The daily bulletin. [volume] (Winchester, Tenn) 1862-1863, 1862-11-21
WinchcSter, Tenn
FRIDAY MORNING, NOV. 20 TIL
A Sign of Promise.

Waterman, tell us of the night,
What the signs of promise are!"
We have here, in a paragraph clipped
from the New York Herald, of the 9th
instant, a "sign of promise" of u most
cheering kind, which we confess wo
have been looking for with much IN.
patience, ever since the appearance cf
the last annual message OF President
Dayis. In that document he threw
forth an a~llusion 20 certain operations
abroad Of one Of tho departments, that
Of our Navy, to which we attached, at
lifetime, considerable Importance. The
Herald says:
There can be no doubt that the rebels are
again making formidable progress in the con-
s~truction of a navy. We published the fact a
few days since that the English ship-yards are
being used for the purpose of building large
iron-clads tor he rebel Government; the pay
ment for which, it is nearly certain, is made
from English sources TwI Of these vessels
have been seen by one of the persons from
whom our Is derived.
Notwithstanding the disasters which
have shrouded in deep gloom the efforts
Of the Navy department to contribute
permanent aid TO our cause, we have
never abandoned the belief that we
should yet, as u people, have a re o
able realization of the hopes sprung in
us by the exploits Of tho Merrimac and
Arkansas. True, our exultant hopes
over those achievements of the naval
branch Of the government, were, DO.
yond all comparison, extravagant. One
iron clad in Norfolk 'harbor and one on
the Gather of waters" could not be
expectedto domuch more than for mo.
mont nonpIus the enemy; and it was per-
haps folly to think they could much long.
err have maintained the unequal contest,
ever if circumstances had not seemed
% justify their destruction by the officers
commanding. While we never cease
to lament the early and sad fate of
those grand pioneer war.ships; we be-
lieve that one Of the most brilliant pa.
ges Of our national history will be Civ
en- to the record OF their achievements,
and the lesson of our superiority, even
upon the water, which they taught the
piratical mortimer.
The popular expectations were rails.
ed entirely too high by the brilliant x
ploits Of the Merrimac and Arkansas;
and when, like mighty meteors, they,
one after the other, rose before the
wondering gaze Of tho world, the one
in the East and the other in the West,
and burst and entoldod us in a deeper
robe of darkness, then the rebound in
the national feelings was sickening to
the heart.
Thus twice have the popular hopes
risen nigh IN contemplation of the pros
poets Of being able to dispute with the
vandal invader upon the water. Thus
twice have our naval authorities made
giant efforts to give permanent aid to
the holy cause Of revolution, and each
time, though doomed to disappoint.
ment, they have, for a moment, made
the braggart heart of the foeman quail
under the shock of a single broadside.
And rs if they feared their iron clad
wrecks might rise from their watery
graves, they have almost girted our
coast with their ncwly constructed iron
navy, But Notwithstanding this fact,
we have now another hopo raiser in the
exploits Of the brave Captain Semms,
whose name has come to be q terror
to tho onemy's commerce on the seas.
He rn,aal q, h,t an nro1a,, ,,1,l -.