The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-14 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP

TIMES.—One of the bloodiest battles of the Pen.
insular War was fought after peace had been con-
cluded, and it seems as if the great American
struggle would be crowned with a similar super•
flinty of carnage. While the most powerful party in
the North was proclaiming aloud its abomination of
the war and its resolute demand for peace, the North-
ern armies in Virginia and Georgia wore engaged
in the most obstinate and sanguinary conflicts.
In Virginia the advantage remained with the Cons
federates, who had been the assailants ; in Georgia
the Federals, if the occupation of Atlanta is truly

reported, may claim the credit of the day. But,
though Atlanta may at last have been occupied, the
covering army has not been routed, and a success
ful combination of Confederate forces threatens

Sherman with serious embarrassment, At Mobile
Admiral Farragut is displaying that tenacity of
purpose which has characterised the Federal tactics
throughout the present campaign, and if his progress
be slow, he exhibits at least no signs of discourage',
meet. But in the meanwhile a voice has gone forth

which may still the thunder of the cannon. The
Chicago Convention has not only declared the prin.
ciples on which the Democratic party is prepared
to act, but has demanded, in the name of the people,
that negocie ions shall be immediately institu, ed. for
the suspension of arms. An armistice at once, a
conference as soon as possible—these are the cries
now resounding through the States of the North ;
and unless they can be disregarded—which is not
easy to suppose—we may relieve ourselves from the
trouble of further speculations on the events of the
war. We trust the public will admit that they have
not been misguided by our comments on this obstinate
contest. The great fact which we asserted from the
first is now placed beyond reach of controversy. We
said that the North could never subdue the South,
and the North has now proclaimed the same conclu-
sion. After three years of the most desperate efforts
in which no expenditure has been spared and no
tactics have been left untried, a preponderating sec-
tion of the Northern people have put on record be-
fore the world their deliberate conviction that the
policy of war is mistaken and. hopeless, and that it
must be superseded by a policy of conciliation and
compromise,. This is the declaration made by a party
presumed to be unquestionably the strongest in the
State, and the expression of the principle has been
intrusted not to a successful or triumphant soldier,
but to a general who was the first to discover the
impracticability of the object on which his coun-
trymen were bent. No one knows better than
M'Clellan the barriers which separate Washington
from Rich mond, an d the frightful losses which have
been incurred without results by his successors in
command have established beyond question the
justice of his views. As if to stamp with still deeper
censure the policy of the Government, Governor
Seymour, of New York, the man of greatest mark
among the opponents of Mr. Lincoln, was elected
by acclamation to the presidency of the Convention
by which these decisive steps were taken, The
questions now before us are written in broad end
unmistakeable characters. First, will the actual
Government accede to the demand expressed by
the Chicago Convention for an immediate Armistice?
And, next, will the South accept the Armistice and
enter upon the subsequent Conference on any
basis except that of national independence ? As
regards the former of these inquiries, the world
has been much misled if the Democratic party is
not the strongest party in tho Northern States—
strong enough, in the absence of any unexpebted
events, to carry in November next its candidate for
the Presidency, and to impress its policy in the in•
terval upon the existing administration. It is hardly
to be conceived that President Lincoln would employ
his brief remaining term of office in counteracting or
opposing the declared will of the majority of his
countrymen. We regard the Chicago Convention as
representing a tnajsrity of the people, because it has
been asserted throughout that the Democratic party
if united could easily outnumber all opponents—and
they arc perfectly united now. Nothing occurred to
disturb the unanimity of the Convention. It was
"by acclamation " that Gen. M'Clellan was ulti-
mately nominated for the Presidency, and it was his
principal rival who conducted the business of the
meeting. The conclusion, therefore, appcsrs irre•
sistible that the Democrats are winning, and the
pacific overtures which rumour now ascribes to the
Administration itself tend to show that President
Lincoln is more likely to adopt than to resist the
winning policy. Still it must not be forgotten that
the Republicans will be reluctant to retire from
power, that any signal success of the Federal arms
may once more place them in the ascendant, and
that if they should deem a peace policy undesirable
they will enjoy all the advantages of actual office in
maintaining the opposite policy. The resolution of
the Convention to resist by force any military inter-
ference at the approaching elections shows plainly
