The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-31 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.

(iron the limes' Correspondent.)
NEW YORK, Jan. 16.

The Ministerial crisis turns upon finance, and not
upon the imbecilities of the War Department. The
journals, with one single exception, take no notice
of the memorial of the 26 Republican Senators to
Mr. Lincoln, and in private society opinions are
divided on the question whether the memorial be
really a new one, as asserted, or whether it is not a
revival of the hitherto unpublished "round robin"
which irnmediatelyafter the battle of Fredericksburg
led to the resignation of Mr. Seward and Mr. Chase.
But gold, true to its commercial instincts, unmis-
takeably points to a crisis in the affairs of a nation,
which the Republican Senators can neither provoke
nor govern. The premium reached yesterday the
Ligh figure of, 50 per cent., and oscillated to day
between 461 to 471. In other words, the paper
dollor of Mr. Chase represented yesterday but one-
half of its nominal value in the markets of the
world, and to-morrow will perhaps represent a still
smaller fraction. Every man of business in the
country is alarmed. Every labouring man is discon-
tented. Congress alone remains cheerful, if not
joyous, and " sets a stout heart to a steep hill." Mr-
Chase. last week required 50 millions to pay the
arrears due to the un-victorious and long-suffering
army of the North, and Congress, as if it had sense
enough to know that in a currency so seriously de-
preciated the amount would not be sufficient with
which to meet the wants and necessities of the sol-
diery, voted him, unasked, the sum of 100 millions.
In the same manner 10 millions had been set down
as the price to be paid for the emancipation of the
slaves in the quasi-loyal and quasi-rebellious State
of Missouri, and Congress generously, and without
Ministerial prompting, increased the amount to 20
millions. It ,is no wonder that under such cir-
cumstances every one foresees both a financial
and a Ministerial crisis. It is bad enough
that Murfreesborough should be a barren
victory; that Vicksburg should be a humi-
liating defeat; that the South should gradually ac-
quire a fleet at Northern expense; that every ray of
hope for the speedy return of peace should grow
dark and disappear; but that a mad Congress should
aid an imbecile Administration to pile up a mountain
of debt by such appropriations as that for emanci-
pation in Missouri fills people with disgust or de-
spair.

Mr. R. J. Walker, who occupied with great abi-
lity, under President Polk, the post of Secretary of
the Treasury, and who is already designated by
public opinion as the probable successor of Mr.
Chase, has taken pen in hand to describe the dan-
gers whieh should be foreseen. Writing before the
recent rise in the premium on gold—and when that
unerring barometer oily pointed to the compara-
tively safe figure of 32 per cent., he said, in an ar-
ticle published yesterday :

" Our national finances are involved in extreme peril.
Our public debt exceeds 720,000,000 dols,, and is estimated
by the Secretary of the Treasury, on the Ist July next, at
1,122,297,403 dols., and on the Ist of July, 1864, at
1,744,685,586 dols. When we reflect that this is nearly one-
half the debt of England, and bearing almost double the
rate of interest, it is clear that we are approaching a fatal
catastrophe. Nor is this the most alarming symptom.
Gold now commands a premium of 32 per cent., as com-
pared with legal tender Treasury notes, and with largely
augmented issues must rise much higher, with a corres-
ponding increase of our debt and expenditure. Indeed,
should the war continue, and there be no other alternative
than additional Treasury notes, they will, before the close
of the next fiscsl year, fail to command 40 cents on the
dollar in gold, and our debt exceed several millions of
dollars. This would result from an immense redundancy
and depreciation of currency, and from the alarm created
here and in Europe as to the maintenance of the Union and
the ultimate solvency of the Government. Indeed, our
enemies, at home and abroad, the rebels, and their allies in
the North and in Europe, already announce impending na.
tional bankruptcy and repudiation, and there are many de.
voted patriots who fear such a catastrophe. That the
danger is imminent is a truth which must not be disguised.
Here lies the great peril of the Government; It is not the
rebel armies that can ever overthrow the Union. It is the
alarming increase of the public debt and expenditure, and
the still more appalling depreciation of the national cur-
rency, that most imperil the great Republic. . . . We
are upon the verge of ruin. We are hanging over the gulf
of an irredeemable paper system, and its spectral shade, re-
pudiation, is seen dimly in the dark abyss. The present
Congress may save us ; but what of the next ? Would
they, if they could ? Who can answer ? Can they, if they
would ? No I no I It will then be too late."

