The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1862-01-24
Inactivity Of the American Army.
EXTRACTS FROM THE LONDON TIMES

WASHINGTON, Dec. 8, 1861
There is little probability of anything oc
curring to disturb the march of events,
which are the only tidings that march at
Washington, and which have got
into bumdrum sort of parade and review
order, making one day as like the other as
can be. There is, TO be sure, always the
confidential assurance that there will be
move soon,' and perhaps there may but
hitherto General Nc Cellan has succeeded in
averting the danger which is presented to
him of making an attack on desperate and
brave enemy with an ill-disciplinned army.
He may, however, at any moment be led to
order an advance, and his army is certainly
better prepared to make 1t now than at any
previous time. 1t would be amusing to
look back to the Northern journals, and see
how much of the pompous programme OF
'our Fall campaign has been fulfilled.
New Orleans was to have been seized,
Charleston laid waste, Memphis, Savannah,
Richmond and Nashville occupied, and the
seeding States held in subsection till the
loyal men could be induced to come out and
vote themselves back into the Union
The good public is presented with
strip o. sand at Hatteras, and an
inlet at Port Royal, and so far it is thank
full for the results of these conquests. The
"Rat-hole squadrons" are at their work,
and the task of the blockading squadron
will soon be light enough. In TACT, the
weather issuch on the Southern coast during
January, February and March, that it would
not be possible to maintain force OF obser~
walton of the harbors ; hence most of them
will be blocked up, and the others can be
watched from time to time by vessels run
ming out of Port Royal. Another great
expedition, the naval part of it to be com.
manded by very dashing officer, Captain
David Porter, is to be prepared Immediately,
and General Burnside's Corps is now ready
to start from Annapolis. The utmost ex-
ertions are made by Government to procure
mortars of the largest size, but these are
not to be made I'D day. Nothing indi-
Gates any expedition of the first class-one
intended to operate against Charleston or
New Orleans, which are the fovorite objects
of the Northeners.
To the earnest self sacrificing thousands
who regard this war as The hottest and best
in which man ever drew q sword, the cons
duct of affairs must be most discouragiDg
and irritating. There are myriads of PEG.
pie who literally worship the Union, and
who would gladly lay down their lives for
that political Idea" But they have no
opportunity. They have left professions,
trades, and pleasant homes to go out and
fight, and, as they stand in front of the bat.
tie, they feel the ground for which they are
striving crumbing under their feet. There
are hundreds OF men in the Northern ar
mics, like James Wadsworth, Gen. Sprague
and Gen. Butter6eld, who have abandoned
ease and comfort to set an example in per-
son OF devotion towel, not their country
so much as to--the Union, or, as Earl Rus
sell styled it, "power." And the Union
was assuredly power. 1t was power for
the Shareholder, power for Slavery, power
for democratic institutions to affrOnt the
world. Without the Union the Northern
States would be cabined and confined with
in the Canadian lakes and Virginia, and DO
reasonable human being can object to their
refusal to submit to such fate. To be de.
prived of the Mississippi would be to have
the main artery torn from the heart. Are
they not justified in striking for life at the
hand which is stretched out for the pur-
pose? But it is beyond conception that, all
this being so, the war is being carried on as
if it were intended to irritate to madness
rather than to induce surrender to force
of arms"
God and Nature may not, indeed, have
put the black into the hands of the North
erners any more than the Indian was placed
at our disposal by the same Power in the
American war. But here are all the hor-
rors without any of the results of war.
Conquest cver the South may mean great
ruin to the North, but at least it would be
proof of strength given in the achieving
of the result; now all the cost OF arma.
ments, prodigious and profuse, is endured
without any actual operation IN esse to re-.
alize the Northern idea. That it may at
last be attained l cannot hesitate to admit,
but the realization will be terrible to victor
and vanquished alike. The question of the
fate of that which is not yet in the power
of the North already distracts and convul-
ses the country before the battle has been
fought at all. 1t is not, indeed, unlikely
that Gen. Mcclellan may be averse to a
great battle, on the mere grounds of aver
sion to bloodsbed, and the hope of success
by milder means and the smaller opera.
ton of war may encourage him to resist
the suggestions which are to my knowledge
made to him for an attack upon the enemy.
Magnificent weather is lost, and no sign of
an advance is visible. There are impatient
Senators and angry Congressman, but no
one dares to open his lips who remembers
the result of the "On to Richmond" cry of
June and July last.
The expeditions, and the news of others
about to be, amuse the people for the time.
but the pressure of taxation will sson rem
der them irritable 10 their clamOrs for peace
or victory. As yet the war has not pressed
hardly on the bulk of the people. Six hum
dred thousand of the people are amply paid
and we'll fed, and to them are joined hun.
deeds of thousands who are employed in ci.
vii work about the army. The noble army
of contractors and suffers is making for
tune, and the theory that the country can.
not be losing anything because all the mo-
ney is spent in it, finds universal accept
ance. There are large frauds understood
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