The daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1863-1864, 1863-12-01
FROM EUROPE.
Restoration OF. the American
UniOn--.Incredulity or /" The
3 Thunderer." ,..t.

Inunuefers " +. sif
From the London Times Qesder) of Nov. l3
ID It is natural to ask once more what 10 ths
object OF so tremendous aud exhausting q
contest. The answer Is given in single
word &C aUnion, and we may, perhaps, con-
slider that this reply does really express the
predominant feeling of the Northern people.
No doubt many minor motives are included
and many interests are ct work more or
less psrceptibly under cover Of this univtr-'
sal cry, but In the main an instructive ssav'
ing for the old american Union" is pro-.
badly the ruling passion. We think that
passion natural, but we cannot regard It Is
reasonably indulged To impartial observ-
ers it appears that whatever might have been
the character of the Union, it became a po-
litical impossibility when one-third Of its
citizens deliberately refused to continue in
it any longer. That resolution might have
been most destructive and suicidal but it
could not, to any good purpose, be overruled.
Even if the Unionists could crush the Sc.
cedsrs, which seems utterly impossible, the
result, as We are assured by General Butler
bimself, would not bring the Union back
again, nor can even the most complete sue
cess on the part Of tie North leave America
ANYTHING but divided anu distracted couu-
try.
The Americans OF the old Union were
bent upon escaping the common political
lot of mankind Thev were not in reality
quite such people as they imagined them
selves but their growth had been so pro-
digiously rapid and promised to be So con
tinuous that hey may be almost excused
for setting no bounds 10 their 'destinies.
They conceived, therefore, the idea OF a ma
ton not only inconparabIy greater, but in
| comparabIy more fortunate, than any other
nation ever known From this ideal State
they banished all the drags and drawbacks
patiently endured by European States
The world in which they liyed-that is, the
New York world-was to be absolutely
their own, in undivided and indyisible in
tegrity. Though they might number a
! hundred millions OF men, these were all to
form one people under one President, With
one common country. The great AmeFi'
can Continent was 10 have but ono state,
| and to be thus exempted from all the obh
! cations of political rivalries all the exigen-
cies Of political equilibrium, aud all wars,
except wars cheerfnlIy accepted for the sake
of conquest or supremacy. Thy were to
be not such a. VIC are in this "rotten" Old
World; and their happy exemption from
the common burdens oi national life would
relieve them from debt, taxes, standing ar
MES. and all those innumerable adj Just
ments and sacrifices which the State Of Eu-
rope are fain TO make for the sake OF peace
and ouietness. That Was the idea OF the
Americans IL required whole world for
its fuflment, but they were bent on salts.
fying the condition They talked unre-
serYedlv Of the time when all the other
States of America would gravitate 10 their
own mass and become absorbed IN 1t like
comets 10 the sun, and in the meantime
they elevated TO the dignity of an indefsas-
lble "doctrine" declaration that no Euro
pean Power should venture TO acquire on
the American Continent a particle Of pow
er. privilege, or authority beyond It's sctu
al possessions.
This is the idea which the secession oil
the South 50 rudely demolished. we ad-
nit that it was an idea worth lighting Tor,
If fighting could save il, but that result was
i'm possible. and if the statesman OF the
North could have looked dispassionateiy IN
to the future they must have seen that
civil war would lnfallibly destroy those very
things which it was designed TO preserve
from destruction. The founders OF the he
public foresaw as much and many persons
in America discern as much nov. II may
be remarked, indeed, that scarcely any PUB
lie man, however confidently he may regard
the war, pretends to speak Of the Union as
a thing which, in its o!dshape, will ever De
seen again. They expect to see the South
subdued, and the American nation lett with
out a rival. but that nation will not be the
nation Of former days. Whatever may Dc
the rawlings of fanatics, it is impossible that
any reasoning citizen can either desire or
anticipate the actual determination oi
nine millions of people. The South, even
if il could be subdued, would always Dc ssR