The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-12 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

PosT.—The news which reaches us twice a week
from America has long ceased to excite any parti-
cular interest. The rival Republics have sub-
sided into a chronic state of warfare, and
the incidents peculiar to such a condition of things
are necessarily monotonous. The intelligence of a
Federal reverse or of a Confederate disaster has
ceased to passess any importance in the eyes of
those who have been wearily watching the course
of events on the North American continent during
the past three years. The news brought by the
last mail may be taken as a fair sample of what has
been for several months the history of American
effeirs. Military operations are carried on in half
a dozen distinct regions of the States, and the sue
cess which attends either of the belligerents in one
quarter is counterbalanced by some reverse sus-
tained elsewhere. General Grant, we aro told, has
pushed his army forward some 20 miles across the
Georgian frontier, but, finding the enemy stationed
in force at the town of Dalton, has again with-
drawn it to the neighbourhood of his former posa
tion. From the south-west we learn that General
Sherman had attacked and defeated a Confederate
force under the command of Bish,p Polk, bat was
himself in considerable dangee of finding his com-
munications cut off by General Johnstone, whose
army had reinforced that of Polk. The siege of
Knox the has been raised, and Longstreet has
once `boom retired into -Western Virginia. In
Florida, report says that the Federals have sus-
t=ined a serious defeat, the details of which the
Government have declined to publish. That the
great American civil war still proceeds is known
for certain ; but of the period of its duration we re-
main just as ignorant as we have hitherto been.
he time is now rapidly approaching when the
population of the Northern States will be once
more called upon to elect a chief magistrate. Mr.
Lincoln's term of office will expire this time
twelvemonth ; but, six months hence, the elections
will be held for the nomination of his successor.
The American Constitution does not interdict a
President from a second time filling the highest
office in the State, although, in practice, the indi-
vidual who has occupied the White House at
Washington is, when his tenancy expires, gene-
rally consigned to obscurity. To this rule, how-
ever, there have been several exceptions. Between
the years 1801 and 1825 there were but three Pre-
sidents—Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and
James Monroe, each of them having, by re-election,
held office for eight years. General Jackson, one of
the ablest of the American Presidents, was re-elected
in :833, when his first term had expired, and
George Washington, the first President of the
Republic, equally remained at the head of affairs
during twice the period allotted by the Constitution
to the enjoyment of the supreme power in the State.
With these exceptions no citizen has been a second
time elected in America to the Presidential office.
'rho question which has already begun to be
anxiously mooted in the Nerthern States, is whether
under existing circumstances the established rule
should be disregarded, and Abraham Lincoln's name
be added to the list of those who have been twice
honoured with the suffrages of their fellow-citizens.
There are evidently two points of view from which
this question may be regarded, though each indi-
cates the seine result. It may be said that Mr.
Lincoln should be re-elected because in the present
critical position of affairs the interests of the Re-
public might be jeopardised by permitting the
government to pass into other hands, or his title to
re-election may be made to rest upon his personal
qualifications. Judged by the standard of ability
by which we are accustomed . at this side of the
Atlantic to gauge the merits of statesmen, it is
scarcely necessary to say that Abraham Lincoln
would be pronounced unfit to hold any office de-
mandirg the exercise either of sagacity or firm-
ness. It is not, however, by such a standard that
Americans measure their public men. The large
majority of American Presidents have been men
who, in respect to skill in statecraft, have been far
below mediocrity, and in this majority Mr, Lincoln
must be reckoned. Whether any one else occupy-
ing his position during the past three years would
have acted with greater prudence and foresight may
be a matter on which some diversity of opinion may
prevail; but, looking at the present condition of
the American Republic, few will hesitate to admit
that, under different euidatice, the fortunes of the
Republic could not be more heavily overcast than
they are at the present moment. "Whether with a
different President the war might not ere this have
been brought to a close may be doubtful; but
whether another Government could have more scan
dalously misled the Amercan nation, more profli-
gately squandered its resources, and more recklessly
pledged its credit, is a matter on which no difference
of opinion can by any possibility exist. To those
who believe that the vigorous prosecution of the
war must inevitably lead to the re-establishment of
the American Unice, the re-election of the present
President will certainly recommend it'elf. Mr.
Lincoln and his advisers have at all events never
relaxed their efforts to restore peace bs the vigorous
employment of the sword. Nor coo the Republi-
can party complain that the present chief magis-
trate has ever refused co-operation iu any of its
schemes. Mr. Lincoln has never, iii a some few
members of the 1-folse of Commons, declared him-
self independent of his electors. The American
President may. to European eyes, have appeared to
be fulfilling conscientiously the obligations of his
office. For the jobbery and corruption which have
shocked even the cities of Washington, and New
York we impute no blame to Mr. Lincoln, arid cer-
tainly his own supporters will eearealy on that ac-
count withrleaw their respee:ed magistrate. If,
then, the It publican party is united, there is no
reason why Mr. Linco'n should not be declared Pre-
sident at the autumn elections. Whether by is or
net cannot, however, seriously affeot the progress of
the war, Peforp that time circumstances will arise
which, we believe, will render it imFossible for
either Mr. Lincoln or anyone else to impel the
Northern popalation any further in that mad career
on which, just three years ago, they so unhappily
entered.

