The Sun.
London, England, 1862-11-04 00:00:00

71IE CONFEDERRICAATE S7A7ES OF
AME.

arm the Tones' Correspondent.)
66 RICHMOND, Ocr, S,

T he spirit of liberty in the Southern States is more
Idgh and haughty than in the Northern. In the Carolinas
and Virginia they have a vast multitude of slaves. Where
this is the case in any part of the world, those who are free
arm 'y far the most proud and jealous of their freedom.
Preedom is to them not only an enjoyment, but a kind of
rank and privilege. Not seeing there that freedom, as in
countries where it is a common blessing, and as broad and
reneral as the air, may be united with much abject toil,
with great misery, with all the exterior of servitude, liberty
looks among them like something that is more noble and
literal. I do not mean to commend the superior morality
o f this sentiment, which has at least as much pride as virtue
in it ; but I cannot alter the nature of man. These people
of the Southern colonies are much more strongly and with
a higher and more stubborn spirit attached to liberty than
those to the northward. Such were all ancient Common-
wr-,alths; such were our Gothic ancestors ; such in our
days the Poles ; such will be all masters of slaves. In
'mai a people the haughtiness of domination combines
with the spirit of freedom, fortifies it, and renders it invin-
cible."

Such were the memorable words uttered on the
22d of March, 1775, in the House of Commons
by Edmund Burke, to whom more than to any
other child of man it was given to look over the
heads of coming centuries, The stranger who wins
his way this day to Richmond will find the fullest
realisation of these prophetic words on a far
mightier field of action than was within the purview
of their inspired utterer. It is not too much to say
that the most fanatical believer in the ancient
Union, be he Mr. Seward himself, would despair of
tb.e faith that is in him, and acknowledge himself,
is Victor Hugo's phrase, the " somnambulist of
a vanished dream," could he walk the streets of
Itichmond this day, and gauge the spirit and feel-
ing of its people after nearly 19 months of such
warfare as the world never contemplated before.
"'he streets are crowded, the hotels refuse to con-
tain their shoals of guests; everywhere the quiet-
ness and confidence of a people secure in its own
strength is incontestably evident. Everything ne-
czqsary for life, most things requisite for its luxu-
rious enjoyment, as it is interpreted on this conti-
nent, are to be found in abundance. There is
absolutely only one commodity of which the ab-
sence is gravely felt, that commodity being ice.
boes the Federal Government hope by such a frail
rudder to steer the Southern Confederacy back into
the harbour of Union?

