The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-10 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.

(From the Times Correspondent.)
NEW YORK, Feb. 23.
The birthday of George Washington, slaveholder,
and (until he became successful) a rebel, was yester-
day celebrated by 20 millions of people, who affeet
to hate both slaveholding and rebellion with vtru-
lence to which history offers few parallels. Were
'Washington now alive, holding the principle for
which he fought and conquered in his own day, he
would either sit in the seat of Jefferson Davis or be
among the most trusted of hie councillors; but the
North, forgetting principle in passion, honours his
memory, and departs from his teaching. So greatly
have times changed since the compare tively recent
day in which he was a power among his fellows that
ho has almost become as mythical as Ulysses or
Achilles—a name for boys to revere, for girls to

dream of, and for philosophers to theorise and be
learned upon, but of no more practical account,
either by his example or his precept, in the govern•
ancn of the Republic which he founded than if he
had been dead 3,000 years. He declared that go-
vernment reposed upon the consent of the governed,
and to prove the contrary the Federal Americans
have taken up arms to coerceeight millions of people
of their own race and lineage and the greater por-
tion of four millions of negroes. He warned them
against sectionalism as the greatest of all the dangers
against which the young Republic should be on its
guard, and they became sectional until sec-
tionalism—as he foresaw it would—ripened and
expanded into war. Ho dwelt upon the neces-
sity of wise compromise as the only stable foun-
dation of constitutional liberty, and they refused
to listen to compromise until compromise became

impossible. Forgetting all his counsels, all his
principles, all the objects for which he made him-
' ~elf a name for ever, they have deluged his na-
tive Virginia with the blood of a hundred thousand
of their own and as many of the opposing people,
carried fire and sword through that once lovely
land, laid up a store of misery and indebtedness to
afflict countless gen:rations, parted with liberty
for the sake of "glory," and gained not even the
glory and the dominion for which they perilled
so much—nothing, in tact, as yet, but a vague half-
consciousness that all their sacrifices have been in
vain, and that as Washington was so will Jefferson
Davis be hereafter. But if Washington's principles
Ue forgotten, his birthday is remembered. Yester-
day guns fired, banners waved, illuminations and
rockets reddened the midnight sky, balls and other
festivities enlivened the hearts of the young and
fair, while older and soberer persons took pleasure
in that indigenous species of oratory known as
"highfalutin," in commemoration of the glorious
annicers:ry. To-day all is over, and W.ishington's
name is laid on the shelf until the 4th of July, when,
if all be well, it will be taken down again to ed..-
brate a successful rebellion against England, and to
point the moral of an old revolution without
tl:rowing any light upon the principles and pisiion
of the new.

Among the promises made for the day were two
which were not fulfilled—the one, a nu es Proclama-
tion of Universal Emancipation; the other, the great
inaugural meeting in the city of New York, under
the auspices of the Lincoln Union League, for the
advocacy of Mr. Lincoln's claim to re-election. Per-
haps the first, if ready, has, for reasons best known
to Mr. Lincoln, been postponed to a more appro-
priate season; the second has undoubtedly been
postponed because of the almost total want of sym-
pathy in its objects which exists among the people
of the metropolis. Even the Tribune, which made
him, has formally declined to support hint for a
second term. Though Gen. Butler is spoken of, and
he and the North are worthy of each other, he is
scarcely to bo considered a popular favourite. That
honour has been reserved for Gen. M'Clellan. His
name is always received with shouts of applause
whenever publicly mentioned. The soldiers when
he appears among them, as he did for the first time
last Saturday, receive him with a furore of delight,
which proves that his enforced retirement has not I
diminished his popularity among his comrades. His
official report to the Secretary of War on the organi-
sation of the army of the Potomac and its campaigns
in Virginia and Maryland has just been published.
Congress ordered 10,000 copies to be printed for the
use of members, but, lest the document should be
too extensively used as an electioneering manifesto,
it reduced the number to 5,000. But this little
circumstance only increased the public anxiety to
read the report. It has been reprinted piecemeal
in hundreds of newspapers all over the country,
besides being re-issued in book form by a score of
Publishers. The General stood high before in the
estimation of the Democratic party, as well as of
that largo non-partisan class whose only bond of
poli ical cohesion is their timidity and dread of
violent revolution. Ills report has strengthened the
confidence reposed in him by both, and will, in the
event of a Presidential election under the old forms
vvhieh is not by any means so certain as it ought to
be—procure for him many hundred thousand votes
which he might not otherwise havo secured. But
far more important than the movements of the
General's friends is the step just taken in the interest
of Mr. Chase. Cautious, solid, steady, always going
forward without appearing to move, and never
drawing back, Mr. Chase bides his time. Ile says
nothing, but does a great deal, and cleverly allowing
Mr. Lincoln by the exercise of the war power
vested in hizr. as Commander-in-Chief to fill up the
gaps left in the Senate and the House of Repre-
sentatives by the session of the Southern States, he
seems to calculate that the two cunning engineer
may be hoisted with his own petard, and that if
the ultimate decision of the Presidential contest
bo thrown into the house of Representatives, the
votes thus created may be given for Chase, and not
for Lincoln. His friends—and he is a man whose
purity of life, independence of character, and range
of intellect would always secure him many, even if'
he had not high power and the power of putting
his favourites on the road to fortune to add to the
number—have finally come forward with a laboured
statement in his behalf, in the shape of a circular
or manifesto, ostensibly addressed to the whole
people, but intended for the chiefs as well as the
rank and file of the Republican party. It is signed
by Senator Pomeroy, of Kansas, on behalf of the
National Executive Committee, and when,yesterday
morning, published for the first time created a
marked sensation in thin city ;Is well as in Wish-
ington. To-day it has led to two reports—one that
it is a fabrication, and the concoction of an enemy;
and the other, based upon its authenticity, that Mr.
Lincoln will either yield his own claims to those of
Mr. Chase or dismiss him from the Secretaryship of
the Treasury. The document is generally believed
to be genuine. It states that this movement on the
part of lie friends of the Union who differ from the
Policy of the Government has been rendered neces-
sary by the prior movement made to secure the 7-
nomination of Mr. Lincoln ; that were there-election
,! Mr, Lincoln desirable, i.t woe )ri impracticehle

