The Sun.
London, England, 1861-10-22 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 22, 1861.

TILE CIVIL WAR 1117 AMERICA.

( From the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
WASHINGTON, OCTOBER 7.
A year ago we believed, on the faith of what we
were told, that the United States possessed the
greatest, and, above all, the cheapest military:orga-
nisation in the world. A million of armed men
could be called forth in a moment by a simple decree
of Congress on a national emergency. But we now
see that a military organisation may be very large
without being great, and very cheap without being
economical. Efficiency and certainty of action are
the tests of the strength of that which is the im-
personation of the force of nations, and in propor-
tion to the numbers of the mass possessed of such
qualities is its power. Now, the Northern States
have a population quite capable of yielding a force
of a million of men, without any remarkable pres-
sure, But, though they have twice as many in-
habitants as the Slave States, it is, to my mind,
very doubtful whether there are at this moment as
many men arrayed to fight for the Union as there
are fighting against it. Human nature requires
something more solid than abstractions to depend
upon, and, after all that can be said about the
beauties and advantages of the Union, the idea
of it is an abstraction compared to the actual mate-
rialism of the independence of the tenure of peculiar
property, of the free trade and freedom from heavy
tariffs, for which the Confederates are contending.
" Uncle Sam" is more tangible than the Union.
He is a paymaster-general, and his rates of pay
are high, but he does not succeed in getting what
ho needs except for his sea service, which is fed by
the commercial marine, now in a state of great de-
pression, except the transport trade and the char-
tered fleets. It is very possible my computations.
and estimates are erroneous, but I am very much
disposed to question whether, at the present mo-
ment, there are 350,000 men in the military service
of the Federalist Government. I am, however,
equally prepared to admit that they will soon reach
a figure not far short of that voted by Congress, for
I believe, from what I have recently seen and
heard, that there is a war feeling among the people
of Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois,
and Wisconsin, stimulated by lavish expenditure
and founded on national sentiment, that will
speedily furnish that and even a larger number of
men, strong and physically capable of soldiering,
however :deficient many of them may be in the
spirit of obedience and discipline. There is one thing
which to any person accustomed to see regular
troops is most striking. There is an utter want of
what our officers call " smartness" about the Ameri-
can citizen soldiery—that indefinable something
which makes a man button his coat, cut his hair,
keep his clothes clean, hold himself erect, and walk
with a brisk, elastic, yet rigid, regularity " right in
front." But of this, which is a bigger matter than
it looks, more by and by. Fighting is a very essen-
tial point of a soldier's business, but to be effective
it must be done with regularity and in concert by
all the fighting men when they are ordered to do so.
The Americans will do their fighting individually
as well as any men. It remains to be seen in
what fashion they will execute their cam-
paigning. It is quite certain that an army
of 50,000 regular infantry, with proper complements
of artillery and cavalry, would be much more
manageable than the heterogeneous mass now col-
lected round Washington, nor could a capable gene-
ral find any difficulty in marching with such a force
to Richmond, despite the admitted courage of the
enormous levies under Beauregard, Johnston, and
the new Confederate General Smith—whilom Street
Commissioner of New York. Those familiar with
the Indian mutiny must recollect many instances
of the superiority of the Sepoy or Sowar in single
combat to the regular soldier, but there is scarcely
one instance of those Sepoys in the aggregate ever
standing in the open to meet our infantry, and I
0.6 V....a.m...., .2711..
individually showed such good swordsmanship,
quickness, dash, and bravery, ever waited for a
charge of our cavalry. They were brave men who
had lost their discipline because they had lost their
officers. Nations, like the man himself, would
sometimes be rather surprised if they had the gift
of seeing themselves as they are seen by others.
Here we have the Northern States gloating over
their numbers and comparing the rolls of their
armies with those of the famous leaders every foot's
pace of whom cut deep into the earth and left its
mark for all time. Not one seems to perceive that
if Marlborough, Old Fritz, Wellington, or Napo-
leon won great victories with such inferior armies,
the great army, which is doing nothing except pre-
paring to fight, must be either commanded by in-
ferior officers, or composed of different materials, or
destitute of some qualities those other armies and
their leaders possessed. There is and there has
been a very great improvement in this army since
-Washington saw itself deluged by its united de-
fenders on the memorable morning of July 22, but
the work to be done is still enormous before these
battalions can be regarded as an effective machine
which will not fall to pieces when set to its work.
