The Sun.
London, England, 1862-06-17 00:00:00

words that he had a speech ready, that he was dis-

THE CAVIL WAR IN AMERICA.

(From the Times Correspondent.)
NEW YORK, JUNE 4.

Sunday last; for the first time in two months, was
a quiet day in New York. There were no second,
third, or fourth editions of the newspapers hawked
about Broadway by the vociferous and extortionate
young Celts of the Green Isle who monopolise this
branch of business, and bawl themselves house with
the news of defeats and victories. Pezple were dis-
appointed, and went to bed wi'sis the feeling that
they had been defrauded of their usual stimulant.
But the few who remained up till 11 o'clock were
rewarded for their vigilance by the well-known cry
of Young Ireland, announcing a " great victory by
General Ms‘Clellan over the rebels at Richmond."
The detssils were very meagre, but Monday brought
Allies, particulars in the shape of the official
despatch from General M'Clellan to the Secretary
of War, dated " the Field of Battle, Sunday,
June 1, 12 o'clock." The battle took place on the
previous day, on the banks of the Chickahominy,
the attaek having been commenced by the Confede-
rates. General M'Clellan admits it to have been
desperate and bloody ; stigmatises one division of
his army under General Casey as having given
way unaccountably and, " disunitedly," and ends
by claiming a great victory. The Confederates no
doubt claimed the victory also, and with as good
reason, for, like the battle of Shiloh or Pittsburg
Landing; it left both armies as they were in respect
of position—both damaged, and both ready to renew
the struggle on the following day, to take and to
retain Richmond. On Sunday accordingly the fight
Was renewed by the Confederates, and according to
General M'Clellan they were everywhere repulsed,
with a loss which he declares to have been heavy in
his own army, and " enormous " in that of the
enemy, but which subsequent despatches reduce to
300 slain upon his side, and 1,200 of the Confederates
left dead upon the battle-field. During the whole of
the • engagement on Sunday morning Professor
Lowe's balloon hovered over the Federal lines at an
altitude of about 2,000 feet, and maintained success-
ful telegraphic communication with Gen. M'Clellan
at his headquarters. It is asserted that every move-
ment of the Confederate armies was distinctly visi-
ble, and instantaneously reported.
lip to the time of the departure of the steamer
for Liverpool no news has arrived of any re-
newal of the fight, so that the " great victory "
resolves itself for the present into a great skirmish,
in which, according to Federal accounts, the Con-
federates had the worst of it ; but which has not
resulted in any decided advantage to the victors.
Richmond still remains unassailed, and protected
by an army which General M'Clellan admits to be
superior in numbers to his own, but which is
asserted to be, and mssibly is, demoralised and
discouraged, and P;cpare that the ultimate capture
or surrender osl' the city is but a question of a few
days.
Suet is the intense interest excited by the fate of
Richmond--near or remote—that all other war
news, however important, dwindles into insignifi-
canoe compared with it. The rapid and successful
march of General Fremont a hundred miles across
the mountains of Western Virginia to the support
of General Banks would at any other time have
filled the country with delight, but is now passed
over almost unnoticed. General Fremont came up
with the Confederates under Gen. Jackson within
five miles of Strasburg on Sunday, and endeavoured
to force an engagement, but Jackson declined the
offer or the opportunity, and continued his retro-
grade movement, leaving Fremont to occupy Stras-
burg unopposed. It seems probable that the result
of this achievement—the only one of which Fremont
has yet been able to boast, will be his junction with
Banks, the re-occupation by the Federals of the whole
valley of the Shenandoah, and the capture of Jack-
son's army; the same that so scared Washington
and the whole North only eight days ago.
Next to the battle of the Chickahominy, the
evacuation of Corinth by General Beauregard con-
tinues to excite in the highest degree the wonder
and speculation of the public. It is not believed
that Beauregard was confrontea by an enemy so
much more powerful than himself as to render his
further occupation of the place utterly hopeless, or 1
even that his provisions failed him to such an extent
as to make a retrograde movement imperative, but
that the great object of gaining time, and of driv-
ing the war into July and August, when Northern
men are liable to worse diseases in a southern cli-
mate than lassitude, listlessness, and exhaustion,was
the main motive of his masterly movement. Mas-
terly it must be considered, for he was engaged for
more than a fortnight in carrying it into effect
-without exciting the smallest suspicion on the part
of the enemy whose outlying pickets were on speak-
ing terms with his own; and he took away nearly
everything that he needed—stores, ammunition, pro-
visions, letters from the post-office, invalids from
the hospital—everybody, in fact, who desired to go
away, and left behind him only the dogs of the

camp and a few women and old men who were too
infirm or too indifferent to follow his army. General
Halleck has been completely foiled. He had not
the remotest notion up to the moment that Corinth
was occupied by his own army that he would not

have to fight one of the most obstinately bloody

battles of the war; when, as with the stroke of har-
lequin's wand at a pantomime, the foe retreated, no
one knows whither or for what purpose. It will
perhaps take General Halleck three months after
finding out the place to invest the new position as
be did the old. And in the meantime no one knows
what may happen, what Cholera or Yellow Fever
may have done, or whether at the last moment
Beauregard may not make another retreat into
Texas, where it wiil be difficult to follow him.