enough what misgivings are entertained. Although,
however, no confidence can be expressed on such
a point, we certainly think it probable that the
Chicago Resolutions will be adopted, and
that an armistice will be proposed. In that
event, will the South enter the Convention
of the States without a stipulation, expressed or re-
served, for the recognition of its national indepen-
dence ? It seems almost impossible to think so, for,
in that case, the South would be simply surrender-
ing all it has fought for at the very moment when
success appeared most sure. On condition of re-
entering the Union the Confederates might have
dictated their own terms in the very first year of
the war. At that time President 'Lincoln was not
committed to the principles of the Abolitionists, and
his avowed policy was Union—without slavery if
possible, but Union on any terms. Over and over
again the Federals allowed it to be seen that if the
Southerners would but shake hands once more they
might do with slavery as they pleased. It was only
as the strife became embittered that extreme views
prevailed, The other day, in conformity with these
views, Mr Lincoln met the envoys of the South with
a demand not only for the reconstruction of the
Union but the abolition of slavery. His terms were
rejected, but what will the South say when the
former is tendered without the latter ? The logic
of facts would teach us that it would, either openly
or by reservation, be rejected still; for if the Con-
federates refused such terms when threatened with
the untried power of the North, how can they accept
them when, by the confession of the Northerners
themselves, that power has been tried in vain ? The
Federals have failed in their endeavours to coerce
the Confederates into reunion, and they have ac-
knowledged their failure. The Confederates have
fought heroically for their national independence
and have proved their ability to maintain it. On
what grounds, therefore, or with what expectations
of success can they be now asked to yield what
they have been fighting for to the very men
who have been unable to wrest it from them ?
It appears to us more probable that the Demo•
crate should have disguised their genuine policy
than that the people of the South should have
evinced any readiness to compromise. The
Chicago Convention professes to stand by the Union
as stoutly as the Republicans themselves, but that
resolution probably expresses little more than the
reluctance of the North to part finally with a dar-
ling idea, and the natural unwillingness of a polio
tical party to alarm the public by the premature
confession of an unwelcome truth. We can very
well understand why the Democrats at Chicago
should shrink from blurting out the fact that the
South must go free, but we cannot understand why
the South, with success in its very grasp, should
forego the condition for which it first took up arms,
and on which it has perseveringly insisted through
three terrible years of trial. It is more likely the
armistice will be the first step towards a perception
of the truth ; that the North, after finding that the
South cannot be coerced, will find also that it can-
not be persuaded, and that the reflection encouraged
by the interval will gradually induce the Federal
States to relinquish what they cannot obtain rather
than recur to what has already been proved a hope•
less and ruinous struggle for it.
POST.—From its very frequency the discussion of
American politics has ceased to be attractive; and
though the inhabitants of the Northern States find
themselves on the eve of a Presidential election, the
issue of which cannot fail to exercise a mighty influ■
ence on their future destiny, the reflections that cir-
cumstance might servo to call forth would be
found commonplace in the extreme. It is impos'
Bible, however, to avoid contrasting the condition
of the republic on the last occasion on which the
Americans were called upon to select their Chief
Magistrate with what it is now, and to note the
extraordinary changes which the chart space of four
years has served to work in a State believed to be
the most prosperous, if not the most powerful, in
the world. It is easy to be wise after the event,
and political writers would now experience but
little difficulty in demonstrating that the Republic
of the West contained within itself the seeds of
Its own destruction. But, nevertheless, the dis-
solution of that State undoubtedly took the world
by surprise, and that it was not anticipated
by Americans themselves is best proved by the
extraordinary efforts made by the established
Government to avoid the consummation of the
catastrophe. American statesmen long since foresaw
the possibility of a separation between the free and
the slavehold.ing States, and feering the futility of
any attempts to maintain by force a connection
which the latter desired to sever, counselled au
amicable acquiescence on the part of the more
powerful section of the Republic. But what actually
did take place no one either in America or Eurcpu
ever anticipated. That slavery might furnish a
motive for accession, and that the latter might give
rise to a civil war, were events far from improbable ;
bet that a war which should deciamte the popula-
tion, sprawl desolativo far and wide thrtnhigliOnt• the