenden
and his colleagues shall be voted out of office. The
attitude of parties upon the question of an armistice
and a Convention of the States is so clearly defined
that no military success achieved between this time
and the 29th can have much effect upon the issue.
Were Grant to capture Richmond, which nobody
believes possible, it would not weaken the hands
of the majority to be represented at Chicago which
has resolved to try whether compromise and con-
ciliation are not more likely to restore the Union
than fire and sword, Were Sherman to take At.
lanta, which he has but slender chance of doing, it
would give Mr Lincoln and his party no stronger
hold upon the popular confidence than they possess
to-day, and would not modify the opinion of the
two !great sections of the Democracy, that the
time has come for friendly debate on the recon-
struction of the commonwealth. The Northern
people have not lost their love for the Union. They
have simply their faith in the war as a means of
restoring it. For this reason they are in favour of
an armistice and a subsequent Convention, be•
lieving, as Mr Lincoln himself is reported to have
said, that such a cessation of the strife could
not possibly be productive of evil to the rederal
cause, but would certainly be productive of good
even if the good were of no greater account than
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son, and to withdraw their qaarrel from the bloody
arbitrament of battle.

It will doubtless be asked in Europe whether the
Southern States, though gladly and for obvious rev.
sons consenting to an armistice, would consent to
send delegates to the proposed Convention. I believe
I em justified in stating, as the conviction left upon
my mind after repeated conversations on that sub-
ject with the diplomatists who have taken up their
abode on the Canadian side of the Falls of Niagara,
gentlemen who claim to possess the entire confidence
of the Confederate Government, and to represent its
views and wishes in this, and other respects,—that
every Southern State would do so on the following
terms :—First, that the Federal Government should
consider Virginia as one State and not as two, in■
asmnch as the creation of the State of Western
Virginia without the consent of all Virginia was
illegal and unconstitutional—second, that in any
State partially occupied by the Federal armies or
menaced by Federal navies, such as Louisiana,
Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama, the Federal eel.
Biers should possess no vote, and that the utmost
freedom of election of delegates should be guaran-
teed to all bona tide citizens; and thirdly, CAA in
such border States as Kentucky, Maryland, and
Missouri, where there is so strong a sympathy for
the Southern cause, that not even the most brutal
of military despotisms can repress it, the Federal
Government will re-establish civil and suspend
martial law, and allow the delegates to bo elected
by the ordinary action of the people. These condi-
tions cannot be considered unreasonable. They
are founded alike upon the principies of the Fede-
ral and the Confederate constitutions, and
seem to be inherent in any truly Republican
form of Government. If conceded they would
give the South the representation of 15 of the 34
States that once comprised the Union :—namely,
Texas (1), Louisiana (2), Arkansas (3), Mis-
souri (4), Mississippi (5), Alabama (6), Georgia (7).
Florida (8), Tennessee (9), Kentucky (10), South
Carolina (11), North Carolina (12), Virginia (13),
Delaware (14), and Maryland (15). Were the North
united in impose and rent by no political dissen-