The part played by the Southern women in the
war has often been remarked. General Butler, at
New Orleans, has found it difficult to deal with
t,144731; and has only made bad worse by his blun-
dering attempt to punish the spiteful enmity
*which he could not prevent. A more powerful
Person than General Butler—the President him-
self, has not
been more fortunate in his efforts to
control the It,
ntrollable tongues of a few fair
rebels; but he 141°
ladiesavoided the General's blunder
and punished
without calling them bad
names or forgettingtrhset
his own position was that
of a gentleman. A
of
tair durance
and some others,
a.
long held in kind
uranee and surveillance
at Washington, to the
great discomfort of every one
who had anything to o with
them, were politely
expelled the city last week,lua!
(-talent:tea nudv.
proper escort to Baltimore, where theywere set at
liberty, with a caution to be discreet;their
gut, havingmuch zeal and no discretion theymaden
theirtrinmph. Having a whole host of sympathisers
amid the belles of Maryland, they took care to let
their arrival be promulgated by the busy voice of
fashion. The result was that they held a great re-
ception all day, and were visited by everybody who
thought himself or herself worthy of being thought
anybody; and that in the evening they were
serenaded by a band that did not play " Yankee
Doodle," " Hail, Columbia," " The Star-spangled
Banner," or any other tune that is supposed to
express or to represent the-martial ardour or national
patriotism of the North.
The hideous enmity of the North against the
South, and we versa, has risen to such a pitch that
scarcely any one in either section of this once great
and free Republic dares to breathe a word in favour
of peace. Millions may secretly prey for it, but so
great is the dread felt by prominent men of the
excited public opinion which raves and roars
around them that few have courage to utter what
many thousands feel. There has, perhaps, been
more courage in this respect in Congress than any-
where else ; for if a free thought—even should it
be an unwelcome, or unpopular one—cannot be
spoken in that Assembly' the liberties of the United
States are already at an end • but even in Congress
one of the representatives of city of New York,
the Hon, Benjamin
of W it is alleged,
o
d
,
a popular man, and
re-electioncer-
tain, whbn his term ex-
pires, is so doubtful ofb.
his reception that he prefers
to print his thoughts rather than to speak them.
He had written out, and was prepared to deliver,
an elaborate argument in favour of conciliation, but,
mistrusting the temper of his auditors and the per-
sonal reception he might meet if he ventured to
stand up in his place and speak of peace, he ow,
.
tented himself by informing the house in Cs

inclined to speak it, and that he requested permis-
sion to have it printed and circulated among the
debates of Congress. The request, which is quite
proper and Parliamentary in Washington, though
somewhat unusual, was at once granted, and the
document has been given to the public and circu-
lated extensively in New York, especially among
the hon. gentleman's constituents. It is a feature
of the tyrannous public opinion of the time that not
one of the daily journals has deemed it expedient to
bestow a word of comment upon it, either in the
shape of approval or of condemnation. The docu-
ment is a very remarkable one, and is creditable to
the courage and patriotism as to the ability of its
author. As a disclosure of the unspoken sentiments
Of thousands of meu, who only await the opportu-
nity to break silence, it has importance here, and
may have some interest in Europe. After depre-
cating any interference with the slave question, or
any aggravation of sectional differences of opinion,
and earnestly calling upon men of all parties to do
their best to heal existing acrimonies, and restore
a free Government, Mr. Wood continues :--
"There may be a craving for martial glories in
the hearts of men, and an instinct of contention
which we share in common with the brute creation.
But if ever there can be a time when a more Chris-
tian impulse should possess our souls it is now; now,
when the triumph and consciousness of strength
give us the noble privilege of extending the hand of
conciliation without fear of degradation, or of self-
reproach for cowardice. If adversity has been our
excuse for sternness, let success be our plea for
magnanimity. Providence has placed within the
reach of the North a greater triumph than count-
less armed legions could conquer ; the triumph of
subduing a brave enemy with a generous and mer-
ciful policy that will disarm resentment and re-
kindle the old brotherly flame that perhaps is not
yet totally extinct. For, after all, thoy are our
brothers, and some softening of the stern Roman
rigour which our rulers have assumed is due to that
brotherhood which by untimely severity may be
cancelled for ever. There are gentlemen who will
say that the South must be subdued; that every
armed Southerner must throw down his weapon
and sue for mercy. Should a freeman ask so much
of his brother-freemen ? Would they be worthy
of companionship in our fraternity, being reclaimed
at such a sacrifice of manly feeling ? What would
you have them do ? Would you have them crouch
and cringe and strew their heads with ashes and
kneel at your gates for readmission ? They are
Americans, and will not do it. No, though Roanoke
and Fort Henry and Fort Donelson should be re-
enacted from day to day through the lapse of bloody
years, they will not do it, Give them some chance
for an honourable return, or you will wipe out every
chance, and the two sections will be twain for ever.
You may link them to each other with chains, and
pin their destinies together with bayonets, but at
heart they will be twain for ever. They are the
' children of the same heroic stock, the joint inheri-

