The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-29 00:00:00

TEE CIVIL WAIL IN AMERICA.

(Ficm t' Timcs Correspondoll.)

NEW YORE, Feb, 12.

tu the present military condition of the North
and t South, it would bo a great advantage to both
if an exchange of prisoners could be cff,:cted. There
are said to be at least 40,000 men of each side held
in captivity by the other, and the Confederate Go.
vernment is behaved to be willing, if not anxious, to
exchange man for man, irrespective of colour. The
South deputed a Mr. Ould to treat with any

Northern C)mmissioner that Mr. Lincoln might
appoint for this purpose. Mr. Lincoln's choice fell
upon General Butler, the only man in the Northern

service with whom it was impossible for the South-
ern Commissioner to treat, inasmuch as he had been
declared an outlaw, and a price put upon his head
by the Confederate Congress. It would seem as if
this section were made for the express purpose
either of thwarting the negotiations or of compelling
the Southern Government to annul its decree against
Butler: However that may be, there can be no
question that under the circumstances, if the Federal
Government really desired to effect an exchange, it
could not have appointed a worse man for the pur-
pose than General Butler, who in Southern eyes
Is the incarnation of all that is horrible and brutal,
and with whom the slightest personal contact is
considered to be moral as well as physical con-
tamination. As might have been expected, the
negotiations ended as soon as the Southern Com-
missioner was made officially aware of the name
of the person with whom he had to treat, but not
without such an intimation of the reasons for de-
clining the intercourse as highly incensed the
temper and ruffled the dignity of General Butler,
_ln an evil hoar for his military reputation, which
:sever stood very high, the General took the brave
resolve of seizing by force of arms, and by a bold
.coup.de-main, the prisoners whom he could not
otherwise liberate. Mr. Lincoln and his War Secre-
tary were consulted on the subject, and, as neither
aef them has the slightest knowledge of military
affairs, they allowed the offended and impetuous
Butler to persuade them into co-operation with his
eeieeme. General Sedgwick, in temporary command
of ti ee Army of the Potomac, during the absence
fromitaisrosition of General Meade in Philadelphia,
eras to craez the Rapidan at the head of three corps
eynee, and make a feint of advancing upon Rich-
that route, so as to occupy the attention
mond u, lently of the Confederate army, while
of the main u anointed to the duty by General
General Wistar, 'ltaneously upon Richmond
Butler, was to move sime
from Fortress Monroe by way- of the Chickahominy.
'would be taken
It was hoped that the Confederates .
fended
unawares, that Richmond would be left unu,._ ,
and that the city would fall an easy prey to the in-
ventive strategist. General :Sedgwick performed
the part set down for him, crossed the Rapidan,
lost several hundred men, found the enemy too
strong for him, and crossed back again to his former
quarters. General Wistar was equally unsuccess-
ful. Richmond, it is true, was greatly excited at
his approach, but was well prepared to receive him.
Vistar had to retreat more rapidly than he ad-
vrenced, but fortunately succeeded in getting back
to Fortress Monroe without the loss of a single life.
'The whole North, instead of raising shouts of
triumph,. as Butler anticipated, rings with loud
laughter at his achievement.
The blessings of Heaven have been invoked b:
General Garibaldi, M. Victor Hugo, Mr. Horace
Greeley, and thousands of other well•meaning men
upon the head of Abraham Lincoln for having, by
a stroke of his pen, emancipated four millions of
slaves. Mr. aeries Sumner, one of those who most
earnestly and pennistently urged the President to
issae his Proclamation arid who most zealously de-
fended its policy, its justice, and its necessity, has
just come to the conclusion that the famous docu-
ment is a nullity; that the act of the President is
only sufficient to free a few slaves, but not to abolish
slavery ; and that nothing less than an amendment
of the Constitution of the United States can set free
henceforth and for ever the bondsmen of the
South. In pursuance of this idea he introduced
at the beginning of the week seven resolutions into
the Senate, with the object of making the neces-
sary amendments to the constitution, and thus abo-
lishing slavery by the solemn act and agreement
of a majority of the American people. The resolu-
tions were referred to the Judiciary Committee of
the Senate, which body, after one day's delibera-
tion, reported against them. Even the Tribune
admits that Mr. Sumner's proposition was ill-timed
and injudicious; and that the cumbrous machinery
by which alone an amendment of the Constitution
could be legally effected could not be employed in
a time of war without serious danger to the public
tranquillity. The press generally is of the same
opinion, though the reasons given are not identical
in every case. Some journals argue that the re-
storation of the Union, and not the abolition of
slavery, is the matter in hand ; others, that slavery
will die itself in due time from the blows which
the war has necessarily dealt against it ; and others,
that a peaceable amendment of the Constitution,
while so many of the States that originally con-
sented to it are in rebellion, is a legal and consti-
tutional impossibility. The iutroduction, however,
of such resolutions by such a man as Mr. Sumner
is a proof that even the ultra-Abolitionists are be-
coming aware that the proclamation has no validity
—that it will not stand the judgment of the Su-
preme Court, and that it is as idle as Mr. Lincoln,
its author, described it to be before he issued it.
Another incident in the Senate deserves a word of
mention. Mr. Sumner drew attention to the fact
that a blacn man holding the rank of major in the
Federal army had been forcibly ejected from a
railway carriage in the city of Washington for no
other offence than his colour. He expressed his
indignation at such an outrage, declared that he
would rather see every railway in America broken
up and destroyed than that such things should be
tolerated, and that their constant recurrence did
more to injure the Federal cause in Europe
and at home than a defeat in battle. This
led to a somewhat person al discussion, in
'which a senator from Indiana declared that no
law could establish the social equality of the white
man and the black ; that the negro in question was
rightly served, inasmuch as a special car was at-
tached to the train for people of his colour, and in
deliberately thrusting himself into a place not in-
tended for him he meant to insult, and did thereby
insult, every 'white person present. This senator, it
should be observed, was not the representative of a
slavehelding community, but of the free State of In-
diana; so that the question of slavery did not influ-
ence his judgment. Indiana detests slavery, but it
also detests the negro; and though Mr. Charles
Sumner and many American women and clergymen
have a true philanthropic regard, if net esteem, for
the black man, the great mesa of the American pee
pulation agree with Indiana rather than with Mas-
sachusetts on the subject. They will consent to po-
litical equality with negroes, but they will never
consent to social intercourse ; and no law that Mr.
Sumner or the combined wisdom of the Senate can
frame will ever break down the barrier that sepa-
rates the two races. Only last week in this city a
mulatto, wealthy, and not very dark-coloured, was
refused a drink in a public saloon by a saucy bar-
keeper just returned from the army, on the ground
that " niggers" could not be allowed to drink in the
presence of white men. The bar-keeper paid the
penalty for his offence with his life ; for the mulatto
drew a revolver from his breast and shot him dead
behind his counter, and is now in prison awaiting
his trial for the murder. Such incidents as these
show the antagonism of the races where slavery does
not exist.

The House of Representatives bas not only been
busy during tho week with this old question of the
negro and his political and social status, bat with
the new and perhaps equally embarrassing question
of the conscription. It yesterday resolved that the
slaves of loyal owners, if conscripted, should be en-
rolled in the army, and that their masters should
receive compensation for their loss to the extent
ce 300 dols., which is far less than the current value
of negroes in some of the Border States. It re-
solved at the same time—with gross injustice—that
2onscripted negroes thus made free should not be
entitled to the bounty of 100 dols. offered by the Go-
vernment to white conscripts, but that this addi-
tional sum should also go to their masters. The