The Sun.
London, England, 1865-01-09 00:00:00

foundation, the impression prevails that with the
expiry of Mr. Lincoln's first term Great Britain and.
France will assume a new position towards t. Fede-
ral Government, and that if the South ho' -s its own
until that time, whatever be the changia, fortune of
the war in the interval, its recognitla will take

place on the three distinct grounds, that it is a de
facto Government, that Mr. Lincoln has no legal
title to its presidency, and that humanity, as well
as the commercial interests of the world, demands
that the war should cease. There are not wanting
cynics who assert that among the public men in
America who would be best pleased at this result are
Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Seward, and that European
recognition is the very thing, and the only thing,
that would remove an otherwise insuperable diffi-
culty out of their path. In such a contingency it is
argued that it would then be possible to prevent the
further disintegration of the North and the North-

West, and build up a new, free, homogeneous Re-
public, ultimately to include, by peaceable annexa-

tion and consent, the whole of British North Ame-

rica ; but that if the peace be not thus secured the

war will last for 10 or 20 years, or until the North
grow wearied and disgusted, or smash into half-a-
dozen pieces amid a whirl of bankruptcy and ruin,
if not amid a deluge of blood. Whatever amount of
truth may be concealed in these utterances, there
can be no doubt that the question of recognition is
believed in the political circles, both of the Demo-
cratic and Republican party, and in the larger
circles of trade and business, to have lately as-

Burned large proportions in Europe, and that it is
the duty of American statesmen to look it fairly
and squarely in the face. And in order to steal
a march upon Europe, it is urged that in this
moment of victory Mr. Lincoln should act

promptly as well as magnanimously, and solemnly
promise to the South and its leaders to withdraw all
his proclamations of confiscation and emancipation
and offer complete oblivion of the past—if amnesty
and foregiveness are words too galling to thepride of
the Southern leaders—upon the sole condition of
the return of the Southern States to the Union, and
a renewal of their fealty to the constitution. The
error of these reasoners lies in the assumption, first,

that there is any truth in these recognition rumours;
and, secondly, that the South in its heart loves the
Union as much as the North, that anger at the in-

termeddling of the Northern Abolitionists with sla-
very was the sole cause of the secession, and that,
assured upon this point, the South would be but too
glad to re-enter the Union and rule it as in the
olden days before the baleful star of Mr Lincoln
arose upon the horizon. The dayfor all this has
long gone by, Mr. Lincoln and his party can offer
no such terms, and if he could the South could not

accept them. It is much too late for such a corn

promise, or for any other. There is a sea of blood;
an unfathomable abyss of vengeance and hatred be-

tween the opposing sections which no statesmanship
can bridge. Great Britain might as well attempt to
reannex the Union and transform it into its original
colonies by offering them the concessions which
would have satisfied the Americans before Wash-

ington took up arms as the North might attempt
to re-annex the South by offering concessions to
slavery. What hath been shall not be again. The
sooner the North recognises this truth, the sooner
it will be able to turn its abounding energies, its
hope, its faith, its resources, and all on which it
prides itself, to a greater and nobler task than the
restoration of &Union which has served its purpose
and outlived its time—the task of maintaining in
the northern and more vigorous half of its territory
the principles, the traditions, the spirit, and the
practice of Republican liberty.
The foremost men of the party by whose votes
Mr. Lincoln rules, the men who lead the masses and
indoctrinate them with their opinions, are not in
favour of any form of compromise. They see their
futility of concession, and will not prove false to
their principles by admitting, even for the sake of
the Union, that under any circumstances the Federal
Government would either protect or recognise
slavery. Mr. Wendell Phillips, in a speech upon
" Reconstruction," delivered last night before a
large audience at the Cooper Institute not only de-
clared himself in favour of immediate and uncondi-
tional emancipation, wherever the armies of the
Federal Government could penetrate to enforce the
manumission, but took the still higher ground that
freedom to the black race was not sufficient. He
claimed for the negroes not only freedom of labour
and of locomotion—which General Banks denied
them in Louisiana—but full social privileges and
the broadest rights of citizenship. He claimed that
the negroes were the true people of the South, and
that they had as much right to vote at all elections, I
municipM, State, and national, as the white native-
born American or the white imported Irishman or
German. The audience lustily applauded the doc-
trine, though there was but one negro present to 1
report to his brethren the favour in which they
stood with the great apostle of black humanity and
the sympathising crowd that hung enraptured on his ,
accents. Mr. Phillips may be called a fanatic, but
he is cool, clear, and logical, and has fully weighed
the purport of his public utterances. He knows
that re-union is impossible, and is but true to his
old love and his early instincts when he insists with
so much zeal and eloquence upon a proposal that
the North and the North-West would scout as
lustily as the South if it were made by a statesman
charged with the responsibilities of office. He knows
that the South cannot be conquered, or, if con-
quered, that it cannot• be held as a dependency of
the North. If he be true to his own logic, he knows
also that the sole alternative is the disruption,
which he has done more than any living American
to produce, and the separate nationality of the two
sections, which will be far more conducive to the
happiness and progress of both than an enforced
Union, however large the space it might fill upon
the map, or however dictatorial and offensive the
tone its size might warrant it to assume in its inter-
course with other nations.
There are some of the high officials of the Lincoln
Administration who still entertain their old fashioned
respect for the law and the Constitution, and refuse
to lend themselves on the plea of military necessity
to any attack upon either. Among the number
General Dix stands conspicuous. It was asserted
by a portion of the New York press, when the
General issued his order, No. 80, dated the 28th of
October, in reference to the approaching Presiden-
tial electio'n, that the design of the Government and
of General Dix was to take military possession of
the polling-places on the Canadian frontier on the
Bth of November. The assertion was repeated in
my letter of the 4th of November, and seemed to me
at the time to be justified both by the letter and the
spirit of the " Order." This impression was
strengthened by a subsequent " Order," No. 85,
dated Nov. 2, in which the General appeared to with-
draw from the position he had assumed in consequence
of the unfriendly comments of the press, and speci-
fically notified " that no military force would be
embodied at or in the vicinity of any of the polling
places, and that there should be no interference in
any manner with the right of suffrage." I now
learn on the highest authority, and state upon
that authority, that the previous inference was erro-
neous, and that the precautions ordered to be taken
by General Dix, and the instructions given by him
to the Provost-Marshals and their deputies on the
Canadian frontier and elsewhere within the limits
irel to the
of his military department, related ent y
arrival prior to the Presidential election of refugees,
deserters, marauders, raiders, and enemies of the
Government, who, on the pretence of voting, might
be expected to flock into Federal territory for the
real object of shooting down peaceable citizens and
Plundering private property, as in the recent preda-
tory
incursions on the Detroit river and at St.
Albans, in V ermont. The intention of Order No. 80
was to detect and
or after they Should h
way to interfere with
inti-
midate the voters by thethe
It is gratifying to b
the only meaning persons,
and not in any
punish such rsons, either before
ave voted,
de able to
presence of the military.
election itself, or to inti-
true to the traditions of
y Placed
and that a gentleman so hinthelf
the Republic, state that sch was
Gen. Dix's orders,
his t::: famehe considers
as he is re-
mainspier period of
it a serious imputation upon anadn
ineaa:v
eerrtnndtlya, hviPth-
principle
should have been charged, even •
aggression upon the sacred
right of
that he
the people to the free exercise of the ofsuffrage.the