PR1CE...... ...4d.
STAMPED ....sd.

against the union of influences whictl will be brought
to bear in opposition to him ; that his character as
a temporiser and man of shifts and expedients has
tended to prolong the war during his first term,
and would tend still more injuriously to prolong it
during a second ; that the patronage of the Govern-
ment had been so rapidly and enormously increased,
and so loosely placed under his management, as to
render the application of the one term prin6pLe
essential to the safety of the R-public ; that in Mr.
Salmon P. Chase are united more of the qudlities
of a good President than ate to be found in any
ether available candidate ; that his record is cleat
and unimpeachable; that he is a statesman of rare
ability and a❑ administrator of the very highest
order; that the discussion of his fitness for the office
has developed an amount of popularity and strength
in his favour which has astonished his warmest
admirers; and that, all things considered, nothing
but systematic and faithful effort on the part of his
friends and supporters is necessary to overcome all
possible obstacles to his election. It is no wonder
that Mr. Lincoln's friends should feel scandalised
at such a protuncianziento, and that the most indis-
creet among them should call for the dismissal of
the Secretary unless he will publicly disavow the
proceedings thus commenced in his name. In any
other country Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Chase could not
conveniently meet at the same table for the trans-
action of public business, and the chief, for his own
comfort's sake, if not for that of his dignity, would
be compelled to dismiss his too ambitious subordi-
nate and look out for another Minister. But it is
probable that Mr. Lincoln, rather than encounter
the peril of a break-up in his Cabinet, will submit,
with his characteristic good humour, to the slight
put upon him, and if he be really anxious for the
very dangerous honours and patronage of a second
term, that ho will trust to the agencies, civil and
military, legal and financial, which ere still and will
be for a twelvemonth in his grasp to set aside, un-
dermine, and otherwise defeat the schemes of an ad-
versary, who, however formidable he may be, will
be less formidable in proportion to the number of
candidates that may yet be brought forward. With
three Republicans in the field—himself, Gen. Fre-
mont, and Mr. Chase—and only ono Democrat,
with the chance of at least two more in the persons
of Generals Butler and Banks, the President may,
perhaps, be able to play a game that shall checkmate
Mr. Chase, even if the operation should lead to the
election of Gen. M'Clellan. Meanwhile, Mr. Chase
is too powerful to be lightly interfered with.

