The Sun.
London, England, 1862-11-08 00:00:00

?HE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.

(Iron The Times' Correspondent.)
NEW YORK, OCT. 24.
The attacks upon General M'Clellan increase in
virulence. It is held by his Abolitionist opponents
that if he did not utterly rout and destroy the Con-
federate army at Antietam, it was because he would
not; and by his jealous rivals, that he would have
done so if he could, but that he had not the soldier-
ship or the skill. The ultra-war party, or " exter-
minators," as they ought to be called, for they would
not only exterminate the southern people by fire
and sword, but all Northern opposition by the
guillotine or the galloww, demand his immediate
dismissal. They allege that if he be a loyal man
he has no military genius ; and that if he be a
traitor, in collusion with the South, which they
more than hint, his genius, if he have any, is more
dangerous that his incapacity. In either case they
call for his removal. They loudl3 insist that Ge-
neral Pope was sacrificed to his offended dignity,
and allowed to be defeated with fearful loss of
life at Centreville when Fitz-John Porter and
three other Generals, whom Pope in his crimina-
tory report designates by name, might by obe-
dience to orders have won the day, and saved
the honour of the flag. They allege that his heart
is with the South ; that he does not wish to" hurt"
his many ancient schoolmates of the Military Aca-
demy at West Point, now serving in the Confe-
derate army ; and that his main object is to pro-
tract the war until the patience and the resources
of the North are both so much exhausted that the
people will be glad to listen to terms of compromise,
whether they come directly from the South or are
instigated by the European Powers. All this slan-
der, distrust, and violence flow from the bitter and
apparently inexhaustible fountain of Abolitionism.
The New England philanthropists and philosophers,
and the New York sensational preachers cry
te Negro," " Negro." in and out of season, without
loving the negro a whit the more for the fuss they

make about him ; and Puritanic tea-tables, presided
over by strong-minded women of the unmitigated
Yankee type, re-echo the savage slogan of extermi-

nation to the South with as much vehemence and
zeal as if it were the recognized and imperative
duty of Puritanism to enforce its theories at the
cannon's mouth upon every recalcitrant, native or
foreign, and as if a regular propaganda of all the
" isms," teetotalism included, were to be established
in America, to subdue the earth. It is difficult to
see how the President, who has yielded so much to
this party, can suddenly stop short; and still more
difficult to see how he can retain his Cabinet if he
retain his General, or his General if he retain his
Cabinet. Either Gen. M'Clellan must be super-
seded in obedience to Abolitionist necessities and
ideas, or Mr. Stanton and Mr. Chase must resign.
By which way the mind of the bewildered Presi-
dent will turn depends, perhaps, less upon himself
than upon Mr. Seward ; and he, the author of the
revolutionary doctrine, that there may be in any
country a higher law than the Constitution, is be-
lieved to have been converted into a Conservative
by the responsibilities of power, and to support
Gen. M'Clellan with the whole weight of his influ-
ence. Yesterday the rumour was current all over the
city that Mr. Seward and Gen. M'Clellan had both
disappeared from the arena for awhile, and that
Abolitionism was triumphant. To-day the rumour
is denied from Washington ; but the general im-
pression is that, sooner or later, the Abolitionists
will prevail in the Councils of the President, and
that unless M'Clellan fight a great battle and win
it during the week he will no longer be allowed to
command the army of the Potomac. The person
most commonly spoken of for his successor is Oen.
Hooker—Fighting Joe, as he is called by the sol-
diers—an Abolitionist and a brave man, but some-
what too much inclined to boast, as his despatch
from the field of Antietam proves, to be considered
in every respect a reliable commander. The Nor-
thern people seem to imagine that a fighting gene-
ral is better than a thinking one, and that brute
valour and daring are all that are required to de-
feat the Southern armies. They forget that in
these respects the South is quite equal if not supe-
rior to the North, and that in the great game of

