The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-17 00:00:00

THE WESTERN STATES.

(From the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
CINCINNATI, OHIO, Sept. 30.
Before I left Louisville, on Saturday last, I was
positively assured that Government had pressed into
the service of the army 500 railroad cars, a rolling
stock adequate to the conveyance of 25,000 troops.
Since I came to Cincinnati, I learnt that several
railway lines had been also secured for exclusively
military purposes. The Government are evidently
, straining every nerve to send large reinforcements
to the army of Rosencranz at Chattanooga. We are
in all probability on the eve of a great conflict in
fast Tennessee ; most people expect to hear of a
general engagement before the end of the week.
The gamblers of the Stock Exchange at New York
have already endeavoured to anticipate events by
announcing the "surrender of Rosencranz" this very
day—an artifice by which they raised gold to 1434.
Meanwhile, the reverse of the Army of the Cum-
berland on the 19th and 20th, however far from deci-
sive, has been sufficiently serious to disturb the
equanimity of the authorities at Washington. The
Government is at a loss for new recruits. Bounties
of 300 and even 400 dole. are temptations held out
in vain. President Lincoln sneered at his adversary
for " driving the Southern conscripts into the ranks
like bullocks into the slaughter-pen ;" but the
taunt has been bitterly retorted upon him' and he
will never hear the last of it. The sinews of war are
broken, owing to the incapacity of
those who had
soldier
marches management of it. The Northern
marches under conviction that he is to fall a victim
to the incapacity of his leader. The patriot who
rushed to the field as a volunteer was disgusted by
contact with the hirelingwho fought by his side ;
the conscript who was pressed into the ranks by the
draught, was indignantat the exemption purchased
by the 300 dole. men, which sent him to the war in one
mass with a pack of venal disreputable substitutes.
The sword girt round the waist of a slave caused
the weapon to drop from the side of the offended
freeman.
All these undignified resources are now
exhausted.
The draught, the substitutes, the en-
rolled militia, the arming of free negroes, the pur-
chase of black slaves to make soldiers of them, all
have been txied, and all to little purpose. The
Northerner& are three to one against the Confede.
rates- These latter are contending no less against
heavy matorial than numerical odds. Yet the North
is at a loss for soldiers, and will get none henceforth,
unless it resorts to conscription in good earnest, and
" drivea its bullocks into the slaughter pen" by
main force.
Earnest Republicans are sadly pat out about it.
Wh at are all these hundreds and thousands of
hulking fellows hanging about billiard-rooms, lager
beer ssloons, and hotel bars for ?" they say. " Be-
hold'. a war meeting is announced, and you hear of
50,000 citizens assembling and breathing fire and
vengeance against rascally rebellion; bat call upon
there,. to fill up the ranks thinned by death, disease,
or desertion, and they are deaf to all entreaty, dead
to all shame." So it is; men are not to be got for
the army for love or money. However popular the
ava r may be with a certain class of politicians, it has
certainly ceased to be so with fighting men. I re-
peat; it is only justice to acquit the youth of the
Northern division of the Union of lukewarmness in
their country's cause. They have answered the first
cell with more than sufficient alacrity. It is the
leant of political and strategical ability on the part
'of their rulers which has damped their spirits, and
worn out their endurance.
While the issues of this great American civil war
are pending on the banks of the Tennessee river, a
no less momentous political contest is about to come
off in this State of Ohio, the results of which will
have na slight weight on the general destinies of the
country. The 12th October has been appointed for
the elf action of the Governor and other State autho-
rities here, and the choice of a head of the State lies
between the Republican, Mr. Brough, and Mr.
Vallandigham, the leader of the Democratic party,
now banished beyond the limits of the American
Union, and living in retirement at Windsor in
Western Canada, opposite to Detroit. That same
12th of October will be election day in Pennsylvania
no less than in Ohio, and the turn of New York will
come in the ensuing November. Yet the tug of war,
it is felt on all sides, is to be seen in this western
region, and it is to Ohio that all the inter-States
look up for a casting vote in this long debate be-
tween parties.
It is on account of the great interest attached to
the Ohio election, that I deem it expedient to tarry
in and about Cincinnati till the great day is over.
I have been hitherto endeavouring to spell out and
define in my mind the various cognizances and de-
nominations by which men in this country descend
into the political arena, and think the time has come
when I may lay before the reader all I fancy I know
upon the subject, not only as to the aims and views
of the different parties, but also as to their relative
strength, their chances of victory or defeat.
