The Sun.
London, England, 1862-08-22 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.

(From the Times' Correspondent.) ,
NEW YORK, AUG. 8.

The " monster" meetings at New York, Chicago,
Milwaukie, Boston, and other cities having failed
to give any appreciable impetus to the voluntary
war movement, a more imposing meeting was sum-
moned in Washington, at which it was announced
that the President himself would speak. It was
held on Wednesday afternoon, in the East Capitol-
square. The papers report that " spirited resolu-
tions" with "the right ring in them" were passed
amid the " unbounded enthusiasm of the people."
One journal describes the number as "immense,"
but ventures upon no precise estimate ; a second is
of opinion that there must have been at least 10,000
people present; while a third declares "that 10,000
ears" listened to the speeches of the distinguished
orators. This last is a mode of putting the case
which would reduce the audience to 5,000. This is
probably a correct estimate of the number, and was
a very large audience for a hot afternoon in the
sweltering streets of the national capital. The Pre-
sident made a short speech,which was neither vigor-
ous, patriotic, nor to the purpose. The gist of it
was that there was no quarrel between General
M'Clellan and Mr. Stanton; that both of them
wished to be successful, and that if either of them,
and more especially Mr. Stanton, had committed
any errors, he (Mr. Lincoln) was responsible. A
few eloquent words, inciting the people to enrol
themselves in the national army, might have had a
powerful effect at such a time ; but Mr. Lincoln's
dignity, or prudence, or modesty,or timidity,or some
other quality of his mind, forbade or prevented the
utterance, and his presence at the meeting was, in
consequence,of no more value than that of a dummy.
And, as regards the question of responsibility, it is
beginning to force itself upon the popular mind
that the President makes himself responsible for
too much, and that his undoubted honesty and
singleness of purpose are not sufficient to inspire
the army or the country with the assurance of vic-
tory. But if the President's speech was flat and
tame, the same condemnation cannot be passed on
the speech of Mr. Wendell Phillips in another
place and on another occasion. Anything more vio-
lent it is scarcely possible to imagine ; and anything
more daring in a time of civil war was never per-
petrated in any country by a sane man who valued
his life or liberty. In reading the speech, which
was delivered at Abington, in Massachusetts, in
celebration of the emancipation of the slaves in the
British West Indies, it is scarcely possible to avoid
coming to the conclusion that the speaker's object
was to force the Government to prosecute him. He
declared that there was no fear that Richmond
would be taken; that M'Clellan was not the man
to do it ; that it would be better the South
should be let go than that another life should
be lost in prolonging the war upon the present
detestable policy ; that the President was a tor-
toise and a turtle; that England ought to recog-
nise the Southern Confederacy ; that Mr. Lincoln
might be honest, but that he had neither fore-
thought nor foresight ; that he was a first•rate
second-rate man ; that he was a mere convenience;
that he was a broomstick that the people ought to
take hold of and sweep slavery out of the land with ;
that he was without a backbone; that he could not
say No " that the Union ought to be dissolved,
and the corner-gone of a new one laid, on which
should be engraven for ever the words "Equality,
in a political sense, for every man who is born into
the world ; " that M'Clellan was never known to
decide anything ; that his failing in this respect was
notorious at Chicago, where he was a railroad offi-
cial; that he was a " do-nothing;" and that he
could have taken Richmond on five separate occa-
sions had he pleased. All these sharp hits, and
many others of almost equal bitterness, were inter-
spersed through his speech, and people have been
asking each other in the streets what Mr. Seward or
Mr. Stanton will do under the circumstances. The
inquiry is not at all unreasonable, the more espe-
cially as since the speech was published the editors
and proprietors of the Union and Patriot, a journal
published at Harrisburg, the State capital of Penn-
sylvania, have been arrested by order of the War
Department for printing placards discouraging en-
listments. And does not Mr. Wendell Phillips dis-
courage enlistments? To imprison a few obscure
editors in an obscure town, to compel the poor
painter Gregory to take his choice of Fort Lafayette
or the battlefield for such very mild treason as he
vented under the influence of whisky, or to prose-
cute Mr. Gordon and his sons for the indiscreet
expression of his Southern sympathies, and to per-
mit Mr, Phillips, without the stimulus of whisky
or the excuse of social and confidential intercourse,
to address such words to a large audience, for the
purpose of having them reported and reproduced in
every part of the country, is certainly not even-
handed injustice. Mr. Phillips, according to the
statements of those who know him, is anxious to
do battle with the Government on the question of
slavery or no slavery ; but there is very little chance
that he will be gratified with a public prosecution.
He may be sent without trial to Fort Lafayette or
Fort M'Henry, to share the fate of General Stone,
who has been in durance for nearly a twelvemonth,
for no crime of which he is conscious ; but this is
not what the great Abolitionist wishes. He wants
a public trial ; but, as the public trial of a man of
his mark would stir up the Churches and the tea-
tables of New England to a pitch of fury that would
be inconvenient just now, Mr. Phillips's martyr-
dom, if it be resolved upon, will doubtless be in-
flicted sub szlentio.