Of course, with many of the supplies sucked in
through the most ridiculous of blockades, and trans-
ported over the enormous area which separates
Richmond from the cities of the Southern seaboard,
prices are high. The board and lodging in the hotels
amount to 4 dole. per day ; clothing and boots are
extremely dear, but are to be had by paying for
them ; medical supplies are scarce, but are con-
stantly being introduced in not insufficient quanti-
ties across the Potomac and through the cities of
the coast. And here, from personal experience, I
may express my conviction of the utter impossi-
lity of blockading the Potomac and the Ohio, and
shutting off the South from supplies, along a fron-
tier which from Fortress Monroe to distant Kansas
extends for some 1,500 miles. If the whole Fede-
ral navy was concentrated in the Potomac, it would
be utterly inadequate effectually to block the innu-
merable creeks and reaches of that river. Add to
this that on both sides the stream dwells a popula-
tion of which not more than five per cent. are in
favour of the Union. In several counties in Mary-
land the Frovest-Marshal is described as being
the only Union man, and it will be believed that
the life which he leads is none of the easiest. As
for the draught in Maryland, it will be much worse
than a farce. There are few able-bodied men left,
and of those who remain how many will fight for
the Union ? If any such there be, and they are ever
led into action by Federal officers, how many of
those officers will survive the first melee which they
share with their disaffected troops ? Along the
Potomac there was, 18 months ago, a very large
prop°, tion of population averse to secession, reluc-
tant to embark upon it, and loyal to the old flag.
But with the war came the Federal troops, squat-
ting first upon Maryland soil and praying upon its
entrails, without offering one farthing in compensa-
tion for cattle and sheep, hogs and poultry, maize
and wheat, oats and hay, indiscriminately seized
L.ed devoured, to say nothing of horses stolen, houses
and fences torn down and burnt, havoc and rapine
scattered broadcast over the land. Next came
Virginia's turn. Starting from Fortress Monroe,
and running westward to Winchester, scarcely a
house within 50 miles of, the Potomac but bears
evidence of Yankee greed and spoliation. In nearly
every county the Court-house, in which the assizes
for each county used to be held, is rudely demo-
lished, doors and windows torn down, while within,
upon the white walls, in every phase of handwrit-
ing, are recorded the autographs of the Vandals
whose handiwork surrounds the beholder. Stories
upon stories have reached me detailing how the
wives of Federal officers, represented by my exas-
perated informants as having usually " hailed from"
detested New England, forced their way behind the
Federal troops into the fine family mansions of the
Old Dominion, and personally superintended the
abstraction and transmission northwards of old
family china, silver, glass, pictures, books, furni-
ture, and pianofortes. A Virginian lady, who re-
monstrated with one of these Yankee hen-harriers,
engaged in packing up valued family china, was
met by the rejoinder, " You are a rebel, and have
no rights that I am bound to respect; your property,
therefore is mine !" In short, such a picture of
desolation as the northern frontier of Virginia and
the lovely Shenandoah valley, the Paradise of Ame-
rica, exhibit can be likened only to the Palatinate
after Tilly's final visit, or to Attica, as Thucydides
paints it, after the annual Lacedwmonian incursion
during the Peloponnesian war.
The upshot of this system of restoring the Union
will readily suggest itself to the reader. I have
travelled far and wide through Virginia; I have
conversed with men, women, striplings, and chil-
dren in that State and in Maryland; I have seen
men, formerly substantial and thriving,whose every-
thing has been devoured by the Federals, but never
Li one single instance have I heard a word of regret
to its issue, a sigh breathed over the departed Union,
a ghost of a desire expressed in favour of compro-
mise or reconstruction. On the contrary, one uni-
versal chorus echoes through the length and breadth
of the land, " The net is broken, and we are deli-
vered," Mr. Everett and his votaries, who still be-
lieve in imprisoned loyalty as existing in the South,
might as well search in the British islands for a man
who desired them to be annexed to France. So
united, so homogeneous a community as the States
of the Southern Confederacy finds no parallel in
liar ow
annals. No war that England has waged
for hundred
nimous,
1; years has met with such cordial, una-
French undivided support. The war against the
against Russia
alic had its Charles Fox ; the war
ouch character initstbßichard Cobden. There is no
of the Federals in tlel• Southern States. The victory
not the defeat ofis exasperated struggle means,
the
pos-
session of Richmond, Charleston, Southern armies, not the pos-
mond,
bile, and New
orlean,Charlesten, Savannah, Mo-
to a conclusion of the' wwarhitchl would no more lead
Isle of Man. A Federal ". the seizure of the
earth but the exterrainatio y means nothing on
11 and annih-1 .•
every man, woman, and child in the I anon of
Southern Con-
federacy. There is no passion,
tofrensy,
universal language. The intensity ithe hate
the
flushes the cheek and clinches the
teeth,t but fi ds
little expression in feeble words. If anything, the
thing, the
exuberance of animosity is more perceptible in the
flashing eyes and eager earnestness of the 'women
but the settled and unconquerable firmness -01
the men requires nothing to he added to it.
The' possibility of Richmond's falling is calmly
discussed, and preparations have long been made for
such a contingency. Surprise is expressed that
possessed themselves
of Federals have not long ago
of several other Southern cities as well as New
Orleans. The possession of a capital city in these
days of railrc ads is a very different thing from what
e
it used to be in the days of Vor,. gram and Jena.
Great suffering might be inflicted upon women and
children if Mobile and Charleston fell; suffering
which there is only too much reason to fear would
be most acceptable to the Federals, judging from
the record of their deeds during this last year and