The Democratic press. (Eaton, Preble County, Ohio) 1860-1865, 1863-04-09
The New York Times on the War.

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The New York Times, edited BY
HenryJ J. Raymond, oneof Che most
vigorous, intelligent and able war
papers of the country, intensely
Republican, gives its views Of the
prospects of the war. It says:
MORE DELUsIvE PRoPuEcIEl-We per-
eeive, with great regret and apprehension,
that various writer's and orators have once
more begun to prophesy that the war will be
over by a certain day of a certain month.
Onlya week ago we learned from one of
these seers that the next 4th of July was to
dawn on a prosperous, peaceful and united
Republic. We have no doubt that for the
next quarter we shall have these predictions
on every side, and have editors debating
furiously whether it will be on the Ilth or
18th day of the month that Jefferson Davis
will try to make his escape into Cuba, and
the Confederate Congress take refnge,in the
Dismal Swamp. "Reliable gentlemen and
intelligent contrabands will swarmin every
town, with full, true and particular accounts
of conversations Overheard by them between
rebel functionaries and their wives wonder
ing whether they will be hanged or only i'm.
prisoned, if they surrender. The backbone
of the. rebellion" flexible as it has shown it.
self to be, will be declared 'broken' every
time we capture an earthwork or OCCUPY a
village, and we shall have long discussions
about the best manner Of furnishing the
Southern leaders. Bellicose politicians will
be found belaboring each other as to whether
they will execute or only Danish men who, ct
that very moment, will probably be surroun-
ded by 100000 soIdiers-desperate, well or
ganized and we'll led.
We had hoped that there was an end to
this sort Of things, and we protest earnestly
against its reeommencement. The influence
ofthis prophesying on the public mind is evil,
and only evil. fits just as absurd
to attempt to fix the date of the extinction OF
the Confederacy as the date of Jefferson Da-
Wis death. We mont Of us know one whit
more about the one than the other. What
we do know is, that the rebels will resist as
long as they can; but how long that will be
will depend upon half o dozen battles not
yet fought and of one or tive sieges not yet
begun. We earnestly advise everybody who
wishes to retain some little re putation for
Judgment to leave the task Of predicting the
result Of all these operations 10 the female
necromancers of Greenwich sire ct and the
Bowery.
We would warn the public, too, that the
capture Of both Vicksburg and Charleston,
and Richmond to boot, would not be at all
likely to close the contest. 1t would, no
doubt, hasten the end very materially, but it
would not bring it. A war in which the com.
batants are earnest, brave and determined,
is meyer ended by a capture of places, but by
the destruction Of armies. In so far as the
capture of the two %strongholds we are now
~besieging will tend to dispense or destroy the
Confederate armirs, they help to bring about
the final collapse, but no further. If their
falling into our hands doesnot render it more
difficult for the force Of Lee and Johnston to
keep the field, we are nearly as well without
them.
1t is our opinion that their fall will mate
rally increase the difficulties attending the
Confederate operations in the interior; but it
will not render those operations impossible,
and consequently will not bring the war to
an immediate end, Before that comes, we
shall have either to inAict upon the main body
of their forces two or three such crushing
and decisive defeats as will make it impossi-
BILE to rally or ~reorganize them; or else to
fight double that number of such battles as
we have hitherto fought, inficting as well as
suffering enormous losses, which we can re.
pair, but which they cannot. q"