And what remedy does this clear-sighted states-
man propose for the evil ? A diminution of the
alarming expenditure ? No! A compromise with
the South ? No ! Peace, on any terms consistent
with honour and fraternity ! No! With the
gaseous wordiness which the Americans call " high
falutin," he says, "Let no man talk of a separation
of the Union in any contingency. Let none speak
of peace or compromise with armed treason. Let
none think of constructing separate nationalities
out of the broken, bleeding fragments of a dismem-
bered Union. No ! far better that our wrecked and
blasted Earth should swing from its orbit, disinte-
grate into its original atoms, and its place remain
for ever vacant in the Universe." Such a sentence
as this ought,of itself to be sufficient to dispose of
all chance of a Ministerial portfolio for the utterer,
who, it may be remarked, is the eatne florid and
sanguine gentleman who predicted four years ago
"that in 20 years New York would become the
political, literary, social, and financial centre of
the universe." When the public having had its
laugh in spite of its misery, begins to inquire what
is really the remedy which Mr. Walker proposes,
and learns that it is nothing more than a project
for the annihilation of all the State Banks in
the Union, which have done nothing to inflate the
currency and produce the mischief which he deplores,
and the establishment upon their ruins of a single
National Bank of Issue, it may well despair of any
other result of its present and prospective troubles
than "that spectral shade Repudiation seen dimly
in the dark abyss" of national bankruptcy, the por-
trait of which the ex-Secretary has drawn with so
bold a hand and with such Rembrandt-like effects.
Though Mr. Walker does not directly advocate the
repudiation, which he believes to be possible, it is
clear from the whole tenor of his argument, that he
would prefer the restoration of the Union, with re-
pudiation, to the severance of the Union, without
repudiation. If he would really " wreck and blast"
the whole earth rather than acknowledge the inde-
pendence of the South—he would of course, "wreck
and blast" the credit and good name of the nation
—a much easier achievement—rather than forego
his darling idea of one United Republic instead of
two. It is not of men of this mental calibre that
either statesmen or financiers can be made, and if
the North possesses no better guide than he its po-
sition is indeed hopeless ; and all the difficulties aad
dangers which it has undergone are but the faint
premonitory symptoms of the mightiest catastrophe
of our time.

The whole controversy between the South and
North is embodied in the oratorical passage-at-arms
which took place the day before yesterday in the
ih"o of Representatives between Mr. Clement L.
Vallindighara end Mr. Bingham, both of Ohio. Mr.
Vallaudieham spoke ostensibly for the Democratic
party of the North, but in reality for the South,
while Mr. Bingh
am, his colleague, spoke for the
Puritans, the Exterminators and all he residuum of
who see
the Northern peopleno way out of the war
except such as the sword can carve. Mr. Vallandig-
him expressed his belief that reunion was possible
upon certain conditions. But when he proceeded to
lay down those conditions it became as evident to his
listeners, as perhaps it was previously evident to him-
self, that they were utterly impossible for the North
to accept, unless upon the supposition that it had
lost all spirit, bravery, dignity, and sense of honour.
" There is,":-aid he, " no cause of controversy except
slavery. The agitation of that subject as a political
element must cease. We must return to the old Con-
stitution and basis of 50 years ago. There must be
a speedy and ready return of all fugitive slaves, and
liberty fur the transit and temporary sojourn of
masters with their slaves in the Free States. This
is the price of the Uuion, and whoever is not willing
to pay it must finally declare for separation and dis-
union. We must stop lighting and agree to an ar-
mistice. There need be no formal treaty. Let us
withdraw our forces from the seceded States. Let
both sides reduce their armies to a peace establish-
ment. Let us then declare absolute free trade be-
tween North and South, and agree upon a Zollverein ,