The Chas:, manifesto, however, has already had
one result which its framers did not anticipate. It
has virtually defer.ted a measure which has for the

last week been under discussion in the House of
Representatives, and the object of which was to
authorise the Secretary of the Treasury to enter the
gold-market whenever he pleased and sell his sur-
plus gold. In face of his enormous issues of paper,
gold, as obstinate in following its own laws as water,
that trill find its level, persisted in standing at a
premium of nearly 60 per cent. above greenbacks,
in spite of all the hopes, wishes, and efforts of Mr.
Chase to bring it down to 25. It has long been
suspected and asserted that Mr. Chase occasionally
exercised to the extent of a few millions the power
scught to be conferred upon him by Congress ; but,
however the truth may be in this respect, it was
deemed advisable that a privilege so important
should be legally conferred upon him. The measure
was accordingly introduced into the House of Re-
presentatives. Its supporters contendrd that the
premium on gold was maintained by the nefarious
arts of gtimblers and speculators; that such gam-
bling was immoral and unpatriotic ; that the depre-
preciation of the 'Piper currency thereby expedited
and mainta.ned W:!el trvasnuable, inasmuch es it gave
aid and comfort to the enemy, and that whenever
Slr. Chase had a surplus of gold derived from the
Customs duties above the sums required for the
payment of the interest on the national debt, he
should be allowed in the public betrilf to sell it in

open market. It was further ❑rged that the know-
ledge that Mr. Chase had such a power in hia
hands and could at any moment exercise it would
tend to depress speculation and keep gold at e
moderate premium. The objections to these argu-
ments were many and cogent. The power thus
vested in the Secretary would be too much for
ordinary honesty to be proof against ; he would ho
virtusily the despot of prices and arbiter of every
man's fortunes ; he would be enabled by a hint of
his intentions to put unearned millions into the
hands of his friends, relatives, and supporters ; and,
more than all, he might, if privileged to be
seller of gold, sell too much of the commodity, and
perhaps find himself by a falling off in the Customs
duties or some other cause, compelled to buy back
what he had sold, or break faith with the public

creditor,—a condition of affairs which would infal-
libly send up the premium to %far higher rate than

Int from which he might have reduced it by his

unwise interrneddling. These arguments had the

effect anticipated, and decided the Committee of
Ways and Means to report against the proposition.
It was still thought,howover, up to yesterday morn-
ing, when Senator Pomeroy's circular appeared,

hat means would be found to sccuro the hill a new

hearing. But that document immediately altered
the state of affairs. All the friends of Mr. Lincoln,

of General Fremont, and of General M'Clellan took
the alarm lest powers so mighty as these should be

employed in promoting the electioneering canvass
of the Secretary. As these three sections, composed
as they are, not alone of the Republican and Demo-
cratic, but of the nondescript parties, form at least
three-fourths if not nine-tenths of the House, the
measure is doomed, and gold and greenbacks will
be left to the operation of natural causes, to find
their value untampered with by any greater
gambler or financier than such as congregate in
Wall-street and William street, and make day

hideous with the uproar of their trade.
The recent news from Europe has been received
with unmitigated delight by that amiable section of

ho people of this country who hate Great Britain

as brdently as they love the Union, and to please

whom Mr. Seward threatened to hold the British

Government responsible for all the damage inflicted
upon American commerce by the Alabama and the
Florida. They rejoice that the Danes and the
Germans have come to blows and indulge ;n a
romantic, but possibly baseless, vision of a general
European war as the immediate consequence.
Crowns are to be melted up for old metal ; the
purple robes of Kings and Emperors are to be
trailed through the gutter ; thrones are to be con-

verted into material for bonfires; th© old nation-

alities of Ireland, Poland, and Hungary, but not of
the Heptarchy, are to be restored ; Republic insti-
tutions are everywhere to bo established; and such
a din of battle is to bo kept up for the next 20 years
in the Old World, that America is to be Loft to its
own devices, without danger of foreign interven-
tion, and, more agreeable than all, Great Britain is
inevitably to be dragged into hostilities with one or
more of the great Powers of the Continent, in
which event Federal capitalists and shipbuilders
no.e verybe sea and ocean
human," says
are to fit out privateers for the foes of Englund and
sweep British commercefromWe
esiould
of the globe.
one of these sweet-tempered observers of European
politics, " if we did not feel some little satisfaction
at the prospect. As soon as Ergland is at war we
shall commence building vessels for the Emperor of
Chine, and the English fish will be driven from
every sea, as ours has been." 'l'he spite of this
writer blinds him, and the class to whom he appeals,
to many little facts that ought to bo tr.ken into the
account before England or the world can accept his
conclusions as positive certainties. The Federa!

Government has 12 war ships now in commission
which it cannot send to sea fur want of sailors.

The capture of the Alabama and the Florida way

a duty tit gently demanded of the Federal navy
and the Northern people would have been almost
as mach delightvd with either achievement as will
thfa tnrrentinr of Richmond or Cheri( ston ; pit tho