The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-05 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.

(From the Times Correspondent.)
NEW YORK, Nov. 22.
Prior, daring, and for a few days subsequent to
the meeting of the Chicago Convention the popular
desire for peace was so violent as almost to constitute
a mania. The war was represented not only as a
failure in the past, but as bound to he a failure in the
future. Such was the discouragement consequent

upon the tardy discovery that the unparalleled
sacrifices of the straggle had been incurred in vain,
and that if the war were to last another year de-
mands more enormous than ever would have to be
made upon the by no means inexhaustible fountains
of the blood and treasure of the people, that a spon-

taneous conviction seemed to take possession of
men's minds that the time had come when, by means
of an armistice and a national convention it.might
be ascertained whether, by mutual concession, the
Union might not be reconstructed without further
bloodshed. The tendency towards peace was so
'nuked that every body believed that the story of
the war, like a good novel or romance, was about to
end happily, and that, all their troubles over, the
North and South would live happily for the re•
mainder of their lives. It looked as if the voice of
passion had been silenced, and that reason had re.
sumed her away. And when the convention so-
lemnly adopted a peace platform an impartial ob-
server might have been we►ll warranted in believing
that the better half of the Americans were really
deserving of the Democratic liberty of which they
proclaimed themselves champions and apostles, and
were about to verify the confident predictions of the
Sowards, the Greelings, the Everetts, and all the
philosophers except those of the petticoat and the

pulpit, by Bottling their differencts in calm delibe-
ration and sober second thought. But it was all a
mistake and a misconception. Tho appearances
were illusory. There was one swal'ow, but no sum-
mer. The passion of tho people for Union a tout prix
was as engrossing► as ever. The peace mania, so pre-
valent, was nothing but a freak of petulaec©. It
was born of imp 4tience and disappointment, and had
no dwelling-place in the heart, or hold upon the
conscience of the multitude. The capture of Atlanta
by Gen. Sherman rendered the Chicago platform
unpopular, robbed it of its main plank, and induced
ita candidate to comtnit an act of political and pro-
fessional suicide. The whisper of peace was over-
powered by shouts for the more vigorous prosecu.
Lion of the war, Tho appetite for victory was sti.
mutated, not sated, by the morsel which Sherman
had thrown, and all the brutal instincts of the crowd
were excited into madness. Not that the people
really desired war, or took any delight in the horrors
of the battle-field, or the sanguinary "glory" which
their Generals, with Grant and Sherman at their
head, were promising to acquire for them ; but that
once more they saw in military success a better hope
than in negotiation for the restoration of that be-
loved Union, for the sake of which they are and
always have been perfectly ready to sacrifice their
credit, their happiness, and their liberty. The
triumphant re-election of Mr Lincoln, the great
things expected of the armies in the field, and the
supposed discouragement of the South, consequent
upon its alleged want of men and money, have
again turned the thoughts of the Northern people
towards peace. This timo, however, the wind does
not blow from the old quarter. It is not discourage-
ment but hope which breaths gentle airs and words ()I
forgiveness. The people do not fear as before that the
South is to be the conqueror, but lookingupon victory
as already within their grasp, they desire to prove
that their quarrel is a quarrel of friends and rela•

lives with which the outer world has no concern—
and that the North at the proper time can be as gene.
rous as she has shown herself to be valiant. Gene-
ral Butler—who loves to create a sensation as dearly
as if he were a novelist—led the way ; and the great
crowd followed, with as much momentum of eager.
ness as the smaller crowd displayed at Chicago.
The assumption upon which this new born hope is
founded is that the North is on the point of final
conquest; that the South, in American parlance,
must speedily "cave in," and that it would bo a
groat, noble, and magnanimous act on the part of
Mr. Lincoln to offer not alone peace, but brother.
hood, amity, and complete forgiveness to the
Southern leaders and people on the sole condition
of " Union. The idea was too littering to Northern
pride not to become popular. For more than a
week, a very long time in America, it has had pos-
session of the newspapers, the exchange, and the
bar-room ; affected the price of gold and food; in.
terfered with the calculations of commerce, and
pleased the imagination of the multitude with
visions of reduced taxation, cheapened necessaries
of life, the disbanding► of armies and the relinquish.
ment, now and for all time to come, of such eras.
perating projects as forced conscriptions. if any
one of cooler temperament ventures to hint a doubt
that, after all, the South may not be in the despe-
rate plight supposed, and may, consequently, hav-
ing quite as much pride as the North, reject all
overtures and all offers which do not include the
recognition of its independence, the reply is more
apt to assume the form of vituperation than of argu.
mont, If the objector be an American, he is a
" traitor" and a" copperhead." If ho be an English.
man, he is ignorant and prejudiced, and is but re-
echoing the sentiments of th© British aristocracy,
of whom he is doubtless a bribed agent. At all
events he is en enemy of " our great country," and
not trustworthy in ally opinion he may form or any
assertion which ho may make o❑ an American