sent deputies to the Emperor Nicholas just before
the Russian war ; but it appears that they cannot
allow the present critical time to pass away
nut once more approiching a warlike Potentate.
We publish elsewhere a memorial, bearing the
well-known names of Pease end Gurney, which
has been presented to the Emperor of the French
from the Peace-Society, thanking him for his pro•
posal for assembling an international Congress" to
adjust by mutual conceal the unsettled questions
which seem to jeopardize the peace of nations, and
to concert measures forthe mutual and simultaneous
reduction of those great armaments which have
proved at once so burdensome to the resources, s°
dangerous to the peace, and so detrimental to the
morals of Europe." If we had any histor:cal super-
stition, we might fancy that the appearance of these
gentlemen at such a time was ominous. It was,
among the best ascertained facts in the poli:ies 01
our age that the resolution of the late Czar to lihten
to no remonstrances from England on the subject
of the Principalities was due to the conviction is
his mind that England would uuder no injuries
and no inuignities venture into a war. This ruler,
after 30 years' experience on the throne, with the
best means of information through able and devoted
diplomatists, and with the recollections of his boy-
hood, all associating England with everything that
is resolute and pertinacious in war, came to believe
to believe that we were at last truly a nation of
shopkeepers, who would see every right and every
principle perish as long as we were left to add one
shilling to another, By the very confession of the
Russian Court, it was the belief that the so-called
Manchester School were the virtual rulers of the
country, which led the mistaken Potentate to
per-
severe in the course that produced the humiliation
of his Empire, and, perhaps, also his own untimely
end. How much misery and slaughter, and what
an addition to the burdens of Europe, were pro'
duced by that fatal resolution ! To the ignoble
theories of which the three Quakers of
that time were the representatives this nation
and mankind in general owe no small part of
the evils under which they have suffered since.
The British people can, indeed, agree to a
great deal that the Peace Society puts in its
memerial ; they can hope that the European
Powers will tend more and more to adjust their
differences by mutual counsel and concession ; they
long for the simultaneous reduction of armaments,
and firmly believe that if the Emperor will lead the
Powers of Europe into the path of arbitration and
disarmament, he will confer on his reign a glory far
brighter and more enduring than any that can be
reaped from the most brilliant military achieve'
meats. We must protest, however, generally against
the practice of private individuals addressing the
Sovereigns of foreign countries on political matters/
more especially when they take upon themselves to
censure by implication the conduct of their o'w'n
country. These Quaker gentlemen are quite as con'
fluent in their way as the four Liverpool merchants
of some years back. They inform the Emperor that
to him belongs the signal honour of having taken
the initiative in proposing to the States of Europe
to substitute the arbitration of reason and justice
for that of the sword".—" to unite in relieving theo
people from the burden of warlike preparations;
and they speak of the " general and cordial re'
sponse with which the overture was greeted." To
any one who remembers the facts of the case the
bold inaccuracy of these assertions will be astonish:
ing. So far from these being a general and cordial
response, Lord Russell has stated in the House of
Lords that he sounded the Russian and Austrian
Governments on the matter, and was informed
by them that it was their fixed intention to re•
ject the pretensions of the Congress to discus°
the questions which concerned themselves.
to England, the view the Government took, with
the unanimous consent of all parties and classes 0(
the nation was, that a meeting of such a kin'
would embitter the already existing disputes, while
it would raise questions which it could never h 0136
to settle without an appeal to arms. The view of
Prussia was, we believe, pretty much the same. 14
then, the four Great Powers were unanimous is
declining the invitation, what becomes of the " gene;
ral and cordial response" spoken of in the memorial'
The truth is that, with their usual infelicity, the,
Peace Society have come forward to compliment "t
foreign Prince and direct their inuesdoes again°
their own people just at a time, and on a questiont
the most unfitting cf all. The main and, indeed,
the only ground on which England rejected the late
Congress was that it would in all probability be tbe,
precursor of war. In that opinion our Governmen!
was joined by those other Powers with which 11
consulted, and the intelligence of all classes ha°
affirmed the wisdom of their course. As to the Em"
peror relieving the people of Europe from warliUe
preparations, no compliment could be less deserved;
In the opinion of most people, even in France itsel
and among those most attached to his person and
authority, the evil by which the Emperor has goo
far to counterbalance the great benefits he has 00"
ferred on Franco and Europe has consisted in the
inordinate armaments he has established in his own
country:and imposed, consequently, on neighbouring
nations. The future will show whether he has all
disposition to reduce these, or even to leave thelli
to burden their respective countries in peace.