The " army," nevertheless, if victorious, is master of
the hour, and whoever is its master will hold the
United States in the hollow of his hand. This re-
mark may be denied or ridiculed, but time will prove
its truth. All the North wants now is a leader
who will win victories, who will get a Southern cot-
ton port, enable it to recover its losses, and place
the South prostrate at its feet. The man who de-
serves best of the United States is he whom troops
will follow in the field from the Potomac to the
Gulf of Mexico. Long-sighted, pale-faced men of
thought hope the end will not be evil ; but the men
of
wiaeledtimont
wwiillll
tfhoirsthfieerteiemde,emanodermacayn y
ana ydreualretoovceormaeo
their caucuses, conventions, resolutions, and plat-
forms. Who shall dispute the will of the man who
has palm() men under his control for the next three
yearsto a
come, who
theirhoh beassastvemdatnh,e
toU do so p nitedStates,or
is preparing,Why,
it was whispered the other day that General Fre-
mont, if he were ordered to do so, would not resign
until he had beaten Price ; and there was no dis-
approval expressed of any such conduct on his part.
"If he whips Price," said one in reference to the
rumour
thatthe Presidentewa
was superseded,
o
rSimon ‘ ‘c
I should
n en
er
Cameron
like to
see either .
turino idgratpoly
displace Fremont."
androusurnlrceikyL
stpower INTRIGUES.ner
So
of the " army"
being felt that all eyes are turned upon it, and the
politicians are struggling savagely to get places of
command in its ranks. They leave their platforms
and take to the goose step and infantry tactics. The
military men, however, have their eye on them. The
gentlemen who desiretog o among the troops for
political purposes, and get, for example, the votes of
the natives of Pennsylvanialutonan
theegaisn
ySi
att aoi
time
e ae nomina-
tions, ihti
inniagn
reference to passes to cross into Virginia -
tions, have had anything
else. The intriguing of the lobby for jobs is now
cast aside for the intrigues by which military prefer.
ment or good contracts are to be obtained. " I hope,
for my part," said a person at Pittsburgh to me,
years
;
this war will last for the next 10
never better !"
,
it will
do u
ndrnY
trade was
an officer who had been
,woairtpteilolpyle you
gosoe sec," quoth
talking of certain articles in the American press.
" Our fingers are not long enough to reach New
York just yet, but we'll be able to put our thumbs
on the throats of these gentry beforo long. You'll
see whether the press or the army, by which I mean
the two services,will govern this country in the end,"
The animosity to the politicians of the press is re-
markable, and the election-managing committees of
would have been de-
the
by
which a recent exposure
this country was the Carlton and the Reifnoar
miilni teadr yinfew
coterie a aSstar tee-
nlifgthnteedpteocuhleiaarr
pecuniaryth the way
of the relations ec leei cvteido nbsya rae s
mdaeltle in
i•
eveningsns be.
to gee Mr. Lincoln
ago.tw e e
ht
Statesign i
afincdanttheontiouringhy

walking over daily more than once to visit General
M'Clellan's quarters. Pray do not think I de-
sire to insinuate that the General is in any way
desirous that the chief of the State should adopt
that course, or that he would consider it beneath
him to wait on the Executive, instead of the
Executive waiting upon him. Young as he is,
and suddenly elevated to such a giddy height,
he is perfectly modest, unassuming, and uninflated,
though quite self-possessed, calm, self-respecting,
and reticent. But his reticence is very severely
taxed, for the President desires to know all things.
" And hang me, if I were M'Clellan, if I'd tell him
or any man my plans.", The great abyss which
lies between the Sovereign' and the subject in our
deluded and ridiculous old countries does not exist
over here, and the President and the General stand
very much on the same plane. The private soldier
saunters into the drawindrooms of the White-house
on reception nights and shakes hands with Mr.
President as affably as if he were not a Sovereign
and President maker. .I am bound to add, the
private soldier in his hodden gray behaves himself
perfectly. There can be no snobbishness about a
man's manners when he is as great as any one in
the room, and cannot try to be greater if he would.
