The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1861-06-22
The cities Petition for Peace.

York aud Philadelphia, designed to be laid be
fore the Washington Congress in July, praying
the peaceful acknowledgment Of the South
ern Confcdcracy, and stating that unless the
war be terminated those cities must be utterly
ruined. The movement is a rational one, and
the fac, stated is apparent the war is indeed
destructive to it's own authors. But the
petition for a peace is like the tardy and en-
forced concessions of Lou.s XVI. and of Lou
Is PHrIr, they are but d" too late" Two hun
drcd thousand men cannot be readily disband-
ed they will not dispense until they are PAID
and the pay is not forthcoming. An army,
especially OF such huge proportions mas IL
se.f something to say on the question OF dis
charge from the service.
Nor j. Congress in a condition to exercise
its own pleasure with respect to the war Ii
Congress he the throne of the Black RepubIl-
can Republic there is power behind the
throne greater than the throne itself. That
mower is the Executive, not so much by It's
own will and might, as by virtue Of the mill
tary legions which il has called into existence,
and Of the will and sentiments of the popular
masses. whose mouth-piece is the press and
whose pleasure i the law, with both Congress
and the Executive. The cities of the North
are kcenly sensitive 10 al! that affects the pro-
fits Of trade; they are cosmopolitan, and COM
r,ratiyelv conservative and tolerant Of differ
cnt opinions But the masses Of the people,
who populate the rural districts, are less in
teIligent, more sectional, and more fanatical
-, no vii
.uirc lorc ger time before the sentiment which
is now taking hold of the city populations can
reach the country and subdue the mad war
fever which is driving the North into such
excuses.
The temper Of the North is not to be learned
from its cities The South has been once
misled by supposing that it could be, and will
not repeat the blunder. When our people
were told before the war that dissolution was
inevitable and that the North sympathized
with old john BRowY, and intended aggres-
sion upon the South, the fact was denied by
our merchants, who declared that, in their BIZ
cnnial trips to the Northern cities, they found
the merchants enthusiastic in favor of conCed-
ing to the South all her just rights, and cult
yatinr with her relations Of cordial friendship
and confidence The politicians of the South,
who had not been much at Washington, or
watched the doings of Abolitionists there, and
whose reading was confined to a single politi-
cal newspaper of the respectable but obsolete
stamp Of the National laiciiigenccr, participa-
ted in this view of the merchants, and repudi-
:tcd the war as wildly chimerical. 1t was in
vain that the men who knew tho temper of the
rural masses, it was in vain that the newspa-
rers who read the feelings and designs of the
Northern people in their press, sounded the
notes Of alarm, and exh0rte the South to pre-
pare for the coming storm. The clouds broke
over our heads unawares, the war found us I'M
prepared.
The South IL not TO be deceived in like man
ncr again. The cities of the North may petit
ton their sectional Congress for peace; they
may mourn the disasters which the war has
brought upon them; they may cry peccayi, and
like the prodigal, imprecatc the South for for
Siveness and reconciliation they may weeI
and wall and gnash their teeth in the lowest
depths of self reproach and remorse into which
they have fallen, but it will all avail nothing
Congress is powerless in the presence of the ar
l1e5 which those very cities have sent into the
field. LINCOLN and SEWARD themselves arr
but mere puppets, dancing to the motion o
these armies, and obeying tn caprices of tn
excited and fanatical masses of the Northern
people And even if Congress and the Execu
tive should give way, the South knows wei
enough where all power rests in the hostil
section and vii! never be deceived again b.
The cities.
The truth is, this war cannot stop until
runs It's course. 1t is like mighty locomo
tive with train attached that has lost its break
and is rushing down mountain grade. N
power can check its dead career. Down
will go until it has reached the bottom an
rushed or miles beyond. There is no help o
escape for those on board. If they leap over
board they are incontinently dashed to pie
COS. The only thing to be done is to remain
ON board, and to take the risks. The North
crn cities arc part and parcel mighty monu
Inent, just as headlong and disastrous as tina
of the doomed train. They helped to set
in motion. They leaped shouting and cxut
ant on board as it was setting off. Prayer
and petitions will now avail nothing The,
cannot vote themselves out Of the danger n
readily as they voted themselves into it. The
are in for the war, and they must follow it t
the death. Their fate is pitful, but thei
doom il just
DE. X. q. BAsKs.--ln referring 10 this gen
tieman date of Hampton, Va IN our issu