The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-29 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.

(From the Times' Correspondent.)
NEW Yordi, June 17.

The whole North is in a tumult of excitement,

and, it may be added, of fear. Although for the
last three weeks the indications have been many, as
the readers of this correspondence will admit, that
the Confederates were preparing for a great aggres-
sive movement into Maryland and Pennsylvania,
the people and the Government of the North seem
to have anticipated no danger, and to have taken
no measures to avert or diminish it. The alarming
hints and rumours in the press were treated as
fabrications, and the War Department at Washing-
ton took especial care to inform the easy-going
public that Mr. Lincoln was in the best possible
spirits, that all was quiet on the Rappahannock,
and that Vicksburg and Port Hudson could not
resist for many hours the murderous fire of the
besiegers. People invested their " greenbacks" in
" five-twenty bonds,' the premium on gold went
steadily, though slowly, down, and public attention,
when not engaged in stock jobbing or other forms
of honest or dishonest money-making, fastened itself
upon the antics of Generalsßurnside and Hascall,the
last new truculency of some reverend war Christian
in his desecrated pulpit, or the freshest little bit of
presumptuous insolence that had fallen from the
lips of a politician in petticoats. But on Sunday
last the aspect of affairs was suddenly changed.
Indifference gave way to alarm ; and from that day
to this a sucession of true and false reports of the
progress of the invasion of Pennsylvania, under
Generals Ewell and J. E. B. Stuart, at the head
of 20,000 horsemen ; and of General Lee, at the
head of 80,000 or 90,000 infantry, cavalry, and
artillery, to some point not known, the possession
of which will endanger both Washington and Balti-
more, have kept the population of this city and of
all the wide extent of country between the Hud-
son and the Potomac in a state of shame, be-
wilderment, anxiety, and terror. The feeling of
shame is, perhaps, paramount above all the rest.
Almost every one sees that if Lee gain a decisive
victory over Hooker, which he is very likely to do,
the cause of the North is virtually lost, and the Conf-
ederate general will be able to dictate the terms of the
peace for which the Northern heart has begun to
experience so decided a yearning. That the Northern
soil should be invaded by a veteran and determined
army, led by a skilful and daring general, at a time
when the Northern people believed that the South
would never do more than defend itself; and that it
should be necessary, in default of the regular army,
to call out the whole able-bodied male population of
a great, wealthy, and hitherto peaceful State for the
defence of its towns, cities, and homesteads, and to
appeal to all the contiguous States for every avail-
able militiaman, volunteer, or discharged soldier
who could be got together for love or money, to aid
in the work of defence, is felt to be a humiliation,
not due so much to the audacity of the Southern as
to the imbecility of the Northern Government, Mr.
Lincoln has appealed in the emergency to the Go-
vernors of the States of Pennsylvania, Now York,
Maryland, West Virginia, and Ohio for 120,000
men. The Governors have all promised to do their
best, though the Militia in this State have not ex-
hibited as much alacrity in answering to the appeal
as was anticipated from their patriotism, or as
the danger would warrant, dscliaing to leave
their homes and businesses for au indefinite period,
and requiring the Government to state positively
how many " days" is meant by the " short time" for
which they are summoned before they will con-
sent to take their departure. For some reason, not
stated, Mr. Lincoln made no call upon the Demo-
cratic State and ultra-Democratic Governor of New
Jersey for any assistance, but Governor Curtin,
of Pennsylvania, supplied the omission in an
earnest appeal to Governor Parker for all the men
he could spare. Neither did Mr. Lincoln call upon
any of the New England States for help, but Go-
vernor Andrew, of Massachusetts, volunteered to
send as many regiments of returned soldiers as could
he induced, with or without bounty, to lend their
aid to Pennsylvania. But, notwithstanding all the
zeal and all the alarm, little has yet been done.
Up to this day not 3,000 men from New York, New