tinually. Good coloured friends, you have a great war the skill and discretion of the leaders count for
work to do, and you are in a position of respon- quite as much as the heroism of the soldiers, and
sibility. The whole North, all the people in the that Neys and Murats are more easily found to fight
Free States, are looking at you and the experi- battles than Napoleons to plan and win them.
ment now tried in your behalf with the deepest The condition and prospects of the army appear
interest. This experiment is to give you free- to be bad enough to justify Gen. M'Clellan's hesi-
dom, position, home, and your own families tation in advancing. New York swarms with vo-
-wives,property, your own soil. You shall till and lunteers who have never yet smelt powder, and who
cultivate your own crops ; you shall gather and sell cannot be sent to Washington for want of firearms.
the products of your industry for your own benefit ; The great army of the Potomac suffers for want of
you shall own your own savings, and you shall be blankets as well as of shoes, and the men, having
able to feel that God is prospering you from day to nothing to do, sell their bullets and ammunition to
day and from year to year, and raising you to a suttlers and camp followers for surreptitious and
1 higher level of goodness, religion, and a nobler life. execrable whisky. The surgeons, who are required
Supposing you fail down here ; that will be an end in enormous numbers after every battle, are such
of the whole matter. It is like attaching a cable bungling apprentices in the art that they kill by
to a stranded vessel, and all the strength that can their ignorance a full half of the wounded men,
be mustered is put upon this rope to haul her off. who, if more skilfully treated, might survive, and
If this only rope breaks the vessel is lost. God help resort to amputation in hundreds of unnecessary
you all, and help us all to help you. If you are cases with appalling recklessness. The volunteers,
idle, vicious, indolent and negligent, you will fail, having spent their bounty money, and heard or
and your last hope is gone; if you are not faithful read in the interval of the surgical atrocities core-
you rivet eternally the fetters upon those who to- mitted, desert or skedaddle at the first opportu-
day are fastened down by fetters and suffer by the nity, until, in one famous Irish brigade, that has
driver's goad. You have in your hands the rescu- not yet been to battle, the numbers in camp do
ing of those sufferers over whose sorrows you mourn not amount to ore-half of those who have received
continually. If you fail, what a dreadful responsi- bounty during the last six weeks. The pay
bility it will be when you come to die to feel that of Gen. M'Clellan's army alone is said to be in
the only great opportunity you had for serving arrear to the extent of 50,000,000 dole., and many
yourselves ar.d your oppressed race was allowed to regiments have not received a cent since the Ist of
slip. And you, women, you must be careful of your June. Of course all these facts, and they are not
children. You must teach them to be industrious, the worst that can be alleged, would be denied if
cleanly, obedient, and dutiful at all times. You they were put forward on the sole authority of some
must keep your houses neat and tidy, working all correspondent, or of any other person not an Ameri-
day, if necessary, to have them in the best possible can, but they are notorious enough to find their way
condition, always thinking and contriving to make into the New York daily papers and to form topics
them cleaner and more comfortable. When your of conversation in every society. A correspondent
husband comes home from the labours and fatigues of the New York limes, dating from the head-
of the day, always have something good and nice quarters of the army of the Potomac the day before
for his supper, and speak kindly to him, for these yesterday, says,—
little acts of love and attention will bring you "The morale of our soldiers is not what it has
happiness and joy. And when you men go out been. I hardly care to give the detailed revelations
to work you must labour with diligence and zeal, that would justify this averment, but the fact is
It seems to me, had I the stimulus to work owned by all who have the opportunity of judging.
that you have, that I could labour like a giant. • . • . Plunder, licence, abandonment of self-respect,
Now you know who I am• My first duty and general demoralisation are sufficiently wide-
here is to deal justly; second, to love mercy spread in the army to be alarming. And these are
and third, to walk humbly. First, justly—l aggravated by ills which American soldiers should
shall endeavour to get you to do your duty not be called upon to bear. Many are deficient in
faithfully. If you do I shall reward you ; and if you clothing, shoes, and shelter, and shiver blanketless
refuse, then what comes next ? Why the wicked inh the miserable open tentes d'abri, through which
and
dnsports on embarking at must be punished, and made to do right. I will
have
e cold night wind sweeps at will. Thousands
thea . Government has not yet supplied
take the bad man by the throat and force him to his
hinda ve not yet received the knapsacks they left be-
duty. Ido not mean that I will take hold of him
moreino perilous ele.m.e.nts at work. Among those
Harrison's-
with my own hands, but with the strong aim of 2 landing,
feuds, jealousies, and animosities
military power. Now do we understand each other .
iatnhnemh.igwbhithpolathceesr, Higher up there are other
lam working for you already. lam told by your
flourish rankly. Probably never, out of a troop of
superintendent that a gang of men are building
your houses at the rate of six a day. These houses
are to make you more comfortable. You are to have opera singers, vsere there bickeringsech General ffis officers. .helatrtie
a patch of ground, which you can call your own, to
always the ease where a n abundance of well-matched
burnings as exist among our
raise your own garden truck, and you may work for
mediocrity is broughttogether without. any mind of
the government for good wages. And you women
superiority to subordinate these
petty
must make your houses shine; you must plaister
them lifferences. I know not what far-back subtle in-
and -;.; bitewash there, and graduelly get fnr- (
niture in -
your cabins, and a cooking•steve. I have have been at work, but all patriotism seems
commanding ,
arran -
of the heart of the regular army men.
e cheaper and better than before, and you are to
ged in suet
in •i a way that you will get your cloth- eaten out
fluences
have tl. gehoni f up to a certain point •
flowers in youror your children. And you must have ' M'Clellan is magnificent ,
. • . . An able officersaid to me the other day
doors• You
wiugardens and blossoms before your but at that point his mind seems to lose its momen-
pier you„1„ . :ee in a little while how much hap- turn.' .. . . Yet all (the army) feel—it is useless
ztlhaat
for this? .cibs, muzile. Are you not -willing to work to deny it—that no man better than he has yet
This is only for yourhat7,lPlng, you will all work. shown himself ; no man even as good as he. It is
ful, this plan vit.,. go
aLii
through
but if you are success-
we will have answered the a pathetic state, this, we are in."
question
the country, and The correspondent of the World, writing on the
out-
all good, thinking men in the has puzzled same day from the same place,
hun-
dred years. They have asked, e What will spoken :
with the black man after liberating 171m?7,°uwdoe " Close observation with impartial feelings has
convinced me of several things concerning the spirit
is equally