The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-11 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.

(Front the Times' Correspondent.)
NEW YORK, Oct. 28.
Not a word is publicly spoken on the subject of
the expedition against Wilmington, though vague
allusions in the Southern journals show that the
Confederate Government is aware of the blow to be
aimed in that direction, and is prepared to meet
it. Grant remains quiet at Petersburg and on the
banks of the James. Butler is busily working at
his canal at Dutch Gap, from the completion of
which he expects great results. Sheridan is repos-
ing, after his barren victory, in the Shenandoah
Valley, purchased, it is now admitted, with the loss
of 7,000 men in killed, wound, and prisoners,
though rewarded by the capturdee of 41 pieces of
artillery, and the infliction of severe damage, the
amount not stated, upon the enemy. Sherman,
having left Atlanta to be defended by a small gar-
rison under Slocum, is marching and counter-
marching, flanking and being flanked, mar ce eyrie g
and recee.cceavring, somewhere between that city
and Chattanooga, to foil the strategy of Beauregard
and Hood, which no one seems to understand ex-
cept those commanders, but of the success of which
the Southern President and the Richmond news-
papers appear to be unusually confident. Ferree
gut, having failed to make any impression against
Mobile, is supposed, though not known, to be under
orders to co-operate with Porter at Wilmington.
In the Far West Stirling Price is proving that
Missouri yields but scant allegiance to the Federal
Government. One day he marches through the
State like a conqueror, conscripts the by no means
unwilling inhabitants to augment the ranks of
his army, levies tribute, and promulgates military
law, and on the next is off and away, no one
exactly knows whither, with Curtis or some
other Federal General in "hot" pursuit though
probably in the wrong direction. Rose.
cratz, who is in command in that department, is re-
ported to be making ready to try issues finally with
Price; but, as Price is as nimble as he is bold, it may
take more time and greater pressure than Rose.
cratz imagines to coax the Confederate leader into
battle. Altogether, the state of military affairs is
not satisfactory to the numerous body of people
whose hopes of place, power, and profit depend upon
the re.election of Mr Lincoln. Yet they keep up
their spirits, have great expectations concerning
Wilmington, and are by no means disposed to admit
that Grant will not find an opportunity to capture
Petersburg before the Bth of November, and so ad-
minister very valuable discouragement to the sup-
porters of M'Ciellan.
As usual in hotly-contested elections, even for
officials much less powerful than the President, each
party begins to accuse the other of fraud. Yeaterday
morning an attempt was made to startle the town
by a mysterious statement in the Tribune that a
great conspiracy had been discovered, implicating
high political personages, and of which the object
was to manufacture " bogus" voting papers, sign
them with the names of dead or entirely fictitious
soldiers, and cast them all for M'Clellan. The pub•
lication, however, did not effect the intended object,
most people believing that it was no more than an
allowable attempt to divert public attention from
the unmistakable frauds committed by the Repub•
lican party in Indiana, and the imposition of illegal
test oaths in Maryland and Tennessee, under the
sanction of the Administration. This morning the
Democratic journals admit that there is a " con-
spiiacy," not of the supporters of General M'Clel-
bee, but of the unecrupulons agents of Mr Lincoln;
and assert that the persons arrested in Baltimore
and Washiog,on on the charge, though acting at
the time as agents for the State of New York,
under the authority of Governor Seymour, for the
purpose of receiving and forwarding the votes of
New York soldiers on the Bth inst., were traitors
to the Governor, and were bribed by the Adminis-
tration to commit these frauds with the view of
injuring the Democratic candidates. The World
proclaims that " the charges are trumped up, and
that the confessions of the delinquents are those of
stool pigeons.' " On referring to the "Dictionary
of Americanisms and Slang Phrases," without the
aid of which it is sometimes difficult for an Eng-
lishman to understand American newspapers, the
explanation of "stool pigeon" was found to be "a
decoy robber in the pay of the police, who brings
his aesoeiates into a trap laid for them." What-
ever may ultimately prove to be the truth in this
matter, it is probable that much ill-feeling will
grow out of it, and that if Mr. Lincoln be reelected
the Democratic party will be provided with a new
grievance heavier than any which they have hitherto
been able to turn to account. When one side Bets
unfairly, the other is apt to imitate the example,
and it cannot be denied that the action of Governor
Johnson in Tennessee and its approval by Mr. Lin-
coln, are ominous of danger. It is not only the
Democratic party and their candidates which fore.