Let us recall our fleets and break up our blockade.
Let us reduce the navy, restore travel, and open up
the railways. Let slavery alone, and choose a new
President in 1864." If these and sundry other im-
possibilities were not agreed upon, he "saw nothing
before the country but " revolution and anarchy."
He might have added, but perhaps forbore out of
regard td the prejudices of the House of which he
is a member, or because he did not choose to hazard
too daring an expression of treason," that there
was one other way of preventing the revolution and
anarchy he foresaw, which was simply the acknow-
ledgement of the independence of the South, with-
out further bloodshed. And this was doubtless what
he meant. Mr. Bingham, on the other side, saw
the point at once; and replied that the only means
by which the Union could be maintained was by
force of arms. He would grant nothing to the
" rebels." " The millions of people from the rock-
bound coast of the North to the golden gates of the
Pacific were not prepared to lay their faces in the
dust, and cry Unclean ! unclean !'" Mr. Wright,
a Republican, from Pennsylvania, supported Mr.
Bingham. He said,
Theidea of laying down arms
was monstrous. The men who stood up for the
war were dear to their country, and their names
would live for ever. These men have the power
and the courage, and will put down the rebellion,
in spite of the infernal devils' of the South, who
are attempting to slay the North and destroy the
best Government ever made by God or man." And
so the matter ended ; a matter of no importance in
itself, because it led and could lead to nothing; but
sufficiently interesting to show into what an impasse
both parties have thrust themselves. They cannot
go back. They cannot go forward. They cannot
stand still. All they can do is to break down the
wall which bars their passage, that wall being the
Union and the Constitution, which they both affect
to revere, but which they both detest for standing
in the way of their ulterior purposes.
The leaders of the Northern Democracy know
that there is no hope for the restoration of the
Union. They are convinced that, whatever amount
of humiliation they might be content to undergo, or
however many the pecks or chaldrons of dirt they
might eat for its sake, would be incurred and
swallowed in vain. It is doubtful, however, whether
the rank and file of their party are equally well in-
formed, and whether the majority do not still cling
to the delusion that all the past may be forgiven and
the Union re-established, under the Presidency of
Mr. Jefferson Davis, with a revised Constitution
that shall leave New England " out in the cold,"
and declare the political agitation of the slavery
question to be treasonable. The Southern President
and press do their best to undeceive these enthu-
siasts. " Our cause," said Mr. Jefferson Davis, on
the 3d inst., at Raleigh, in North Carolina, " is
above all personal and political considerations. The
new year finds us victorious at every point. Let us
all lock shields and stand together, and in the end
you will enjoy an amount of prosperity which you
never could attain connected with the Yankee
nation of extortioners." The _Richmond Dispatch
declares that " if the whole Yankee race should fal
down in the dust to-morrow, and beg of us to be
their masters, we would spurn them as slaves, We
are fighting for separation ; and we will have it.
The Yankees are fools enough to believe that a ma-
jority of the people of the Confederacy are in favour
of re-union. Let them be satisfied that President
Davis expressed the sentiments of the entire Con-
federacy when he said in his speech the other night
that our people would sooner unite with a nation
of hyaenas than with the detestable and detested
Yankee nation. Anything but that. English
colonization—French vassalage—Russian serfdom,
—each or all would be preferable to any further
association with Yankees."

