The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-26 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.

(From the Times' Correspondent.)
NEW YORK, June 12.
"All is progressing favourably at Vicksburg."
"General Grant has no fears for the result of his
operations." " The President is in excellent spirits."

"Influential members of the Government are of
opinion that at no time since the commencement of
the war did things look so favourably for the Union
cause as now." " General Hooker will speedily make
an important movement." " Charleston will be cap-
tured before the Ist of July." Such are but a few
of the sanguine announcements that are daily made
by the Northern press to keep up the courage of the
people, and lead them to expect victories which
Northern generals are unable to achieve. But
whenever the President is represented to be in un-
usually good spirits, and whenever the " backbone"
of the Rebellion is declared to be within an inch of
being broken, the very cautious and prudent people
who speculate in stocks and gold make up their
minds that something wrong has happened—and
act accordingly, It is at such times more than any
other, that the money-market is perturbed, and
Mr. Stanton and the military censors of the tele-
graph add to the perturbation by refusing to sanc-
tion the promulgation of such news from the seat
of war as is in their own possession, and which it
would be important to the public to know at the
earliest moment. Such has been the case during
the whole of the week. The perverse multitude,
told to expect good tidings, has obstinately ex-
pected evil; and the town has swarmed with
rumours of every kind of calamity to the armies of
the Republic, both on the Mississippi and in
Virginia. Amid the multitude of such reports—
launched one hour and discredited the next—it
appears from a variety of corroborative evidence
coming in from all quarters that the army of Gen.
Lee, fully a hundred thousand strong, supported by
an immense cavalry force under Gen. J. E. B. Stuart,
is on the move towards Winchester and Harper's
Ferry. The greatest alarm prevails in Pennsylvania
and Washington, and it may perhaps be added with-
out much or any perversion of the exact and strict
, fact, that equal hope prevails in Maryland and Bal-
timore that the Confederate generals will make a
successful foray, and that not only Baltimore and
Washington, but Philadelphia are in danger of ex-
periencing some of the miseries as well as the pomp
and circumstances of war. The Governor of Penn-
sylvania has issued a proclamation, calling upon the
people to organise a sufficient force to repel inva-
sion ; and Gen. Conch, who has been assigned by

the Federal Government to the command of a new
military department, with its head-quarters at
Chambersburg, has called out for the defence of the
State all ablebodied male citizens between the ages
of 18 and GO, to be organised into regiments of ca-
valry, infantry, and artillery. This measure shows
how imminent the Government considers tae danger
to be, and what stringent and rapid tnessnres they
deem necessary to confront it. The encounter be-
tween the large body of Federal Cavalry under Gen.
Buford, despatched by Gen. Hooker to surprise Gen.
Stuart, reported to be at the head of at least 12,000
well-tiained Confederate horsemen, has served no
other purpose than to prove the strength of this
arm of the Confederate service, and to delay for a
day or two the departure of that dashing and hi-
therto successful cavalier into the rich and as yet
untroubled granaries of the prosperous State of
Pennsylvania. Whatever direction he may take,

it is certain that stirring achievements on the one
side or the other will mark his progress ; and that
a" raid" on a scale of suers magnitude will take
rank among the most romantic, if non among the
decisive events of the war.

No one is surprised at the enthusiasm and unani-
mity of the great Democratic Convention at Colum-
bus, in Ohio, by which Mr. Vallandigham was
nominated without a dissentient whisper as the
Democratic candidate for the Governorship of Ohio.
Blundering General Burnside and equally blunder-
ing Mr. Lincoln have, by their unwise persecution,
converted the most eloquent and fearless opponent
of their policy into the most prominent and power•
ful man in the West, and brought the question of
State rights and Federal assumptions to a practical
issue, of which it is not easy to overrate the im-
portance in the future history of the North. If any
Republican candidate should be nominated in oppo-
sition to Mr. Vallandigham, the smallness of his
minority will only serve to bring into greater relief
the popularity of the Democratic candidate and the
determination of the Western Democrats, whatever
may be their opinions upon the policy or the con-
duct of the war, to suffer no infringement upon the
right of free speech and free printing within their
boundaries. Almost as significant as the nomina-
-1 tion of Mr. Vallandigham for Governor was that of
Mr. Puga, an ex-member of Congress, for Lieut.-
Governor. Mr. Pugh had no intention of becoming
a candidate, but he made a speech so thoroughly in
unison with the feelings of the immense assemblage
that he was unanimously nominated for the office,
and somewhat reluctantly consented to stand. " We
cannot," said Mr. P igh, " agree on terms of
peace or anything else unless we have freedom of
discussion. We cannot undertake to decide for
peace or war until we can achieve our own liber-
ties. When the military power tells me or Mr.
Vallandigham that we cannot speak, it is a farce
to speak of a free Government. A man can die
but once, and it is glorious to pay the penalty of
life in defence of liberty. I spurn Burnside's
Order No. 38. I trample it under foot. Come
what will—imprisonment, exile, or death—l defy
the military power and its minions." Upon the
strength of these and other expressions, Mr. Pugh
was nominated. Upon the strength of them he will
assuredly be elected, even if the Government be mad
enough in his case to repeat the error committed in
that of Mr. Vallandigham. Should the Governor
himself be unable to make his way to New York or
Canada, or otherwise escape from Northern territory,
upon Mr. Pugh, as Lieutenant-Governor, will.de-
volve all the duties of chief magistrate of the Sove-
reign State of Ohio, and commander of its Militia.
Should any conflict of jurisdiction occur, he may
have it in his power to mete out to Gen. Burnside
the measure meted out to Mr. Vallandigham, and to
commence a very startling chapter in the great book
of American liberty. Will Mr. Lincoln under the
circumstances annul the sentence upon Mr. Vallan-
digham, and allow him to go home ? Yes ; if he be
ordinarily wise and prudent—but not otherwise.
It is not often that anything is heard of the pr,

vat opinions—or what may be called the "inner
life"—of the President—unless the workings of that
simple but singular mind may be traced through
the application of the last well-worn story, or the
fresher Western joke that he has narrated, to point
the moral of public events or rid himself of an im-
pertinent or importunate questioner. A few facts,
however, were divulged yesterday in the Church of
the Puritans, and to-day in a statement published
for the behoof of the Germans of the State of Mis-
souri, that throw considerable light upon the
present aspect of affairs, and upon Mr. Lincoln's
personal share in the perplexities of the hour. At
the meeting at Dr. Cheever's church, held on Thurs-
day, to take measures for advancing the enlistment
of an army of 10,000 neg,roes, to be commanded by