The Placer herald., 1861-12-07
[From the New York Worll.]
Folly of Undertaking the Rebel Strength
the Belligerents nearly Matched.

We fail to make the resoute effort which
the struggle demands, because et u constant
ly lurking incredibly respecting the power
of the rebels Regarding it as struggle of
twenty millions against eight, we seem to
live in expectation that he rebels are on
the point Of discovering the hopeessness of
the struggle against such an immense odds,
and that their feeble resources will speedily
give out Even if morttving experience
were not rapidly Disseminating us a very little
reflection would be sufficient to correct the
error that this is contest of twenty millions
against eight. The omission of the slaves
from an estimate of the military strength of
the South for no better reason than that the
slaves do not bear arms, is a triple error.
In the first place, no country ever arms
its whole population; the industry of the
majority who stay at home supplies main,
tenance to the minority who take the field.
The slaves, as lahorers are Just as important
an element of military strength as the same
nnmber of white inhabitants We must.
accordingly, include the slaves in any cor,
rect estimate of the military power of the
South, making the war, on the most super.
fetal view not contest of twenty millions
against eight, but of twenty millions against
twelve.
But we called their emission triple er-
ror and will now proceed to point out is
second part. In the Northern States wo
men are seldom productive lahorers, fur
nishing commodities for market. and
chieren are kept at school. In the
South wives and children of slaves are REQ
uIarly worked as field hands, thus making
the proportion of producers twice as great
as in the same number of white inhabitants
of the Northern States The four millions
OF Southern slaves then. furnish about
twice as many producers as an equal mum
Der of the white population Of the North
The four millions practically become eigh,
and the contest is, in this view, equivalent
to matching twenty million against sixteen
Bat as already inlmated, even this recli
ticaton is insufficient. aud we must make n
third, dependent on the proportion between
production and consumption in a slave pop'
uation. The ability to man'ai soldiers
does not depend on the aggregate produc-
ton, but on the SURF pus which is not consum!
ed 10y the laborers themselves. Slaves being
kept almost as cheaply as so many animals,
their net earnings over and above what they
consume, are much greater then the net
earnings Of the same number of white Ia
borers thus furnishing basis for maintain.
ing proporlionaby larger number of sol
diers.
This is, then, no contest of twenty mil
lions against eight as it would seem to be if
we left the slaves out of the calculation al,
together; nor II contest Of twenty millions
against twelve, as it would appear if we mere
" counted the slaves as add four millions
to the white population of the South nor
yet contest equivalent to one of twenty
millions against sixteen, As the fact that the
women and children of the slaves are pro-
durers would make it-but contest of
twenty millions against some number whose
effective strength is larger than sixteen mil
lious by reason of the fact that slave la.
borers are comparative non consumers.