The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-08 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA,

(From the Times' Correspondent.)
NEW YORK, Ang. 25.

Great joy prevails among the Republicans, Aboli-
tionists, and Exterminators at the destruction of
Fort Sumter and the probability of the capture of
Charleston, or of the ruins of what was once that
proud and valiant little city. They believe the end
of the war to be close at hand, and their organs are
all busily debating the terms of a reconstruction of
the Union. They are not, for the most part, inclined
to be merciful. Nothing less than the immediate
emancipation of the slaves, the public execution of
Mr. Jefferson Davis and Mr. Stephens, and a few of
the most prominent Southern Generals, the banish-
ment of minor offenders, and the division of the
plantations and all the cultivable wastelands of the
cotton, sugar, and rice districts among the loyal
servants of the Federal Government, seems to sa-
tisfy to their excited minds the justice of the cause.
This done, the Confederate and Federal armies are
to be united, reorganised, and divided into three
great and invincible divisions ;—one to be retained
at home for the preservation of domestic order; a
second to be despatched to Mexico to vindicate the
Monroe doctrine and expel the French from Mexico;
and the third to march to Canada to wreak ven-
geance upon Great Britain for having allowed Mr.
Laird and other, shipbuilders to construct Alabamas
and Floridas to prey upon American commerce, and
generally to rub off old scores with a nation whom it
Is the point of honour to hate, to envy, and to desire
o humiliate. The democratic party are less exube-
rant and demonstrative. They rejoice, it is true, at
the approaching fail of Charleston, but they take a
soberer view of the probable consequences of the vic-
tory. They understand the Southern temper better
than their Republican brethren, and urge that the
moment of success is not the moment of vengeance,
but of conciliation; and call upon Mr. Lincoln, as soon
as the Federal flag shall wave over Charleston and
Chattanooga,to proclaim a general amnesty,and sum-
mon a convention of the people of all the States,
bath North and South, to confer upon the terms of
union, or of compromise. Bat though such opinions
ere those of three-fifths of the Northern people, they
are not those of the party in power. Mr. Lincoln
ill exhibit no such statesmanship or generosity.
lie is in the hands of the Revolutionists, and must
do their bidding ; even though he awake hereafter
to the melancholy conviction that he misunderstood
his function, missed his opportunity, and was the
real destructive of that edifice of constitutional li-
berty which it was his duty to conserve.
While great events are pending in South Caro-
lina and in Tennessee, the people of New York are
busily occupied with the conscription. On Wednes-
day last, when the draught commenced, from 20,000
to 25,000 troops, including infantry, cavalry, and
artillery, were stationed at convenient points of the
city to overawe the refractory multitude. Although
not the slightest attempt at riot has occurred, the
people, relying apparently on the 3,000,000 pro-
mised by the municipality as sufficient to purchase
the exemption of every poor conscript who may be
unwilling to serve, the Federal Government has
not ceased to pour additional regiments into the
city. Neither by day nor by night for the last
week has the military invasion slackened for an
;:our. On Saturday and Sunday large numbers
of infantry and cavalry arrived, among which
was a considerable detachment from the army
of the Potomac. Every square, enclosure, and
open space from the Battery to the Central Park
—a distance of five miles—has been converted
into a camp. The children and their nuesemaids
have been driven out of their shady haunts to
make room for the sun-browned veterans of civil
strife, and the scraggy steed* of the cavalry, for
which the Federal Government has paid from £4O
to £5O per head, but for which no London cab-
owner would give a £lO note. The troops look
and behave as if they were in an enemy's country ;
which may, perhaps, bo the fact. They are sup-
posed to have with them from 80 to 100 pieces of
artillery ; but as no one out of the charmed circle
of official and military life has taken the trouble to
count theta, or knows anything but what cursory
observation may elicit, it is possible that this num-
bcr may be exaggerated. At any rate the cannon
aro nut concealed. They stand in public places,
and prophesy, even while silent, of stirring days to
come. Nor is the military the only force available.
