The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1863-02-04
REMARKABLE EDITORIALS.
YANKEES HOLD ALL THEY EVER HELD.
TFrom the Richmond Examiner.

/
at is not altogether an empty boast
on the part of the Yankees that they hold
all they have ever held, and thai another
year or two of such progress as they have
already made will find them masters of
the Southern Confederacy. They who
think independence is to be achieved by
brilliant but inconsequential victories,
would do we'll to look with the natural
eve at the magnitude of Yankee posses
sions IN our country. Maryland, Ken
lucky, and Missouri are claimed as con-
,tituent parts of the Confederation; they
are as much in the power Of Lincoln as
Maine aud Minnesota. The pledge, once
deemed foolish by the South, that he would
"hold, occupy and possess" all the forts
belonging to the United States Govern
nent, has been redeemed almost to the
letter By Lincoln. Forts Pickens, Sum-
tier aud Morgan We still retain, but, with
these exceptions, all he strongholds on
the aeaboard, from Fortress Monroe 20 the
Clio Grande, are in the hands of the foe.
"Very conseling aud very easy to say
that it was impossible to prevent all this,
and that the occupation of the outer edge
of the republic amounts to nothing. Nicks
burg aud Drewry's Bluff give tho lie to
the first assertion, and the onward move
ment of Rosecrans towards Alabama, the
presence of Grant 10 North Mississippi,
and of Curtis in Middle Arkansas to say
nothing of Banks at New Orleans and
| Baton Rouge, set at rest the silly dream
that thin strip of ea,eoast only is in the
possession of our foes. The truth is, the
Yankees are in great force in the very
heart of the Confederacy; they swarm on
all our borders, they threaten every im
poriant city yet belonging to US and near
ly two hundred thousand of them are
within tive days march of the Confederate
capital This is no fiction. It is fact
so positive that none can deny it.
Nor is this all The President tells
Us, in his message, that the troubles with
the Indian tribes have been removed, ,aDd
no further difficulty is anticipated. The
Intelligence we obtain frem private and
trustworthy sources does not confirm the
Presidents saDguine assertions. The
trouble with the Cherokees was, in great
part, due to the fact that some seven or
eight thousand Of them, now in arms, had
not received cent of pay for fourteen
months. 1t is true that paper money has
been sent them, and ere now, 1t is hoped,
has reached its destination. But Indians
do not like paper money. Still it would
answer the purpose if Gen'l Albert Pike
remained to disbuTse it, aud to alay their
prejudices which be of all men in the
Confederacy, is best able to do. Pike,
however, has resigned, for good reasons,
doubtless, and person said to be not the
most competent is left 10 his stead. Tn,
der these circumstances, We shall be for
tunate, indeed, if we escape further trou.
Bile with the Indians. Moreover, we get
from Missouri members and others, dis
tressing accounts of the condition of af-
fairs 10 Arkansas.
General Hindman is very far from be
ing favorite, even among his own people,
and so destitute are some of the new lev
les who have volunteered to come out of
Missouri to join our armies, that whole
battalions of them have been seen march
ing barefoot through snow three inches
deep. Add to this the fact that, so far
as the public is permitted to know, New
Mexico and Arizoua are for the time be-
ing, lost to US, and that the state of dis
affection in Tennessee and Mississippi
(growing out of the appointment of in
competent officers and the fancied neglect
of that country By the Confederate Gov
ernment-not from any lack of fervor 10
the cause), which President Davis visit
was intended to heal, is likely to revive
under the depressing influence of Bragg's
retreat and his continuance ln command
add all this TO the foregoing, and il
will be seen that the Yankees have much
to encourage them in the prosecution of
the war, and we not little to excite Sc
rious apprehensions as to the future.
The remedy for this state of things is
obvious. 1t lies in the extension and rig
id enforcement of that law to which we
owe our salvation. We must bring out
the couscripts and diminish exemptions.
If this is done, the chapter of failures in
the Southwest will come to an end. The
history of the battles in that region has
been sufficiently uniform to justify con-
clusion which shall not be chargeable with
the vices of hasty generaizations. 1t has
not been so much for a want OF brains as
for want of men that we have been cem-
PEELED to lose the fruits of some of the
best fighting that has been done in this
war. At Douelsou, at Shiloh, at Perry
vile and at Murfreesboro the story has
been always the same-vic:orles, achieved
against great odds, snatched away by over