Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1863-01-08
VOL. XXX.
A SURVEY FOR THE NEW YEAR,

! ry Wnlcn tells us tnat another year has been
added to the past, to glance for moment at
the time that has elapsed, in order to see what
encouragement or doubt it leads to the pros
poets Of the lime that is to come. We have
now been engaged for nearly twenty two months
in the prosecution of civil war Of unequalled
magnitude, and of almost uneqaalled intensity
OF feeling. In the course of that period we
have suffered many serious reverses, we have
sacrificed untold amounts of property, and we
have lost thousands upon thousands of precious
lives. All over the land many once happy
homes have been made desolate-wives are
widows and children are fatherless. The high
enthusiasm with which we began the war has
subsided, the unity of aim and action has been
broken, and a certain tone of despondency has
followed the elation Of theonset. A few among
us, we are afraid, begin to despair, and not
few are willing to make peace on terms that
would be dishonorable to the nation.
Let. us, then, at the hazard of repeating
what is well known, run over some of the lead
| ing facts OF our case, TO learn If there be any
good reason for any other feeling than of CON
! hdence and hope. In the first place, we must
recall the circumstances in which Mr.. Lincoln,
less than two years ago, came into power. He
was the first. it will be remembered in the long
line of our Presidents, who were summoned to
succeed an administration in which imbeclcs
were associated with cunning and bold conspi-
rators to work the ruin of the country. No
President before found third part of the ma
ton in open revolt, armed from the arsenaIs
and magazines which had before been traitor
ously appropriated 10 the uses of the rebellion
largely furnished with money from the national
treasury, led by officers whom the nation had
educated for lis own defence, and in possession,
| by treacherous connivance and seizure. of many
of the most important arsenals. dockyards,
mints harhors and foitreSses of the nation
our own little army and navy, the meanwhile,
Differed as far as possible by traitors, and sent
off to distant stations and seas beyond the call
of their country in her extremity, He was in
a word, summoned to meet gigantic rebellion,
with its arm upited to deal a death blow to an
unarmed people. And, as if TO add another
element of peril and embarrassment to the
crisis, those powerful nations which we regard
ed as most friendly and most intimately related
to us by commercial lies and moral sympalhes,
lent their full moral support to the rebellion, by
promptly acknowledging the rebels as belliger-
ents, and permitting them to derive what aid
and comfort they could from the confident and
unrebuked expectation of speedy recognition.
No monarch or magistrate perhaps ever
ascended the seat of power amid such a compli-
cation of difficulties and perils as those which
confronted Mr.. Lincoln when, in March Of last
year, he was sworn in as President of the
United States. He was advised to resign. He
was warned that nothing but disaster TO his
country and ruin to himself could result from
his attempting to discharge the magistracy to
which the people had elected him. Masked
traitors at the North and unmasked traitors at
the South admonished him that the only saliva
ton for the country was for him to quit the
helm, while the vessel of state was assaed bv
fierce winds, and driven recklessly towards the
breakers.
But he did not resign. Modestly, but man
fully, he laid his hand on the helm, asked his
people to pray for him, and set himself as best
he could to do his duty and to save his coun-
try. Twenty-Five months of his magistracy
have now rolled away. The results of his adj
ministraiion of American interests for that pc
riod have been presented in the late reports of
the several departments. Our little army of
some $4,000 men has expanded to a we'll
organized and sp!endidly appointed force of
nearly 100000, soon to number million. Our
navy, from ~ vessels in commission and 76 all
told, with 1888 guns, has grown to force,
ahoat or near completion, of 427 vessels Of war,
CARRYING 3,26S guns. No nation has
ever had so vast a military and naval arma-
ment, viewed in its special adaptation TO our
national purposes, and including powerful ele-
ments both of attack and defence unknown to
earlier warfare. The vast sums necessary To
raise, organize, equip and maintain this i'm
mense force have been raised without borrow
ing dollar from foreign nations Nor are the
actual achievements OF the war wholly unwor-
thy of these gigantic preparations. Nearly
three thousand miles of sea coast, from Norfolk
to New Orleans and Galveston, all belonging
to the insurgent region at the opening OF the
war have been reclaimed to the Union, and we
l.l.a e., 4 q ttn. nfO
or else gafrisoned and governed by our military
force. The Mississippi, the main artery of the
great central valley of the Union with its prin-
cpal tributaries embracing many thousands of
miles of inland navigation. once in the posses
sion of the rebels from Cairo to New Orleans,
has been restored, with the exception OF Nlcks-
burg, to national control. New Orleans, by
far the most opulent and important commercial
city of the rebellion, with Memphis, Nashville
Norfolk and numerous cities of inferior rank
have b en-. recovered to the Union, Maryland,
Missouri, Kentucky and a large part of Tenn
essee are now part of the loyal domain. And
foreign nations, whatever secret enn.ity they
may indulge, have been compelled to observe n
Guarded and respectful tone by the develop
ment Of a power which has astonshed them as
il has ourselves. care ie cOrbeau was the mot
to of formidable knight, armed cap-a-pie af-
ter the medieval fashion. Look olt for the
eagles talons is legible without being inscribed
on the American escutcheon.
Meanwhile, not a city or a river can the reb-
els point TO as conquest of the war. Not a
fortress is now in their possession which was
not seized when disarmed or inadequately de-
tended in the first surprise Of the rebellion
They have lost many and gained not one. At
raids and surprises and burning unarmed mer-
chant ships, they have had some success But
such transient and uniruitful advantages are far
from establishing their claim to be nation,
and present marked contrast TO the steady,
though slow, advances and permanent occupa
tions of the Union forces.
We have sustained, it is true, serious and
even dsgraceiul defeats in the battle fed. but
no wars not even Napoleon's, were ever Sc
ries of unbroken successes. Mcdowell at Bull
Run, Mcclellan on the Chickahomiry, Pope
before Washington, and Burnside at Fredericks.
burg have failed to maintain the fortunes of
the Republic. AS. partial offset we have had
Mill Spring, Fort DoneSon, New Madrid, Pea
Ridge, Shiloh, luka, Corinth, Boston Mountain,
aud Antieiam; but as completer offset, the
irrepressible valor of our troops, who are more
determined and effective now than ever before
If our campaigns have failed, il has been for
the want of military experience in the Com.
manders-iu- Chief or in the regimental officers.
Great military abilities cannot be improysed.
They are the work of time. They spring grad
ually from the exigencies of circumstance. Eu-
rope for centuries has b en- engaged in war, and