The Sun.
London, England, 1861-10-15 00:00:00

forward with such an army as would suffice to
beat his enemies on the field and prevent their
reassembling in his rear and flanks by putting
forces as he passed along in all the principal
cities strong enough to overcome the populace and
defend themselves. Such must be the military ope-
ration in Missouri, where it is obvioui a large pro-
portion of the population is hostile or indifferent.
Now, it is for Gen. Fremont to show that he could
not have done what was done by Lord Clyde, and I
do not think he will fail in the proof, however diffi-
cult it may be for him to demonstrate that he could
not have helped Col. Mulligan. Into the great
Blair-cum-Fremont controversy let me not enter—
let no one enter, indeed, who desires not to leave
hope for the Union behind. It is to be dealt with
only by those who can determine the amount of

" shoddy" which can be properly shoved into a con-
tractor's cloth; or, again, it is a case for those who
are versed in military law, and can detect the differ-
ence between the choleric word of a politician and
the rank blasphemy of a subordinate officer, On an
occasion on which I met Gen. Fremont at Washing-
ton it was at the house of Mr. Blair, the Post-
master-General, and I was certainly informed that

it was mainly owing to Mr. Blair's influence that
the General obtained his command, so that this im-
broglio is the more inexplicable. The Colonel Blair
who is under arrest is so well thought of by his
friends at Washington that one of them did not
hesitate to tell me all the early successes of the un-
fortunate Lyon were due to the political knowledge
and guidance of Frank Blair. I am told that the
prisoner refuses to be released, and insists on being
in arrest till he is tried by court-martial—a proceed-
ing which will not fail to embarrass General Fre-
mont at this particular juncture.
The place from which this letter is dated is one
of the wonderful creations of the grain harvests
and immigration in the vast prairie tracts which
lie on the western shores of the Michigan inland
sea. It looks like a Russian settlement—not un-
like, indeed, to the suburbs of Kherson, with
a view of wide, muddy streets, plank footpaths,
wooden houses, shady trees by the roadside,
spires and metalled domes and well-built houses
of brick, rising above the dead level of the edifices
of timber. Here, too, are to be seen the omni-
present German beer saloon and the well-known
names and trades followed by the Teutons in Russ-
land as in the United States. Nor are railways
absent, nor corn elevators, nor a great future firmly
believed in , though Milwaukee on the one side above
on the lake, and Chicago below, rather abduct the
refreshing juices of commerce from the little place,
and leave Racine somewhat sapless and desiccate.
Here were drums and fifes for the Union, and more
men for the Union—a very awkward squad to look
at, but Wisconsin is not behindhand, and consider-
ing scanty population, has done well towards the
Federal cause. The Racinites were rather proud
of an officer from their city who was taken prisoner
the other day before Washington, or who, more
properly speaking, surrendered himself, and was
walking back with his unsuspecting captors when,
being asked to give up his arms, he drew a brace of
revolvers, shot two of them as they marched before
him, ran away, and finally escaped by shooting
another of his pursuers, although ho was hit by a
buckshot through the cheeks, and cut in two places
by bullets. His course was scarcely justifiable
according to the rules of civilised warfare, for if he
surrendered, as he himself states, he had no right
to shoot those to whom he yielded up his sword.
This by the way. Racine has several newspapers
for its population of 4,000 or 5,000, and boasts of a
variety of religions, not including the Spiritualists,
who, to the disgrace of the intelligence and educa-
tion of the New England States, prevail in Con-
necticut and Maine, and spread across the States to
the West, so that there is scarce a little town in
which there is not an advertising " medium,"
who prepares prescriptions according to recipes
given her or him by angels (on the cheapest terms)
for all sorts of diseases, and practises all sorts of
blasphemous, wicked, and shameless impostures
on the miserable victims of superstition. It has
a river and a port, and trading schooners, and
is now sending out a feeder in the shapa of a
railway to the west to the Upper Mississippi at a
place called Savannah, by which it hopes to coax
more trade and more grain to its warehouses,
although pressed by competing lines. The great
influx of emigrants to this part of the world has
been a good deal accelerated by the operation of the
homestead law. Every man's house is his castle—
no landlord to eject, no creditor to distrain. And
so the sagacious poor have hit on an excellent plan
never intended by the legislators of using this law.
Whenever they spy a nice bit of land convenient
for their purposes they assemble their planks on a
Saturday night ; on the stroke of midnight they are
at work ; on Sunday the house is completed ; on
Monday they are " monarchs of all they survey—
their right there is none to dispute." It was won-