tance with ourselves of the precious legacy of free-
dom ; and it seems a sacrilege and an insult to the
memories of the past that so many, Sir, should sit
in your presence here to-day to goad them on
to desperate resistance, and so few—alas ! so very
few—to mediate and restrain. Of those few I
thank my God that I am one."
It is a pity such noble words were not actualy
spoken to the Assembly they were intended to con-
vince. Mr. Wood was equally eloquent and was
possibly prophetic in the picture he drew of the fate
of the American Union, should no friendly sword
in Europe cut the knot of the difficulty which the
North refuses to untie. " Is it possible," he asked—
, " That gentlemen can hope to reconstruct the
Union by pursuing a policy of unrelenting severity?
Can they expect to re-establish concord and
brotherly love by pushing hostilities to the extreme
verge F What is the Union worth without mutual
respect and reciprocated amity to bind the sections?
What ! a Union of unwilling States, driven into
companionship at the point of the bayonet, and held
there hereafter by military power ! Such a Union
would not be worth the shedding of one brave
man's blood. We want their hearts, or we want
them not at all. And we cannot conquer hearts
with bayonets, although they 'should outnumber the
spears of Xerxes. U not brought back by negotia-
tion, they are gone from us for ever. To conquer
them may be possible. To slay their soldiers, lay
waste their lands, and burn their cities may be
within our power. But to hold them in subjection,
having conquered them, would in itself be a final
repudiation of the first principle of Republicanism.
Prosecute this war until you have established the
necessity of holding a subdued section in subjeciiiii,
and the world will look in vain for a Republic on
the western hemisphere."
Nor is the peroration the least striking part of
the warning voice that Mr. Wood raises in the ears
of his countrymen :

" When the Executive hand, for the first time in
our history, was interposed between the citizen and
his rights, the germ was planted of a danger
mightier than rebellion in its most gigantic phase;
for I believe encroachments by an Executive to be
in itself rebellion against the only sovereignty I
acknowledge—the majesty of the people. I believe
each step towards absolutism to be more fatal to the
welfare of the Republic than any possible act
within the power of the citizen to conceive and
execute. I will resist every grasp that may be
made upon an attribute of sovereignty not hereto-
fore acknowledged to the Chief Magistracy ; for
reason and instinct, no less than the fearful ex-
amples that history has furnished from the ashes of
republics, teach me that the first step, unchecked,
will not be the last, but only the precursor of those
giant strides by which, over the necks of betrayed
freemen, ambitious men have mcunted to a throne.
We want a Union, Sir, of Sovereigns, not of subjects.
And that our Government shall extend over a vast
area to me is of less moment than that it should be
purely, and strictly, and unequivocally Republican,
at all times and under all conditions."
Mr. Wood is right, though his countrymen lag
far behind him. This is the view of matters that all

men not blinded by passion have long since taken
—the view of all the impartial and clear-sighted
observers abroad, who owe the Union no allegiance,
but who wish it well, and would regret to see so
fair an experiment of liberty as it once seemed
ruined for ever by the madness of a moment. The
time has not yet come when Americans may speak
out ; but it may come sooner than is generally
1,....,:,&...a.
The position of the " irrepressible negro" is ever
thrusting itself upon public attention. The war
has been ostensibly commenced on his behalf, and
the rights and wrongs of poor Sambo, who seems
personally to care very little about the matter, or,
if he have any likings at all, seems to like his
Southern master better than his Northern friend,
are continually canvassed by angry patriots, the
greet bulk of whom wish most devoutly that there
were
no neoes
the emeeo
mass of tile anywhere except
Northern people do not care a straw for
were they ZZ,
011 of the blacks in the South, and
t free. to-morrow would commence a
social crusadwen
sit them if they turned their
faces northwards,
of which the result might be
more awful to the race
than the slavery to which
the South has doomed it
eiav ery and
should
all that they All that the Northern
people have hitherto desired,
de-
sire even now, is that
owt
are ith alarm
made
r
ln%
.They look
be confined
within its existing limits.
and disgust at all the propositions tha
from time to time by the Abolitionists for
the slaves against their masters, and with adi sap_
g
proval at the more moderate proposal of enroli
regiments of free blacks to servo under Tie
---(01ellaie
and Halleck, or wherever else they might be made
useful. If they entertain at all the idea of arming
the slaves, it is only to put it aside as premature--
a thing not to be thought of except as an expedient
to be reserved for the last extremity of national
peril; and only to be adopted even then with re-
pugnance and a
deprecation of the world's unfa-
vourable judgment that they should resort to so
desperate an expedient. But, although this is the
present feeling of the North, the popular passion
for conquest grows so much fiercer as the war
widens, that the minor
Proposition of arming the
free blacks is not received with the same disfavour
as before, and has at last found supporters in the
Council Chamber of the President, klor the last