The two rivers that border the island of Manhattan
are traversed night and day by vigilant little gun-
boats, which dart to and fro the whole length of the
city, and are net only ready to pour a raking fire
down rebellions cross streets that may be indicated
to their commanders, but to transport Federal
troops from point to point, thus obviating the delay
and incovenience of a march. But as no military
force whatever—not even a corporal's guard—is le-
gitimately required in New York at this moment,
provided always that the municipality, in spite of
the veto of Mayor Opdyke, intend to pass the ordi-
nance for the three million of dollars on which the
people rely, it may well be asked why there is such
a formidable display of military strength ? Events
will answer—the Federal Government seem deter-
mined upon a coup d'etat. It does not wish the
municipality to buy off its conscripts. It wishes to
crush the rights of the State of New York, once and
for ever ; and for this purpose nothing would be so
much to its mind as a riot. Mayor Opdyke is doing
its behests in this respect. He doggedly refuses to
sign the ordinance which would render disturbance
impossible and deprive it of its only pretext or jus_
tification. The truth is, that Governor Seymour is
in Mr. Lincoln's way, and that the rights of the
State are an impediment to the Federal des •
potism, which it is part of the ministerial plan
to establish. Military law to the supersedcnce
of all others, to endure from this time until
the conclusion of the next Presidential election, is
what Mr. Lincoln and his friends mean. In filling
New York with such an army as now occupies it,
they have shown their cards. The most careless
and uninterested of spectators can see the play. If
dew York submit with but slight restiveness,
G-"
, "era' Dix will remain its military governor. If
by forcible resistance to the draught it gives the
Governmentists the chance for which the Revolution.
the Cabinet earnestly
and which Mr.
Opdyke haspray,
done his utmost to provoke, General
Butler
probably be the man of the hour ; and
a stout nail will
be driven by a strong band into
the coffin of
American
liberty.
If it were
possible
might be a purely to concede that the draught
military and not a political
measure, it might be
worthwhile to calculate from
ment is likely to derive additionalfr strength the Govern-
ment of its armies. wiliolemmit for the replenish-
Chase has as much
power to "let on" greenback:.
as a London turncoc k
inexhaustible
has to let on water—from the all but
reservoir at his command—it is clear enough that
the Government needs men more than
money
that it owes small thanks to the rich conscripts who,and
as soon as they are drawn, pay their 300 dots., and
think no more of the matter. The only
gratitude
it owes them is that they pay without grumbling.
A tar larger class, composed of young men
--in trade
and learned professions—who can ill spare 300 dots.,
but who would at any sacrifice rather pay thrice the
money than serve personally, to the temporary re-
linquishment or permanent ruin of their business_
contribute their greenbacks to a fund, on which the
Government may draw for the purchase of sub.
stitutes; but they pay unwillingly, with a mental
reservation against the unconstitutionality of the
act which mulcts them of their hard-won substance,
or quite as often with an outspoken opposition to
the Government and its policy. Of these two
classes it is estimated that not one in a hundred in
New England and New York will take service.
There remain only the labouring classes. What
their sentiments are in New York is well known.
Their belief that the municipality will do for them
what the rich do for themselves keeps them quiet.
