The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1861-11-25

"o PuUiisueu yesterday IN erIe1SO, by tcle
graph from Washington, the message of Jctfer
son Davis to the rebel Congress, now in session
at Richmond. Those Of our readers who have
perused 1t need not be told that it is veal
and inflated document, and that, notwithstand
ing some "whistling TO keep his courage up,
the Confederate President betrays eyiden,
signs of fear and trembling at the spectres
which haunt his guilty soul. He is weak in the
knees and weak in the back; but it is his policy
to put on the appearance Of strength and cool
| courage. He has read history. The grand
motto Of Danton-one Of the most formidable
leaders in the French Revolution-was "au-
dacity" 1t is essential to success in all revolu-
| tons, and Jefferson Davis knows how to
! assume virtue, If he has it not"
On the whole the message may be regarded
as caving in Of the rebel confederacy, the
first decided symptom of which was exhibited
recently by Gen. Polk, at Columbus, when he
said to the correspondent Of Northern paper,
Let your man, Lincoln, come out and say that
the bred Scott decision is right, and that the
South shall have equal rights in the Terrific
ries, they (the rebels) would lay down their
| arms and return to their homes" AS MFR. Lin
| coin has already declared his purpose to
| respect the constitution and the supreme laws
of the land, including the decisions Of
the Supreme Court, which give shareholders
equal rights with non-slaveholders in the Terri
| tories as he even swore by solemn oath at
| the time Of his Inauguration to carry them into
| execution, what further coming out" can the
Bishop General require2 No declaration man
may make can add confirmation to his oath.
| Polk, therefore, who comedies that there is no
| right of secession" and that his troops are
"rebels," fighting simply for those rights which
have not only never been denied to them but
] have been guaranteed by the Presidents oath
of Office, and by the official proclamations OF
his generals, virtually surrenders the whole
ground which the insurgents had taken, and
admits that they have been fighting for an I'M
substantial shadow. 1t is true that JEFF. Davis
in his message denies that his war is rebellion,
contends that it is the mere " dissolution of
league" and that those who are arrayed under
his standard are "a people fighting for the
sacred right of self-government." This is the
political heresy that lies at the bottom of the
rebellion, and has always been the doctrine Of
the ultra secessionists Of the Yancey school;
but a majority of the Southern rebels, like
General Polk, do not claim the right of seces-
sion, otherwise than rs revolutionary right,
and look upon the constitution as the indissolu-
league" Remove from them the misappre-
hension that their rights are not safe in the
Union, and Immediately there is split in the
Confederate camp, which no power on earth
can reunite and which would leave Davis &
Co. in very small and helpless minority. This
light is gradually penetrating the darkness of
his dominions, and will soon put to fight every
shadow, if not prevented by the Satanic in
fuences of the abolitionists, who give Davis an
excuse for his Characteristic lying statement
that the large naval expedition to the Southern
seaboard wss set on foot ''to incite servile
war;" and for his fierce denunciation of the
Union troops who have embarked in it, de-
scribing them as "outlaws and enemies Of man
kind, who forfeit their claim, if captured, to be
considered as prisoners of war"
The next palpable symptom Of the rebellion
giving way is the stampede Of the people from
Charleston and Savannah plain admission
that they do not regard those cities as any longer
tenable positions, now that Port Royal is in the
hands Of the federal troops, and either Charles
ton or Savannah is within striking distance. 1t
is clear that Jefferson Davis himself fears the
railroad between those cities will be seized by
the Union army, and the through Southern
route by the coast thus cut in two, and the sup
plies of men, provisions, arms and munitions of
war from the South, to his army in Virginia.
arrested in their course He fears like catas
trophe to the other through route, by the valley
of Virginia and Tennessee, the destruction Of
the bridges by Union men being only the fore
taste Of what may be expected when the federal
column descends into East Tennessee, through
the Cumberland Gap. Hence he advises the
completion Of new central and interior route
between these two lines; but, as it will require
the construction Of forty miles Of railroad to
supply the link by which the chain of commu-
nication, now broken, can be completed, there
is no danger that that route will DO available for
long time to come.
President il jubilant over "a succession of glo-
rious victories at Bethel, Bull run, Manassas,
Springfield, Lexington, Leesbarg and Belmont"
he takes good care to make no mention of the
defeats in Western Virginia, the recent snbjec-
ton of two counties in Eastern Virginia, the de-
feat of his arms at Fort Hatteras North Carolina,
and at Port Royal, South Carolina, the effect of
which is to deprive his buccaneers Of their places
ofrefuge, and to render them harmless in future
on the ocean, besides the acquisition by the
Union army Of such important strategical points.
This message is dying kick Of the confede-
racy. Though Davis pretends that his bogus
money freely passes everywhere at the
South, as if it were gold; that there is an abun-
dant supply Of food; that the rebels can now
manufacture for themselves not only arms and
the munitions Of war; but clothing and oil that
they need, and that, therefore, there is mo
l;po;t3 IN tho lenUth of Tina thav will to oblo