subject.
At the close of last week it NV4B generally believed
that Mr. Lincoln, strong in the possession of re■
ncwcd power, if not popularity, would make the
first overture to the South, by despatching a dept.
tation to Richmond of statesmen whose antecedents
were such as would not render them personally die.
tasteful to the Confederate leaders, and whose
known attachment to the Union were such as to
assure the Northern people that the cause was safe
in their hands. Some went so far as to name the
gentlemen selected—names that it would serve no
purpose to repeat, but of which it may be noted as ,

evidence of 'the direction in wia.
popular 'opinion
has set, that is one tb,
belonged to as Abolitionist, or to a member of the
extreme Republican and Federal party. It now
appears that Mr. Lincoln is not prepared to take
such a step; but that whatever overture of peace
and reunion he may think proper to make will be
reserved for his annual Message to Congress, to be
delivered on the 4th of December. His time is so
fully occupied with the preparation of that deco.
ment that the Washington newspapers have been
instructed on his behalf to request the public to
postpone their visits either of congratulation or of
business for the next 12 days, and leave the Presi-
dent to the seclusion of his study.
I3ut, hovvever roseate may be the anticipations of
peace to grow out of anything that the President
may say, or any terms he may offer, it is to General
Sherman that the people are principally looking
for the realisation of their hopes. His mysterious
march with 50,000 men south from Atlanta is not
yet explained, but any
one who presumes to assert
that, whatever his et or his point of desti-
nation may be, the movement is not certain to
succeed, is denounced as a bad citizen---or an
envio.zs foreigner. The Administration, the press,
and the people have made up their minds that Sher-
man knows no such word as " fail." The more sub.,
guine expect to hear before many days that he has
marched either unopposed, or from easy victory to
victories still easier, through 300 miles of fertile
and hitherto undevastated territory, feeding himself
as he went, and placed himself before Mobile, Sa-
vannah, and Charleston, preparatory to his final
junction with General Grant, and a combined ono
slaught upon Richmond. Nothing is to mar, int./
pede, or prevent the success of the mighty project.
---WirerrtirerAtlantic -cities- and Rlchmond are taken,
when the armies of Lee are scattered, and when
that groat General himself is a fugitive to the
wilds and morasses, or the jungles of the cotton
States, bearing with him the forlorn remnants of his
once proud hosts, together with the Southern Presi.‘
dent and the moot prominent members of his Ad-
ministration, the the benefie,,ot, the heroic
Piesident 'Lincoln. is to offer the olive branch.
in a grateful speech, carefully prearranged by Mr
Seward. He will hint no word of extermination ;
ho will withdraw his decrees of confiscation; he will
say nothing about slavery, except that it may take
its chance to live or die as circumstances may des
tide; and he will not only offer Mr Jefferson Davis
forgiveness, bat a place in his Cabinet, and Gen. Lee
a high command in his armies, if they will cordially
return to the Union which they spurned in days
when they were unaware of its power, ana lend their
aid, their influence, and their talents to the vindica.

Lion of the Monroe doctrine, the expulsion of Maxi•
milian from Mexico, and the presentation In Eng•
land of that " little bill" for the depredations of
Captains Semmes and Maffitt, which, if it be left
unpaid, will cost " perfidious Albion " nothing
less than Canada and the whole of British America,
as well as her leading place in the councils of civilie
sation. The Americans neither act nor dream by
halves. All their exaggerations assume the largest
possible shapes; and if in their present exhilaration
they indulge in visions that are somewhat too lag
travagant, they will make amends on the other side,
if the wheel of fortune should revolve unfavourably,
and paint to themselves for a little while a future
as black and gloomy as that to which they now look
forward is rainbow•like and splendid. Gen. Grant
—one of the twin heroes who is to effect the glorious
consummation upon which all hearts are set—except
those of Copperheads and Englishmen (John Bright,

