The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1862-02-07
A Fine Picture OF the Rebel Situation.
A SOUTHERN PAPER COMPLIMENTS THE FEDERAL
ARMY-TnE REBELS CHECKMATED IN KENTUCKY


MIDDLE.
From TIE Memphis Argus, Jan2
Price is in full retreat southwark. Price
will probably continue in full retreat, for
there are several--indeed no less than three
federal armies, each as large, better
armed and better equipped, converging upon
him. His past victories have been rendered
vaueess. Federal forces have been massed
in Kentucky too great for man of Sidney
Johnston's caliber to venture to attack, and
the paralyzDg of Price through the with.
draWal of McCuloch has rendered the over
running of Missouri to the Arkansas from
tier an easy task to the iederals. We are
forced back out of Observation-Disclosures
in Kentucky. Chase has obtained his
moneys in Wall street.
The blockade is unbreakabe by US as
yet. In one word, we are nemmed in. We
have allowed the moment of victory to pass.
We were so anxious watching the opera
tions of England, that we stand agast on
turning our eyes homeward again to find
ourselves tenfold worse than we were ere
the commencement of Prices last forward
march, and that accursedly used secession>
ism, the arrest OF Mason and Slideli. Day
follows day, and in lieu of being weakened
we find the Federal armies at all points,
being strengthened. Almost every article
OF manufacturing and domestic necessity
quadrupled in price, and our money will
soon be exceeding scarce for lack of paper
and pastebOard wherewith to make it.
We pay fifteen cents a piece for sperm
candles, and are told we ought to be glad
to get them at that. Our twelve months
soldiers time will soon be up, and we can
not help asking, as they do themselves,
what have they been permitted or led to do?
1t is an old aud ever proven trulsm, that
where two nations are at war, that which
has the least means find success in early
and rapid action, for it can gain little by
time, while the other finds in time the pow
er to bring into efficient use its more varied
means.
Cabined, cribbed, confined as we were,
and evidently would be, our shortest, clear
est, and most noble policy was to find in the
rapid use of our early revolutionary enthu
siasm an overmatch for the slower and less
spiritad, out more enduring North. We
speak plainly today, because, ere the full
military policy OF our leaders was made
known, we persistently opposed any outside
pressure by the press upon it. We speak
plainly, because, as Southern paper, we
have right to speak and ask to see the
benefits that are to compensate for this
prostration Of business, these domestic be-
reavements and heroic sacrifices made by
our women as we'll as our men. We ask
why the year has passed, and we further
than ever from recognition at home or
abroad =? We ask why we are fifty fold
worse of than when the war commenced
We ask why we we're not told that our
ports must be opened by the foreigner, else
we could not be armed sufficiently to do
more than remain imprisoned by the bayo
nets OF an Outnumbering foe along our from
tier and an impossible navy along our
coasts? Where shall we ask relief? Where
should we ask it save in the camps on
whom have been iavished our hearts blood,
our hopes, our wealth, our whole-where
but upon the banks of the Potomac? When
will We see an end of the farce being enact.
ed there at our expense?
Indirectly every mOunthful we eat is tax
ed, our babies wear taxed caps and shoes,
our boys write on taxed paper, our girls
wear taxed calicoes, our men do taxed
business to taxed grave, and we, forsooth,
are hurting the cause " if we dare to turn
from Messrs. Mason and SlideIl 10 look at
the country we were born and bred in, and,
having looked, we are hurting the cause if
we dare tell what we see.
Our cause is right, it is holy. Our sui
fering may ne Gods price OF success, but
who, seeing what might have been, and
knows what is being suffered through its
being undone, can refrain from cursing the
selGshness or idiocy that stopped the con.
quering Beauregard, that arrested the march
of Price, that checked the gallant Johns
ston.
We have gazed imploringly on the lion,
while the fox has been weaving his tolls.
Our press and our people have trusted far
enough. We now ask, are We to continue
hemmed in for another six months, or shall
our armies on to Washington and lack
nothing.
In the same paper of the 9th, we find an
article of still more discouraging tone,
from which we extract the following:
Our assertion, last Tuesday, of the true
state Of our affairs, has caused quite Hut
ter among few home soldiers, irresponsible
and illegal wielders OF authority, &c, men
who holding their positions from the higher
servitors OF the people, think it sacrilege,
and weakening of the cause" to fault any
of their acts or no acts; and who, unable to
deny our statements, would cover the sins OF
their superiors by asserting that statement
of the results arising from said sins is en-
cOuragement and comfort to the enemy.
We seldom anathematize, but in such con-
nectiOn we can scarce help saying-some-
thing OF the enemy. We spoke and speak
of the state of this COME Ieracy, which,
judging from the policy of both cabinets, is
already better known to the Federal Cabi-
net than it is to our own.
We see access to peace rendered more
and more distant by the woodrously accu-
mulatiDg power of the Federal armies an i
navy. We see the advance that was easy
six months ago, difficult today, and likely
to he impossible tomorrow. We see that,
from shoe latchet to steam engine, we
lack everything, and that the families of our
Obedient soldiers are suffprinr from tho