The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-04 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.

-

(Froin the Correepondent of the Times)
NEW YORK, Jan. 22.
Nothing continuos to be heard on uny side, unless
Wall-street be excepted, but statements of the ap-
proaching breakdown of the Southern Confederacy,

and anticipations of the triumphant reelection of
Mr. Lincoln to the Proaideney. The two events are
linked together in the imagination of those who

:ally of them. The one is to precede and be the cause

of the other, and both are held to b© Equally cer-
tain. Perhaps they are. Mr. Lincoln, however, is

not (pito FO sanguine as his friends upon ether
head, and is taking his measures quietly and, it
must be admitted, clev,:rly, to be re-elected, even
though the South should not be conquered, and the

Union should not he restored. Mr. Lincoln is well
known to haves strong opponent in his Cabinet iu
the person of Mr. Chase, and it is now stated that
the Vice-President, Mr. Hamlin, is equally decided

n his objections to the renewal of Mr. Lincoln's
ease of power. For this reason Mr. Hamlin has

been omitted from the lists as a candidate for the

Vice-Presidency, and Mr. Lincoln's friends are no-
minating a variety of persons for the minor office to
run with their favourite, among others Governor
Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, an 3 Gen. Butler.
Although these announcements are all premature,
they seem to keep the President's name before the
public, while he on his part works in every decently
possible way for the furtherance of his own ends.
He encourages and patronises the formation of Lin-
coln Clubs and Lincoln Union Clubs, procures his
nomination by public meetings, caucuses, and
conventica-A ; and is over grateful to that
most intensely unfeminine of " Yankee girls,"
Miss Anna Dickenson, for designating him,
in his own presence, at a lecture in the
Hall of Representatives at -Washington, as indu-
bitably the next President. He is too skilful a
practitioner, however, to rely entirely on the spon-
tancous action of the politicians, or to trust too
much to his personal popularity, whatever its ex-
tent may be, for the success he covets. His pro-
clametion of amnesty to the Southern people and
his project for the readmission of "rebellious"
States into the Union were contrived for this end,
and have begun to bear the fruits he expected. No
one imagined that the amnesty would tempt any
considerable numbers either of combatants or non-
combatants in the South to acknowledge the legiti.
macy of the divine rule of brute force, or that a
scheme for investing a tenth part of the people of
any State in temporary occupation by the Northern
armies with the power of electing State officers could
operate in any other way than as a coop d'etat in
the interest of the party in office. It therefore sur-
prises no one that the amnesty remains a dead letter,
or that the coming project of restoring the State
Governments through the medium of minorities
should prove to be an eltctioneering manwuvre,
tending to the defeat of any Presidential candidate,

except Mr. Lincoln. Few can have forgotten, in
the progress of events, that Mr. Lincoln was elected
to the Presidency by a minority of the people, but

by a majority of the States. As it is probable that
in November next, especially if ho be opposed by
a strong and popular Democratic candidate such as
General AlTiellan, or by some more successful mili-
tary chieftain who may gain a brilliant victory iu
the interval, or even by an abler man of his own

party, such as Mr. Chase, that the vote of the
whole people will show a still more considerable
majority against Mr. Lincoln than in the election
of 186% it becomes of the highest importance to
him and to the multitude of placeholders whom
he has appointed, and who would certainly be
turned out of office by a Democratic or any
other successor, that the States, as States,
should be in his favour, and that as large
a number of States as possible should take
part in the election. General Banks has made the
first movement in this direction. lay virtue of his
military occupancy of the city of New Orleans and
a portion of the State of Louisiana, and acting
under the authority of the President, he has issued
a proclamation, " after consultation with some lead-
ing Unionists," whom he believes to express the
opinions of more than one-tenth of the people, for
the election of a Governor and other State officers
cn the 22d of February next, for the installation of
such officers on the 4th of March, and for the elec-
tion of delegates on the first Monday of April to a
convention for the revision of the State Constitu •
tion, preparatory to an election of representatives and
senators in Congress. Supposing that only a tenth,
or even a fifth, of the people of Louisiana take part
in these proceedings, and that nine-tenths or four-
fifths hold aloof or eke another Governor and offi-
cere according to the existing Constitution of the
State, the purpose of Mr. Lincoln will be achieved.
By the aid of Gen. Banks and the concurrence of a
minority, the will.of the majority will be overruled,
and Louisiana will be nominally a State in the
Union, and as such entitled in a certain contingency,
which is very likely to happen, to cast its vote as a
State for such Presidential candidate as its repre-
sentatives in Congress may prefer. How the charm
may be made to work will be apparent from the
following extract from the Federal Constitution,
Art. 11., which treats of the election of the Presi-
dent and Vice President. Section 1 says,
" The President shall hold his office during the
term of four years, and, together with the Vice-
President, chosen far the same term, shall be elected
as follows—
" E Ach State shall appoint in such manner as the
Legislature thereof may direct a number of elec-
tors equal to the whole number of Senators and
representatives to which the State may be
entitled in Congress These directors

shall meet in their respective States and vote by
ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall
not be an inhabitant of the same State with them-
selves. And they shall make a list of all the per-
sons voted for and of the number of votes for each,
which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit
sealed to the seat of the Government of the United
States, directed to the President of the Senate. The
President of the Senate shall in the presence of the
Senate and the house of Representatives open all
the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted.
The person having the greatest number of votes
shall be the President. If such number be a ma-
jority of the who!e number of electors appointed,
and if there be more tian one who have such a ma-
jority, and have an equal number of votes, then the
House of Representatives shall immediately choose
by ballot of them for President; and if no person
have a majority, then from the five highest on the
list the said House shall in like manner choose the
President. But in choosing the President, the
votes shall be taken by States, the representation
from each State having one vote ; a quorum for this
purpoae shall consist of a member or members from
two-thirds of the States, and a majority of all the
States shall be necessary to a choice."
Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Seward, and all the prominent
members of their party who desire Mr. Lincoln's re-
election have long foreseen the probability that there
will be a multiplicity of candidates; that no one of
them will secure the absolute numerical majority,
and that the decision will therefore devolve upon the
House of Representatives. With this contingency
in view, it is of the highest importance to Mr. Lin-
coln that Louisiana should be represented in Con-
gress in November next, and not only Louisiana,
but Texas, and, if possible, the two Carolinas and
every other Southern State in which his armies
have any kind of foothold, or in which one-tenth
of the population may be induced to declare their
loyalty, even though such tenth may be more than
half composed of the camp followers and sutlers of
the army of occupation and the freed negroes who
have taken refuge within its lines. The alarm has
already been sounded. The Democratic press is
beginning to perceive, though slowly, the tendency
and working of the project, and its inevitable re-
sults in the overthrow of the State Constitutions,
first in the South, to be afterwards followed up in
the North; but it has remained for a Republican
publicist, the Rev. Dr. Orestes Brownson, of the
Quarterly Review, to denounce its unconstitu-
tionality in a manner befitting the occasion, and
with arguments as clear and dignified as they are
irrefutable. " Every feature of the plan," says this
gentleman, none of whose sympathies are with the
South, and who is known as a consistent opponent
both of slavery and the right " is marked
of secession,