East Saginaw courier. (East Saginaw, Mich.) 1859-18??, 1862-01-14
MESSAGE OF JEFF. DAVIS.
fFrom the London Times /

Let any one cOnsluer what sort OF AT
dress William of Orange conld have
made to the United States Of the Meth.
erlands during any of those eventful
years in which he directed their struggle
against Spain, forced into a narrow nook
Of land without allies, without money,
and crushed whenever he took the field
by one bloody defeat after another. He
could hardly, had he written truly, have
used any other language than that of de.
spondency and despair; yet he had on his
side one thing which far more than
oounterbalaneed all his wants and all his
losses. 1t could not be expressed in fig
ures, and If expressed in words it sounds
like mere rhetorical exaggerstioa, but
the one thing which no address could adj
equately express was the real talismnn of
vicSory--the unconquerable spirit of the
people. If the South possessed one-tenth
part of the dogged resolution to which
they lay claim, they need not despair of
arriving at a similar result. We cannot,
indeed, regard with,nnch confidence the
financial prospects of the Southern Con-
federacy. They resolve themselves sim
ply, so far as we can understand into an
unlimited issue Of assignats. 1t is a
financial system which, as wo all know,
works well within moderate limits. By
the issue of paper-money, Government,
as Mr.. Davis says, borrows without in
terest. 1t is, in fsot, the pleasantest
thing in the world, like legacy, or the
discovery Of hidden treasure. Unhap-
PLY, however, the amount issued de-
pends, not on the will, but on the neoes-
sites of the government. The moment
with such securities that the supply ex-
ceeds the demand the process of depreci-
alton commences. From that moment
the decline and fall Of paper currency
is rapid and inevitable; prices rise, and
the government is obliged 70 receive
payment for taxes in its own deprecated
notes. The security Of an eight per
cent. stock will not sustain the currency,
because that stock itself pastakes the
same depreciation, 1t is simply ridica-
lous to talk of such systemas affording
hope or commanding confidence. All
that can be said of il is that the South.
ern States have no alternative, and that
they may view a return to a state of
barter as a less evil than return to the
arms of the United States. 1t NAV be
true also that, with moderate care and
economy, there is no limit assgnable to
the period for which a people willing to
coniine themselves TO the bare nccessa-
ries of life may protraet struggle for
80 ,ataoca apd ;nlaDanIn,ao ~ -
understand such hopes, but we confess
we read with some impatiehce the hypo.
critical lamentations of Mr.. Davis, the
President of-a Confcderacy which may
be said to ollve, and move, and have its
being under the especial patronage Of
Judge Lynch, over the violation of per.
sonal liberty, and tho suppression Of tho
freedom of the Press, and tho intimida-
ton Of the Courts of Justice, consequent
in the North upon the civil. war. These
things, which the South regards With
contemptuoas astonishncnt the war has
not brought upon her, because they were
oil domcsticated with her long before the
war. Nor can we sympathize with men
who have deliberately lit the torch Of
civil war over the cruelties which it has
cngendered, the miseries which have
fallen upon women and children, aud the
attempts to rdise servile nsurrcction.
These. things were for the consideration
of those who lit tho torch of civil dis
cord. They knew that civil war is ordil
narily ss much more dreadful than com.
mon war as Common war is than peace.
They who take the sword must not com.
plain IL they fall hy the sword; they
whose feet are swift to shed blood must
not wonder il they should one day Stun
bic in their own. Mr.. Davis seems to
imply that byceasing to grow cotton, the
Southern States will bring ruin on oil
the interests Of foreign countries depend.
ent on the staple. On this point let him
undeceive himself The failure Of the
bottom supply Of the Southern States is
like the loss Of a familiar face, at first
deeply regretted, then occasionally missed,
AMI then not missed at all, We are
learning how we'll we can do without
him, and are not uuaps scholars. sni'a