Jersey, or New England, have repaired to the scene
of danger, and the defence of Pennsylvania rests
entirely with its own citizens. How Mr. Lincoln, or
any member of his Administration, can hope to es-
cape impeachment and punishment, should any
great mishap befall the State of Pennslyvania on the
one hand, or the army of General Hooker on the
other, is difficult to imagine. He was empowered by
Congress, more than three months ago, to raise any
amount of armies ho pleased by a compulsory con-
scription of all the ablebodied men in the North be-
tween the ages of 18 and 45, and, though he knew
that his existing armies were melting away by
death, disease, desertion, and the expiration of the
terms of enlistments of the best and hardiest sol-
diers that composed them, he allowed these precious
months to pass over without carrying the intentions
of Congress into effect. The enrolment has scarcely
begun in some of the States, and the 120,000 men
now so suddenly called for will not possess the
soldierly qualities and strict discipline that will
fit them to cope with the weather-beaten and
trained warriors of the South, even if they should
be obtained in sufficient time to be brought into
action, which is doubtful. Half of that number
of trained soldiers, which Mr. Lincoln might have
secured by this time, had he not been apprehensive
of a forcible resistance to the draught in the
cities of the North and the rural towns of the
West, would have stood his Government in greater
stead at this moment than all the raw and hasty
levies that he can summon together. But, if his
country do not impeach him, history will ; and all
the excuse to be made for him will resolve itself
into the single statement that he was a 'weak man
with good intentions, utterly unfitted for the posi-
tion into which a fatality, as cruel to himself, as to
his country, thrust him at a time of the greatest
peril that ever befell a nation.
The alarm which was at its height yesterday in
Washington, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New
York has partially subsided to-day in this city, and
has given place to something like a feeling of in-
jured innocence that the South should be so unrea-
sonable as to wish to inflict as well as bear the
miseries of war-. The Northern people do not ap-
pear to have calculated that they were ever to be
made to realise the full horrors of an invasion, or
he made to suffer the agonies of devastated fields,
blazing cities, and the whistling of shot and shell
through their streets and counting-houses ; but the
imminent danger of Philadelphia, only three hours
distant by railway from New York, has awakened
them to a painful appreciation of the fact that war
is not only 9, matter of fat contracts, flourishing
trade, abundant paper money, immense expendi-
ture, and triumphal
:ea.
welcome of returning soldiers ;
but of blood and lm ut th, fire and ruin, the greatest
scourge that can humanity—only to be con-
sidered just,
holy, or even defensible
when waged
in the cause of national honour, independence, and
liberty, and particularly °mons
and detestable when
waged for the purposes of „ela
an ambition territo-
rial aggrandisement, and unjust coaroio ' -
n of a people
who only desire to be let alone to their own laws
and observances and the form of government thats
suits their temperament, their climate, their habits,
and their necessities.
Amid the mass of rumours and reports that arrive
by telegraph every half hour from
all points of the
extensive regions invaded by the
e Confederate army
it is difficult to arrive at a definite understanding of
the state of affairs at any time since the invasion
commenced. All that is clear that the Confede-
rate cavalry, commanded by Gen. Ewell, and num-
bering, it is supposed, fully 20,000 men, with a train
of light artillery, have entered Pennsylvania and
galloped unimpeded as far as Chsmbersburg ; that
the advance guard at' this imposing force is led by
the gallant Gen. J. E. B. Stuart; that they threaten
Harrisburg, the State capital of Pennsylvania, a
small town on the Susquehannah; and that the
people and military authorities of the State, greatly
alarmed, have resolved to destroy all the bridges
over the river, and make the Susquehannah their
lice of defence until the reinforcements to be sent
to them by Mr. Lincoln shall arrive. Where Gen.
Lee is and what are his objects no one can tell,
though a thousand statements and theories are cur-
rent, each supported by more or less plausibility.

