The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-24 00:00:00

T 7 IE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA,

(From the Correspondent of the Times)
NEW YORK, Oct. 9.
lie position of Gen. Rosencranz at Chattanooga
be. gins to excite alarm. Though a thousand times
de ,ceived by tha reassuring announcements of an
A .dministration which will never admit a failure to
ae national arms until the dead officers are brought
hr Mme for burial and the facts are as patent as the
ai in at noonday, the public was contented to believe

t hat Rosencranz had not been seriously beaten, and
that, all things considered, the Confederates had got
the worst of the Battle of Chicamauga. But all this
is now admitted to be false, even by the shoddy
contractors and the Republican journals; and it is
feared that, if Rosencranz cannot imitate Bragg so
lar as to make a skilful and successful retreat, the
capture of his whale army is not only possible but
extremely probable. No reinforcements have
reached him from any quarter, and Gen. Bragg has
commenced to shell his camp in Chattanooga from
the heights of Lookout Mountain, which commands
the position. The total defeat of the Army of the
Potomac would scarcely cause a greater flutter in
Washington than the retreat or capture of Rosen-

cranz, for in either event the campaign in Tennessee I
will be at an end for this year, and the chances of
Southern recognition by the Powers of Europe very
greatly increased.
It also begins to be admitted, though very reluc-
tantly, that the siege of Charleston must end in
failure. The army under Gen. Gilmore has done its
best arid accomplished nothing. The ironclads and
monit ors, under Admiral Dahlgven, have tried no-
thin g and consequently done nothing, and both
offio ers are understood to have fallen under the dis-
pier .sure of the Government for being in the condi-
riot i of the friend of Sempronius—deserving of sue-
cea s, bat without being able to command it.
The pro•ltussiau furors continues to range una-
bated. The municipality-, in unison with the
s Noddy " aristocracy, are determined that all pos-
sible honours in their power to bestow shall be
showered upon the heads of the Russian officers.
Processions, dinners, balls, serenades—everything
that can administer to the curiosity of the crowd or
the joviality of the male and the frivolity of the
female sex—are to be or have been arranged, to
show how delightful it would be to the Americans
to have a friend in Europe, especially if that friend
were Russia. The study of the Abolitionist, Re-
publican, and Ministerial party, in which all the
worshippers of shoddy are delighted to enrol them-
selves, is how to make the glorification of Russia as
offensive and insulting as may be to the British and
French admirals and officers in the harbour. But in
this design they are likely to be frustrated. The
British and French officers will stand upon their
dignity, and will not consent to play "second
fiddle" in any celebrations that appear to be fes-
tive, but are in reality political. The Russian
sailors swarm up Broadway, their broad Calmuck
features radiant with satisfaction at the pleasure to
be o'atained by a stroll on shore ; but not a British
or French sailor is to be seen, although there are
about 5,000 of them cooped up in the narrow limits
of their respective war ships. The journals in ac-
counting for the fact explain to the credulous Yan-
kees—who are delighted to believe that Europe is
one immense hotbed of antagonistic Kings and Em-
perors—that the remembrances of the war in the
Crimea are so bitter that Russians could not meet
British and French sailors in the street without an
immediate outbreak of angry passion and violent
hostility. The true state of the case is simply this
—the Federal Government is so desperately in want
of seamen whom America itself c tnnot supply, and
who if found in the persons of Irishmen and Ger-

mans are not worth having, that a British or a
French sailor cannot show himself in public with-
out being inveigled to the nearest rum-shop by some
amiable Federal " shark." who after having made
him drunk will offer him the handsome bounty of
700 dols. if he will. desert his ship and take service
in the Federal navy. The temptation of -so large a
sum of ready money is too strong for British or
French virtue, and the men of both fleets are con-
sequently kept to their ships with such extra in-
dulgences in their captivity as may help to reconcile
them to their isolation. Ai it is the object of the
Federal Government to stand well with Russia and
give that Power no cause of offence, the "sharks"
are instructed to leave the Russian sailors alone.
So jealous is the Administration on this point that
a Finlander who was persuaded by a relative in this
city to desert and join the Federal navy was handed
back by the Federal authorities to his captain, to
be dealt with aceordiug to Russian justice. Had
he been Englishman or a Frenchman nothing would
have been said, and all the efforts of the British
and French authorities would have been employed
in vain to discover his whereabouts.

