The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-15 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA,

(From the Times' Correspondent.)
NEW YORK, JUNE 3.

Will Gen. Grant capture Vicksburg ? Will Gen.
Lee capture Washington ? These are the questions
that are asked from day to day in all public places,
and that are answered according to the political bias
and hopes of the respondents, rather than according
to any just estimate of the facts and the probabili-
ties. Ten days have now elapsed since Gen. Grant
found it impossible to take the little stroleghold of
the Mississippi by storm, and sat dor,a before it to
try and reduce it by the slow and scientific, but to
the Americans the very uncon'enial operations of a
regular siege. If the Confederates are not short of
-provisions—which few relieve—the probabilities are
that Gen. Joseph Johnstone, largely reinforced, will
within a few days; or a week at the furthest, com-
pel Gen. Grant to raise the siege and accept battle.
Grant, if defeated, may escape by his gunboats on
the Yazoo and the Mississippi, but the Federal cause
will have received a heavy blow, and the pride of
the Northern people a humiliating corrective. It,
on the other hand, Gen. Johnstone be defeated, the
"beginning of the end" will be no nearer than be-
fore; new obstructions to the navigation of the
river will be raised by the Confederates, and the
-wave of war will roll and dash over other rocks
and impediments, whose position none at this
moment can tell, or even suspect. The balance of
opinion both in New York and Washington is not
hopelful on the subject. The cup of joy was so
near to the lip when Mr. Lincoln, through an
enthusiastic correspondent, supposed to be wholly
trustworthy and well-informed, notified to the
'world 11 days ago that the fall of Vicksburg was
morally certain to occur within a few hours, that
the slip has been more than usually vexatious, and
the disappointment more than usually acute. Nor
as regards the ulterior movements of Gen. Lee
is the feeling much more sanguine. If -that
able commander really meditates an attack upon
Washington, and considers himself strong enough
to attempt it, there is a very general impression
that he may succeed, not unmingled with a hope
among the large classes who are weary of the war,
and utterly incredulous that it ever can be ended
during Mr. Lincoln's term of office, that he will not
only capture Washington, but the President and
his Ministers, and hold them as hostages for the
immediate declaration of an armistice to debate the
conditions of peace and separation.
Since the repulse of General Hooker, the friends
of peace have increased in number and in boldness,
but the addresses penned by the leading Democrats,
and the resolutions that are carried and the speeches
that are made at their public meetings, are with
few exceptions singularly illogical, if not absurd.
Mr. Wall, of New Jersey, and Mr. Benjamin Wood,
of this city, declare for peace, pure and simple, and
for a recognition of the Southern Confederacy if
the Southern people, after an armistice, shall
solemnly reassert by their votes in Convention or
elsewhere their determination to maintain their in-
dependence ; but the bulk of the Democratic party
have not reached that upper plank of the true plat-
form. They stand on a much lower elevation, and
continue, even while they vaunt most loudly their
love of peace and the absolute necessity of securing
it to their bleeding and distracted country, to talk
idly of " their opposition to any terms of compro-
mise that fail to restore the Union and save the
Constitution." How can peace be possible, while
men of influence talk thus ? They virtually admit
that the Government is right in prosecuting the
war, but do not see that they lay themselves open
to the imputation of faction in opposing all the war
measures which the Government deems necessary to
conquer a peace, upon the only terms which they
themselves consider imperative. The great peace
meeting to be held this evening at the Cooper In-
stitute will decide whether the Democratic party,
or any large section of it, will continue much longer
to stuleify itself in a manner so flagrant.
The case of Mr. Vallandigham continues to be a
thorn in the side of the Administration. Almost
universally condemned as the conduct of General
Burnside has been, Mr. Lincoln had not the pene-
tration to discover that his blundering dragoon and
his servile judge were both in error, or the tact or
grace to rectify their mistakes. The Confederate
Government has displayed more wisdom, and while
its treatment of the honest and fearless exile has
been consistent with its own dignity, the disposition
it has made of him will very greatly embarrass Mr.
Lincoln. Refusing to admit that the Confederate
States were a penal settlement, to which the Wash-
ington Government could transport either its martyrs
or its criminals, or to allow Mr. Vallandigham to
remain in the South unless he would take the oath
of allegiance, the Confederate authorities have re-
ceived him with marked kindness, and instead of ex-
truding him forcibly from their soil by the way in
which he came, and so transferring him to the dun.
geons of Fort 'Warren, they have, it appears, given
him permission to proceed to Charleston, Savannah,
or Mobile, with the understanding that he will leave,
the country by whichever of those ports he may
find most convenient. By this means Mr. Vallan-
digham will have little or no difficulty in running
the blockade and making his way to Nassau or
Havannah, where he can decide at his leisure
whether he will return to his own country by way
of New York, or whether he will proceed to Canada
via Halifax. Were he bold enough to land at New
York, the Democratic party would give him a recep-
tion which would cast into the shade all the ovations
of the war, and Mr. Horatio Seymour—who de
nounced the arrest in such eloquent and emphatic
terms as would have rendered him also liable to
seizure in the dead of night, and trial by court-
martial, if he were not Governor of a powerful State
and Commander-in-Chief of its army—would doubt
less justify the welcome by his words, if he did not
grace it with his presence. This is the course re-
commended by such of the advanced Democrats as
love the Union much, but who love liberty and the
Constitution still more ; and which would either
compel the Federal Government to join issue with
the authorities of a loyal State that has more largely
than any other supported the war with men, money,
and credit, or forego once and for ever the high-
handed illegal acts of military power that have dune
so much to bring it into discredit and disfavour.
On the other hand, were Mr. Vallandigham to avoid
New York and take refuge on British territory,
within a stone's throw of the flourishing city of De-
troit, which has direct railway communication of
about 200 miles with his own home at Dayton, he
would place himselfin constant communication with
his friends in his native State ; and not all the mi-
litary power at the command of General Burnside
could prevent the Democratic party from nominat-
ing him for Governor, and carrying the election
by a large if not unanimous vote—unless, indeed,
the Federal Administration were insane enough to
declare Ohio in a state of siege, and prevent any
election until the conclusion of the war. Considered
under__, any aspect the case of Mr. Vallandigham is a
critical one for the character no less than for the
comfort of Mr. Lincoln, and bids fair to be memo-
rable for everinthechistory of American liberty.
At the
peace mg which is to be held in this
city this evening,
under
the
of the Democratic party auspices of that wing
Which has
itself in favour of an armistice, the outrage upon Mr
tardily declared
Vali andigham will, in all probability, form the main
staple of the oratory and the chief inspiration of the
orators. On Monday considerable anxiety was felt
by timid people in consequence of a report industri-
ously circulated that Gen. Wool, under orders from
Washington, would station troops at the doors of
the Cooper Institute and in the body of the hall to
intimidate the speakers. Bat all fear of a breach
of the peace has subsided. Scarcely anybody be-
lieves that the Government will act so madly in New
York, whatever it might do in Ohio, unless it deli-
berately wished to provoke outrage, as an excuse for
the foregone conclusion of placing this
State under
the operation of martial law. Bat this is an amount
of inanity of which its most violent
opponents do
not yet suspect it ; not because its desires do not
point in that direction, but because the bul of the
labouring classes are opposed to the war, auk to the
conscription, and because the Governor is not a
-
Ministerialist or a Republican, but a thoroughgoing
Democrat, jealous of State Rights, and determined
at all hazards to maintain the independence, is cer-
tain. The threat, though unofficial and probably