It would astonish us very much if a monarch, visit-
ing one of his own generals in war time, were to be
told he could not see him, as the general had come
home tired and was gone to bed ; but in this coun-
try such. a thing would be perfectly natural, and
it would not, if it occurred, bo fair to infer that the
general intended the least disrespect to the head of
the state.
GENERALS 3I'CLELL
When I had the pleasure of conversing with
General M'Clellan for the first time he asked me
several questions with evident interest and friendly
curiosity—not unusual on the part of generals in
reference to their antagonists—respecting General
Beauregard. In his case there was all the more
reason for such inquiries in the fact that they were
old fellow students and class mates. To my mind
there is something of resemblance between the men.
Both are below the middle height. They are both
squarely, built, and famed for muscular power since
their college nays. Beauregard indeed is lean and
thin ribbed ; M'Clellan is full and round, with a
Napoleonic tendency to embonpoint,subdued by inces-
sant exercise. Beauregard sleeps little; McClellan's
temperament requires a full share of rest ; both are
spare and Spartan in diet, studious, quite. Beau-
regard is rather saturnine, and, if not melancholic,
is of a grim gaiety ; M'Clellan is genial even in his
reserve. The density of the hair, the squareness of
the jaw, the firmness and regularity of the teeth,
and the outlines of the features are points of simi-
larity in both, which would be more striking if
Beauregard were not of the true Louisianian Creole
tint, while M'Clellan is fair complexioned, Beaure-
gard has a dark, dull student's eye, the dulness of
which arises, however, from its formation, for it is
full of fire, and its glances are quick and searching.
111‘Clellan has a deep clear eye, into which you can
look far and deep, while you feel it searches far and
deep into you. Beauregard has something of pre-
tension in his manner—not hauteur, but a folding-
armed, meditative sort of air, which seems to say,
" Don't disturb me ; I'm thinking of military move-
ments." M'Clellan seems to be always at leisure;
but you feel at the same time you ought not to in-
trude too much upon him, even when you seek in
vain for the grounds of that impression in anything
that he is doing or saying. Beauregard is more
subtle, crafty, and astute; M'Clellan is more com-
prehensive, more learned, more impressionable.
Beauregard is a thorough soldier; M'Clellan may
prove he is a great general. The former only looks
to military consequences, and disregards popular
manifestations ; the latter respects the opinions of
the outer world, and sees politicalas well as military
results in what he orders. They are both the crea-
tures of accident, so far as their present positions are
rmirerrird- It remains to be seen if either can con-
trol the current of events, and if in either the artil-
leryman or the cavalry officer of the old United
States' army there is the stuff around which history
is moulded, such as that of which the artilleryman of
Brienne or the leader of the Ironsides was made.

AND BEATMEGARD.

PROBABLE CONDITIONS OF PEACE.
There is in the heat and passion of this fight no
regard for the future, no consideration of the results
of success or of failure. Not a man has thought of
the future of the army of 500,000 men, of the mili-
tary chiefs, of the army of contractors, and, above
all, of the fighting populations and rival generals
who will arise in the course of the contest—no, not
any more is there a man who has considered, if the
South gains and the North loses the battle, what
are to be the boundaries, what the frontier lines, and
what the relations along them, between the two na-
tions separated thenceforth and for ever. It is now
some months since I visited the United States. It
was my misfortune to be obliged to see that the
Union was gone for ever—my greater misfortune to
say so. It is nothing to that, if to-morrow the North
sweeps every Confederate battalion into the sea, and
seizes on every foot of Confederate soil. The Union
—the old Union of the 31 States—the old principles
of the Union are all equally gone, and gone for ever.
Who can say he is glad of it ? What country, even
that which has been most insulted and most
wronged and outraged by the insolence, intemper-
ance, prejudice, and violence of her statesmen, has
said, or can say, " God be praised for it?" If the
Americans would only believe that England can
afford to see them great and prosperous without
envy, and that our whole national life is not a
feverish solicitude about America and her institu-
tions, we might get on remarkably well, even if the
republic split in two. The rankest Tory will admit
he felt a rough-edged sort of pleasure at the sight
of the great experiment which his Saxon cousins
were so nearly running into an aqua vita, but
which threatens now to end in a cepa mortuum.