The broadest distinction between the political men
of the Northern part of the Dis-United States is
that between " Republicans" or supporters of the
Administration, and " Democrats," or opposition
Then. The former are divided into Conservative or
Moderate Republicans and Radicals, or Black Re-
publicans. The Conservatives are Unionmen at
heart; sticklers for their great country and their
constitution. They think the war should be carried
on to the full restoration of the Union ; they deem
themselves in duty bound to stand by the Govern-
ment so long as it is striving after that primary
and most essential object; but, for the rest, they
do not go with it through thick and thin ; they pro
fees no transcendent admiration for Mr Lincoln and
his Cabinet, disapprove many of their measures, and
think that -many of their decrees and proclamations
should have no greater weight than so much waste
paper. They must have the Union at all price, how-
ever, if possible, with due acknowledgment of State
rights, with due regard to the interests of the South,
-with the least possible violation of the laws and the
constitution, with the least possible prolongation of
this diastrous war—but at any rate, the Union.
p
Men of this stamp are, on principle, abolitionists,
but ready to put down slavery, or to put up with it
as may best be conducive to the interests of the
Union and the pacification of the country,
The Radical Republicans are anti-slavery men
above all things. They talk a great deal about the
Union, but at the top of all their thoughts is the
e, everlasting
Nigger." They are for war to " the bit-
ter end," and shrink from the close of hostilities as
a mad dogdreads and shuns water. They hope by
two or three years' hard fighting to overrun the
whole South, to lay it waste, to break the chains of
the blacks by utter ruin of the whites, to recolonise
the desolated land, to reorganise the culture of the
soil on the principle of free labour.
If this scheme
be feasible they will carry it on so long as the North
has a man or a dollarfor the purpose. Were their
aim unattainable and the South strong enough to
resist all attempts at su they would rather
ac
bj legation
let it go; they would rather
with slaveholders,
Cept the inevitable
separation than come to terms
and be partakers of that
iniquity which, as they
think, has been the disgrace of their
Republic, and
118 now wrought out this terrible war. The men
O• this party are staunch to their Government after
th •
r own fashion. They carp and snarl at and
find fault • h WA it a good deal;
they
urge it on
fretfully, ran excessive
corously ; they damn it for
tenderness and lukewarmness, and intimate to it at
every moment that " whoever is not with them is
against them."
The Democrats are also classified into several sects
and fraternities, according as they are or declare
themselves more or less decided Unionists and peace
men. The only rallying point among the Republi-
cans is the Government. The only subject
on
which the Democrats are truly of one mind is hos-
tility to the Government. They all think that the
war might and should from the beginning have been
avoided ; they charge the Government
with hiving
plunged the country into it by sheer intolerance and
precipitance. A war begun upon flimsy pretences,
and from vain punctilios, they think, is now per-
petuated from mere obstinacy, from craven instinct
of self-preservation, from blind inability to get out
of a scrape. This war is, in their estimation, the
ruin of the
country, physical and moral ruin, politi-
sal and finapeial destruction. They lay upon the
rulers at Washington all its shocking mismanage-
ment, its awful waste of human life, its ruinous ex-

penditure ; they lay to their charge the choice of
inefficient generals, the removal of able leaders, in '
obedience to paltry views cf mean jealou,: cr blind
party predilection. They blame them for ' he disas-
trous state of the national finances, for the reckless
tampering with the currency, by wh ch the country
has been brought to the brink of bankruptcy. They
charge them with the most flagrant abase of powers
with numberless arbitrary arrests, utter disregard
of the most sacred rights of property, gagging of
the press, interference with the right of meeting,
violation of State rights, outrages against the Con-
stitution. They expose them or their subalterns
for flagitious contracts, shameless embezzlement
the public money, every variety of dirtyjmobesntanoclf
dishonest transactions. Whatever may happen to
the country, the first thing, according to the Demo-
crats of every denomination, is to withdraw it from
the power of Abe Lincoln
gaoalnainnsdt
them inchhisassocia by inch
till iThhe
ground must be fought
till the expiration of their term of power, and every
nerve must be strained so as to secure their down-
fall at the next Presidential election.
So far the Democrats agree tolerably well, and,
although a new set has sprung up, who go by the
name of War Democrats, and who are inclining to
the views of the Moderate or Conservative Republi-
cans, it may be taken for granted that, under pre-
sent circumstances, the word Democrat in this part
of America is synonymous with Peace Man; only
there are some ofetaliceesempaey be obtained
ace-men
who think that
the blessings of p
with the preservation of the Union; th e r :IT epoatthi compatibly
who think that the South has seceded past all re-
conciliation, and that all hopes of a restoration of
the old republic must be given up.