Richard Cobden, and Professor Smith, of Oxford,
not included)—has been in New York incognito.
during the last few days, and returned yesterday
to hie headquarters with the army of the Potomac.
As he could go nowhere but to an hotel, and as
he could not be half-an-hour in any hotel
without being recognised by some of the crowd
of loungers who frequent the bars and lobbies

of such establishments, it speedily became known

that the great man was at the Astor•house, A sere-
nade was promptly arranged in his honour, and as
Mr Reuben Fenton, the newly elected Governor of
New York, was in the house at the same time, it was
arranged to make that virgin functionary a joint
recipient of this mark of popular regard. The re..
porters of the Herald and other papers heard of what
was intended and duly prepared their pencils and
note books to take down the speeches which it was
the object of the serenaders to extort from the dis-
tinguished strangers. But General Grant has a
dislike of speech making and a horror of publicity,
and peremptorily refused even to show himself unv
less the reporters pledged themselves on their ho•
nour not to mention his presence in the oity until

to-day (Tuesday), or 21 hours after he should
have taken his departure. The reporters behaved

themselves as gentlemen should, and not a word wag
printed until this morning about the General's pro•

oeedings. It appears that the General was most
enthusiastically received by the Astor-house habits
toes and loungers and a largo accession of the pass-

ing public, that he obstinately refused to speak a.
word, deputed his friend Gen. Sickles to return

thanks in his stead, that he bowed to the audience

three or four times, looking all the while exceedingly

uncomfortable, and that he withdrew from the
popular gaze as soon after Gen, Sickles had con•

eluded as was consistent with propriety. He after 4
wards called privately upon Gen. Winfield Scott,
who has been amusieg his leisure since he retired

from the command of the Federal army by writing

and publishing his autobiography, and received from
that illustrious veteran a copy of the work, with the

inscription on the flyleaf that it was presented by

the oldest to the ablest General in the world.

" Call no man happy until he is dead," was au

ancient adage. " Call no man able until he

has done his work" might be its modern

synonym in military affairs, though General
Scott is apparently of the opinion that ability
may be shown in au unfinished work as well
as in a completed one, and that the failure to take
Richmond will not derogate from the claims of his

Protege to rank higher than all the generals of Eu 4
rope or Asia, to say nothing of such a fellow• Virg-
inian as Robert E. Lae. The American Nestor, it
must be owned, is a sturdy flatterer—but, as he
was once a strong fighter, his weakness may be
pardoned. General Grant's admirers report of Mtn
that he has not forgotten how to blush, and that,

although brave as a lion, ho is in some respects as
sensitive as a girl. It may be presumed that ott
this occasion at least the tell-tale blood canto mant4
ling to his cheeks, when conscience told him that the
compliment was the result of age and good nature

rather than that of truth and hard experience.
Governor Fenton, as a professional politician, Bei
customed to make speeches, had less reason and leas
desire for reticence than General Grant, and favoured
the serenaders and the crowd of spectators with

his opinions upon his own election and that of

Mr Lincoln. ile considered the double event to

be highly satisfactory, nano doubt it is to both of

these high personages. But what was extraordid

nary, at least as regards Mr Lincoln's triumph, was
Mr Fenton's assertion that " It was a triumph of the

great principle of man's right of self-government.''
To other people not in Mr Fenton's position, or
seeing through his eyes, or through Northern spec-
tacles, Mr Lincoln's re-election looks more like the
triumph of the very opposite principle, the denial of
the right of self-government to the people of the
Confederate States, who think that they
are as welt
entitled to sever their political partnership with
the North as the ancestors of both the Northern
and Southern people were to dissolve their political
connexion with Great Britain, Mr. Fenton
went on to say that his and Mr Lincoln's
victory WaH that of "democracy over an aris4
tucracy that would create a despotism upon the
ruins of lihrrty"—the very result that the North is
attaining under Mr Lincoln's auspices with a rapiq
dity unparalleled in the history of the world. Mr
Lincoln, it is true, is not an aristocrat—very far
from it—but what of that P A homicide is none the
less a homicide because ho happens to bo a plebeian,
and if Mr Lincoln's fatality is to destroy the liberty
of the North, in the attempt to subjugate the South,
posterity will find but small con4olation in the fact
that he was a Democrat, in the European rather
than in the American sense of the word —and that

he was by no means a member of any aristocracy
hitherto known among men. With these exceptions
the new Governor's speech was not remarkable,
less it be fur its unfavourable contrast in point cf
vigour of expression and statesmanship of charseter
with all the public utterances of his able but some♦
what timid predecesbor, Mr Seymour.