The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1862-01-02
Rirbnlnnn qispattb.
THURSDAY MORNING. jan. 3. 1854,

THURSDAY MORNINN ......IAN. ., 1854.
Rs-ESLrsrsxsr or vcIvsrKsRs.--The
public mind has been puzzled for 4 solution Of
longcsntinued iuaction upon the
Potomac That he has largs and we'll
appointed army IL a wsIl-ascertained fact
More than Ave month"; have eIapaed since the
battle Of Manassas More than i've months,
n period long enough to begin and flush a
modern European war, and Of course afford
ing time, with ample opportunity, to re.
organize armies, develope immense re-
sources, and reanims.e dropping courage.
For three month the North has had a force at
Washington which, according to ito own
account. eutnambered orr own two to one,
which has bad abundant time for discipline,
and has ~ its command an Immense amount
and initiate variety Of arms, summation, and
equipments of war. And yet, whilst the
winter has thus far been the mi,dest on
record, whilst the roads have been ~ firm
and smooth rs in midsummer, whilst this de-
Hghtfn weather has presented a daily invita-
ton of Come on''--ths Federal army con
tinues 10 lie slugglish, torpid, and motionlesr,
behind its entertainments on the Potomac
"I If you are coming, why don't YOU come
alopgf''
Amongst the variety Of specula,ions upon
the real cause OF this ionS-continued delay,
the theory 10 gaining ground that McClellas,
does not intend to advance till the period ar
rives when the term Of enlistms of our vol
unteers expires, and when, in consequence Of
their return TO their homes, the Southern
Army will be 80 reduced in numbers az to pre-
cent but feeble barrier to his immense
masses. notwithstanding the vsporing of the
Yankee papers, it is evident that, even with
heavy odds, they have no stomach for eneoGa.
tering the chances Of another Manassas The
Southern expeditions, it was fondly hoped,
would draw off a grea. body of the Southern
troops to the defence Of their own fresides
and inspire the successors Of the Bull Run
ners with courage enough to make an advance
movement. But this hope falling, there re
mains but one equally promising opporturi i.
ty,-the expiration of the term of duty of the
volunteers, land the belief is now gaining
ground that Mcclellan will await that moment
before making hia onward movement, aud
that then, when our camps are deserted, or
the vacant piaces supplied by troops who can
not, by any possibility, in the interval now re.
naming, be MADE the equals Of the present
volunteer army in drill and efficiency, the Fed
sral forces will make their grand, and long.
promised onward movement.
We are aware that Congress has Iegislated
with q view TO encourage fe-enlstment, but
We have not learned that its Legislation has,
to any great extent, secured the object de-
signed. Our volunteers did not enter the army
for money, though they have had right to ex-
psct the treatment due to gentlemen and to sol
diers; treatment which would have been OF
far more service in attaching them to their
Cause, than any pecuniary advantage. This
treatment they have not always received there
have been civil and military officials whose
heartless and bruta! neglect have put the
Southern cause in more peril, than all the
armed legions of the North. More even than
this cause, the rust of inaction, to which they
have been condemned, has eaten ont some OF
the bravest spirits; and these facts, as well
known to tho enemy in their front ne TO any
ono in the Southern Confederacy, have emboI.
deued them with the hope that, at the expira.
ton Of their time of enlistment our volun teer.
will return to their homes, and that Virginia
will then fall, almost without resistance, into
their hands.
We trust that these confident expectai ions
are destined to inevitable disappointment
Certainly we have formed false conception
VI the character of Sou,hern volunteers il
they, like the Northern volunteers, are bent
upon forsaking their camp when their time is
up, no matter what the danger by which the
country ID menaeed. Indeed such a superstition
would be more derogatory to Southern than to
Northern volunteers, because when the latter
left they injured nobody but themselves, and
did not expose their territory and their homes
to foreign invasion, whilst the withdrawal of
Southern volunteers would leave the way to
their own fields and fresides open to an invading
horde, who declare that their time for submis-
sion and compromise has forever gone and who
are painting TO bring desolation and deiiiement
upon every Southern home. Never" SAYS
DIR. Moore, as truly as elosuently, in his late
Fast Day Sermon, "neyer since the terrible
scenes Of La Vendee, under the ravaging
hOrdes ef Publican France. has the old heath
enwar-cry Va Victis, two to the conquered
been more nnmisakably sounded by AN army
of invaders. Let this tremendous crusade be-
come successful, either by Encouragement in
the Army"-or, we may add, by the refusal
of volunteers to reenlist-" or cowardice and
greediness at home, and history furnishes no
page 90 dark and bloody as that which would
record the result. Our best and brayest men
would be slaughtered like bullccks in the
shambles; our wives and daughters disbon.
cred before our eyes; our cities sacked our
fields laid waste our homes piilased and
burned; our property, which we are perhaps
selfishly boarding, wrested from ius by tiEes
and coniiscations our grand old Common
wealth degraded from her proud historic place
Of Ancient Dominion to be the vassal prov.
inss Of huge central despotism, which, hav |
Ing wasted her with fire and sword, would
compel her BY military force to pay the enor- |
nous expense Of her own subjugation, or in
default Of this, parcel out her broad lands to
insulting emigrants a. a feudalreward for the
zaptus and murder of this new Norman con-
quest; whilst the owners Of these lands must
either remain as covering factors for inso.
lent conquerora aud oppressive lords, or wan
der ~ penniless and homeless fugstives in a
land Of Strangers
Nor would this BIS the fate of Virginia
aions. Every other State In the Confedsracy
is equally interested IL 10 the caussof every
x,thar Etate n n,ueh al Of Virginia that IL to