The daily Evansville journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1862-1863, 1862-10-28
ELOQUENT LETTER FROM A PATRI.
OF AND SCHOLAR.
George Bancroft on the War.

Peoples Union Convention, has address
ed letter to the Committee, in which
he declines the nomination on the ground
that a multiplication of candidates will
leave the result very much to chance.
We produce the lettersin full:
-klfzt New York, Oct l9.
GENTLEMEN: am touched with graft
tnde for the good will which has led your
convention of delegates from the Peo-
pies Union Association T" by an unex-
pected and spontaneous vote to nominate
me unanimously as their candidate for
representative of the Eighth Congress
ional District. This act / receive as
coming from men who are awake to the
perils that overhang our beloved coun-
try, and who pledge themselves, as citi-
zens to be governed by loyalty to the peo-
pie ''r' '-aiir
The next Congress will have before it
the most important subjects that ever en-
gagged the attention of representative
body since the Convention that framed
our Constitution; and yet we seem to
await the day of election with a fearful
leyity or want of considerateness, as
though the old methods of preparation,
which may prove sufficient in season of
unclouded prosperity, would serve for
this hour, when our system itself is
threatened with overthrow. 1t is heart
breaking, after the lavish outpouring of
the blood of those dearest to us, to con-
template the chances of failure from di-
visions and wavering in the North. Yet
after we have sent out from this city
alone troops enough to constitute for
midable army, we are advised to mani
fest at the polls our consent to disrup-
tion of the country. We send men from
every household to the war; they show in
the battlefield the most heroic courage,
and yet we are asked to vote that the
war has no object, that we fight only to
retreat with shame if we are beaten, and
to submit with shame if we are victori-
| ous.
The only possible chance for speedy
end of this war is lis instant and vigor-
oEs prosecution. Hesitation brings
chaos, and prolongs the strife indefinite
! ly. There must be one soul in the
President, the army and the people, or
the contest will drag along under the
distractions of conflicting and uncertain
opinions; and the shortsighted desire to
gain peace by submission may change
it into seven years war, or thirty
years war, or a war for generations.
Quick, united action can only bring it to
an early end 49, fe~5
The voice of the State of New York,
as pronounced in the elections, will ring
through the civilized world Shall we
not do our part to make that voice clear
for the Union2 Are we to devote all our
resources to carry on the war and then
go to the polls to express the opinion
that the war, which certainly was forced
upon us and could not have been avoid
ed, was unnecessary and mistaken Are
the citizens ofNew York to be so incon-
sistent as to strain every nerve. to gain
the mastery in the field, and then to sig
nifty at the polls readiness to fnint and
slccumb2 When the oligarchy of the
South began the war by wantonly in
sulting our flag, this people rose up with
a calm and resolute earnestness which
was surpassed only by the sublime pa
tience and moderation with which they
bore defeat and mismanagement, and
uncertain guidance Shall re now pro-
claim that this zeal was a delusion?
The tory party of England, all the old
hereditary enemies to the perfect devel-
opment of our free institutions, have
been from the beginning eagerly hoping
to see our beautiful flag rent in twain for
ever, and have been unremitting in their
advice to us to let half of the Union 90.
Shall adopt them for our counselors?
1t is one of the saddest things, in this
time of general sorrow, that an effort is
made to persuade our fellow citizens of
| foreign birth to give their votes in the
interest of the very party of the English
aristocracy which from generation to gen.
Grafton oppressed them at home.
Our bankers, with noble patriotism,
placed their wealth at the service of the
Government Are they now to be told
that their loans we're offered without a
purpose and without any need2 That
the Government should have sought
peace at any price, even at the sacrifice
of our National character, by covering
before the conflict which all the possible
deprecations of pusillanimity could not
have avoided1 Viii they consent to see
the Government SO paralyzed and its
policy so uncertain as to leopard the. re-
storation of public credit, and TO invite
the interposition of foreign powers?
Are our merchants prepared to wean
themselves from the free use of the Ches-
apeake and the Mississippi? Will they,
after having won back these great high
ways, give them up to a Confederacy
which is the child of rebellion, and which
from inherent causes will, in the case of
its separation, be necessarily hostile to
I usp True, our interests are bound up
4 with the South But is the surrender OF
the Capes of the Chesapeake, and of the
! Tortugas, and of the Mississippi, to re-
store profitable commerce. Will the
reiinquishment forever of vast tracts of
country-the Italics of the United States,
unsurpassed for beauty, fertility and
heaithtuiness-prove the best mode of
promoting the exchanges Of domestic
q products? Will the bar of ustom-houses,
stretched across the channels of our
mighty, rivers, help internal navigation? ?
! L. Al