The Abingdon Virginian. [volume] (Abingdon [Va.]) 1849-1883, 1863-07-10

lty OF Vicksburg.
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From the New York Times.
What we must come to.
We hope there are not many honest, patri-
otto men at the North who have not, during
the last week, asked themselves in sober sad
ness: How is it that, after two years of war,
with every advantage on our side; with over
whelming superiority in men, money and ma
terial; with our ports open, our trade fou-
rishing, our credit good, our people pertina-
cious and determined beyond example, we
find the enemy threatening our own territory
with an army equal, if not superior, to our
own? How is it that, within days march
of Washington, we have no better protection
against invasion than a levy en- mosse, and a
tumultuous rush to- the field of half.armed
civilians -undrilled, unoficered, and unor-
ganized? How is it that the United States
Government, while actually engaged in the
self reduced to the humiliating necessity of
abandoning the defence Of Northern soil to
the frantic energy of State Governors How
is it that when the second campaign opens,
the national authority seems to disappear
from eur view, and the Union seems to resolve
itself into a mere Confederation, each men,
Der of it acting for itself, and shouting to the
others for help? What is it, in short, that
constitutes the military superiority of the
South at this moment? What gives it ve-
teran and disciplined army, equal in number
to Hooker's, and enables it to spread panic
through the whole North. and send the au-
thorities of Pennsylvania flying off with the
State archives from the State Capital, by
merely sending two or three thousand troop
ers over the border? Why are our young
men called off from their business at a days
notice to repulse s'raids" three hundred miles
away? Why is great, powerful society
like ours thrown into commissions by the CD
position of a brigade Of bushwhackers, its
business men driven to their wits ends, and
its chiefs forced to make appeals to the patri-
otism and devotion of private citizens such as
are usually the last resource of despairing
energy?
The answer to all these questions is simple.
We are engaged in an enterprise which re.
quires that well drilled, we'll disciplined and
well organized army, ruled by one code, COM
manded by one chief, should be maintained
till it is accomplished. The South recogniz-
ed this great fact early in the war, and we
did not; and hence it is that it is astonishing
the world BY the greatness of its performance
as compared with its means-We, by the
smallness of our performance as compared
with our means. Armies recruited as ours
have been, for nine months, and two years,
and three years, with officers elected and APP
pointed by fourteen or fifteen different Go
vernors, with nothing surer to depend on for
reinforcements than voluntary enlistment,
cannot possibly succeed in a task of such
magnitude as we have undertaken. No such
feat has ever been accomplished; no man, with
any knowledge of war; believes it possible,
and our having attempted it has excited both
the ridicule and astonishment Of the world.
1t would be impossible even if the North were
unit. and if every orator and writer in it
were engaged in stimulating the ardor of our
lighting population; if there were no party
amongst us engaged, for their own base pur-
poses, IN spreading despair and mistrust, in
breeding INSTRUMENTATION and in making
mockery Of discipline. 1t would be impossi-
Die, IN short, it the command of the army
and every operation of the war were not per
slstently used to serve the purposes of faction,
to divide and distract the nation, and to pa
ralyze the Government.
The people of the North may assure them
selves, once for all, that the South cannot be
conquered by drafts of militia, either for 80
days or three months, or by levies en- nsasse,
or any bursts of enthusiasm, however noble.
1t cannot be conquered by an army from which
thirty or forty thousand men, as recently on
the Potomac, have the right to march off home
on the eve Of tremendous battles, or in the
midst of important sieges, as now at Port
Hudson. It can only be conquered by an
army such as the South has itself in the field
Ian army raised by CONSUMPTION, and kept
up by Consumption, to any number that is
needed, for as long as the acar lasts. People
may as well make up their minds to this
War as we are waging it at this moment in
Pennsylvania, is wasteful, sanguinary and ex-
hausting in the highest degree. If we will
not submit to conscription, if we are deter
mined to cow the Government into not enforc-
ing it, or allow others to cow it: if we will
insist in prating about the State militia, and
rely on GubernatOrial energy and. enthusiasm,
we must be content with defeats and panics,
and make up our minds for a final and ire
trievable breakdown. All the thirty days'
men that Gov. Seymour, or Parker, or Curtin
can call into the field for the next ten years,
will do no more toward putting down the re-
bellion or ending the war in any way but by
a disgraceful peace, than the explosion Of fire.
crackers. If people are not satisfied Of this
now, they never will be satisfied, and we So
lemnly call upon the Government to apply to
the national courage and determination, the
supreme and final test Of raising, BY draft,
for the war, as many men as it needs. To
delay it one minute longer is worse than weak