Where Gen. Hooker is, and what is his strength or
the amount of confidence reposed in him by his men,
are equally unknown ; but that Hooker is as been
outgeneralled by Lee—that he is greatly in Lee's
rear, and that he is in far inferior force, are suppo-
sitions, if not facts, that are present to he minds of
most people, together with the suspiCion that the
cavalry raid of Ewell and Stuart into Pennsylvania
is but a small and comparatively unimportant episode
in the great drama which has commenced for the
world's wonder; and that at the opportune moment,
when he finds him in some place to which he wishes
to decoy him, Lee will fall upon Hooker with over-
whelming force, and either annihilate the Army
of the Potomac or force it to surrender. In this
case exeunt President Lincoln, Mr. Seward, Gene-
ral Halleck, and Mr. Stanton, as well as General
Hooker, and the curtain will fail on the first or
second act, w hichever it maybe, of one of the greatest
historical dramas ever performed on the stage of
civilisation.

Though all other topics sink into insignificance
compared with the impending struggle which pro-
mises to decide the fate of North and South, the
question of Northern liberty in Mr. Lincoln's hands
is too important to be ignored ; even amid the clash
of arms it arrests the attention alike of the supporters
and opponents of his Government. In reply to the
resolutions passed at a meeting of the Demoratic
party at Albany, held on the 16th ult., to condemn
the conduct of Gen. Burnside in the case of Mr.
Vallandigham, a copy of which was ordered to be
forwarded to Washington, the President has indited
a long and elaborate epistle, in which he sets forth
his own view of his position, duty, and responsi-
bility with regard to the suspension of the habeas
corpus, and those other measures which the Demo-
cratic party and the great majority of the American
people consider both unconstitutional and unneces-
sary. Mr. Lincoln says he regretted when Gen.
Burnside deemed it his duty to arrest Mr. Vallan-
digham, and that it will give him great pleasure to
discharge that gentleman " as soon as tie can by any
means be brought to believe that the public safety
will not suffer by it ; " bat re-affirms his own right
to act as he has done, and that of his subordinates
in military command, such as Gen. Burnside and
others, to take such measures as they may judge
expedient within their several departments for
the suppression of the rebellion. The President
does not seem to perceive the difference between
the action of a General in a State or depart-
ment in open rebellion—or that has been declared
subject to martial law—and that of a General in
a loyal and peaceable State, not placed under the
cperation of martial-law, and the civil courts of
which are in full session and competent to deal with
every possible case of offence that may arise. Bat
this, unluckily for his argument and the special
pleading by which he supports it, is the real and
only point at issue. If Mr. Vallandigham had
gone into the camp of General Hooker at Falmouth
or General Rosencrans at Murfreesborough, and
used in the presence of the soldiers the identical
language which he used at a peaceable meeting of
citizens in Ohio, General Hooker or General Rose-
wens would have been justified in bringing him to
immediate trial b::fere a court-martial, and sentenc-
ing him to the Dry Tortugas or Fort Lafayette, or
even to summary execution. But in Ohio, which
is not a camp, and in a peaceful little town, 300 or
400 miles distant from an armed enemy, Mr. Val-
landighem had as much right to speak in favour of
peace as Mr. Lincoln has to write in favour of war ;
and, if he committed any offence iu so doing, ought
to have been tried by the civil power and by a
jury of his countrymen. Mr. Lincoln, however, to
use an American phrase—" does not see it." He
has had an imperfect conception of the c:rcum-
stances and an inordinate idea of his own power and
prerogative, and shows in every eentence of his
voluminous letter that nature has gifted him with
every qualification for the part of a despot except
that of genius. One portion of his defence will be
read with amazement even in Russia, or in Turkey,
should it ever reach the honours of a translation
into the language of the Sultan. "The: man,"
he says, "who stands by and says nothing when
the peril of the Government is discussed, cannot
be misunderstood; ergo, if Mr. Vallandighem had
never made a speech at all, he would have
been equally liable to the arrest which General
Burnside ordered, and to the sentence which Mr.
Lincoln passed, for the extraordinary reason, " be-
cause, if not hindered, he (the man who says
nothing) is sure to help the enemy—much more if
he talks ambiguously—talks for his country with
' buts,' and ' ifs', and ' ands ?'" If all the silent
men in America are sure to help the enemy, and if
all the men who talk ambiguously, or inlard their
very qualified confidence in the President or his
policy, with the cautious monosyllables which he
so much dislikes, are to be considered the friends
of the South, the best thing for Mr. Lincoln to do
is to pack up his portmanteau, abdicate his un-
easy and perilous throne, and take his pas-
sage to England or Australia, for the life of
the Union is to be counted by hours rather than by
years, and his continued residence within its boun-
daries will be fatal to his liberty if not his life in
that rapidly approaching day when Mr, Jefferson
Davis shall be the master of his destiny.
Mr. Vallandigham's great offence was, it appears,
that " he discouraged enlistments," an offence which
Mr. Lincoln cannot pardon. "He who dissuades
one man from volunteering, or induces one soldier
to desert, weakens the Union cause as much as if
he kills a Union soldier in battle, and this dissua-
sion or inducement may be so conducted as to be no
defined crime of which any civil court can take cog-
nisance." Therefore the crime is to be punished by
the strong arm of military authority. This is the
sum and substance of Mr. Lincoln's defence—with
a further justification derived from the operation of
Lynch law. " Even in times of peace," says the
President, " bands of horse-thieves and robbers
frequently grow too numerous and powerful for the
ordinary courts of justice," and as in such cases
society makes its own law for the emergency, and
sends Mr. Justice Lynch with a posse coinitatus at
his heels to execute prompt and summary vengeance
upon the offenders, so Mr. Lincoln, when sympa-
thisers with rebellion and discouragers of enlistment
become too numerous for gentler treatment, breaks
down the barriers of the law and the Constitution,
establishes a despotism, and says " it is good."
Altogether the chances are that, as Mr. Lincoln
has taken to explanations, he will soon see, or has
already seen, the expediency of annulling Mr. Val-
landigham's sentence, and allowing him to go home
peaceably to Dayton and be installed in due time as
Governor of Ohio. His treason, if treason it were,
has been so infinitely surpassed by that of Mr.
Fernando Wood, whom the President has since re-
ceived in private and friendly consultation, that to
confer honour upon Mr. Wood, and sentence Mr.
Vallandigham to exile, seems absurd and inconse-
quential—even in Mr. Lincoln. But, although Mr.
Lincoln may at the last moment ungraciously, as
well as uselessly, give Mr. Vallandigham the bene-
fit of the doubt that has arisen in his mind, he takes
especial care to guard against the supposition that
he will make no further arrests. He explicitly
takes blame to himself, and thinks that history will
confirm the condemnation, that he has erred on the
side of mercy ; that he has ordered too few arrests,
instead of too many ; and that it would have been
better for the country had his rule been sterner and
his purpose more inflexible. In this respect, how-
ever, the American
with him- people are not likely to agree
They have passed judgment already in
a contrary sense, and i
history well ' it is
m them.moee than probable that
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