The Sun.
London, England, 1861-07-25 00:00:00

THE CIVIL 1V..4R IN AMERICA.
(From tke Special Correspondent of the Times.)
WASHINGTON, JULY 8.
The rail and the river still connect South an.
North together. With all the hate of the South
towards the North, and with all the anger of the
North towards the South, there is vet some linger-
ing aversion to the total disruption of all ties be-
tween the belligerents. The trunk is torn from the
limbs, but the political surgeons are loth to cut the
tendons, and seem to act as though they thought
conservative surgery would effect some miraculous
recovery. Although Postmasters-General cut off the
mails, they wink at the devices of expressing agencies
aed railways to keep open the communications, and
thus a man or a letter may, at risk of certain con-
tingencies, be sent through. The contingencies are
that he or it may be opened if there be aught
treasonable in expression inside or out and
treason is determined by both sides as they list.
So it is I am here without being opened, and I am
bound to say that of all the myths—and they are
many and magnificent—which have been hymned
and hummed on the lyres of the type, none have
been so quaintly fanciful, though stupidly menda-
dons, as those which have been published to the
effect that I have complained of my letters having
been " tampered with."
There never was a people who rushed so rapidly
to the conclusion that the argument of force was the
great-solvent-and settler of disputes as our-American
brethren. See New York now—just recollect what
it was towards the close of last March. Sumter
cannot have made all these banners, filled all
these streets with soldiers, turned the Laodiceans
into phrenzied Unionists, and shut the mouths of
the disaffected. People who argued philosophically
about the right of secession and the impotency of
the Federal Government to restrain States from
exercising that right have all of a sudden begun to
find out "We must maintain our glorious Union !
We must have a country ;" andthen they go off into
sophistical arguments on the other side about the
Mississippi and union of peoples and political neces-
sities. Had you always held this language, good
gentlemen, you might never have had this present
contest. You strengthened the hands of the Seces-
sionists, just rs you weakened the hands of the
United States Government, by the indifference or
actual hostility to its measures alich you displayed
when it most required support. One half of the
indignation, one half of the strength you exhibited
after Sumter had fallen, might have prevented its
ever being attacked. Why are the Southerners so
much more irritated against New York than any
other part of the Union but because, in their own
words, " she deceived us at the last moment ? Up
to the taking of Sumter she pretended to be
el us more savagely
sfreieemneddlyt,
eanapdptrheevne,, wshheentutl-rinast happened which she
than even the Black Republicans." In fact, though
the Government may not now with to recall the cir-
cumstances, the tone of the North in reference to
vital points in policy must have perplexed it almost
as much as the hostility of the Secessionists. It is
all very well to talk of the outrage on the flag, but
befbre Sumter was fired on, the Rag had been ex-
posed to insults sufficient. It had been hauled
down by force from United States arsenals. The
Star of the West carried it as much as Major An-
derson's command, and she was fired on ; one shot
as a casus Belli or casua belli is as good as 20. Why,
when I arrived in the United. States the newspapers
were treating of the surrender of Sumter as an ab-
stract question, and the headings about it and Pickens
barely excited a languid curiosity in the minds of
many men, and Northern journals, not merely in
New York, but in Pennsyliania and other States,
seriously warned the Government that if they at-
tempted to hold the one or reinforce the other they
would be responsible for the destruction of a Union
which at the time was manifestly destroyed. How
the tone is changed now ! I can recognise no rea-
son for the change in events, but I can understand
that behind all this surface show—this varnish
coating, which pretended to reflect public opinion
—there was a solid, deep, and powerful mass, inert
however, and needing strong excitement to set it
in motion, which only began to heave upwards and
burst through the glaze when heated by the news
that the Stars and Stripes had been shot away by
rebel bullets. The mass is now at work in earnest.
It is rolling over the land in lava streams. It
may be that if an attempt be made to check
it the red-hot floods will again break through
the official crust. While Mr. Seward, with
the modest confidence which distinguishes his
vaticinations, was prophesying that the " policy" of
the Government would win back the rebel States
at the rate of one a month, not only were the Se-
ceded States preparing to hold their own in the
course of secession more strongly than ever, but the
Northern States were beginning. to agitate the
questions at issue in a manner which might have
inspired one with doubt as to a peaceful issue. It
is noteqcfuaan rarde alSumter
,statesmenaas improbable
ntwahanderorea drag scent
t
were
unitehscht u
thought
ngoi
thnrtut
tphnth tothey
h
eae
Cabinet
adt
beh couldemsni
eorom
tunt
at
ohepsnaet of t
by
cy.h running
nnpdneti
enhfall
Washingtonlndeed,
it would certainly
be
an agreeable
on British North America andi
250,000 Northern fireelsauletenifldthhee
united with the Southerntronow nonthtehe
forces in a common raid
Spanish pos-
session. But North and South will not agree to
join. What may come after battle 2
who can say .
At present dismiss entirely from the mi •
nd of Eng-
land the idea, no matter how it may originate, that
there will or can be peace, com • promise, union, or
secession till war has determined the issues.
How gay New York is with flags ! The Stars
and Stripes float on the fainting air in the warm
highways ; the shopwindows are full of prints of a
martial character—soldiers, firemen, or corps of
eccentric costume, Ellsworth, Scott, Greble, battles '
and charges, Tanopkins and Big Bethel. There
are little Zouaves led by nurses and old light in-
abdominous and spectacled, on the
Pantry men,
trottoirs. All the cleric tribe are in gray or blue
glories. There are tents in the public squares,
rows of sheds in the places," wherein are soldiery
came hither on their
quartered who
of war; placards about books of tactics, illustrated
scarlet Zouaves • •
with staring red and
attitudes. (Oh! dear me, how tired lam becom-
ing of these imitations of my excellent friends, in
which little is successful, except the bagginess of
the breeches and the colour of the uniform.) Adver-
tisements concerning arms and equipage meet the
eye in all directions, There is a crowd around a
window in which is displayed a Secession
officer's
cap, and as it is all stained with blood the exhibitor
is justified in saying, as be does, that the owner was
killed. This is a "relic ;" there is a strong feeling
for relics in the States. The tree under which Bri-
gadier-Gen. Sicklesshot a gentleman in Washington
has been denuded cf the bark for 15 or 25 feet above
the ground to furnish relics of the remarkable event.
I incurred the resentment and provoked the indig-
nation of a friend by my indifference to relics at
Charleston. He carried frito my room, as a precious
trophy of the " Utttle of Sumter," a fragment a
shell, and unwittingly left it on my chimney-piece.
Dogs assembled leneath my window at night; dif-
ferences of opinion arose among them—noises mak-
ing night hideous and sleep impossible. I arose in
my wrath, and ro other missle being available, the
Sumterian fragment was hurled forth, and I did
what it and none of its fellows had yet accomplished
--hit something, to wit a dog, and dispersed the
assemblage. " where is my bit of shell ?" I did n,
know I was such a monster till I saw my conduct
plainly depict& in the ingenuous face of friendship,
on its owner ascertaining that his shell had gone
out of the window and could not be found on the
pavement. Teis was a digression, I know; but I
have only to ssy further that New York is up in
arms and eager for the fray, even though there is
mach loss and great buffering caused by the war.