It is possible, perhaps, that one in ten ameng them,
young, strong, reckless, and not in permanent em-
ploy, may elect to don the uniform and shoulder the
musket ; but if such be the proportion of real sol-
diers in all the three classes of people from whom
they can be drawn, it is evident that the only re-
source of the Government is the purchase of substis
tntes with the money thus provided. Where, then,
are the substitutes to be foiled ? Among the newly
arrived immigrants from Ireland and Germany in

► the first place, and, in the second, among the late
volunteers who flew to arms at an early period of
the struggle, and who, having survived the bloody
battlefields of Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg,
Chancellor*ille, and Gettysburg, and served out
their full term of enlistment, have returned home,
if not smitten with a love of military life, unfitted
for any other. These two resources combined will
certainly not provide the Government with 300,000
men, or even with one-third of that number. At the
utmost it may be calculated that 50,000 or 60,000
will be thus derivable. These 60,000 men will have
cost the wealthier classes 90 millions dole., but will
be procured by the Government for 18 millions,
leaving it a gainer of 72 millions, which it does not
need, and a large amount of unpopularity, which it
cannot afford to possess. The conscription, how-
ever, is not a military but a political measure. By
its own showing the Government is not really in
want of men. Its supporters never cease to insist
that the rebellion received its coup de grace at
Gettysburg, Vicksburg, and Port Hudson, and that
with the speedy capture or destruction of Charles-
ton the Union cannot fail to be re-established by the
Ist of January. Why, then, demand fresh armies
from an unwilling country ? "To crush out the
liberties of the American people and establish the
Republican party in power for another Presidential
term, if not to inaugurate a military despotism,"
say the Democrats. "To drive the French oat of
Mexico and the British out of Canada," say the Re-
publicans. How much truth there may be in either
or in both of these allegations—for the one by no
means neutralises the other—the events that must
occur as soon as the canvass for the next Presidential
election is fairly commenced will prove, perhaps
when it will be too late for the American people to
profit by the painfully acquired knowledge that they
have been fooled and betrayed.

At present, however, their thoughts run in a dif-
ferent channel. Always ardent worshippers of the
" almighty dollar," they never before worshipped
it with such singleness of heart and such intensity
of devotion as now. The delusive hope of sudden
wealth—to be won in a morning, and enjoyed for
a long lifetime, possesses the minds of almost every-
body above the condition of a day labourer. The
stock and railway share mania continues to rage
with increasing fury. Ordinary business is too dull,
slow, and unprofitable for consideration. Mr. Chase
is issuing the reserve greenbacks which he has
withheld, until unable to confront any longer the
dissatisfaction of the army ; and there is a con-
sequent plethora of paper that inflates prices
and sets the whole tribe of speculators mad with
the passion of gambling. To those the prolonga-
tion of the war is bat the prolongation of the
ehances of money-making. They dread nothing
so much as peace, and are almost sorry that Fort
Sumter has been destroyed. While the principals
in banking-houses and brokers' offices are making
their millions by assiduous watching of the chances
of the fascinating game, their clerks can count their
gains by tens and hundreds of thousands, Young
men who a year ago were glad to serve at the desk
for the modest salary of six or eight hundred dollars
per annum now revel in newly-acquired wealth ;
have their pleasant villas on the Hudson or on the
East River; drink a fraudulent imitation of Chateau
Margaux instead of lager beer ; buy their wives
preposterous jewelry, and think it "common" in a
lady to wear a shawl that has not cost a thousand
dollars. Every one seems to be winning, and no
one seems to be losing. So profuse is everybody's
expenditure that a dollar appears to be of no more
value in the estimation even of a waiter at a res-
taurant than a fourpenny piece would be in Eng-
land. The shoeblack thinks a passenger meaner
than a Yankee who offers him less than an English
shilling for cleaning his boots ; and an Irish hack-
driver would no more think of driving a traveller a
mile through the streets for less than three dollars
than he would think of performing the same service
for pure love and affection. Never were such din-
ner parties given since New York was a city as aro
given, now, Delmonico's three excellent restaurants
in Beaver-street, Chambers-street, and Fourteenth-
' street, at the beginning, the middle, and the end of
the dining region of the metropolis, are kept fully
employ ca ; and dinners of 20 or 30 persons at
20 dols. a head, exclusive of wine, are of nightly
occurrence. The guests prefer the choicest and
most costly vintages, regardless of the paper price.
Madeira at 15 dole. a bottle, Chateau Laflitte at the
same rate, and Cbarnbertin at 16 dole., are none too
expensive for their tastes. Why should they be ?
Do not many of these people often malco, as much as
10,.;00 in a forenoon in the rise of stocks that fluc-
tuate as much as 12 per cent. from day to day ?
And have they not as touch right as the fool in
Scripture to say, " Let us eat and drink for to-
morrow we die."