The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-17 00:00:00

TEE WVIL .VAR IN AMERICA.

(F m tho Times Correspondent.)
NEW YORK, March 1.

The spring camps ign has fairly opened, both in
Virginia and Tennessee, and during the next six
months the world may expect to hear of a succes-
sion of battles as bloody and indecisive as Antie-
tam, Fredericksbul!g, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg,
or any other of the, useless massacres of the war.
The fisld of contest :has been largely extended, and
there are indications that not only Virginia, Ten-
nessee, Louisiana, TA !sas, Florida, and the Atlantic
States, but the rich and hitherto undevastated re-
gions of Pennsylvania and Ohio, will be made to
feel the full horrors of the sword and torch, the
rush of squadrons and the tramp of exasperated
armies. Both sides have put forward their utmost
available strength of men, if not of leaders. In
leadership the South excels. It not only possesses
the best general©, but employs them without regard
to politics or party favour, while the North, with
lc ivs.r men of note and ability to choose from, selects
its generals for non-military reasons, and dismisses
them as soon as they display the slightest symptoms

of genius. The South is grimly in earnest—as it
has ever been ; while the North, unwarned and un-
taught by repeated reverses and disappointments,
is jauntily confident of speedy victory, as if none of
the roseate predictions of its political chieftains had
ever been made and falsified. But though the area
of the war widens with the march of time, neither
side has such large armies in the field as it had in
1863. Meade commands a smaller host than that
with which he conquered at Gettysburg, and Lee a
force less by a third than that with which he in-
vaded Pennsylvania. Grant's army does not exceed
60,000 men, while the combined forces of the
Southern generale, who are about to try if they
cannot rescue Tennessee from his grasp, do not
reach within 6,000 or perhaps 10,000 of that num.
ber. This diminution of force may, however, be an
advantage to both parties, and much of the ill-
success which has attended the efforts of the South
to conquer independence, and of the North to com-
pel allegiance, may be due to the fact that the armies
of each have been too large for the effective manage-
ment of any General which either has produced.
Pending the outburst of the storm which will
speedily roar and flash on every side, unless all the
warnings of the barometer and all the signs on the
horizon be deceptive, it may be well for the student
of American affairs to take as accurate and compre-
hensive a survey as his vision will allow of the
social and political condition of the Northern people
and their rulers at a crisis of their fortunes which
the issue of one battle or other circumstances may
render decisive. To ascertain what the President
is doing, what objects of individual or national con-
cern occupy the attention of his Cabinet, with what
spirit the Senate and the House of Representatives
are imbued, what are the aspirations and character
of the soldiery, what arc the honesty and patriotism
or the reverse of the military chieftains, and what
is the morality or immorality, the power or the
weakness, of parties—all these are inquiries of the
highest interest. There can be no doubt that there
are many true patriots in America, men of noble
ideas and lofty aims, but at this turning point in the
history of their country it is of importance to know
whether they are in the majority or the minority,
and whether it be in their power to direct to happy
issues, either now or hereafter, the apparently all
but desperate fortunes of their nation.
Beginning with the highest personage in the
realm, we find that Mr. Lincoln is confessedly in-
competent to restore peace or prosecute a successful
war. Even his honesty—for which at one time
all the world was willing to give him credit—appears
to have succumbed to the evil influences which
surround him. Three years' possession of power has
familiarized him with baseness. He meets serious
argument with a jest, and buys the too troublesome
opponent whom he cannot otherwise silence. Fasci-
nated, as greater men have been, by the exercise of
supreme authority, he cannot reconcile his mind to
the decency of relinquishing it. He has learnt to
play with principles as gamblers play with dice, and
desiring to be re-nominated to the Presidency, he is
determined to win the game unfairly if he cannot
win it otherwise, The Constitution which he swore
to uphold having been abrogated on the plea of
military necessity by a subservient majority in both
Houses of the Legislature, he acts in all respects as
he pleases. He absolves himself from obedience to
all authority but his own. He plans campaigns,
though he is no soldier, and sets aside the combina-
tions of his Generals without giving himself the
trouble to understand them. He orders an army to
advance for a political purpose, even though the
result of the movement should be a military disgrace,
and is se fearful that some successful General should
appear and end the war by such a victory as would
make the victor President that he cripples the ener-
gies of his best officers, and withholds alike his con-
fidence and his reinforcements. Within the last
month, without consultation with his Secretary of
War or Commander-in-Chief, he directed an expe-
dition into Florida, making his private secretary, a
lad of 20 years of age, the bearer of orders to General
Gilmore to take military possession of that State.
The object was not a military one, but solely intended
to organize a civil government in the name of a mi-
nority, by means of which Florida might be repre-
sented in Congress and cast its vote for Mr. Lincoln,
if the Presidential election should fall, as most
people believe it will, to the decision of the House
of Representatives. The result of this stupendous
exercise of arbitrary folly has been a disastrous
failure. The 5,000 men despatched under General
Seymour to accomplish the President's purpose
were suddenly confronted by an enemy of thrice
their numbers, of whose existence neither Mr.
Lincoln nor the General employed had the slightest
suspicion, and forced to retreat with a loss of
1,200 men in killed and wounded. Besides the
human lives thus wantonly sacrificed, this ill-starred
expedition cost about two millions of dollars
in money. This is but one, though as yet the last,
specimen of Mr. Lincoln's management, at a time
when not alone the greatest prudence and circum-
spection are necessary to prevent mishap, but when
the purest self-sacrifice and the most patriotic de-
votion in the chief of the State, and of all others in
high positiob, are essential to prevent the worse
calamities that may follow upon dishonour.
The spectacle offered by the Cabinet is scarcely
more edifying. In any other constitutional country
men in the position of Mr. Stanton and General
Halleck would have resigned their offices if a man
in the position of the President had planned and
commanded such au expedition as that to Florida
without consultation with and concurrence from
them. But as they have purposes of their own to
serve, they hold on to their portfolios, and wash
their hands of responsibility. A striking peculiarity
of Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet is that the Cabinet never
meets. Each Secretary manages his own depart-
ment, as far as the President will allow, and takes
no heed of the national policy as a whole. In
American
phrase, each man " runs his own ma-
chine," and has little, if any, other object than to
make such political capital out of its management
as will place him in a favourable position before the
country in the scramble for office. It is known that
there is not a single member of the Cabinet who
does not think he would make a better President
than Mr. Lincoln; and the great majority of them
do not scruple to say so. Mr. Seward missed the
Presidency by a mere chance, and was only made
Secretary of State because he was too powerful to
be omitted from the combinations of the party ; and
even he—superior as he must feel himself to be in
intellect and acquirements to the master whom he
serves—is content to " run" th© foreign machine,
while he sees, without an effort to avert it, the
domestic machine running headlong duwn a
precipice where it must inevitably be dashed to
pieces. The Secretary of the Treasury, the coolest,
and, as far as is known, the honestest head in
the Government, is openly a candidate for Mr.
Lincoln's seat, and, if no unfair or extra-constitu-
ed to thwart him, will in all
tienal means are employ
probability secure a larger popular vote than any
competitor of the same political bias. Mr. Stanton
also has Presidential aspirations, and works to that
end, though he may think that another period of
four years may intervene before his wishes be grafi-
fit:d. The other Secretaries, though they respect
each othz.r but iittlp, respect Mr. Lincoln still less,