The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-10 00:00:00

The Chicago Convention

(From the Index.)
The steamer which left Boston the 31st ult. and Halifax
on the 2d inst., will discharge the bulk of her freight of news
upon the telegraphic wires from off the coast of Ireland, on
Sunday or Monday next at latest. She will bring us the re-

suit of four days' sitting of the Democratic Convention
which assembled at Chicago on the 29th for the purpose of
nominating a candidate for the Presidency of the United
States, and enunciating the policy upon which that can-

didate is, a month later, to appeal to the suffrages of the
three million voters of the Northern States. It is pos.

sible that the sittings of the Convention may have been
stormy and its counsels divided—that, therefore, the
suspense was not definitively ended when the steamer
left the American shore. Military events also may

have taken place, of which we are as yet unaware, to
influence the action of the Convention. Still we shall
learn enough to speculate with tolerable certainty upoa the
issue of the approaching crisis, and we know enough even
now to make such speculations more than mere guesswork.
Present indications all point to the nomination of Gen.
M'Clellan. Present indications also permit little doubt

that whoever may be the nominee of the Democratic Con-
vention will be the next President of the United States. If
there were no other reason for this, it would be"found in the

almost unanimous feeling among the masses, stronger even
than their earnest longing for peace, that any change in the

personnel of the Administration must be for the better. So
utterly hopeless are Mr Lincoln's chances for re-election,

that his own supporters have set on foot a movement to
uni re the party upon one caudidate by withdrawing both vr
the competitors ; and one of them, Mr Fremont, has pub-
licly declared his acquiesence in the arrangement if Mr
Lincoln will abide by it in good faith. The Jonah of the
sinking ship thus thrown overboard, the fortunes of the
Republicans might possibly still be saved ; but the
manoeuvre of withdrawing two candidates already in the
field, and finding a third acceptable to the adherents of
both the others, is too complicated to be feasible within
the few weeks which now alone remain before the day of
election. We look, therefore, upon the success of the Demo •

cratic nominee—always supposing the freedom of the polls
from military interference, and barring the improbable con-
tingency of serious Southern reverses—as being as nearly
certain as human things, and especially American things—
can ever be.

A month ago we should have treated this success as
synonymous with peace: to-day we owe it to that candour
from which we have never departed, whether the facts
were agreeable to our wishes or the reverse, to say that
the situation is, though not radically changed, yet essen-
tially modified. Then the yearning for peace at the North
might be translated into the language of reason whispering :
" Better be united with an independent South on terms
of amity than in a conquered South be chained
to a corpse." To-day the yearning is as strong, perhaps
stronger, but the evil has found deluded ears to listen to
the temptation. " The Union may be restored, if we give
the South all else she asks, and we shall obtain by jug-
gling what we failed to obtain by force." The cause of
this relapse is undoubtedly to be sought in the victory off
Mobile, which, while to the South it is only a local reverse,
may thus turn out to be to the North a great national
misfortune. Compared with the madness which ruled
until within the last few months, even the present delu-
sion is relative sanity; but compared with the premising
symptoms of recovery which we had the pleasure of chro-
nicling a short time since, it is a return to madness.
As we were the first in the English press to shout the
glad tidings of " land, land," it behoves us now, when
every one descries the shore, to make certain that it is not
merely a mirage, and to caution against the breakers which
may still prevent the sadly travailed ship from safely
reaching a harbour. Over-confidence on the part of spec-
tators who are quietly in port can do but little harm ; on
the part of those whose lives and fortunes are embarked
on the vessel, the slightest error may be ruin. Here an
illusory view of the prospects of peace will at worst only
hurt a few individuals engaged in speculations; on the
other side of the Atlantic it will be the wreck of a nation's
destinies. Oar journals goes on the library tables of several
hundreds of Northern politicians, both Republican and
Democrat, and what we have to say on so momentous a
question is narrowly scanned by probably more than ten
times that numbsr of Northern eyes. May it please the
All-wise, who is the Ruler of North and South alike, that
our warning come not too late.
The vision of peace is not a mirage. It is the real view
of solid land, full of promises of future prosperity, and
with ample space for' Federale and Confederates. There
are two approaches to it; one, marked out by foolish pride
and counselled by political knavery, which leads to certain
destruction; the other, which it requires only common
honesty and a patriotic purpose to find with ease and safety.
In plain words, and dropping metaphor, the North, the
aggressor in this war, and by whom, therefore, the first
advance must be made, has two courses open. It may say
to the South, " We are still able to prolong this war; we
do not even yet abandon all hope of eventual success; but
the war was undertaken under a fatal misapprehension of
its true conditions, and even success could not now give us
what it was undertaken for. While therefore we have still
the power to inflict further injury, we recognise our error,
and offer you a fair and honourable peace." To
which the South would reply :—" The continent is
large enough for us both. Since we must occupy it jointly
I for my part will not be a bad neighbour. All our
former troubles arose from our being artifically linked to-
gether by a tie which chafed us both. This broken, there
is no cause left why we should not live side by side in
mutual peace and harmony. It is true I owe you no favours,
but neither do I to the rest of the world; and if I have any
favours to bestow, they will belong to that Power which
first recognises my just rights, based upon the logic of his-
torical facts and the principles of government for which
your father and mine once fought the same battles." There
would be dignity and self-respect in such language from the
North to the South, and there would be good faith and sin-
cerity in such a reply from the South,
Or the North may address the South somewhat after the
fashion that the plotter of a villany slyly pokes his expected
accomplice in the ribs--" We, the Democrats, aro now in the
ascendancy. The Republicans, silly fanatics, were such
imbeciles, and got so drunk with the unaccustomod nectar
of patronage and office, that the country turned them out
in a fit of disgust, and we, your old allies, are now the
North. Como back to us, and give us votes in tho Senate
and in the House, for without it they may come in again
when the people forget their nausea. There, now, we will
hang a few of them, if that pleases you, or at least so
frighten the whole lot, that Abe shall cut his jokes in
Exeter-hall, and Butler seek the tender mercies of London
brewers, and every cheap hotel in all Europe be filled with
New England orators and contractors. Have slavery, and
any guarantees for it you may want. Have your own
Way in everything. Only do, do come back into the
Union." To which the South will reply—" Democrats of
the Nor'

th, who hold this 1 ___B _anonkr.c._ vnii ftra coif-mai:Jr