The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-31 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.

(From the Times Correspondent.)
NEW YORK, March 18.
The Confederates are apparently preparing for:an
aggressive movement into Maryland. Lieutenant-
General Grant has assumed the command of the
Federal armies, and has announced that for the
present his head-quarters will be with the armies of
the Potomac. General Sherman succeeds him in
the command of the army of the West. General
Banks is on the move, either towards Mobile, as
some allege, or towards Upper Louisiana or Ar-
kansas, which is more probable. Mr. Lincoln, who is
always calling for men, has issued a new demand for
200,000, under the usual threat of a draught if they
be not forthcoming. Cmgress, having ilassed a Gold
Bill with the vain idea of sending gold down and
paper up to par, has relapsed into " log rolling" for
the Presidency, and into its favourite discussions
upon the negro, his political and social rights, and
the policy or necessity of "miscegenation."
Under the head of " log rolling" may be classed
a proposition for the division of Tennessee into two
States, and the passage by the House of Rspresenta-
tires of Bills to admit the three Territories of
Nevada, Colorado, and Nebrtiska as States of the
Union as 800 h as the people thereof shall have
agreed upon the constitutions by which they are
willing for the blare to govern themselves,—with
the hope, no doubt, that their organisation will be
completed in time to enable them to participate in
the ensuing Presidential election, and cast their
votes for the Republican nominee. The leading
spirits of the Senate, who seems to care but little
for the more urgent questions of the day, such, for
instance, as a scheme of taxation sufficient to pay
the interest on the National debt, have, under the
guidance of Mr. Charles Sumner, achieved a social
triumph over the prejudices of the white people of
Washington, and passed an act requiring the
managers of the horse-car railways in that city to
allow negroes to ride among the white passengers.

Mr. Lincoln's call for his new 200,000 men has no
excited the slightest alarm. The working men and
the younger members of the professional classes
know that not one of them will be taken from his
home and business unless by his own consent ; that
in the plethora of greenbacks and the liberality of
the counties, towns, and cities there is abundance
of bounty money yet to be expended ; that the
Irish and German immigrants form a fund of men
which may yet be largely drawn upon ; and that,
under no circumstances, will the Government dare
to enforce the conscription which it threatens. In
fact, Mr. Lincoln's proclamations and calls excite
ridicule rather than alarm, and give no one the
slightest uneasiness.
The apathetic manner in which the bankers,
brokers, jobbers, and gold speculators have received
the news of the passage of the Gold Bill has sur-
prised most people. It was expected that gold
would fall at least 5 per cent. at the first announce-
ment that Mr. Chase had received authority to
"bear" the market when and to what extent he
pleased ; but the obstinate metal remains at its old
prices—scarcely, if at all, affected by the power given
to its enemy. Had Mr. Chase remained a candidate
for the Presidency, Congress would never have
given him such authority ; not because it was of
opinion that it was wrong to give him, or any other
max, such power over the Money-market, but be-
cause it was imagined that be might abuse the power
to make the fortunes of such speculators as would
repay him for the kindness by electioneering in his
interest. When Mr. Chase withdrew his pretensions
to succeed Mr. Lincoln that objection fell to the
ground, and the Bill previously rejected was rein-
troduced. The friends of the Administration, be-
lieving that:the high premium on gold was wholly
due to speculation, that it was not produced by
natural causes, and that it was damaging to the
credit of the Federal Government both at home and
abroad, would listen to none of the reasons that
were brought forward by the Opposition, and hur-
ried the bill through its several stages with unpre-
cedented celerity. It passed the House of Represen-
tatives on Wednesday by the unexpected majority
of 83 against 5'7, was agreed to by the Senate on the
same day, and yesterday received the signature of
the President. But as Mr. Chase is bound by the
Act of 1862 to pay the interest of the national debt
in gold, and to set aside 1 per cent. of all the gold
he receives as a sinking fund—both of which obliga-
tions have been reimposed upon him by the new
Act—it does not appear at all clear to the financiers
and merchants of this city that he now can have, or
is ever likely to have, such a surplus as will enable
him to override the markets, unless he should break
the law and trench upon the sinking fund, which
no one suspects him of any intention of doing. He
would, it is said, have preferred that his liberty of
action should not have been cloggel by this limita-
tion ; but it is this clog, it is surmised, which has
deprived the Act of the virtue which its friends
imagined to lie in it, and kept gold at nearly the
same premium which it previously commanded.
The war Christians, the exterminators, the con-
tractors, the shoddy aristocrats, the Union leaguers,
all who support the Administration and the war,
are, however, delighted with the measure, and con-
sider that if it has not yet dealt as heavy a blow
against Secession as the capture of a city or the
defeat of an army it may be made to do so at a
future time. Bat these, though a numerous class,
do not form the majority, and men of business
generally, with the single exception of the importers
of foreign goods, are of opinion that, should Mr.
Chase at any future time have a surplus of 10 or
20 millions of gold not required for interest and
the sinking fund, and come into the market through
his agents to sell it, his action, though it should be
conceded that he was at once the wisest, the purest,
the most skilful, and the most unselfish of men,
would produce evils far greater than it was in-
tended to cure, disturb the whole commerce of the
Republic—both external and internal, unsettle the
value of every man's property, and impair the pub-
lic confidence is the credit of the Government. The
true way to bring down the premium on gold is not
to " bear" the market by huge operations, but
either to end the war by military victories, or pro-
vide means for carrying it on by taxation, instead
of new loans and fresh issues of inconvertible paper.
It is because Europe will not take greenbacks for
its goods, and because the Americans begin to fear
that they have already incurred a debt which it
will be impossible for them to pay, that gold goes
up, and that the paper dollar, which ought to be
worth 1000. if the Government were considered
stable and the people solvent, goes down to 60c.
and threatens to go down to 50c. No operations
that Mr. Chase might conduct or order in. the sale
of his gold could effect more than a slight and tem-
porary change in this respect. He might lower the
premium—perhaps five or even ten per cent.—for a
week or a fortnight ; but if he did not pay his in-
terest in gold, if he continued to issue paper to pay
the army and the navy and the war contractors,
and if the forces of the Republic suffered a single
defeat on the field, gold would go up to a higher
level than ever, in spite of everything he and a
thousand Congresses could do to prevent it.
As the " little bill" to be presented to Great
Britain, when
opportunity serves for the depreda-
tions committed upon American commerce by
the Florida, the Alabama, and other craft in the
service of the Confederate Government, continues to
be very generally debated, and finds much favour
in the Chamber of Commerce, and other bodies that
aspire to lead public opinion in this country, it may
be useful to show how the Federal Government
met a similar claim when it was brought forward
against the United States by one of the Powers of
Europe. The House of Representatives, on August
7, 1850, and December 17, 1851, passed resolutions
requesting
the President, Mr. Fillmore, to commu-
nicate the particulars of the several claims of the
United States against Portugal, as „all
as the
amount and nature of the claims of Portugal against
the United States. Mr. Fillmore accordingly trans-
mitted a message to the House on Jan. 28, 1852,
accompanied by all the necessary documents, ex-
tending from so early a period as the year 1814,
.The claims of the United States against Portugal
need not new be discussed, ES they have no bearing
upon the point which the British Government wil•
one dty have to consider, if the Federal Govern
;mut be urmiso enough to urge it.

The claims o