No one can rejoice—in spite of many inducements
to be glad—that the American Republic, which
was at one time the
blessed bark on misery's darkening sea"

on which were embarked the hopes and fears of so
many thousands of the Old World, should go down
in storm and darkness in the ocean of an unfathom-
able future. But the man who says to the crew—
" Mind where you are going—pray do not tempt
that raging bar," is regarded by them as an enemy
bitter and false to the end. Even if he sympathises
with the sufferings of the devoted Unionists who see
in an unsuccessful termination to the present con-
flict the end of all their glorious anticipations, he is
as a publican and sinner should he not admit that
human happiness and greatness, science, social im-
provement, good government, and religion have
sunk for ever with the wreck of the United States.
There will be always inducement in cheap land, an
easy tenure, homestead laws, density of population,
and force of competition at home, the desire of ad-
venture and change, political discontent and consi-
derations of police in Europe, to render America a
land of promise for many years to come, and fre-
quently a land of fulfilment, to the denizens of the
Old World. The tapir can never be an elephant,
nor the puma hope to pass itself off as the king of
beasts; and De Tocqueville was, no doubt, right
when he said that if the American people were
transported to Europe they couldnot exist without
considerably altering their laws. And yet there was,
and is, so much of what is really good and whole-
some in American Democracy that it must be a
source of regret if it be broken up into discordant
States, however inevitable the process may be in
accordance with the teachings of history and philo-
sophy. The American Northern Continent would, if
fully peopled, contain four or five great kingdoms
or republics, larger than any republic which ever
held together (as equal in all its parts) for a hun-
dred years. But the Northern idea is marching
backwards in its way to freedom. There are people
and journals in the North which speak of holding
the Southern States as so many dependent territories
if they will net return to the Union. They think

that six millions of Anglo-Americans can be re-
duced to such a state of dependency—the most im-
perious, passionate, and Yankee-despising of men,
all masters and king, and now citizens, as they
claim to be, of a new and independent republic !
For my part, the determination of the North to
subjugate the South, even if it fails to hold it, ap-
pears perfectly natural; for what terms could the
former expect now, if proposals of peace were
made ? Admitting that the South would not de-
mand Maryland, or would be content to leave the
question of her adhesion to a popular vote, which
would be carried by Union men, beyond that, in
their present successful career, the Confederates
would not yield a point, but would insist on the
line of the Potomac, the Ohio, and the northern
frontier of Missouri as their boundaries. Just look
at the map, and see how cramped and hemmed in
the Northern States would be in such a division of
the Continent. It must be remembered that the
vast districts which lie spread out on the map be-
tween the Missouri river and Oregon and Wash-
ington territories are for the most part unproduc-
tive, only fit for hunters and their prey. Canada
and the lake system press upon and cut into the
States on the north. Fancy the great Republic
narrowed to less than 100 miles in any part of its
territory ! And yet from Beaver beyond Wheeling,
in Virginia, to the shores of Lake Erie, near Cleve-
land, there is not more than 90 and some odd miles
within which the stars and stripes could flaunt the
breeze. And yet there is the fact before one's eyes,
and no amount of lateral extension towards the
west could compensate for the contraction of the
United States' territory from north to south.
Northern and Western Minnesota, parts of lowa,
portions of Wisconsin, and the northern parts of
Michigan have rather a doubtful future, except as
agricultural countries—the winter is severe, and
life is dure and rude. There are forests to be
cleared yet, and much mining wealth to be ex-
plored, befoste the Far West can absorb even the
diminished immigration against the influence of
which the South is in rebellion, and the North
would rise if it could. The sentiment of the North
is becoming, not united, but unanimous. " The
Union, the whole Union, and nothing but the
Union," is the cry. The Democrats shout it as
loudly as any, for fear of Lafayette or the devices
of the Republicans, who would direct the popular
current against them ; and, indeed, the Democratic
party could as little afford the disruption of the
Republic as their antagonists. They are swallowed
up in the mass of the Union movement for the
time, and, as they are hurried onwards, scarce can
find time to gasp out " Don't you think you're
going a leetle too far ? What about Habeas Cor-
plilt ? I really think we might have a trial by jury
now and then." And so on.

AMERICAN FEELING TOWARDS ENGLAND.
