The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1861-10-25

The PERSUASIVE POWER or PUBLIC PUN
DER.-lf We can believe the revelations
their own Journals, the annual expenditures 81
che North for war and civil account are more
shar four hundred mill ons o! dollars. of whict
suiy three hundred and fifty millions are to'
svar From the facts We have heretofore
gnsen pains 10 adduce showing the cost of tn,
snost gigantic military operations of whie;
even Europe has ever been the theatre-all al
which cosi far below the ancunt expended b.
the North-the conclusion is irresistible thai
this expenditure is not legitimate, aud that :,
large portion of il is made for corruption PR
poses 1t cannot be doubted that SEWARD and
CAMERON are pursuing the settled purpose Of
making The war popular by expanding large
enough sums to bribe the whole Northern
population
At one time the city of New York presented
The most lameiltslble picture of great city,
occupation gone" Of suspended business +:
stagnant affairs idIeness from want of Elm
ployment, and general rroslration and despair.
Recent aavices from there, however, reprcsl mt
u total change TO iave come over the spirit Of
affairs. Activity and thrift are again visible in
dustry and hustle of business again engen It's
throroughfares, and " al street and Broadway
again thronged by busy crowds Of men ia
tent upon business and fortune
Ii we only assume that the finances of the
Federal Government can he maintained under
the heavy burdens with which the war is
loading them, il is clear that New York city
will not lose by the war SO long rs it lasts
The export trade Of the South before disso
luton, counting her sales TO the North, was
about four hundred millions of dollars: the
greater portion Of which was conducted di-
rectly or indirectly through the agency of New
York city. But the war expenditures Of the
North are said to exceed thai enormous sam By
twenty five millions; and this immense bust
ness also, except the mere pay Of the soldiers
is conducted directly or indirectly through the
agency of New York. The profits of the city
upon the trade of the South, though enormous
and eXorbitant, were regulated by conventional
standards of per centage those upon It's trade
in army supplies is OF course restricted by no
such regulations, and probably reach, on the
great bulk of articles supplied, fifty per cent
of the sums exacted from the Government.
What is predicted of New York in regard
to her profits on war expenditures, is true of
the whole North for New York city is but
the agent Of the people of the entire section.
The four hundred millions OF Southern trade
which they have lost, it is the Governments
sbrewd purpose to compensate them for another
form; and the war is attempted TO be rem
dered even more popular than the peace which
preceded it, by adding some twenty five per
cent. to the gross amount expended, and by
the greater profits allowed upon War supplies
than was earned upon Southern trade.
1t was long ago charged that the object Of
the Lincoln Administration in bringing on hos
tilities was to make a job of the war for their
hungry political partisans. Having once
raised the winds they found it impossible to
direct the storm. The war has assumed
proportions which they had 10 dream of he
fore, and the job which they had intended
uuly for their peculiar partisans has been
awollen to proportions large enough for the
brihing of twenty millions Of people
That the mammoth corruption scheme has
succeeded completely, is demonstrated by the
unlimited power Of the Administration at
Washington,in all things, by the impunity with
which they can trampe upon the most cher
ished liberties of the people, and set aside the
most sacred provisions OF the Constitution
by the facility with which they can crush out the
last vestiges Of a free press, suppress the lib
erty OF speech, and eXtort from all-even
from men who hate their creed and despise
their characteristic most extravagant lauda-
tons of the war. OF all tue communities in
the world the Northern is the one most sus
ceptible to the destinations of patronage; and
never III the whole history of mankind has
there been before, so signal proof of the all
persuasive power of public plumber, or a more
unblushing instance of the conversion of war
into great job.