derful to see how wretched some of those edifices

are—open to winds and rain and all the skyey in-
fluences. The country around is level and covered
with rich grass and patches of wood, which, in the
varied hues the trees are beginning to assume with
advancing autumn, show pleasantly to the wayfarer
and refresh his eye. A few miles out to the west
and we reach the rolling prairie, which is, however,
settled so thoroughly that but few portions are un-
tilled, and little is to be seen of the natural soil.
Wooden houses are scattered over the great wave-
like undulations on which lie in stack and stook
thousands of quarters of Indian corn and wheat
running to waste. It is an actual fact that maize
is so cheap that it is burnt in the railway engines
as fuel, and wheat will not pay the cost of its re-
moval—and there may be starving millions in
Europe ! Eyes, curious and Milesian, gaze out
from shanties on the roadside, as the train rumbles
by. " What's your name ?" asked lof a little boy.
" I'm Mister Pat Hennessy," he answered. "Do
you go to chapel ?" " No, I don't, it's too far
away." Do you go to school ?" "To be sure an'
I do." And he could spell too, although he cer-
tainly was in imperfect clothing, and did not dis-
dain to tread the earth with naked feet. There is

an idea—l don't know that it is a delusion—

among the Irish out here that they have made the
United States what it is ; that they have built the
cities, made the railroads, reclaimed the land, and
done all the fighting—ac they say they are doing
now, though disposed to admit their co-citizens
and anything but comrades, the Germans, have
had a little to do in that way. The " Yankees,"
they add, "do all the talking." At Freeport, 50
miles or so to the west, I found a repetition of the
other Freeport on a small scale, minus the lake—a
town with a huge hotel, wonderful to say, quite
full—a town which is not of age yet, as it is still a
minor in years; yet it has three newspapers, gas in
the streets, billiard-tables. Among some of the
people in this district there is, wonderful to say, a
tendency towards Secession principles, and an aver-
sion to the war, or rather to the war taxes; and I
was told by more than one or two that ho and his
neighbours would resist the payment of the impost.
Pleasant times coming surely, if this feeling become
largely extended ! Here I heard of a new form of
the Protean jobbing which prevails in the States.
When a colonel of a regiment receives orders to
march, the agents of all the railways which by any
possibility can make out that they can carry his
men to their destination proceed to his quarters at
once, ant i beset him with offers for the job, and attack
every officer who may have interest with him, even
giving large bribes in order that they may procure
the conveyance of the troops, for which the Govern-
meat pays two cents per head, or a penny a mile.
Thus, soldiers have' been carried by circuitous
routes, and the public
servicee has been interfered
with. It is strange that theGovernrnent has not
found it expedient to appoint
a
board of railway transportation in irector and a
eonnex ion with
the Quartermaster-General's Department,
larJy after the frightful accidents whichl:tihaveareu-
curred. If that were done and worked honestlyoci;
would be well for both the soldiers and the public.
The farmers are all expecting high prices for grain,
and dream of wheat at a dollar a bushel. But they
are not content, and the war tax is a bugbear which
forbids peace and happiness even in this remote
region. The same sentiment prevedled even in
Pennsylvania, and one gentleman said the sub-
ject filled him with apprehension. 'The contractors
444 PrOickr§ of ArraY stQrea are iaappy and pro-