It is useless to argue with a people in a passion,
And just now the Americans have good right to be
in a passion, because a wonderful prosperity and
great social happiness have suddenly been wrecked,
and there seems no hope of restoring them, except
by a doubtful process of battle. The antagonism of
the press is always in advance of the sounder mass
of public opinion, but there is, no doubt, much
irritation and ill-feeling existing against England on
the alleged grounds of want of sympathy with the
North in a contest with slavery, of enmity towards
the Union per se, and many other grounds equally
imaginary. The North forgets that it specially
declares this war is not directed against slavery—
that it is not a war of liberation. The South is
indignant because England has not recognised the
Seceding States under the pressure of cotton, and
does not seem at all disposed to break the blockade.
If Americans would only consider how their states-
men and journals have treated England in all tames
of her trouble, they might find reason to think they
were giving her credit for a little too much magna-
nimity when they expected very much oyu.l,oe~T
with the misfortunes, not of the great American
people, but of American politicians. Every Eng-
lishman who was here at the time of the Russian
war with whom I have conversed speaks in uniform
terms of the undisguised satisfaction of most of the
people in the cities and large hotel world of the
United States at the success of the resistance of the
enemy, and of their evident and ostentatious sym-
pathy with the Russians, which broke out on the
stage and in the concert-room. We are told that the
United States sympathised very deeply with us dur-
ing the Indian mutiny, and the statement may well
be accepted, though no American surgeons came out
to tend our sick and wounded as they flocked to the
armies defending Sebastopol. It may now safely be
stated that Great Britain and the United States
were on the brink of war little more than three
months ago—were all but at war, provoked by the
violence of American statesmen, which was only
averted by the great forbearance, and moderation,
and temper of Great Britain in a moment of her
brother's great adversity, assisted by the prudence,
goodwill, and moderation of an American senator.
Neutrality is regarded as What would the
ill-will have been which went beyond neutrality,
and espoused one side in a quarrel that cannot be
called pro and anti slavery ?
Professions of regret and sympathy which have
been largely uttered in the Parliament, by the
press, by our statesmen, are coldly received and dis-
trusted, and this, the greatest problem in the world,
is to be allowed to work itself under our eyes with-
out a word of comment or criticism. Abstract argu-
ments, deductions, the consideration of cause and
effect on one side of the Atlantic, the supposition
that they act very much there in the same way as
they do at the other side, speculation on probable
results and on the action of parties, are set down
as cold-blooded abstractions, which evince a cold-
blooded, philosophical indifference to sufferings that
should excite the commiseration and active aid of
the world. The Union has been wounded by
thieves, and the only one to act the good Samari-
tan is Russia. For much that the Union did to
and for humanity the world must be grateful ; and,
indeed, the world has done much to repay her by
its labour, its science, its blood. But why is a man
or a nation, therefore, to be debarred from saying
whether he thinks the North is going to win or to
lose in the attempt to subjugate the South, unless
under the pain of incurring the reputation of an
enemy ? The idea of the Union is, in plain Eng-
lish, the idea of one sole dominant Power in the
whole Continent of North America. And if I were
a native of the United States of North America, I
would fight for that idea. The contrary notion may
spread rapidly if the South sue 2eeds. Already we
hear a Gulf Republic and a Texan Confederation
spoken of ; long ago there was talk of a party in
California anxious for a separate national existence
for that State, which will probably increase if it is
found that the United States can give it no more of
the national property in roads, expresses, and
postal expenses. And now there are hints that in
the fullness of time the States in the west and
north-west may think it expedient to form a Re-
public of their own, inasmuch as they have no par-
ticular interests in common with the other States,
and derive no special advantages from being go-
verned at Washington. There is no fear of the
failure of Republican institutions, except in their
demonstrated power as an agency bywhich to govern
and keep together one vast confedation. No matter
how many separate States might be formed, there
call be no doubt that in all would the form of go-
vernment be republican in greater or less degree.
Without including many people in South Carolina,
and fewer in other States, who express a liking and
preference for a Constitutional Government, or, at
all events, for a strong Government, the principle
of republicanism is grafted deeply in the hearts of
the American people, and they could not be other-
wise than Republicans if they desired it. " Sure,''
said an Irish overseer on the railway the other day,
".God help them ! they've got no jintlemen in this
country at all, at all." The social system is like
their street railways, very accommodating for the