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 ap-
pointed Gen. Bragg to the chief command in that
city. " Good bye, Wilmington I" 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 expedia

tion has started, or whether the altered state of cir-
cumstances 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 Wile
mington before the Bth inst., to what quarter can
Mr Lincoln look for the military success 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. Gem 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 Longstreet and Early should resume
offensive demonstrations against Washington. The
truth as regards General Sherman on the (router-
urinous borders of Alabama, 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. Beauragard 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 placed 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 frying. 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 afflicted Kentucky under
Generals Payne and Ilnrbridge, end which atm
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-

ions has been to create a favourable diversion for
,he Confederate cause, 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 re-election 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 the 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 prec.
tins, 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..
tarp " 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 en•
dare 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 Dix, the military commandant in the
New York division, who by one 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 desired a pretext, to place the State under the

PRICF ..4d.
STAMPED ....sd.

operation of martial law before the election, in order
by military manipulation of the polling places to
make out a majority for Mr Lincoln ; and that if the
election were left entirely free it would probably in
the whole State, and most certainly in the city of
New York, be cast for Gen. M'Clellan. Whether in
American parlance Governor Seymour have back-
bone enough to resist this invasion of the rights of
his office remains to be proved, In the matter of
the alleged manufacture of military votes by the
Democratic party he has taken a stand against the
Federal Government to which neither foe nor friend
can reasonably object. If the New York Democrats
manufactured or attempted to forge such votes or
balloting papers to aid the election of Gen. M'Clellan,
which they may or may not have done, Mr Seymour
insists that the offence must be legally proved; that,
if proved, it is an offence against the State.of New
York; that the laws of New York are sufficient to
punish the perpetrators, and will do so ; and that
the interference of the Federal Government is not
alone uncalled for, but illegal. The Governor of
Kentucky, in actual presence of the military in•
timidation which Governor Seymour deprecates,
but has not yet fully experienced, takes higher
ground, or, at least, speaks out with greater
boldness. Mr Bramlette, a Union man, and not a
Secessionist, though probably his sympathies are
not wholly alienated from the South, proclaims to
his people, that having been appealed to in his official
capacity to know whether there was to be a free
election in Kentucky, he has decided that to the best
of his power and resources it shall be wholly free,
and that the military shall not take part in it in any
way whatever except as unarmed citizens. "In
elections," he says, " there are no soldiers, only
citizens." "If, therefore," he adds, " any military
officer shall show himself so regardless of duty as to
assume to direct or control the officer of election,
you must treat such orders with indignant contempt,
and scorn the obedience which would imply perjury
or cowardice in you." . . . "No officer of any
rank, from the President downwards, has any right
to interfere with an election. No order to do so can
legalise the act." . . . . "If there be sufficient
power in the citizens present at any place
where such interference may be attempted
to arrest the offenders and hold them over to
answer the violated laws, it will be the
duty of the Sheriff to make the arrest." This is
the bare truth, plainly put, but does not meet the
difficulty. Suppose the Sheriff and the people are
in the minority—that the military force has the
upper hand, as it has in the greater part of Ken-
tucky, what is there to be done by the people ?
Governor Bramlette recommends that no election
at all should take place under the circumstances,
but that the offenders shall be indicted before the
grand jury. Possibly Mr. Lincoln would not ob-
ject to this mode of procedure. It would deprive
his opponent of votes, the gratd jury would find
their true bill in vain, and martial law and mili-
tary necessity would be declared by an obsequious
Supreme Court, with Mr. Stanton acting in all
probability as its Chief Justice, to have euperseded
the ordinary course of law, and for the public good
to have temporarily deprived Kentucky of its
liberties.

However the election may ultimately turn there
can be no present doubt that the exposure of the frauds
in Indiana, and the oral as well as written reply of
Mr Lincoln to the deputation from Tennessee,
have largely increased the strength of General
M'Clellan, not alone in New York, New Jersey, and
Pennsylvania, where it was always predominant,
but in the Great Western States, where public
opinion was more equally divided ; and, as if going
with the popular tide, the merchants and bankers
of this city have at length spoken out, and in
a large and highly respectable meeting—respect-
able in the truly American sense of the many
millions of dollars which the originators of the
meeting own and represent—have declared them,
selves against Mr Lincoln. After the close of the
banks and the places of business yesterday after-
noon, Wall-street and Broad.street—that classic
region where stand the temples of Mammon—were
crowded by the devotees of that great divinity—
drawn together, not as usual by the hope of gain,
or to worship at the customary shrine, but by a
political principle—to listen to speeches delivered
by mon of their own standing, experience. and
wealth. The denunciation of Mr Lincoln's conduct,
both of the war and the Government, and of miss
management of the national finances, was earnest
and emphatic, and the voice of the not remarkably
numerous but influential assemblage, composed of
the first men of the city, was enthusiastic and
unanimous for General M'Clellan. The general
feeling to-day is that if the election be fairly cons
ducted throughout the country General M'Clellan
will be the choice of the people. But as the Elec-
toral College, to be nominated on the Bth, and not
the people in their collective capacity, must ulti-
mately decide, it may happen that Mr Lincoln may
carry the majority of the States—though supported
by only a minority of the people—and be made
President by the questionable votes of Maryland,
Kentucky, Tennessee, and Louisiana, If such
prove to be the case, will General M'Clellan and
the Democratic party submit quietly ? He would
be rash indeed who at the present moment would
undertake to answer this question one way or the
other. All that can be said is that the doubt
creates alarm, unsettles the minds of most men, and,
added to the unfavourable news from the Army of
the Potomac—presaging, as it does, the close of the
campaign against Richmond—has produced since
Saturday last a rise in the premium on gold of 22
per cent., and something closely allied to a panic
among the operators in Wallestreet.

Railway and other Companies.