In their intense hatred of England, and their
equally intense jealousy of France, the Americans
forget that the Russian Government is as anxious
for peace between North and South and as much
opposed to the epirit and policy of the war as any
other Po Ner of Europe. They forget that Baron
s toeckl, the Russian Minister in this country, was
instructed a year ago by Prince Gortschakoff to read
to the President and to Mr. Seward a despatch in
Which occurs the following significant passage :
" The struggle which, unhal:pily, has arisen can
neither be indefinitely prolonged, nor lead to the
total destruction of one of the parties. Sooner or
later it will be necessary to come to some settlement,
Whatever it may be, which may cause the divergent
interestsmcr now actually in conflict to coexist. The
Political
wisdom
.would, then, give a proof of high
tiement, befcrenlain seeking in common such a set-
oi
strength
effusion of blood, a barren
squandering
acts of violence and
dneth and of political riches, and
reciprocal reprisals shall have
come to deepen an abyss
between the two parties
of the Confederation, thi
end definitely in their
mutual exhaustion, and the ruin, perhaps irre-
parable, of their commercial
Our august master cannot resign and political power.
himself to admit
l
such deplorable anticipations;'
to believe that the Russian Government ' There is no ground
has changed
its opinions on the American
conflict since this
paragraph was penned ; but it suits purpose of
the Administration for the momentts the
to represent
Russia as its only friend, and even to find a bond of
sympathy in the fact that both the Czar
President are engaged in combating a Yula the
nation, or a
people, in rebellion against their autho •
ray. That
such a reason for a Russian alliance should
favour with any portion of the Americans is not the
least singular of the many anomalies of this e
miser.
able and unnatural conflict.
The war in the Cabinet, so long known to exist
and so freely spoken of,
begins to assume shape.
It has long been known that two antagonistic forces
'
were at work in the Councils of the President, the
one Conservative, the other Destructive; the one
led by Mr. Seward, which desired union above all
things; the other lea by Mr. Chase, which desired
nothing but the abolition of negro slavery, and
;via determined to accomplish it though " the
heavens should crack." The President has swayed
to one or the other, not as circumstances might dic-
tate, but as the superior pressure brought to bear
:Pon him might compel. Unable to control either
section, he was equally unable to dispense with the
s' ea of either leader. The cunning and the ca-
suistry of ~
Ju..
r. Seward—so like his own in substance,
but
to hBionarainucvh superior in form—were indispensable
the solid
bun! management of foreign affairs, while
_ nsainess capacity of Mr. Chase and his dex-
terous
equallywilfteeeramt ent of the rational finances were
collave which
,?,artoj prevent the great commercial
but which would certainly Lincoln knows to be inevitable,
that of
be expedited if any less
skilful hand than
management.
Mr. Chase were just now
to assume the
As Mr. Lincoln's turn
of mind is naturally conservative, atiye, to has clung mere
to Mr. Seward than
Chase, and would have
done so even if ho had found no
I‘otsuch additional rea-
son for his liking as the fact Ir. Seward has
no hopes of and does not labour for
strives to
while Mr. Chase openly and „,torilo,Pr"i`lencY,
that end. While Mr. Lincoln and NI r. Seward
be glad to restore the Union without beaarta' Ncgouhl de
South too comp
without exterminatingnt-
reducing the
people, without effacing State lines or
States to mere provinces and counties, and even with-
out the abolition of negro slavery, Mr. Chase and
his party do not Value such a vvion as that would

be, were it possible to restore it. Upwards of 40

years ago Chief Justice Marshall, of the Supreme
Court, one of the most able and eminent lawyers that

America ever produced, declared no political dreamer
ever had been wild enough to think of breaking down

State lines and compounding the American people

into one mass. But that was in an antediluvian age.