It would be vain to look for the utterance of these
opinions in the public press, vain to expect to hear
them broached before a Popular meeting. There is
hardly a man in the whole country who dares to
walk about without a mask, hardly one who does
not seek his safety in a certain amount of reserve
and reticence. No one would dare to speak openly
of the dissolution of the Union. Bat ask privately
some of the Democratic leaders, who, I must con-
fess, command my respect by their character, and
enlist my sympathies in their behalf in preference
to their rabid and ranting radical adversaries. I
ask, what do they propose to do, whenever popu-
lar suffrage lays the supreme power in their
hands—nay, what would they advise and desire,
were any unexpected change to place them at once,
this very day, at the head of affairs? Some of them
declare themselves sincerely and intimately Union-
ists; they protest that nothing would induce them
to renounce the Union; they are peace men ;
they would offer fair terms to the South, meet it
half way; win it by liberal advances; they would
replace matters on the old footing, go back to the
status quo ante bellum, restore State rights in all
their integrity, deny the central power all inter-
ference with matters of mere local interest ; allow
the Southerners as fall an enjoyment of their " pe-
culiar institution" as the original compact on which
the Union was based clearly gave them. "Do you
think any such tender on your part would shake the
stern purpose of the South never again to be recon-
ciled to the North P" I ask again, "Do you think
that the mare fact of the downfall of the present
Administration and of your accession to power
would melt the hearts of your Southern brethren,
and incline them to come to terms and listen to
your plans of a compromise." " Not immediately,
perhaps," is the answer. " The South might per-
severe in its obstinacy, and we might be under the
necessity to fight on ; but we would speedily re-
move all grounds of offence; we would show our
readiness to do full justice; we would propose an
armistice, open negotiations, pave the way for a re-
conciliation, of which the only sine qua non condi-
tion would be the restoration or preservation of the
Union." These are the Unionist peace men ; but
there are are also the separatist peace men, less out-
spoken, more timid, but far more firm and consistent,
and I must say more plausible in their views. These
latter are in great numbers Southerners by their
connections, sympathies, or inclinations ; they are
well conversant with the South, and hold that the
South can no more be propitiated than it can be
overrun or subdued. They feel confident that the
Confederates will either conquer their indepen-
dence or perish to a man. The project of the
subjugation of so vast a continent as the Con-
federacy still occupies strikes them as the most
absurd chimera. The mere thought of such an en-
terprise they set down as a most egregious folly.
As the• Southerners are, in their opinion, invincible,
so are they also implacable. Separation is safer for
them, more conducive to their interests, more in
keeping with their aspirations, than re-union on the
most advantageous terms. On the other hand, were
it even possible to bring them to terms, could it even
be managed to lead back these stray sheep into the
fold, and to soothe their hostile passions by giving
up to them the sore point of negro slavery, is it to
be supposed that peace on such terms could be any
thing but flimsy and hollow ? Were the Southern
alaveowners to acquiesce in the compact, would the
Northern abolitionists equally accede to it ? Can real
solid peace be established where the cause of the war
is not removed? Talk of bringing the sheep back into
the told ! Let the wolf devour it while it is at large,
if he is swift and strong enough for it; but do not
expect the fugitive voluntarily to come back into
his jaws, so long as there are breezy downs and
rocky hills for it to fly to. Separation, in short,
appears to these men no less desirable than it is in-
evitable ; it is the only possible plausible solution
of the great problem; and not by any means less
irresistible because people struggle, and close their
eyes, and harden their hearts against it.
Such being, as far as long contemplation of the
subject enables me to make out, the state of men's
minds in this country with respect to the great crisis
through which it is now passing, it may not be diffi-
cult to forecast the chances of the forthcoming
election for the State of Ohio. Democrats and
Republicans are of course equally confident as to its
results; but there is little doubt that the lat-
ter are far more sanguine and more boast-
fully sure of their game than the former. Ad-
mitting for one moment that the two antago-
nistic parties are as near as possible balanced,
the Republicans would still have all the engines of
power and of Government patronage on their side.
The country at large is weary of the war, doubtless,
and the lower classes, upon whom mainly fall the
tribute of blood, are out of sorts and mutinous, and
flatly refuse to "be driven like bullocks into the
slaughter pen." But among the well-to-do classes,
especially ingains, the
the
cities, the war has been the source of
enormoussignal fer the rise of prodigious
fortunes. The State of Ohio, like all other Western
States, as I hope
to be able to prove in another let-
ter, has suffered and is
beenlion lion's share
grievously—it is
paying with its best bloodthareeeiznptehnespeseoopfleth,sesprou :Ins•
.
ous war. But Cinei -
The few who
have
Imatl, Cleveland, and other
towns have had the
enriched by the spoliation
n eo
obj
of the many see
ectem to the
even perpetuation, of the
war , - prolongation, or
this great calamity are not the real gainers by
de-
pendants are legion, and lurnerous, but their
Half a dozen stump orators, aeir means extensive.
principled papers are easily couple of ranting, uns
lead the vast multitude wherever and these
Union is an idol, exercising a
prestiger they list. The
u over the
mass of Americans, which seems great
to
all reasoning powers, making them deafeprive them of
to all argu-
ments, blind to all interests. The Government is for
Union. All opposition is sheer secessionism, rank
copperhead treason, criminal disloyalty.
Were the election conducted agreeably to f •
air play
however, itis possible that
principles, the upshot
considered doubtful. The checkof Rosen_might be
the frontier of Georgia, the forced inaction
cram on
of Gilmore at
Charleston, the ill success of the Fede-
-s and Texas, have greatly sobered
nil arms in Arkansa
down some of the most furious Republicans; the
invasion of the various Southern region seems even
to them every day a less practicable undertaking;
the war which Mr. Seward promised
three months will certainly stretch far beyond the
limits of the third year; there
reason why it
to conclude in
is no
may not reach the thirtieth. The beginning
of the
end is no nearer than at the outset, and men are not
forthcoming to fill the ranks, and gold is up at
1481,
are and the pecuniary resources of the country
Waxing lower and lower. Discontent, vague
and unspoken, is creeping among the lower orders,