see it, but prominent Republicans, nho deprecate
the imposition of test oath!, or any interference
with the absolute freedom of the polls, as likely to
lead to angry controversy and to hostile collision.
Better, they contend, to have no vote at all in
States held by military force, such as Maryland,
Tennessee, Kentucky, and Louisiana, than to
tamper with the ballot-box, and manufacture ficti-
tious majorities at the point of the bayonet. Messrs.
Wade and Winter Davis, members of Congress,
ardent Abolitionists, and zealous friends of the
Administration, were the firet to sound the alarm,
and to declare their belief that any illegality com-
mitted on behalf of Mr. Lincoln would be a direct
provocation to resistance on the part of the defeated
candidate—resistance that in a time of passionate
l'acitement was far more likely to display itself
nrough the agency of armed and furious mobs than
lobe calmly exercised in the courts of justice. tThe
same intimation—or threat—was conveyed in the
Chicago Convention, in terms not to be mistaken,
and formally inserted in one of the planks of the
platform. On Wednesday night, in this city, before
one of the largest audiences ever drawn together to
the Cooper Institute, the same impressive warning
was dinned into the ears of the assembled people by
a man whom no one can accuse of disloyalty, brand
as a " Copperhead," or disparage as incompetent to
deal witb the most important questions in a tone
and spirit befitting their gravity. Mr Wendell
Phillips, in a scathing review of the pretensions of
both candidates, uttered these memorable words r—
" I am an Abolitionist ; but I am also a citizen,
watchful of Constitutional liberty ; and I say if
President Lincoln is inaugurated next term on the
vote of Tennessee, Louisiana, and Arkansas, every
citizen is bound to resist him." This man, who
speaks so well, and who has spoken so often amid
the silent and spellbound attention of delighted mul.
titudes—broken only by bursts of irrepressible ad•
miration—and to whose ear the sound of a hiss must
be unfamiliar, was not allowed to express himself in
this manner without creating an uproar which may
have surprised, but did not subdue him. The people
stamped, roared, and hissed for several minutes,while
the undismayed orator folded his arms and looked on
until it pleased them to be silent. At length the com-
monsense of the auditory got the better of the clamor
of the dissentient, and a final salvo of applause told
the speaker he might proceed. "Are you willing,"
he asked," to sacrifice the constitutional rights of 70
years in your fondness for an individual P I say these
acts" (the creation of sham Governments in States
held by military force, and the imposition
of illegal
oaths) " are acts of despotism. if George B. M'Clel.
lan or any other Democrat enters the Presidential
chair, and follows in these footsteps, woe be to the
American Union, and you know it." The warning
is well timed, but Mr Lincoln's reply to the Tennes
see deputation, and the general conduct of the State
elections in Maryland, Indiana, and Philadelphia
daring the present month, when every nerve was
e'rained by the military and civil power in favour
of the Administration candidates, go far to show that
it will not be heeded, and that neither the entreaty
of friends nor the denunciation of enemies will pre.
vent Mr Lincoln and his over-zealous supporters
from attemptieg to win the day per nefas, if fair
means are insufficient. The Democratic State Com•
mittee, in a circular addressed to the Conservative
voters of Indiana, claim that Governor Morton, a
strong Republican and adherent of Mr Lincoln, was
elected by fictitious and illegal votes. They state
that the vote for Mr Morton in the township of
Indienopolis was larger in number than the legal