The Xenia sentinel. [volume] (Xenia [Ohio]) 1863-186?, 1863-12-15
A Question Of Endurance.

A Question Of Endurance.
The war has now reached a point at
which the continued resistance of the rebels
is a mere question of endurance. They are
suffering privatons as severe as were ever
borne by beligerent people Their cur
rency is deprecated in the ratio of twelve.
to one, and while the soldiers and civil
employees of Government are paid in this
deprecated currency on thescale which was
fair when the currency was at or near par,
provisions, clothing, and all the necessaries
Of life have adjusted themselves to thu de-
probation, so that it takes a soldiers wages
for month to support his family for day.
Of manufactured artieles-bOots, shoes,
dry goods, hardware Of all kinds, agricul-
tural implements, etc.-the stock has fallen
so low that fabulous prices are asked and
obtained by its fortunate pOssessors. The
capture of Morris Island has nearly closed
the port of Charleston, and within a month
the blockade of Wilmington-the only port
at which any considerable blockade running
is now done--will also be sealed. When
this happens, 20 more foreign goods will
enter the Confederacy till the peace On
the other hand, the loss of the Mississippi
Valley has cut off the chief supply Of beef,
as the advance of Burnside has curtailed
the supply Of cereals, and the occupation of
Chattanooga has deprived the rebel foun-
dries of the coal which was essential to
their existence. Famine is so imminent at
Richmond that the rebel journals confess
their inability to feed the Union prisoners,
and it is seriously proposed that our Govern
ment should send them beef and bread
from Washington, The Governor of
Georgia admits that the stock Of provisions
in that once Opulent State is insufficient for
the wants of the population; and General
Bragg proposes a general seizure Of the
lands in the Confederaey with a view to
their being exclusively used to raise food
for the army.
This picture IS not exaggerated. letlt
is hardly possible to conceive a more com
plete aggregate of wretchedness. Without
food, without clothes, without coal, without
hope of succor from abroad, and with the
ever present Federal anaconda tightening
its grip around them week by week and
month by month, sometimes moving fast,
sometimes slowly, but never losing an inch
of ground once occupied, can it be possible
to conceive a people in more cruel straits
than the rebels? How long can they en-
dure such a complication Of miseries? To
which side shall they look for relief?
Not to Europe, for there the rebel rams
have just been seized, and public opinion
seems to be once more tuning against
them Not to General Lee, for his second
attempt to invade the North and menace
Washington has proved only less disastrous
than his first, and he is now blrely able 10
cover Richmond by making more fertile
acres in Virginia a barren desert. Not to
Bragg, for he, notwithstanding the victory
Of Chickamauga. has been unable to wrest
the key Of the Southwest-Chattanooga-
from the grasp Of Grant, and he knows full
well that the next move in the game viii
be a resistless " unconditional surrender
movement on Atlanta. Not to cavalry
raids and guerrillas, for they-though an-
noying to us-dO no good to the rebels,
and, on the whole, are probably more
troublesome to Southern planters than to
Northern armies Not to the Peace Dem
ocrats of the North, for the fail elections
have squelched them out pretty thoroughly.
There Is not a man, or a principle, or Il
point in the horizon to which these despair
ing rebels can look with the least hope of
aid, OF comfort, or succor in their hour Of
misery.
They may burn a few trains, "gobble
up" a few commissaries, surprise a few
helpless detachmcnts Of the Union troops
nay, even win pitched battle or two here
or there; but what then Tn the truthful
language of the Richmond Examiner,
''0ur (rebel) victories are somehow always
fruitless and unproductive Of results; they
leave the great question Of the war where
they found it" How long will they con-
tinue to struggle under such privations
against such odds, in so hopeless a cause?
The time has not come yet fr an honest
. Northerner to express his opinion of the
courage aud fortitude which the rebels have
displayed in this wretched contest. So long
as the red hand of battle is upliftcd they
! are our ercmies, whom it is our duty to
destroy-nothing mre. When the time
/ does come-as come It must-that failure
and disappointment and priyation and de-
spair compel these poor people to abandon
the struggle into which a blind and brutal
oligarchy precipitated them, they may rely
upon it that, in the words of that great
and good man, Henry Ward Beecher, they
will find the atted calf ready for them
throughout the North, and none more
ready TO relieve their wants than the very
soldiers who are now crushing in the sides
of the pastoboard Coniederacy.-Harper'
Weekly