The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-30 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.

(Prom the times' Corresponient.)
NEW YORK, Jan. 13.

Of all the crises through which the Northern Go-
vernment and people have passed since the outl4ipak
of this unhappy war the present is the severest.
The perils of the nation have assumed a threefold
shape—military, financial, and political. It is dif-
ficult to decide which of them will prove the most
serious, and whether their combined operation will
not exhanst the patience of the most patient people
in the world, and make an end, once and for ever,
of the utterly inefficient, though possibly well mean-
ing Administration of Mr. Lincoln, au Administra
don that mismanages everything which it touches ;
that inspires few people with respect, and no one
with confidence ; and that is only tolerated by sut-
lers and contractors, and the horde of nouveaux
riches who are making, or have made, large fortunes
out of the miseries of the country. " We, of this
Congress and this Administration," said the Presi-
dent in his last Message, " will be remembered in
spite of ourselves. No personal significance or in-
significance can spare one or another of us. The
fiery trial through which we pass will light us down
in honour or dishonour to the latest generation."
The words are true. But have Mr. Lincoln and his
friends ever asked themselves in what direction the
light is now shining? The country is almost at its
last gasp ; and what are "we of this Congress "
doing ? We are extending the horrors and increas-
ing the obstinacy of the war by an attempt to excite
an insurrection of the slaves. We are supporting
the AdministratiOn feebly when it is right, and
strenuously when it is wrong. We are voting im-
mense issues of irredeemable paper money, and
forcing up the premium on gold to 44 per cent. to-
day, and probably to 50 or 60 per cent. a month
hence. We are leaving our army unpaid, but vot-
ing millions of dollars to purchase the freedom of
slaves in Missouri. We are authorising the Go-
vernment to raise and equip an army of 150,000
negroes, who do not make good soldiers, and
with whom white men will not serve, and
thereby confessing that a war of twenty millions of
white Northern men cannot be carried on against
five or six millions of white Southern men -without
the aid of an inferior and despised race. We are
uttering our determination in the face of the scan-
dalized world to "exterminate" every male white
in the South rather than consent to a separation,
which the South demands with a unanimity rarely
witnessed and with a heroism never surpassed. We
are setting the law and the Constitution at defiance,
and urging the President to do the same. We
are jealous of every General who shows the least
ability, lest he should become our master, and treat
us as Cromwell treated the Long Parliament,which
we so closely resemble. These are some of the
things which "we of this Congress" are doing ;
and which may serve to show -whether the light
that will shine upon our names in the latest genera-
tion will be that of honour or of dishonour. And
what are "we of this Administration" doing to
gain the prize we covet or the blame we deprecate ?
We are divided omong ourselves. We have no
bond of Union. We each of us think we could;
make a much better President than the man we.
serve. We are filled with conceit and arrogance.
We of the War Department have no capacity to
superintend, supervise, and direct the immense,
military operations that are necessary to subjugate,
the South, or even to save the North from invasion,
and yet we persist in superintending, supervising,
and directing, though we thereby defeat all the'
plans and combinations of our Generals and reap a
harvest of defeats instead of victories. We of the
Naval Department can order the construction of
iron-clads of doubtful efficiency at an enormous ex-'
pease, but we cannot put a stop to the ravages of the
"pirate" Alabama, or prevent that one vessel from
inflicting the most aggravating losses upon American
Commerce, or transferring the whole trade of the
Atlantic into British bottoms. We of the State
Department can do nothing but provoke Foreign
Powers by foolish words and arrogant assumptions,
and frighten ourselves daily by speculations about a
"mediation," or an "intervention," which, though
it might rescue the State from pending ruin, might
irritate the pride of our people. We of the Trea-
sury Department know so little of the laws of
finance and currency that we have flooded the)
country with irredeemable paper, and are preparing)
to flood it stil! more heavily. We have mortgaged.
the energies and resources of the future, without:
any reasonable ground to believe that the future
will accept the responsibility, and without even the,
conviction in our own mini that we had any legal
or constitutional right to act as we have acted. We
have banished not only gold and silver from the
pockets of the people, but even the commonest little
nicked and copper cents—which in better days did
duty for English halfpence, but which had not half
the intrinsic value of English farthings; and to
such an extent have we depreciated the currency
that our paper promises
.to pay five cents (21d.)
are worth no more to the poor man who receives
them in wages than three cents were before the
war. And we, the President of this jumble of an
Administration, are a joker of jokes, of whom no:
body can say more than that "he means well." Is
this rapid recapitulation unjust or unfair ? Does it
express more than the truth, or less ? And if it be
true, as millions of patriotic Americans would con,
fess, what will be the verdict of history upon these
men—placed so high, to fall so low, and only saved
from present disgrace by the extreme tolerance and
good nature of a people who never knew trouble or
difficulty before, and who have not thoroughly
realized to their own minds the immensity of the
task they have undertaken, or the enormity of the
sacrifices they must make, whether they succeed oz
fail.

This state of things is equally intolerable to the
Democrats and to the Republicans. The Democrats
have no influence in the Presidential Councils, for
Mr. Lincoln is not their President. They neither
elected him nor believe in him, and he has not sd
acted during his term of office as to make himself
the President of the nation. The Republicans, who
have him in their keeping, are alarmed at the help-
lessness of their nominee and at the mischievous
antagonisms of his Secretaries ; they have, therefore,
renewed their efforts to overthrow the Administra-
tion. Twenty-six Senators, forming a clear ma-
jority of two-thirds of the " Rump" of a Senate that
now sits in Washington, alarmed at the financial
collapse, which is only a question of time, and
grows unpleasantly near ; alarmed also at the aspect
of military affairs in Tennessee, at Vicksburg, in
Missouri, in Texas, and on the Rappahannock; and
shamed by the humiliations that have everywhere
befallen the Federal cause, have memorialized Mr.
Lincoln to remodel his Ministry. They want a
more vigorous prosecution of the war, and believe
that this result can only be attained by a unani-
mity of purpose in the Councils of the President
which has never existed. Assuming, apparently,
that the President—who ought to be of no party—
is of their party, these 26 Republicans, who all
share the opinions of Mr. Chas. Sumner, their lead-
ing spirit, on the questions of slavery and " exter-
mination," should that alternative become neces-
sary, urge upon him to dismiss his present advisers,
and surround himself exclusively with statesmen
who " are the cordial, resolute, unwavering
involved
enshuipm-
porters of the principles and purposes''
of nine sena-
two a r
mar.roLuitnr.
can/ en by
e Thea
committee Memorial
w hh ao s
havebeenlnd in a
presented
tors, appointed for the purpose,
time to reflect before taking action.
that he may resent this dictation and endeavour
i possible
f:
endeavour to
I loss It is equally
of personalquallypossible that he
may
yain
yield,hs Ministryatwhatever dignity,
and call such men as Generals Fremont, Hunter,
i
and Butler to the command of his armies, and such
men as Mr. Sumner, Mr. Thaddeus Stevens, and
Mr. Owen Lovejoy to his
councils ; but it is still
more possible that Mr. Seward,
against whom the