The Sun.
London, England, 1862-10-11 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.

(From the Times' Correspondent.)
NEW YORK, SEPT. 26.

The, President's proclamation, emancipating the
slaves in all States in insurrection, without refer-
esca to the loyalty of their owners, though promis-
ing compensation to such of them as can prove that
they never aided, abetted, or comforted the rebels,
has created a very bad feeling in this city. Though I
not a decree of universal emancipation—for any
slaveholding State that remains in the Union and
appoints representatives to Congress in the usual
manner may continue to keep slaves as long as it
pleases—it has alarmed the conservative sentiment
of the country, and gone far to show that the
threat of Gen. Butler at New Orleans of a servile
war, to be provoked and inaugurated, if not ex-
pressly recommended by the Chief Magistrate, was
premature but not unfounded. Wall-street is in a
flutter of painful excitement, and gold, the baro-
meter of its fears, has gone up to 21 per cent. prem.
Though many persons hold that the proclamation
will be inoperative, the large majority of people be-
yond the narrow boundaries of New England, who
have no social, political, or economic sympathy with
negroes, believe that its effect will be to embitter
and prolong the war; and that it will lead to com-
plications in the North of worse augury for the
triumph of the Federal cause than the armed hosti-
lity of the South. It is evident that the President
has not taken this step of his own free will. In his
address to the representatives of the Border States,
immediately prior to the adjournment of Congress,
he warned those gentlemen that a pressure might
be brought to bear up)n him by the Abolitionist
party which he might be unable to resist, and so
lately as the 13th inst., only nine days before he
finally committed himself to the Abolitionist party,
he expressed to a deputation from Chicago his
doubts whether a proclamation of emancipation
would do any good, and stated, more euo, his objec-
tion to issue a document " that the whole world
would see to be necessarily as inoperative as the
Pope's Bull against a comet."

At the same interview he admitted he had thought
for weeks and even for months upon the subject,
and that he Was approached by men of different
opinions, some defending and some opposing the
institution of slavery, but both proclaiming " their
certainty that they represented the Divine Will."
As both could not be right, he thought that God
was just as likely to reveal His will to him as to
them, and told the deputation that he earnestly
desired to know the will of Providence in the
matter, and would act upon it if he could but
learn it with certainty." But nine days after these
simple-minded and very remarkable admissions,
and without claiming the inspiration of any new
light from Heaven, he made a movement towards
indiscriminate emancipation by publishing the peril-
ous halfway proclamation which has created as much
alarm as a defeat of M'Clellan would have done, and
far more perplexity and discouragement. The defeat
of 111,Clellan would have but aroused the North to
the display of a more obstinate energy, and sent an
additional quarter of a million of men to the war ;
but the proclamation has darkened counsel with
vain words, made the South a more cohesive unit
than before, and split up the North more hopelessly
than ever.

While the legality of the document is question-
able, its impolicy is most unquestionable. Its re-
sults in Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, and even
in Maryland, may yet turn the scales of victory in
favour of the South ; and in the North itself they
may prove the germ of intestine strife that not even
peace between North and South will deprive of
vitality. But in taking this momentous step Mr.
Lincoln does not appear to be quite convinced in his
own mind that he was right. He speaks like a man
who was over persuaded by acuter logicians or more
pertinacious disputants than himself, like one upon
whose weaker mind the impress was made by strong
external agencies, against which he had not the in-
nate and irresistible conviction to contend. He re-
ceived the honours of a serenade from the Aboli-
tionists of Washington the evening after the pro-
clamation appeared, and addressed the crowd from
one of the windows of the White Ronne in e. tew
melancholy and almost desponding words. Allud-
ing to the proclamation as the only possible cause
of the unusual compliment conferred on him, he
declared that what he had done he had done after
very full deliberation and under a very heavy and
solemn sense of responsibility. "I can only trust
in God," he added, " that I have made no mistake.
In my position I am environed with difficulties."
Hard indeed would be the heart that would not
sympathise with Mr. Lincoln in the sore trials with
which he is beset by open enemies, by false friends,
and by foolish sllpporters. He offers to the world
the spectacle wlich the heathen philosopher affirmed
to be pleasing to the gods—that of a good man
struggling; with adversity.
But n.o impartial student of the great events in
which he plays so prominent a part can give him
eredli4 for persistent vigour, great capacity, or sound
ior'Agment. His vigour is spasmodic; he mistrusts
himself continually. He assumes responsibilities
That do not rightfully pertain to him. He plays
.fast and loose with high principles. He acts despo-
tically, without the force which can alone make des-
potism respectable. He is as weak and vacillating
a 3 Charles I. or Louis XVI., and does quite as much
mischief with the best of intentions as those un-
happy Sovereigns. He would have made an excel-
lent Governor for the State of Illinois, but hard fate
lias converted him into an unfortunate and ineffi-
cient President. It remains to be seen whether,
having yielded as far as he has done to the party
that has given up all hope of conciliating the South,
and that looks to its subjection by fire and
sword, and the extermination, if need be, of
the whole of the slaveholding population, as the
only solution of existing difficulties, he will hold
firm at his present stand-point. Whatever he may
do or think on the matter, it is certain that the
Abolitionists will strive to impel him onwards.
Hard theorists are not to be mollified, except by
the full triumph of their theory. They applaud
half measures for a little time, just as they ap-
prove the insertion of the thin point of the wedge ;
but it is the necessity of their position, as well as
of their theory, to drive the wedge home, and
to be unsatisfied while anything remains to be
done. Hence their cry must be for emancipa-
tion full and complete, with compensation if the
South should yield ; without compensation if it
should persist in the struggle. The cry has not yet
been raised, lest it should embarrass and frighten
the President, but it is as certain to be heard at its
appointed time as night is to follow day.
But no one, whether Abolitionist or not, asks
what shall be done with the negroes after emanci-
pation, except Mr.
Lincoln. And he knows of no
better course to Pursue than to expatriate them by
wholesale, whether
they like or dislike the process.
What can come et each 'wisdom as this but confusion
and defeat
In view of the certain extension of the war con-
sequent upon the proclamation, the President is
said to be meditating the propt
ietY of calling for the
levy of a reserve force of halt
million of men.
They will all be needed. The existing armies of the
Republic are manifestly insufficient for theztkioi:.
hand, if the North retains its purpose of nut
The swarms of volunteers raised since the com-
mencement of the war have been so vast as to sass
surprise at their numbers and admiration for the
patriotism of the people that could so readily
organize, equip, and send to battle such enormous
hosts ; but it is scarcely less a matter of surprise
and wonder to know what has become of them.
General M'Clellan is reported to have had no more
than 90,000 men at the battles of Sharpsburg and
Antietam, General Butler has not more than
10,000 at New Orleans. General Buell is believed
to have scarcely 60,000 in Kentucky. Popular be-
lief assigns to General Mitchell, in North Carolina,
20,000; and to General Wadsworth about 50,000
men for the defence of Washington, and there may
be as many as 50,000 more under various officers,
distributed in other parts of the country, from
even
i
Baltimore to St. Louis. If these figures be
approximately correct, the Federal armies, nde-
pendent of the new levies, few or none of which
have been despatched beyond the limits of
the States in which they were enrolled, must
number less than 280,000 men. This is an immense i