The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-05 00:00:00

progress has been made in the abolition of slavery ?
The greatest success of the North was the capture of
Vicksburg, which, it was asserted, opened the whole
course, of the Mississippi, and divided the revolted
states to the east and west of that river. Yet by
the last accounts it is evident that the great river
of the West is not " open "to navigation. The
Federals hold New Orleans, at the mouth of the
Mississippi, and many other points in its course,
but :2,he stream is as much closed for traffic as when
the Contiderettes garrisoned Vicksburg. Not a
steamer can
pa,o up or down without the risk of being
attacked by the Southern guerilla bands on both
banks. The immense territory through which the
river winds baffles all attempts to occupy it. The
whole army of General Grant now concentrated
in East Tennessee would not suffice to "command"
the Mississippi and " keep its navigation open.
For the greater part of its course it runs through
a territory of which the people, -as our corre-
spondent says, are "bitterly hostile" to the
Federals, and, as the actual consequence of such.
hostility, the river is closed. The same difficulty is
eneouutered on the inland lines of communication.
All the troops the North could raise would not be
enough to fight and protect many hundreds of
miles of railway at the same time. It would re-
quire 100,00 n men to keep the single line from the
Mississippi to Chattanooga in working order. The
distances appear to baffle all military skill, and so
diminish the value of a successtul operation
that it is followed by very slight results, A country
may be too large tot decisive war, and the waste of
whole armies in America seems to prove the fact.
Napoleon swept over everything before Paris and
Vienna, but Spain and Russ!Et defied him and ex-
hausted his troops in a conflict with nature itself.
Gen. Grant is now contending with the same kind
of difficulties, while the Southern fth.ces appear to
be rallying in his front and rear. It is evident that
the Federal occupation of Eastern Tennessee, even
if it can be maintained, will not bring the war nearer
to a conclusion. In Virginia the Southerners have
lost nothing in all the campaigns, and every attempt
to penetrate their country in this direction has been
defeated. The real task of the Army of the Poto-
mac is to defend Washington, which has been ale
frequently in danger of capture during the war as
Richmond. The siege of Charleston has failed, and
the fleet of Monitors has suffered so much damage
during the operations that it cannot venture within
range of the Confederate batteries. The blockade
of the Southern coast does not deprive the people of
an ample supply of imported articles, nor does the
depreciation of their currency appear to disable
them from purchasing. Goods to the value of U.
million dollars arrive in the port of Wiimingt ore
every four•and-twenty • hours. The contraband
trade must be profitable in spite of captures and in-
convertible Southern notes. It seems also that the
descriptions of suffering and want endured in the
South, given in the Northern journals, have been
grossly exaggerated. The general state of affairs of
the Confederacy, and, what is more important, the
feeling of the people, indicate both ability and deter-
mination to continue the struggle. They consider
Mr. Lincoln's last proclamation as a mere device to
secure political support in the North. Its terms
they regard with contempt. Time enough has now
elapsed to test the effect of his first proclamation in
reference to slavery. From Mr. Lincoln's Message
to Congress :t appears that the total number of
slaves the Federal armies have liberated is 100,000.
This is the whole result of three years of war in the
name of Abolition. And at an awful price it has
been obtained. For every negro thus freed it is
calculated that three white men have been killed in
the contest. If the four millions of black are only
to be emancipated at the same cost, the calculation
becomes something terrible, and the feelings of
humanity will be appealed to on behalf of a sepia-
rior race. The worst evil that has grown out of
the system of slavery is the war carried on to extin-
guish it, To be successtul, the conquest of the
Southern territory must be complete, and, alter all
the waste of life and money, most of the task has
still be done. What has been effected in the work
of abolition is even less in proportion. Fhe war
has liberated one hundred thousand negroep, leaving
the condition of millions of slaves unaltered. Can
the most bigoted philanthropist assert that, as a war
of emancipation, the conflict has been marked 14
success? Or, taking it as a war of conquest, has the
North gained territory enough from the South to
destroy its power of resistance and make its retard
to the Union inevitable ? If either of the objects
of the struggle had been obtained, the fourth year
of the war would not have found these queetioeS
open and unanswered.