unwarranted, has had the effect of putting the
originators of the meeting upon their guard, and
of inducing three out of four of those who , tend to
be present to arms themselves with concealed
weapons, in order to ba ready for all co.. ingencies.
It is a fact, useless for t-k-e, Governm .:L t to conceal
from itself, that th
thing li.ke thp P.:re is electricity in • e nir, some-
', which preceded the French revola-
tic'd of 1948. The people of the North have made
up their minds that, come what may, they will not
yield the constitutional right of public meeting and
free speech to discuss grievances. At the meeting
held at the city of Newark, in the adjoining State
of New Jersey, on Saturday last, a body of soldiers
with fixed bayonets marched up the main street and
took up a position on the left of the grand stand.
The comments of the crowd were loud and defiant;
and when a body of citizens from the rural districts
bearing a white flag inscribed with the name of
"Vallandigham" surrounded with a laurel wreath
endeavoured to pierce through the crowd, and
were opposed by the soldiers, acting, it is to be pre-
sumed, in obed•ence to orders, there was imminent
danger of a collision and a deplorable loss of life.
The Sheriff of the county was upon the spot, and,
acting with great promptitude, he sought out the
military commandant, informed him that the Civil
power was adequate to preserve the peace, but that
if, contrary to law and propriety, he persisted in
keeping his soldiery in the crowd to insult the
citizens, met in conformity to ancient usage and
undoubted right of free discussion, the com-
mandant would be responsible for the bloodshed
that might ensue, and that the Sheriff would
do his best to prevent it by calling out the Militia.
The remonstrance had unexpected success. The
soldiers were withdrawn, and the proceedings ter,
minated quietly. On Monday a similar meeting,
convened to express the sentiments of the Demo-
cracy and people of Philadelphia on the illegal trial
and arbitrary sentence of Mr. Vallandigham, was
attended by 20,000 (some accounts say 40,000)
people in Independence-square; and, although the
soldiery did not make their appearance, they were
in readiness in the immediate neighbourhood, each
man provided with several rounds of ammunition
and a day's rations. The speakers, suspicious of
danger, were all armed. These are ugly symptoms,
and the Government at Washington will be criminal
if it despise them.

