The Sun.
London, England, 1862-11-27 00:00:00

AMERICAN AFFAIRS.

The proverbial gratitude of republics receives another
illustration in the case of Gen. M'Clellan, who, whatever
his former shortcomings, has of late deserved well of his
country. The pretext assigned for his removal is plainly
insincere, for how came disobedience to a positive order of
the 6th October to leave him still in command for many
weeks ? Nor could it be the interests of the country, for
Burnside possesses no pretensions that could outweigh so
grave an evil as change of eotnmand in the midst of mill.
cal operations. The small successes he obtained on the
coast came to an end as soon as gunboats ceased to be avail-
able. At the battle of Sharpsburgh his delay in attacking
the right wing of the Confederates was fatal to success. On
the other hand, M'Clellan's advance from Washington
after Pope's crushing defeat, and his operations in Mary-
lany, are more creditable to the North than any incidents
of the war ; they saved it, indeed, from sinking into imme-
diate ruin. His talent for organisation and possession of
the confidence of the army go for nothing where fitness for
office is excluded from all consideration.
The very cause assigned for the removal of M'Clellan is
one that does credit to his judgment. It was essential to
the purposes of the North that the battle of Sharpsburgh
should be regarded as a victory. By ingeniously mixing
up in the despatches the results of the prior engagement on
the South Mountain—in which a Confederate division was
driven back with loss—the colour of a victory was imparted
to it. Gen. Lee, with equal precision, might have proved
it a defeat, by throwing into a description of it the prisoners
and guns of Harper's Ferry. But, whatever the exigencies
of the Washington censorship—and they compelled the
suppression of his detailed report—M'Clellan no doubt
knew well that he had sustained a very damaging repulse.
He tried the experiment of crossing the Potomac at once,
and paid dearly for it. To have thrown forward that mass
of half-disciplined men, shattered in an engagement that
deprived them of 13 Generals; to have pushed them at
once into a hostile country, in pursuit of an enemy able to
move with greater celerity, superior in cavalry, and pos.
sessed of exclusive information, and this at a season when
decisive advantage was hopeless, and the final check would
be fatal—this would have been to carry his army straight
into the jaws of ruin. In no instance has M'Clellan served
his country so well as in the caution by which he has pre-
served the army for the North at the sacrifice of his own
repute.
His dismissal immediately upon the triumph of the Con-
servative party, who had unwisely asscciated his name with
their cause, indicates an intention at Washington to defy
public opinion, and take advantage of the possession of
office to carry out their own views. Much they can con-
trol ; but not times and seasons, snow or rains, and unless
Burnside be prepared to make war with an eye to the Money
Market only, he will have to go into winter quarters as
M'Clellan intended to do, for his recent advance was plainly
but a military promenade to divert public impatience, and
once in winter quarters what can the country gain by this
change ? Reorganisation will then be the only duty, and
in this M'Clellan peculiarly excelled. The measure
will widen at once the divisions that exist, with this fur-
ther effect,—that the defeat or success of the army will cease
to be a matter thoroughly national, and become one of hope
or fear to contending factions. It is written, " A house
divided against itself cannot stand." Nor can the inmates
of such a house be well prepared to go out to war against
their neighbours.
This disunion of the North has existed all along, although
hitherto latent, and strange it is that it should exist among
a people who arc shedding all this blood to force union upon
others. An advocate or friend of the Federals, second to
none in earnestness or ability, has just told us that Ameri-
can freedom is "a sham." Long ago Channing observed,
" The age of individual action is gone. Truth can hardly
be heard, unless shouted by a crowd." When the age of
individual action is gone that of individual thought is gone.
It is the inevitable result of Democracy, when attempted
on so vast a scale, that the minority becomes abject, the
majority despotic. The essence of freedom, its completeness
in the individual man, becomes extinguished, and men move
no longer by the guidance of reason and choice, but as fish
move in a shoal, by the volition of the mass. And what
single principle has been urged in support of this war of
subjugation that is not a " sham" or a delusion ? Take the
spirit of nationality. Is it this spirit that is developed in
German generals and Irish soldiers; that has now recruit-
ing agents in Europe to decoy all manner of foreigners;
that requires a conscription to force men from their homes
or bribe mercenaries to fight for them ? Take the principle
of emancipation—that love of the distant negro that legis-
lates to forbid his presence, and schemes to transport him
as a convict ; that beholds in him an angel in theory, but
treats him as a leper in practice ; that forbids slavery in terri-
tories where it cannot exist, but is ready to foster it where
it flourishes ; that, denouncing it as a curse, proposes to free
the wicked from it, but to leave it still clinging to the righ-
teous; that in one district reviles it as "the sum of all
villanies," and in another offers it as a bonus or reward for
loyalty. As a matter of principle surely nothing so hollow,
so ludicrous as this, was ever recorded in history! And
what of another principle alleged,—reverence for the
Union P Where is the union among those who are fight-
ing to impose union upon others ? If all the nations of
Europe were thrown together, there would be no discord-
ance so virulent, no such disunion as exists within the
North itself, between Democrat and Abolitionist, between
New York and Massachusetts. There are honest men swept
along by these delusions, but as regards the infinite majo-
rity, they are merely pretexts to cloak passion, pride, and
self-interest, and to blind those in Europe who fail to see
through them.
The result of the election in Illinois is peculiarly signifi-
cant, as that is Mr. Lincoln's State. The fact of his being
a Western President contributed greatly to the popularity
of the war in the West in its early days, when that State
assumed the title of the "war nest of the North." Its
population being largely of foreign birth it sent an enor-
mous force to the army in the field. The tax-gatherer has
not yet appeared there, and paper money is abundant. In
spite of all this, the Government is defeated in the most
emphatic manner. The Americans are not a people to be
sent from their homes into political dungeons at the mere
pleasure of Mr. Stanton's " live men" without coming to
dislike such a system, nor have they so entirely forgotten
the principles of their origin and constitution as to see them
repudiated and despised without impatience. The most
Important consideration now is to determine what position
to assign to the victorious party as it concerns the continu-
ance of the war.
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store the Union. But peace on the basis of a re-union
would be scouted by the Southerners. They would make
the reply we received in our attempt to treat with the first
Congress—that after Independence should be admitted they
would treat on other points, but not till then. You very
justly observe that the war for the restoration of the Union
thash
many
ments that severed it continue in force, while others are
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their independence in the face of the world, and shedding
their best blood to defend it, they will abandon it as the
first fruits of success. They would instantly reject and de-
cline to discuss any plan w
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of Europe encourages them to petsevere, for refusal of re-
cognition, in the face of the sufferings endured, must be re-
garded as proof of doubt in the European mind, as to the
issue of the contest. Of this doubt they will naturally give
y g
themselves the benefit. Before mediation can be accepted,
the Northern mina must arrive at a condition and tem-
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fruitless. European recognition needs no one's acquies.