The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1863-04-18

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ioreign nation or government, we did at
least expect of the leading Powers Of Eu-
rope that they should refrain from extend
ing aud and encouragement to q rebellion
against a friendly government, thereby
prolonging struggle which can only bring
misery and suffering upon the whole civil
lzed world, and may in the end lead to q
war between our Government and some Of
tnose Powers, the full effects of which the
future alone can disclose.
{ OUR RESOURCES. ~ .z5 ~
we nave carried on, shall carry on and
conclude this war, without touching one
DOLLAR OF the accumulated capital Of the
country. We are already astonished at the
revenue now being raised from the taxation
OF our daily productions, and yet we do not
begin to realize the amount to be yielded
by the system already adopted, or the ex-
tent to which that system may be enlarged,
without imposing any grievous burdens up
on the people-any burden to which they
will not cheerfully submit to accomplish
the object intended. -
No government can long carry on war
which must be sustained by the accumula
ted capital of the country, and there is
scarcely Limit to the time war may be
prosecuted by government whose credit
is sustained by the revenues derived from.
the accommodating wealth of the country.
REBEL DEFENCEs. 80 ae
Every dollar the Rebels have expended
or can expend in this Rebellion has been
and must continue to be drawn from their
accumulated capital. Their intercourse with
foreign nations has been almost wholly sus-
pended, all their industrial interests have
been paralyzed, and there is no source from
which they can derive revenue or means for
the maintenance of the war, except by de-
priving the people of their property, day
after day, and year after year, SO long as
the war shall continue, thus reducing them
to poverty and want. This is truth which
the people in the revolted States are already
beginning to realize. They had been made
TO believe that an export duty on cotton,
which the world would be obliged to pay,
would yield them the richest revenue ever
realized by any Government, and that if
the Federal Government should attempt in
reference with it's expectation, they could
command the armies and nayies of Europe
to fight their battles for them. How bitter
must be their disappointmenta as they apply
with their own hands the torch which con-
signs 1t to ashes, and then are compelled to
supply to their leaders, from their other
property, the means to sustain the Rebel
lion! Their currency has almost ceased to
be regarded, evenly themselves, as the rep
resentative of value 81
Consumption has exhausted their people,
and the wealth which long years of unin-
terrupted prosperity under the best govern
ment the worldeyer saw, had placed in their
hands, has already been expended, and they
are now struggling on with the vain hope
that dlssentions among ourselves or foreign
Intervention may save them from that ruin
which they see clearly impending over
them. Every day must show them more
and more clearly, that on neither of these
sources can they rely for help. The utter
scorn and contempt with which every man
in the loyal States who proposes any adj
justment of this contest except the absoluteS
unqualified, and unconditional subjugation
OF every Rebel in the land to the Constitu-
ton and the laws, is held by every officer
and soldier in our army, and every loyal
man in the country, must Danish from their
minds the last ray of hope from that source.
The reaction which followed the recent
slight manifestations Of a willingness on the
part of few Secession sympathizers to offer
terms of compromise must convince them
that they have no allies in the loyal States
on whom they can rely; and the present
condition Of affairs in Europe must forever
crush that false and delusive hope which
they have heretofore entertained, that the
intervention of European powers might
enable them to accomplish what they know
full well they can never attain unaided.
THE TASK BEFORE US.
We now see clearly what we have to do.
We must obtain uninterrupted control of
the Mississippi. We must reach those great
railroad arteries-the one bordering the At
lantic seaboard, the other stretching thro'
the Virginia and Tennessee valleys to the
west and south. We must, as soon as pos
sible, take the few fortified seaports remain
ing in possession of the Rebels, cut them
off from all external sources of food and
arms, and have surrounded them by forces
which can press upon them from any quar-
ter, at the same time severing into isolated
MOI ho nfo1 md v,rv
their means of intercommunication, by
which alone they have hitherto been ena-
bled to meet us in force wherever we have
presented ourselves, and by which alone
they have been able to feed andsupply their
armies.
By possessing ourselves of, and keeping
open, the great natural highways alone,
land the possession of navy by us should
have early suggested this,) we sever parts
of their territory mutually dependent, and,
while crippling them, enable ourselves to
speedily concentrate our forces at any point
where it may be advisable to strike.
These decisive measures we are actually
executing or preparing to execute. The
successes and conquests we have already
described have carried us through the pre-
liminary stages, and the bloWs we now
strike-each one of them that succeeds
will reach the very vitals of the Rebellion.
Let any one cast his eye upon the map, and
these trutheS will be apparent
It may be in the future, as in the past,
we shall meet with reverses; they are inev-
liable incidents of great war extending
over so vast a territory, and requiring great
armies at so widely separated points. We
have already seen that it is not our true
policy to attempt an actual military occu-
patton of the rebel territory, except at few
and important controlling points. Wei
must destroy their armies, and to do this
we must concentrate, not scatter, our forces.
1t is better to operate successfully against
one stronghold or one army than to at
tempt three and fail. The Indications now
clearly are that, both in the East and West,
the campaign of 1868 will give us brilliant
MISUNDERSTANDING victories. Our Cen
erals now in the field have the full conf
dence Of the soldiers and the people. and
the armies will go forth, knowing that their
ranks are to be made full; that every day i
that passes will add to, not diminish. their !
strength or numbers. Never before did |
the world see such an army in the field;
never before did Generals lead such men
to battle. Each man goes forth feeling, not
only that he has soldiers reputation to
maintain, but also that he has country to
defend in which his intaralt ia "a great rs