President Lincoln seems to have become a con-
vert to the views of the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher
and Mr. Wendell Phillips, that " God and the
negro" are to save the Republic—if it is to be
saved either by Divine or human agencies. Volun-
teering has ceased ; bounty money attracts none but
a few Irish and German immigrants; the enrolment
of names for the conscription which may never, per-
haps, be enforced, and certainly not in the State or
city of New York, leads to disturbance in places of
public resort, which shows how odious in the sight
of the labouring classes is compulsory military ser-
vice ; and the armies already in the field are melting
away like ice in the summer sun. What can Mr.
Lincoln do, under the circumstances, but take the
advice of Messrs. Beecher and Phillips and the
" war-Christians" generally, who maintain that
negroes will make better, or, at all events, more
willing soldiers than Irishmen, Germans, or white
Americans? The fiat has accordingly gone forth
from Washington to Hilton Head, to New Orleans,
to Cincinnati, to Nashville, to all points where there
are Federal officers in command, to strain every nerve
to induce "contrabands" and free negroes to take
service in defence of the Government that protects
them. If persuasion fails, setae of the Federal
Generals resort to force to compel the negroes to
perform military duty, and hunt runaways who
have no stomach for the fight with as much pertina-
city and cruelty as slaveowners were formerly
accustomed to display in hunting those who pre-
ferred liberty to bondage. Governor Andrew, of
Massachusetts, has made himself conspicuous in
this matter, and has attracted within the bounds of
his little Commonwealth all the able-bodied young
negroes whom his influence and that of his friends
and coadjutors could reach. On Friday last the
54th Massachusetts Volunteers—the first negro
regiment that has ever been completed—was re-
viewed by the Governor. on Boston-common, pre-
paratory to its departure for South Carolina. The
lecturers, preachers, teachers, and strong-minded
spinsters for which that intellectual but narrow-
minded and bigoted city is famous, attended in large
numbers upon the occasion and greeted the regiment
with enthusiastic applause. in bran new uniforms,
splendidly equipped, with the stars and stripes
carried before them, and preceded by a full band of
coloured musicians, the regiment, after being re-
viewed by Mr. Andrew, made a triumphal proces-
sion through the streets to the port, where they
embarked on board the steamer which was to con-
vey them to Hilton Head. Massachusetts loves
the negro theoretically, but practically places him
under social ban and excommunication. It is, there-
fore,
hinted by the cynical that there is much more
joy over the departure of the dark warriors than
there will be on their return, should any of them
be so fortunate as to escape the dangera of
the field and the gallows, and so ill-advised as
to attempt to settle in Boston when the war is
over. On the following day a deputation from Ne w
York, entertaining the views of Mr. Beecher and
Governor Andrew on this subject, waited upon the
President at Washington, to urged upon him the
immediate necessity of raising at least 10,000 negro
soldiers. They were introduced to the President
and Mr. Secretary Chase by Mr. Charles Sumner,
and met with a cordial reception. Mr. Lincoln
declared, " That he would gladly receive into the
service " not merely 10,000 but 10 times 10,000
" coloured troops." Re expressed. at the same time
his determination to protect all who enlisted, and to
consider every black soldier taken captive by the
rebels as equivalent in all respects to a white sol-
dizr captured by the Federal armies. "He had,"
he said, "a confident expectation that they would
be of essential service in bringing the war to a
clove; and thought that the command of such troops
would afford scope for the highest ambition." The
main object of the deputation was to counsel the
President to offer the command of the negro army
to General Fremont. Mr. Lincoln promised to do
so, and hoped with all his heart that General Fre-
mont would accept it.