The Sumners, the Wendell Phillipses, the Garrisons,'
the Beechers, the Greeleys, and the Chases were
some of them in the nursery and some at school, and
knew nothing of that Constitution of the Union
which they have since learnt to despise or to
trample upon. Mr. Chase is of the new school, one
of the men who would make men temperate and
religious by Act of Parliament, and who think it
as wicked in the men of the North as in the men of
the South to hold slaves. To compound the
American people into one mass is the dearest object
of the ambition of these dreamy philosophers, To
accomplish that end they would first abolish slavery,
and nest they would abolish the negro. After that
they would abolish the Constitution, State lines,
local Parliaments, and all the liberties of the people,

and construct a great homogeneous despotism, with
an elective Sovereign or President for life, who
should be in everything but named an Emperor.
Into that groove they are sliding. Welded,
cemented, and held together by the strong hand,
they imagine that America would become the first
Power in Christendom, the virtual ruler of the
world, able to reduce Great Britain to the rank of
a third-rate kingdom and to dictate to the whole
of Europe. That is their wild dream, and they are
diligently labouring to realize it.

When President Lincoln said that for him to de-
cree the abolition of slavery was about as absurd as
for the Pope to issue a bull against the comet, Mr.
Seward had possession of him. When he after-
wards proclaimed that all the slaves in the United

States were to be "henceforward and for ever free,"
Mr. Chase had him in keeping. When he maintained
General M.Clelian in command, the mind of Mr.
Seward contolled him. When he dismissed M'Clel-

lan with undeserved ignominy and gross ingrati-
tude, Mr. Chase's principles assumed the mastery.
When he spoke and wrote of the oath he had taken

