The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-31 00:00:00

TB E CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.

(From the Times' Correspondent.)
CLIF TON*HOI7SE, NIAGARA FALLS, Aug. 15.
The opposition of Mr Lincoln's re-election gathers
strength. every day. Even the great M'Clellan
meeting at New York, imposing in numbers and
exuberant in enthusiasm, proved to be more of an
anti. Lincoln demonstration than an expression of
sympathy with the name and character of him in
who so behalf it was summoned. The General eon-
tinnes to be a " war democrat," while the bulk of
the democracy is not simply drifting but rushing
into peace. New York is always influential, but in
the approaching contest it will not be all powerful.
The West and North-West have become weary of
the war, and while the commercial metropolis may
send its thousands and tens of thousands into Union-'
square, to listen to brass bands playing " Yankee
Doodle" and " The Star-spangled Banner ;" to gaze
at rockets and transparencies, and shout for a name
—which they are always ready to do—whether the
name be Butler, M' Clellan, Grant, or, if he were
successful, Jefferson Davis,—the outlying States of
the Union, who have borne the brunt and received
none of the profits of the war, are determined either
to have change of policy or change of Presidents.
To this quiet and picturesque hotel, in Which
Northern and Southern men may meet in freedom
and on terms of perfect equality, under the safe-
guard of the British flag, there is a daily and hourly
influx of the leading statesmen, Politicians, and
" wire pullers" of the North_Western States,to con-
sult with the three or four Southern emissaries in
the confidence of Mr Jefferson Davis, who have
heir abode in Canada, and
t ,
temporarily taken up
learn from them whether compromise be not pos.l
Bible, on any terms, and especially on those of an
armistice and convention of the States. As
already notified, 31r Dean Richmond may, if he
will, become the nominee on this basis of the Chicago
Convention ; but he hesitates, it appears, to accept
the position, though he has not formally declined it.
The see.Clellan meeting ha's not materially altered the
conditions of the case. It was by common consent
the most numerous ever held in Sew York, and if
the rote of that city could carry the Presidential
candidate in spite of the wishes of the organised
Democracy of other States, it is probable that the
struggle would ultimately lie between Mr Lincoln
and Gen. M'Clellan. But New York State—much
less the city—cannot carry a candidate against the
North-West, and against the regularly constituted
agencies that nominate the members of the Conven.
tion, which in its turn nominates the man, whom the
party is bound to support, under the usual penalties
of disruption. There is a disposition on the part of
the friends of Gen. M'Clellan to take the decision
out of the control of the party•managers, and if he
be not nominated by the Chicago Convention, to no•
minate him by the people. Indeed, a threat to this
effect was ostentatiously inserted in one of the reso-
lutions passed at the meeting, but as such a proceed-
ing would hopelessly divide the Democratic party, it
is more probable that Gen; MT:ellen will accept the
Chicago platform than that the threat will become
anything more than a brutum fulmen. Among a
hundred of the most eloquent, distinguished, and in-
fluential Democrats, who were publicly announced
as favorable to the objects of the meeting and pledged
to support them by their presence and their speeches,
only three of any note appeared. The remainder
did not even think it worth their while to send writ-
ten apologies for their absence—facts which help to
show that party discipline has not been seriously re-
laxed, expectant officeholders under the new regime
are true to their allegiance, and have no intention of
committing themselves to any candidate until the
Chicago Convention shall have spoken. The third
of the resolutions, which declared that the final
selection of a President "mast fall on one of the
great soldiers who have distinguished themselves in
defence of the principles on which the Government
is founded," has greatly damaged the prospects of
General M'Clellan, and unless he shall at the
eleventh hour, or within ten minutes of the 12th,
resign his commission as a Major-General in the
service of an Administration that might otherwise
compel him to fight for the abolition of slavery, as
a condition precedent to peace and reunion, may
prove an impassable barrier to his nomination. To
say that none but a distinguished soldier shall be
President is to declare virtually for a military des.
poti sm, even though the declaration may be modified
by the proviso that such soldier must have drawn
his sword in favour of State rights and other fun-
damental principles of the Union. The feeling of
the Democratic leaders, and especially of those who
are pledged to support an armistice, is strong
against M'Clellan, Ho is held to be too timid to ,
suit the emergency, even if he should have the pre-
liminary courage to resign his commission. The
coming days threaten to be dark and gloomy,if not
bloody ; and a strong-minded, resolute civilian like
Mr. Dean Richmond, accustomed to manipulate the
masses, knowing the pulse of the public, thoroughly
acquainted. with party mechanism in all its intri-
cacies, a man who can manage it as an engineer
can manage a steam-engine, is recognised as more
likely to be an effective President in a dangerous
crisis than a military man like M'Clellan, whose
sins, failures, and shortcomings have sprung
from excess of caution ; who had the greatest op-
portunity ever thrust by fortune into the lap of a
fewourite since the days of Napoleon 1., and who
threw it away either because he did not see it or be-
cause he had not the nerve, the pluck, the tact, and
the daring to take advantage of it. In short General
3l'Clellan labours under the imputation of civic
cowardice, or of a slowness and hesitancy of judg-
ment, which, by producing the same results, would
repel the co-operation of men who thoroughly ap-
preciate the fact that the country is in danger, and
that violent diseases require bold remedies; Not-
withstanding all these things, he may even yet
make himself the nominee of Chicago—but if so, he
must in a very short interval take a decided step.
He must disavow the policy of Mr Lincoln's famous
letter, "to all whom it may concern," tear off his
shoulder-straps, throw down his sword, become
again a civilian, and trust his fortunes to the ballot.
box. By such means he shall regain the military
rank which he shall have temporarily renounced—
be not only a General, but a creator of Generals;
and, as President of the United States, Commander.
in-Chief of all the naval and military forces of the
Republic.
Meanwhile, the military agents of the Government
in the North. West are doing their utmost to remove
all the prominent individuals known to be opposed
to Mr. Lincoln's re-election, and to be in favour
of making terms with the South. In Kentucky,
more especially, a complete reign of terror has been
established by two Brigadier-Generals, one named
Paine, commanding in the southern, and the other
named Burbridge, in the northern division of
that State. Under the pretence that they have
harboured guerillas, that they have given aid and
comfort to the enemy, or the vaguer charge that
they sympathise with the South, hundreds of the
wealthiest men in Kentucky are driven from their
homes and business, and told in the brutal language
of Burbridgo—who, before he became a Brigadier-
General, was a dealer in mules and asses—to
"go to Hell or to Canada." Choosing the plea-
santer or cooler alternative, these luckless exiles,
with their wives and families, pour into Canada via
Detroit and Windsor, and spread themselves along
the frontier from London in the west as far as Mon.
treal and Quebec in the east. Mmy of them take
tsfage at Niagara Falls and St. Catherine's, where
they tell sad stories of the wrongs and indignities
they have suffered, and nurse the hope of retribu-
tion, or, it may be, of vengeance, against their op-
pressors. Not one of thes3 expatriated citizens will
be allowed to return home until the Presidential
contest be decided, and probably not then, unless
the Peace candidate be elected, Ono of these gen-
tlemen—who was war,
ed
n a friend to escape
to Canada if lie would c-,c..pc a worse fate, and
whose crime woo that two of his sons were in the
elnf2dorato army—irrived here a few days ago,
and narrates that ho saw at the railway station at
Louisville, in Kentucky, as he Passed through that
town, from 800 to 1,000 persons, principally women,
who had been banished en masse by order of Gee.
S eernarn In his march from Chattanooga to At.
Beta the General occupied the town of Marietta,
and burnt down several cotton and other factories
engaged in the production of stores end clothing,