Though the speeches at the Washington war
meeting were not of the calibre of Mr. Phillips's,
the ten resolutions unanimously carried were as
violent as even Mr. Phillips could have wished.
The first was to the effect that the citizens of Wash-
ington and the district of Columbia would
iiroseeute the war until their homes and cities
were reduced to ashes, their fields made deso-
late, and the whole country converted into a desert.
The remaining nine approved the confiscation of
rebel Property, the execution or perpetual exile of
all traitors, North or South, and more especially of
the expulsion of all sympathizers with the rebellion,
male or female, who infested the city of Washing-
ton. Altogethear,rv:ryeported in the papers, it was a
great meeting, n
" unanimous;" and the re-
solutions were of the choicest "buncombe" that the
war has produced; but as men are wanted to fight,
and not to talk or to listen to talking its value can
only be estimated by the numb —,
er of volunteers ex- I
cited to the fighting or enlisting point bye
passed, the reso-
lutions and speeches. Ten resolutions wer
and if each did not produce at least 10 recruits it
can scarcely be said by the most enthusiastic
patriot that the meeting fulfilled the hope
or the
promise of its originators.
New York during the last three days has been in
an unpleasant fever. The excitement among all
classes except the negroes, who are not affected by
the conscription, has been hard to bear at any time,
and especially in the dog-days. Such of the native-
born Americans as are hale and hearty, and clearly
within the limits prescribed by the law, are re-
signed
i
signed to the infliction of paying for substitutes f
the lot falls upon them ; but the large class to whom
money is an object, and who are sufficiently super-
annuated in appearance to look as if they ought to
be exempt from service, have rushed to the City
Hall in numbers that, tf they were soldiers, might
make M'Clellan's eyes glisten with pleasure, but
which, as they are only skulkers, might cause his
lip to curl with a very different feeling. Chronic
rheumatism, heart disease, tendency to apoplexy,
Spinal complaints, consumption, and many other
well-known diseases have suddenly assumed very
aggravated forms, and the surgeons of the city have
done a lucrative business during the week in cer-
tifying to the facts. Gentlemen who last Friday
were well pleased to pass for 35, or 40 at the
utmost, are this Friday dissatisfied to be thought
less than 47 or 48. Many flowing beards that
were glossy black before the proclamation, became
gray or white the night
afterwards, for grief, it
is to be charitably supposed, at the erils and sor-
rows of the Republic. A new branch of business
has been improvised to
accommodate these and
other citizens who have no stomach for the fight,
and no love for the salt pork, bad 'water, and perils
of the camp ; and the avenues of the City Hall are
shysters," by sham attorneys, called in

the American vernacular, who instruct applicants
how and where to procure printed forms of exemp-
tion-papers, and how to fill them up, charging fees,
varying from 25c. to a couple of dollars, according
to the personal appearance or presumed wealth or
inexperience of the applicants. And women, not
quite so patriotic as those of the South, have ap-
peared among the crowd in lieu of their husbands,
to claim exemption for them, on the ground that
they are insurable drunkards, and therefore in-
eligible and unfit to serve—an allegation of which
the truth or the falsehood must be equally un-
acceptable to the Federal Government.
Among the Irish population the trouble and per-
plexity have been much greater than among the
Americans. The office of the British Consul has
been encumbered from morning to night by Celtic
multitudes desirous of protection, on the plea
that they are still British subjects, who have never
renounced their nationality. General Meagher
has been doing his utmost by means of really
eloquent speeches to reclaim these wandering
sheep to the Hiberno-American fold, but without
any signal success. The Irish might, perhaps, be
induced to fight against England and France, or in
any other war that could be called a foreign aggres-
sion against the United States, but they seem to
have a strong, if not invincible, reluctanee to fight
against the South, or to be mixed up any further
in hostilities, the ultimate results of which may be
the emancipation of the negroes. It may be taken
for certain that the Irish, as a body, will in all cases
where they have not been duly naturalised, or have
voted in the political or municipal elections of this
country, fall back upon their British nationality.
The circumstances are peculiar, and if the British
Government were only half as unfriendly to the
Federal Government as the United States were
to Great Britain during the Crimean war, when
they expelled the British Ambassador from
Washington for an alleged breach of the Enlist-
ment Act, the two nations would be involved in
hostilities at a very early date from the enforcement
of the draught; and is not only those Irish who
are legally British subjects, but those who are
naturalised citizens of the United States, who object
to other participation in the war than the payment
of taxes towards its prosecution. Hundreds have
either gone already, or are preparing to go, to
Canada, to avoid service in the Federal army, and
not only Canada, but Australia presents itself to
their minds as a preferable abode to the United
States under existing circumstances ; and to such
an extent has the feeling spread among them that
the few shipping offices in this city which have
direct communication with Australia are unable to
offer even deck accommodation to the numbers of
intending passengers.