to ❑phold the Constitution, the thought of Seward

guided his tongue and his pen; but when he assumed
the power, which Congress had no right to delegate
to him, to suspend the operation of the writ of
habeas corpus throughout States which were neither
in insurrection nor in rebellion, the spirit of Chase
was in the ascendant. Of late the influence of Mr.
Seward has so much diminished, and that of Mr.
Chase so much increased in the Cabinet, that the
Conservative members of the Administration have
taken alarm, and one of them, Mr. Blair, the Post-
master-General, has publicly denounced the Radi-
cal, or destructive policy which Mr. Chase repre-
sents, and declared that it must end in the ruin of
the nation if it be longer persisted in. His brother,
General Blair, a member of Congress, not being
trammelled by office, or by the personal decorum
which prohibits one member of the Government
from publicly speaking ill of another, has expressed
himself upon the subject, with a shadow of reserve,
and at a public meeting in the city of St. Louis has
declared that under no circumstances whatever can
the Radical party be allowed to override the rights
of the individual States. "If," he says, " the Go-
vernment of a State can be displaced at the will of
a set of politicans, or otherwise than by the forms
of law, we shall sacrifice our Republican institu-
tions and run down int/ a sort of Mexican Republic,
where Presidents, Judges, &c., are made by pro-
nunciamentos. The people of this State (Missouri)
are not prepared to degrade themselves to this stan-
dard of Government. We are a people who desire
that there shall be stability and dignity in our Go-
vernment. We are a race of people who fight it
out rather than submit. All the men who are en-
deavouring to make our great contest for our national
existence degenerate into a Revolution like that
which afflicted France in the last century,—these
men, who are following in the footsteps of the Jaco-
bins of the French Revolution, who are demanding
the guillotine, who constitute themselves witnesses,
judges, and executioners alike, I tell them to beware.
They will not find a submissive people. They will
find Girondists of a different stamp. Robespierre
will never be allowed to live. Neither Robespierre
nor Denton shall exercise the authority they covet,
to immolate a people who differ from them in
opinions." Some one having hissed the General
when he declared that Mr. Chase was in his heart
as great an enemy of the Union as Mr. Jefferson
D ivis, he said that the hiss was " a good deal like
Mr. Chase himself, a piece of rowdyism and black-
guardism." It is evident from the whole tenour
of the speech that in General Blair's estimation Mr.
Chase is the would-be Robespierre of the hour, and
that the Girondists who now rule will die harder
than their French predecessors.
A. few days will show whether at the present
moment Mr. Lincoln oscillates to the Girondists or
to the Terrorists. The auestion which will test the
fact, and possibly by its solution inaugurate a new
civil war in the remote States of Missouri and
Kansas has been broadly placed before the President
for his immediate decision by a delegation of lawless
patriots and border ruffians from both of those States,
who, finding the usual process of law too slow for
dealing with disturbers of the public peace, propose
to carry on a private war of their own under the
President's sanction. Discontented with the action
of Mr. Gamble, the legally elected Governor of the
State, who aspires to keep the peace between both
sets of ruffians in Missouri by the agency of the
Missouri militia, and with General Schofield, the
Federal officer, appointed by Mr. Lincoln to that
department of the Union, who is impartial enough
to be hated by both factions, they have invaded
Washington, nearly 100 strong, every one ready
with a speech to fire off at the Presidential head.
They have demanded that General Butler should
be appointed to succeed General Schofield, and that
a declaration of martial law in Missouri should
consign Governor Gamble to the retirement of
private life. The President, under the influence of
Mr. Seward, has given the deputation " the cold
shoulder," but promised to write to them as soon
as he shall have made up his mind on the subject.
In the meantime the deputation has waited upon
Mr. Chase, with the certainty of a favourable re-
ception. If Mr. Chase is ever to be President, it
will be by the Western vote, and for that reason
Mr. Chase is particularly solicitous to keep all his
Western friends in good humour. The anticipa-
tions of the deputation were consequently realised.
Re was as cordial as Mr. Lincoln was cool ; and
if Mr. Lincoln do not send General Butler to
end the anarchy of Missouri and Kansas by
the establishment of a despotism, it will be be-
cause he he just now oscillates more closely towards
e
lan
political rival,
of Seward than to that of Chase, and
that be •
office with
is not disinclined to thwart by one and the
same act of laissez faire the dangerous ambition o. f
public danger,
personal comfort,
he can neither retain in
Qlearnaatrelleard
comfort, nor dismiss without
The world has h
de esds so
uor fi , a good deal of the recent
comm). the pro• Slavery scoundrel of
behalf of the lts
who
unauthorised massacres on
Confederate cause, but has not heard
quite so much of the
111111i-slavery scoundrels in
Kansas, as bloodthirsty 11
woyod,s
baesh fiendish as he, who
act with equal atrocity en
o fdrtahwheanFge:legril sis.
One of them, the notorious General or
backwoodsman—who
or Senator Jem
Lane—an illiterate and savage
ainiwtaeallate—ornwothuhoet
slew a neighbour for presuming
civiliselidisregion
of his well, and nevertheless escaped
one of the deputation that has recentl
person ,cowmhpearerastuiveehlya
President and Mr. Chase. But duringtem-
poraryo must be
f theFaebdseerna7:anpti htael
eg-rooes,
q• was left to a kindred • •
as mush out of place as a hyena in a drawl
spirit
in the savage dialect of the
named JerllliSoll, known
the work
and a "jayhawker,”
border as a "bushwhacker"
of murdt, .
but having the ark of a Brigadier-General in the
Federal army. Having, as he says, been commis-
sioned by the President to raise a regiment of Kansas
cavalry—though there is much reason to doubt the
truth of the assertion—this freebooter has just made
a speech to the people of Paoli on the Kansas border
for the purpose of enlisting brigands in his company
(the 15th), in which he uEed the following lan-
guage:—
"Do you suppose I will march into Missouri and
ask them to take the oath ? No, not by a--