How successful this marshalling of the negroes
will be, and what effect it will have on the existing
armies of the republic, remains to be seen. From
all present indications it does not appear likely that
as many as 10,000 men will be raised ; and the
faiiure of all the efforts of General Hunter (who,
next to General Fremont, is the most zealous friend
of the negro soldier whom the war has produced)
to induce the swarming " contrabands" around
Hilton Head to abandon the notion that the Federal
Government owes them a subsistence and that they
owe the Federal Government nothing in return, or
to raise even a couple of regiments among them, is
ominous of similar unsuccess in other regions less
fortunately situated. Nor does the enlistment of
the negroes, whether successful or unsucessful,
recommend itself highly to the white men
who have undertaken the fighting part of
the war. Among the non-fighting .bellige-
rents, who make money in their stores and
counting-houses out of the needs of the army,
there is, it is true, a strong disposition to accept
negro aid as better than none. In proportion as
the white armies diminish, their objections against
black armies grow fine by degrees, till they disap-
pear altogether. Even those native-born Americans
who are not contractors and sutlers, who are pas-
sionately attached to the Union, but not so frantic
in their devotion as to shoulder the rifle in its be-
half, are rapidly getting
rid
Not
so
o theirf
thelrish
prejudiceish r
eg i
against the African soldier.
.
131E1as—whose antipathy to the negro, unsuspected
in their native Eribursts savagely forth after a
few;months' residence on this side of the Atlantic.
Elezal Thomas
BAedejtaeuhenets..
faith, the
'a n ew convert to Mr.
a speech negro
to isth Ninetieth Illinois
to save the Repub-
lic, lately made
Volunteers, composed almost
in which he informed them that hey of
Irishm
been
.aen,
hadu_
thorised by the President to organise
negro regi.
ments wherever he went, that the negroes made
excel'ent soldiers, and that the President's new
policy in relation'to the black race,in which he (the
Adjutant-General) entirely concurred, would be the
salvation of the country. In conclusion, he called

upon the men to give three cheers for the " Presi-
dent and the negro." Not a cheer was elicited in
reply, "Every man in the regiment," says an eye-
witness, " seemed for a moment to lose the power of
speech and motion." The major in command, hoping
to extricate them from an embarrassing dilemma,
called for three cheers for the Union. Instantly the
caps went up into the air, and there was a loud
and lusty cheer, followed by " a tiger" (one cheer
more). But this did not satisfy the Adjutant-
General, who again peremptorily demanded three
cheers for the negroes. The men were silent as
before, and were ultimately dismissed with a severe
reprimand, and ordered to be brought up again in a
week. It was intimated to them by the General
that if at the end of that time they would not cheer
fer the negroes they would all be placed usderarrest,
and tried for mutiny and disobedience of orders !

Under circumstances like these it would besangume
for Mr. Beecher, Mr. Sumner, and Governor An-
drew, to say nothing of the President, even if they
raised a very large negro army, to expect to employ
it to much advantage on the same battlefield with
the Celtic soldiers who have hitherto borne the
brunt of the war. Ten thousand negroes, under a
good white General—though not perhaps under
Fremont—might be made a formidable weapon in
the invasion of the S3uth, and might, as Mr. Lin-
coln intimates, be the intrument by which some
great Northern ambition might snatch famine, if
not power, out of the forthcoming anarchy that
threatens to inguif the republic. But whether the
fame could be snatched without the same penalty
as that paid by John Brown, of thswattamie, is the
problem that such a general would have to solve,
and the prospect, or at least the possibility, of which
might not, perhaps, prove very attractive to a man
like Fremont.