The Sun.
London, England, 1865-04-07 00:00:00

AMERICA.

THE CONFEDERATE CONGRESS ON CONFEDE.
RATE PROSPECTS.

The Congress of the Confederate States has
issued an appeal to the Southern people, from which
the following passages are extracted :
Our absolute surrender and submission to the
will of the con peror are the only conditions vouch-
safed by our arrogant foe. We are told that if we
will lay down our arms and place our lives, liberty,
property, and domestic institutions at the feet of
President Lincoln, he will be merciful to us.
Upon his clemency we must rely to save us from
universal confiscation and extermination. Yes ;
these are the conditions upon which the people
of the sovereign States composing this Confe-
deracy may be allowed to do—what ? To return
into the Union from which they solemnly and
deliberately withdrew themselves because their
interests and their honour required it, and
their repugnance .to which for years of remorseless
and cruel war have served to intensify. Thanks be
to God, who controls and over-rules the counsels of
men, the haughty insolence of our enemies, which
they hoped would intimidate and break the spirit of
our people, is producing the very contrary effect.
From every part of the country there comes up in
response a shout of mingled indignation and defi-
ance. A noble enthusiasm re-animates our gallant
army, who have been battling so long for freedom
and independence. Let us all be united now. Let
there be no parties or factions amongst us. Let us
rise to the height of the great occasion. Let us all
be willing to spend and be spent in the cause of our
country. Let us contribute freely all that we have, if
need be, to carry on the war until our final triumph
is secured. Let us take fraternal counsel together,
and calmly consider our conditions and prospects.
Such a survey, we believe, must tend to re-assure
and encourage even the less sanguine. The extent
of our territory, the food-producing capacity
of our soil, the amount and character of our popu-
lation, are elements of strength which, carefully
husbanded and wisely employed, are amply suffi-
cient to insure our final triumph. The passage of
hostile armies through our country, though produc-
tive of cruel suffering to our people, and great
pecuniary loss, gives the enemy no permanent ad-
vantage or foothold.. To subjugate a country, its
civil government must be suppressed by a continu-
ing military force, or supplanted by another, to
which the inhabitants• yield a voluntary or forced
obedience. The passage of hostile armies through
our territory cannot produce this result. Perma-
nent garrisons would have to be stationed at a
sufficient number of points to strangle all civil
government before it could be pretended,
even by the United States Government it-
self, that its authority was extended over these
states. How many garrisons would it require?
How many hundred thousand soldiers would
suffice to suppress the civil government of all the
states of the Confederacy, and to establish over
them, even in name and form, the authority of the
United States ? In a geographical point of view,
therefore, it may be asserted that the conquest of
these Confederate States 'is impracticable. If we
consider the food producing capacity of our soil, we
need feel no apprehension as to our ability to feed
the people and any army we may put into the field.
Although the occupation by the enemy of his ruthless
policy of destroying the harvest, granaries, and
agricultural implements of our people wherever he
moves, has, undoubtedly, diminished the amount of
our cereals ; still, in view of the fact that in every
state, without exception, its agricultural labour
has been devoted almost exclusively to the raising
of breadstuffs (while, before the war it was
mainly devoted to the production of cotton,
tobacco, and other exports), it is impossible
to doubt that there is an ample supply of
food in the country. Our transportation, it is
true, is defective and inadequate, but this may be
indefinitely improved by more energetic efforts and
more thorough and systematic organisation. We
cannot believe, therefore, that on our bountiful soil,
so richly blessed by nature, there is any danger of
our failing in this great contest for want of food—
of our being starved into submission to the hateful
yoke of the conqueror The people of the
United States are becoming weary of this war.
The foreign material for their armies is beginning
to fail them. The mutterings of discontent at the
prospect of a further draft upon their home popu-
lation are beginning to be heard in their large
cities. The prospects of a war, indefinitely pro-
longed, is alarming their capitalists. Public credit
must sooner or later collapse under the burden
of expenditures, the magnitude of which the
most skilful financier cannot venture to predict.
Success gives us a country and a proud position
among the nations of .the earth. Failure makes us
the vassals of an arrogant people, secretly, if not
openly, hated by the most enlightened and elevated
portions of mankind. Success records us for ever
in letters of light upon one of the most glorious
pages of history. Failure will compel us to drink
the cup of humiliation even to the bitter dregs of
having the history of our struggle written by New
England historians ! Success is within our reach.
We have toiled and panted onward nearly to the goal.
We have almost grasped the costly price of inde-
pendence—never won except through anguish and
blood. The crown stands ready to encircle the fair
brow of our young republic. Theshades of our
martyred heroes hover over us and beckon us on.
The fearful entreaties of our mothers, wives, and
daughters, to save them from nameless horrors,
urge us forward. Will we pause ? Can we falter ?
Will we allow the weapons which • the God of
battles hal so often directed to the smiting of the de-
spoilers of our homes now to drop from our nerveless
hands ? Shall we be discouraged by the superior
number of the enemy?

The battle to the strong
Is not given,
While the Judge of right and wrong
Sits in Heaven !
The God of David still
Guides the pebble at his will ;
There are giants yet to kill,
Wrongs unshriven.
But the enemy has already put forth his utmost
strength. He has made his most gigantic effort.
He has strained his energies to their greatest ten-
sion. He has taxed his resources to their utmost
limit. He is almost spent and breathless with his
tremendous exertions. Let us stand firm. Let us
he calm and resolute. Let us show that our faith
is in our cause and in His guidance, who shapes the
destinies of nations—" is fixed and cannot
move." In that faith, and with humble reliance
on that'guidance, let us hope all things, endure all
things ; and when we strike the invaders of our
country, let religion, patriotism, love, honour, noble
pride—every sentiment sacred and dear to the heart
of man—nerve our arms and give vigour to the
blow. Then shall we conquer the peace for which
we all so ardently yearn. Thus shall we make the
memories of our slaughtered sons and brothers glori-
ous and immortal. Thus shall we compel the nations
of the earth to receive and welcome us among them.
Thus shall we make the plough and the reaping
hook replace the cannon and the sword, and our
ravaged fields smile once more with teeming har-
vests. Thus shall we return our devoted soldiers to
their long-abandoned homes, and enable our people
once more to sit each under his own vine and fig
tree, with none to make them afraidiThu4 Phan w 6,