New-York daily tribune., 1861-06-11
The WAR Fur the union.
FROM WASHINGTON.
Prom Our Own Correspondent.

ts results have been communicated; the partcu'
hrs are 30 far withheld. Who held the BOTTLE
who piled the sponge, and who called the
rounds as well as the more important fact oi
whether the Hon. John came to time, we are
not now permitted to know. But with our
abridged knowledge, we can express an opinion
in our gratuIOus umpirage, that the ex-senator
had, by far, the worst Of it. 1t is lamentabie
truth, affirmed by all observation, and verihed
BY recorded testimony, that when whisky is IN
wit is out and as q cOrollary, II man oi aver
age loquacity wishes to make himself an ass OF
the first magnitude, he has only to 60 IN for
drink and then get up for speech. Any reason
able ambition of his friends will be gratifed
by the performance. When the fagman
Of the late Constitutional Union " got
On a moderate tight, some weeks ago, and
made a silly display of himself, We were con-
tented in the reflection that he was very humble
and very headachy the next morning, and that
human justice ought to be satisfied, while indulging
the hope that spring water would be a more IA
verte refreshment with him as the weather got
bot; but if the ex.President is to have monthly
fuddle, and we are to take the fumes OF 1t at the
same regularity of interval, we must turn ASIDE
from our advance on Manassas Junction and look
4 little after the sbuses of alcohol and the too
loose liberty of speech in Middle Tennessee.
The affectionate wife may look rather forgiv-
pgly on the first lapse of decoTum, when the
husband is waited upon to his lodgings by COM
nittee not quite SO maudln as himself, and be
osntented with gentle my dear, how could
yeu do soi' but if he will persist in being
drunk in duplicate, domestic reprOof becomes
reproacb and the household deity is not only rig
erous but wrathful. So the public, not even
reprimandingI Mr.. b., were tolerant, and though
regretfu of his egregious folly, did not visit him
with any special condemnation. What man OF
his years may, or may not do, is a question
which he ought to determine without outside
suggestion, but it would seem to sober mlnd
that his high public character, and his long and
useful parliamentary service, were oi TOO much
value to be squandered in his retirement from a
high position. He can afford, perhaps, to make
his friends-and they have been many-forget IN
later abuse and careless disregard of re-
putation, what they admired and held in estima-
tion of bis earlier acts, but 1t IS reckless gen.
orosity Of his accumulations which prudence can
hardly sanction. An addiction to strong drink Is
bad enough in the privacy of our own home.
and when the dividing line of indulgence has been
passed, and when exhilaraton becomes excess,
the lounge or the bed are much more lifting TO
prepriety than the forum or the mass meeting
When public speaker, even of Mr. Bells wide
seebrity declares that Five Millions cannot sub
due the South, he must be both very high and
very hyperbolcal. Mr.. ex-senator, let US set
down our glass of punch for q moment, and see
bow this will tally with the census and sense.
There are about nine millions of whites in your
aehghtful region, all told. Now you and l can
verify. from our own observation, that these are
not all fighting men, nor even fighting women
although pugnacity and pettcoats more nearly as
sinlate where the weather is warm, than In
the realms of granite aud ice. There is also, per-
sentage of children quite equal to the classification
Of population under less favoriDg heavens. Sup
pose We allow that you have two millions of
men, upon whose shoulders you can rest guns
They may all leave their hOe-cake and hominy
and march to the Geld. Some would believe
that at least half would stay about the planta-
ton to see that the affectionate and trusting
negro did not cut somebody's throat, or mount
the best Thoroughbred of the stable, and spend
the summer heats in Canada. Now, Mr.. Bell,
with rum out and reason in, do you pretend to
say that two are a match for five, and in that
Proportionl Stiffness is comparative, and when
you make such declaration as this, you rise TO
the superlatiye of the term. Open Secession is
bad enough, and stealing does not improve its
quality, but even Mr.. Jefferson Davis and Mr.
John III. Reagan have some claims to respect
which we must deny TO such men and such pitt
full and paltry exhibitions of their weakness and
cowardce OF the same piece is the recon-
mended neutrality of another class, "willing to
'wound and yet afraid to strike" neutrality
which consists in doing everything in secret to
aid and help on the nefarious schemes Of the
Rebels, while in their open movements they take
10 part with either the Government or the re-
astants. The South s now being fed, clothed,
and armed, under the false cOlOrs of this nom
particp pation-treacherou to the Administration
and true to them. But more of this hereafter.
The letter " Il" seems to have fatality at
tached to the initial in this refining fire of proof
Bell, breckenridge, Benjamin, Bayard, and
Bolts; this is an ALTERATION of misfortune, but
OF all, none is more TO be regretted than the last
OF the lst-Mr. Bolts. His sweep into the |
vortex is the most to be lamented of the whole. !
True as the refined metal-always in the fray |
his white plume, like that of Henry Quatre,
was always and in the thick of the fight, stand
ard aud steed went down, but the helmet and