Civilian & telegraph. [volume] (Cumberland, Md.) 1859-1875, 1863-08-13
THE PEACE PROSPECT.

There is a great lull just now in the world
Of military news, though reports of fights
and sieges are of sufficiently definite and for
midible shape to remind the reader that we
are still In the midst of tremendous war;
yet Notwithstanding these sporadic indica-
Hons, the impression popularity prevails that
the war is about over, and blessed peace is
nigh at hand. People seem to have come to
this conclusion by process of imagining
themselves in the place of the rebels and do.
ing as they would be done by. After taking
into consideration the losses sustained and
the sufferings endured, the horrible past and
gloomy future of secessiondom, the opinion
Is becoming very prevalent that were we in
their places We would be making virtue Of
necessity and getting ready to receive and
consider terms ofsurrender. Heroism is like
most everything else, a matter of comparison,
snd the South, undoubtedly, have won the
need for the highest exhibition thereof, but
when heroism passes beyond a certain point,
Il chen rapidly deteriorates and becomes fool
hardness and leads to suicide. Neither of
these conclusions are by the generality of
mankind considered particularly honora BILE
in the individual, nor can it with any partic-
ular consistency be rated as praisworthy in
many. Considering that as general propo.
sition human nature is very much the same
wherever you find it, we, the loyal people of
the United States, are rapidly coming to the
conclusion that the rebels are nearly, if
not quite, in a condition to cry enough
They can do it without discredit, for they
have made brave and desperate fight, and
their eighteen million of antagonists (sav-
ing and excepting the copperheads and but
ternuts) will freely bear them witness that
they have done the best it was possible for
men to do under the circumstances. Peace
on honorable terms can be had for the ask
Ing, and it does not imply disbonor if the
vanquishcd fail to gain the object for which
they fought The rank and file can be very
readily propitiated on this point, for, confess.
ecly, they do not to this day precisely
know the objects of their combat and the
chivalry can certainly bring themselves to
abide the inevitable fortune of war which has
doomed them and their schemes to disap-
pointment.- Whether they can or not, is in
the outcome of immatcrial, for the fortune
Of Observation-Disclosures as inevitable as death
have decreed it SO, and they can only SUBJ
NIT. Secession, as a practical theory Of
State rights, is henceforth dead; the subordi-
nation of all other national interest to slavery
is dead; slavery extension is dead; slavery it.
self is moribund; the idea that any particular
section may of right dictate not only govern
mental policy, but the choice OF President,
was exploded in the grand catastrophe by
which it was proven that one Southern man
IN arms is no better than one Northern man
similarly accoutred. In fact, all the dstin-
gushing points Of North and South which
Southern demagosues aggravated into causes
Of war, instead Of suffering them 20 remain
as marks Of differences, have been so obliier-
ated or smoothed down by this war that there
is no longer anything for the South to fight
about, promising reconstruction possible and
the retention OF the present Constitution. A
seperate nationality is a mere dream of folly.
which no wise man among them entertans,
except to use it to delude and dupe. Just
as the sun shines in the heavens, let this war
last one year or century, when it is over
the nation wilEagain be an unit, and never
before. Any contrary arrangement will only
be patchwork, requiring armies and navies
unseccessfully to guard tine pieces, to be weld
ed at last into one by negotiation or war.
These are about the conclusions that are
beginning to find their way into the Southern
mind, now that the Southern heart, once
fred, has had time to cool in the shade of ad-
versity. After three years of war, arbitrary
rule, deprivation and suffering in every
shape, reflection comes at last and the plar-
ter, the mechanic, the merchant, the poor
farmer, the owner at a few negroes perhaps,
the humber class that forms the rank and
file of the rebel army, ask themselves what
they have gained, and what they expect to
gain by indefinite prosecution of this war,
for indefinite it must look to them, compar-
ing their resources with ours. The answer
comes in the perchance bitter Recollection
If the events Of the war TO this time. While
every Southern State has been invaded and |
the foothold won. held with the grasp Of
death, not a. single, Northern State has yet
been subjsct to invsa;on rising beyond the
importance Of raid. While all their i'm
portsnt cities has been eaptnred or placed in
deadly peril, not siusleimportsnt town on !
-