The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-14 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.

(From the Times' Correspondent.)
NEW YORK, NOV. 1.
" Good by, Wilmington I" is the uncomplimen-
tary ejaculation of a Southern journal in making
known to its readers that President Davis has sp.
pointed Gen. Bragg to the chief command in that
city. "Good bye, Wilmington l" is the derisive echo
of Mr Lincoln's friends and supporters, who are all
anxiously awaiting to hear before Tuesday next
that Admiral Porter has captured it. As yet, how-
ever, it is not positively known whether the expedi-
tion has started, or whether the altered state of cit..
cumstanees before Petersburg and Richmond, where
Grant needs reinforcements and cannot obtain them,
may not have led to the postponement or abandon-
ment of the design. If there be not a victory at Wil•
mington before the Bth inst., to what quarter can
Mr Lincoln look for the militarysuccess which is to
detach democratic votes from his competitor, con •
firm hesitating Republicans in their allegiance, and
rally.to his side the large body of waverers or neu-
trals who have not decided whether they shall vote
for either of the candidates. An effort was made by
Gen. Grant on Thursday last to revive the rapidly
fading prestige of his name, and help forward the
electioneering business of his friend and patron, by
a new flank movement against the Confederate capi.-
tal. But he found no door open—not even a key-
hole that he could look through. Gen. Lee was as
fully armed and ready at the threatened point as he
had been at every other; and Gen. Grant after
" feeling" the enemy (much more severely than he
expected) deemed it inexpedient to risk the lives of
his troops against the odds presented, and finally
withdrew under cover of the night to his old posi-
tion. The general impression is that the campaign
virtually closed with this unsuccessful movement,
only differing from the various other attempts of the
kind which Grant has made since May last in being
attended with the unavailing slaughter of hundreds
of men instead of thousands. The situation in the
Shenandoah Valley does not promise any results
more likely to act favourably for Mr Lincoln. Gen.
Sherman lost 7,000 men in the obstinate battles of
the 19th ult., was so crippled as to be unable to follow
up his partial success, and acts at this moment strictly
on the defensive. He in no way threatens the Con-
federates, but guards the valley as well as he can,
lest Generals Longatreet and Early should resume
offensive demonstrations against Washington. The
truth as regards General Sherman on the centere
minous borders of Alablama, Georgia, Tennessee,
and Mississippi is not so easy to ascertain, but it
looks as if Gen. Hood had enticed him from Atlanta,
drawn him on a wild-goose chase towards Chatta-
nooga, cut him off from his base of supplies, and
left Gen. Beauregard to pounce upon Atlanta at the
favourable moment, and compel the surrender of the
scanty garrison left to hold it under Gen. Slocum.
The Missourian invasion under Gen. Price is one
day reported to be at an end, and the next to be
growing in dimensions. Tne General himself is
variously pieced by the telegraphic operators and
news' manufacturers of the West, in Missouri,
Kansas, Arkansas, and the Indian territory. Some
represent him to be laden with plunder, and in com-
mand of an effective force of 30,000 men. Others
declare that he is " whipped," " played out,"
" done gone," and flying for life at the head of a
shattered and demoralised remnant of his force ;
and that to punish the Missourians for the aid
and comfort they afforded him, a reign of terror,
worse than that which efill'ated Kentucky under
Generals Payne and Burbridge, and which still
continues to weigh heavily upon it, under the sin-
gle, but remorseless, hand of the latter, is to be in-
augurated in Missouri under General Rosecrans.
Wherever Gen. Price may be, and whatever the
successes he has attained, or the ulterior objects at
which, he aims, the immediate effect of his opera-
tions has been to create a favourable diversion for
the Confederate oause, to prevent the reinforcement

of Gen. Sherman, to shake the Federal authority
in Missouri, and to cover the State with bands of

desperate guerillas who will do their best or worst
to make it uninhabitable to all but secret or avowed
Confederates.

These things, however, are little considered in the
North at this moment. The Presidential election on
the Bth inst., or, more properly speaking, the elec-
tion of the body of electors, who in their turn are
to choose a President and Vice-President, distracts
popular attention from the war. The capture of
Richmond or Wilmington, or the total rout of the
army of Beauregard and Hood, would probably
quicken their sluggish interest, but nothing short
of either of these events seems to be potent enough
to divert their thoughts from the great issue to be
tried next Tuesday. The ".war Christians," Messrs,
Cheever and Beecher, preach political sermons
every Sunday evening, and inculcate from their
pulpits the reelection of Mr Lincoln. The un-
feminine Anna Dickinson lectures on the strategy
of Gen. M'Clellan, and prays that the war may last
50 years if th© rebels cannot be sooner exterminated.
As the day of election draws near each party at-
tempts fraud, raises scandalous accusations against
the other, vilifies, ridicules, misrepresents, and libels
its opponents, and affects a horror at unfair proc.
ti3es, which it never feels except when it becomes
the victim instead of the perpetrator of the wrong•
Outdoor meetings and indoor meetings are every-
where held, at which the speakers employ the
most unadorned if not the most naked eloquence,
and bespatter the rival candidates with improper
epithets. The temper of the people becomes hourly
more explosive. In ordinary times they are too
thoroughly engrossed in money making to care
much for public affairs. They can endure the
grossest invasions of their rights by the mill-
tary " jacks in office" of a Government which
they can displace by their votes at the legally
appointed time ; they can see without any very
violent indignation the suppression of newspapers
and the arrest and incarceration of suspected and
it may be innocent persons—they can wink at the
perpetration of the grossest frauds upon the Go-
vernment, but, in times like these, they cannot ens
dure that their political opponents should tamper
with the popular vote, or win the Presidential election
by unfair means. The frauds in Indiana show, by
what has been done, what may be done again. The
manufacture of military votes in Maryland, and by
which alone the tree Constitution for:the immediate
abolition of slavery in that State, without compen-
sation to the slaveowners, was carried in opposition
to the wishes of the citizens, marks one danger
that threatens American liberty. The proclamation
of General Dis, the military commandant in the
New York division, who by ono stroke of his pen
has annulled the constitutional authority of Gover•
nor Seymour, and taken it upon himself to protect
the freedom of election on the Canadian frontier,
which he has no more legal or constitutional right
to do than he would have to protect the polling
booths of London or Westminster by files of Federal
soldiers, shows how reckless the Administration has
become. It would seem from the gratuitous char-
acter of this insult to the State of New York that
the Federal Government seeks an opportunity to
provoke a collision with Governor Seymour; that
it desires u pretest to place the State under the