The Northern and North-Western people are gra-
' dually beginning to understand the real state of the
case. In the Senate of the Legislature of New
Jersey Mr. Holman has introduced a series of
peace resolutions, proposing an armistice for six
months, and on the second Monday of the third
month the election of delegates from all the States
to a National Convention, to meet at Lexington,
in Kentucky. The Governor, the Legislature, and
the people of New Jersey are all in accord in dis-
approval of the war and the conduct of the ad-
ministration. The Governor's Message, which is
to be delivered on the 20th inst., is expected to
take stronger ground against the administration than
Mr. Seymour ventured to take in New York, if
not to support in spirit and in substance the peace
propositions of Senator Holman. Another note-
worthy circumstance in the public sentiment of
New Jersey is that it has just sent a new senator to
Congress in the person of Colonel J. W. Wall,
arbitrarily and illegally sent to Fort Lafayette
for alleged treason by Mr. Simon Cameron, then
Secretary of War. Mr. Simon Cameron himself
has been simultaneously rejected for the same
honour by the State of Pennsylvania. It would
be difficult to find two stronger proofs of
the steady reaction of the public feeling than these
two. In Mr. Lincoln's own little town or village
of Springfield, in Illinois, the reaction is as great as
elswhere, though, as he only reads one newspaper,
he may not be aware of it. At a meeting convened
iu that plum last week Judge Mulveny declared
that he "favoured the idea of an armistice and a
national convention. He thought that the sooner
the war stopped the better, and believed that the
longer it lasted the more hopeless became the recto•
ration of the Union." The Hon. 0. Ficklin, another
speaker, was also in favour of a national conven-
tion, while a third, a Col. Lyle Dickey, of the
Federal army, who addressed the meeting in his
military uniform, said that the news of the Presi-
dent's proclamation of emancipation " came to him
on the battle field ; and that nothing ever caused
such a shudder to come over him." And not only
in the obscure country town from which Mr. Lin-
coln was unfortunately called to preside over the
destinies of a great nation were such sentiments
uttered, but in the Legislature of Illinois itself—a
State that is believed to have sent more native-born
Americans to the war than either New York or New
England. Illinois, it should be remembered, though
opposed to negro slavery, is quite as bitterly opposed
to the negro himself, and will allow none of the
race and colour to settle within its boundaries. Mr.
Wenger, one of the representatives of that State,
introduced last week the following resolution :
" Resolves, by the people of the State of Illinois, through
our representatives, that we are in favour of an immediate
suspension of hostilities, and commend the holding of a
National Convention for an amicable settlement of our
difficulties."

Mr..O'Brien, another representative, introduced
two resolutions still more hostile to the Federal
Administration :

Resolved,—That the Administration has broken its
faith, violated its repeateadgloestdges, deceived the people,
oos.
Isibility
betrayed the army, and
restoration of the Union a hopelessacceeded in making the
Resolved,—Thatlthe proclamations of
Abraham Lin-
coln, of Sept. 22, 1862, and of Jan. 1, 186'
P
give freedom to the slaves of the Southern States,osing op
to
the
said Ist day of Jan., 1863, are alike unconstitutional
contrary to the rule of civilised warfare, calculated ia
to bringid
shame, disgrace, and eternal infamy upon the hitherto 1
n..
sullied flag of the Republic, and that Illinois, ever ready
and willing to do battle for the Union and the Constitution,
will protest against any war which has for its object the
execution and enforcement of said proclamation."
All these resolutions have been referred to the
Committee on Federal Relations. The mere fact of
their introduction, whatever may be their fate,
shows the turn of opinion. Mr. Jefferson Davis
calculated upon the time when the great North-
West would grow weary of the war, and restiff at
the stoppage of the Mississippi. The time seems to
have come, if such facts as these can be considered
as the straws which truly show the direction of the
current.

The truth concerning the unhappy army of
the Potomac has been gradually oozing out.
Your readers were informed some weeks ago
that it was greatly discouraged and demoralized ;
that desertions were numerous and frequent, and
sometimes took place by whole companies, if not
regiments, at a time; and that, in faci, it was
rapidly melting away. To have published the facts
in New York at the time when they were trans-
mitted to London would not have been permitted
by the Government. And, even if
they had been
made known, they would have been denied. Now,
o ttoomuareg e
shouldupon
however, they begin to be notorious; General Hal-
leekthe President pirsesthat reported to
the
evea
rgmoyn fareostothe p
as