The Germans are as alert, though not quite so
angry, as the Irish ; and the consular offices of such
States as the German Confederation as have agents
in this city are thronged by people, to whom the
privilege of American citizenship has no present
charms, and will not have until the war is con-
cluded. But, as the conscription is not so much of
a novelty to the Germans as to the Irish or the
Americans, they do not inveigh against it as un-
constitutional or arbitrary. They merely seem to
think it unnecessary, and refuse to conform to it,
even though the penalty should be their voluntary
expatriation to British America. Among the Ger-
mans who have not applied for exemption papers
the prospect of promotion from the ranks which is
promised in the proclamation is the point of attrac-
tion, and doubtless this class, well disposed to war
as a trade, will make haste to enrol themselves in
the volunteer army during the seven days of grace
that yet remain to those who are covetous of bounty
money.
It may cause surprise in England, but creates
none here, where everybody knows the political as
well as transitory nature of every appointment
made in the Post-office and the Custom-house, and,
indeed, in every department of the public service,
to learn that every clerk in the first of those esta-
blishments has been officially called upon to sub-
scribe to a bounty fund for recruits. As the penalty
of non-compliance—well understood, though not
expressed—was dismissal, 5,000 dollars were in
one day subscribed at the Post .office, only one
person refusing. Doubtless this solitary indepen-
dent will have learnt before this that indepen-
dence is a luxury which he was unwise to afford
himself. Nor is this the only turn of the offi-
cial screw round the necks of these unhappy
persons: Turn the second, which may prove
more excruciating than the first, has made them
sorrowfully aware that, although the law exempts
them from personal service in the army, the Post-
master " expects that before the 15th inst. they will
each of them procure the enlistment of at least one
man," and that the will " return the circular notify-
ing them of the fact back again to the office with
the name of the person enrolled, certified to by some
proper recruiting officer," The authorities of the
Customhouse are urged to adopt the same course
with their still more numerous employes, and no
doubt they will comply, if they have not already
done so. Thus every clerk in the Government ser-
vice in New York will be compelled to become a
recruiting officer for the next week, or risk the loss
of his situation. And if he fail in persuading a
volunteer—which he is very likely to do—and fail
at the same time in persuading the tyrannical Post-
master that he did his best under the circumstances,
the best course for the poor clerk to pursue, if he be
sound of wind and limb, and of the proper age, will
be to resign his place, turn volunteer himself, and
pocket the bounty money. But if he is above the
age, or physically incapacitated, his case will he
hard indeed, and one not at all calculated to inspire
him with increased love for the free institutions
under which it is his privilege to be persecuted.
The screw has also been put on the police force,
but, as they are fine, strapping fellows, Eft, high
every man of them, and well paid for doing little,
except helping ladies into and out of omnibuses in
Broadway, and firing revolvers at drunken men
who attempt to escape from their custody, they are
entitled to much sympathy. They number 2,300
men, and have been officially called upon, in a
printed circular issued by the President of the
Police Board, " to bear a portion of the public bur-
den, either by going into the field themselves, or
contributing to the support of those who do." If
they volunteer to fight, their places in the police
are to be kept vacant for them until the war is over
or they are honourably discharged. If they will
not, or cannot, endure the glory and hardship of
the camp, they are "invited" (commanded) to con-
tribute on next payday, according to a prescribed
scale varying with their rank, from 8 dols. to 20
dols. each. Surely the Government does not ima-
gine that it will make the war popular by means
like these ! And, if the war be not popular, can it
last for three months?
And, as regards popularity, what is to be thought
of the news that comes from the Great West, which
hasbeen hitherto the main feeder of the Federal
armies ? If the West does not respond to the call,
therel ng
Ila
ma
. reconcile itself to the draught with more will-
than New York and the middle States,
ust either
_ be peace with the South or a re-
volution in North. The symptoms at St. Louis,
in Missouri, where the State te Militia was called out
by the Governor, Wereie
Ominous of mischief. To-day
a still more startling incident
ea„11.01 to the effect that a
is recorded by the
citizenslegraph faretrLint
Pleasant, in Missouri,
a
eclreocstvrdicofte
to resist the con-
collision had
con-
scription; p
ti boundon;
ththaetmaselves togesiaeleras
occurred between
them and the State troops, who
were ordered to dis-
perseand that several were killed
onbotthheirsimdeese.tin ;
There was already disaffection
enough in Missouri, Tennessee, and Kantueky to
call for the presence of an army of 100,000 in each
of these States to enforce loyalty to the Union nt
the bayonet's point; and it certainly did not require
such an element of as the conscription to
increase the unfriendliness of the people. If pre-
sent appearances in those States are not deceptive,
all the men that the Government is likely to pro-
cure from the combined operation of the bounty and
the draught will not be too many to retain them in
allegiance.
And all this time both M'Clellan and Butler are
in urgent need of reinforcements. Butler's position
is believed to be peculiarly
critical. Guerilla bands
are everywhere increasing on the Border. The South
has silently constructed half-a-dozen war flips as