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
pssitivo;y assured that Government had pressed into
the service of the arn3Y 500 railroad cars, a rolling
stock adequate to the conveyance of 25,000 troops.
S:ece I came to Cincinnati, I learnt that eeveral
railway lines had been also seemed 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
East 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 Resencranz" this very
day—au artifice by which they raised gold to 143 k.
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 doll. 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 bad
the management of it, The Northern soldier
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 hireling who fought by his side ;
the conscript who was pressed into the ranks by the
draught, was indignant at the exemption purchased
by the 300 doh). 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 tried, and all to little purpose. The
Northerners are three to one against the Contede.
rates. These latter are contending no less against
heavy material 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
" drives its bullocks into the slaughter pen" by
main force.

Earnest Republicans are sadly put out about it.
ig What are all these hundreds and thousands of
hulking fellows hanging about billiard-rooms, lager
beer saloons, and hotel bars for P" 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; but call upon
them 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
war 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
call with more than sufficient alacrity. It is the
want 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 no slight weight on the general destinies of the
country. The 12th October has been appointed for
the election 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
Lo 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 eognizances 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.
Tha broadest distinction between the political men
of the Northern part of the Die-United States is
that between "R-publicans" or supporters of the
Administratian, and " Democrats," or opposition
men. , The former are divided into Conservative or
Moderate Republic
publicans. The
Conservatives
and Radicals, or Black Re-
ervatives are Unionmen at
heart; sticklers for their great country and their
constitution. They think the
on to the full restoration of owar should be carried
the Union ; they deem
themselves in duty bound #
o stand by the Govern-
ment so long as it is striving' after that primary
and most essential
object
thick and
for the rest, they
h.h
do not go with it through
ok for
Mr
thin;
Lincoln t hey
epro.nd
fess no transcendent admiration his Cabinet, disapprove many
of their measures, and
think that many
of their decrees and proclamations
weight
should have no greater
than so much waste
paper. They must have
attheniigljment of State
all price, how-
ever, if possible, with due aekno
vieof
the se s
lof the
prolongation South
of
rights, with due regard to the
inter
with the least possible violation
interests
possible s and the
canetituiion, with the least
this diaatroos war—but at any rate, the
Union.
I+,f en of this stamp are, on principle, abolitionists
but ready to put down slavery, or to Put '
up with it
ns may best be conducive to the interests of the
Union and the pacification of the Country.
The Radical Republicans are anti-slavery men
They talk a great deal
above all things. about the
Union, but at the top of all their thoughts is the
. everlasting Nigger." They are for war to" the bit-
ter end,' and shrink from the close of hostilities as
a mad dog dreads 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 reororranise the culture of the
soil on the principle of f::ee labour. If this scheme
be feasible they will carry it on so long as the North
has a man or a dollar for the purpose. "Were their
aim unattainable and the South strong enough to
resist all attempts at subjugation,
let it ,P they would rather
al; they would rather accept the inevitable
"P'7AtiJa than come to terms with
and b 3 partakers )-:eh as they
slaveholdars,
of that inivity NV--" . .
think, has ' repunlic, and
been the disgrace of their %,
has now wrought The men
of this party are
out this terrible war,
. ktirty are staunch to their Government after
their own fashion. They carp and snarl at and
good deal ; they urge. find fault with it a a it on
fretfully, rancorouslyT.::nclerness and lnkew;r,thneyess
damn it for excessive
every moment that " wh 'oever i and intimate to it at
s not with them is
against them."
anad'lfierapteTni7ieTsaacrecoarldsianaglue'esified into several sects
are or declare
themselves more or lees decided Unionists
Uai"i'ts and
rot. The only rallying point a p
eace
cans is the Government. Thille"g the Republi-
only
mind
subject on
t
which the Democrats arc truly of cne
iind is hos-
tility to the Government. They all h
war might and should from the beginning think that the
. have been
avoided ; they charge the Government with having
plunged the country into it by sheer intolerance and
prz.cipitance. A war began upon flimsy pretences,
and from vain punctilios, they think, is
now per-
pet crated from mere obstinacy, from craven instinct
of self-preservation, from blind inability to got out
of a serape. This war is, in their estimation, the
ruin of the country, physical and moral rain, politi-
cit and financial destruction. They lay upon the
rulers at Waohington all its shocking mismanage-
ment, its avaTnl waste of Litman life, its ruinous ex-