Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1863-05-18


terribly in the battles near ChanceIfct'1iIu
where their men were rushed forward to be
mown down by our artillery, and where
Stonewall jackson received death wounds.
The tone of the Richmond paper is despond-
ing; it sees no prospect Of driving the feder-
al government from its purpose to put down
the rebellion, and feels that the resources of
the rebels are quite unnqual to the conflict
they are compelled to maintain.
Grierson's cavalry raid through Mississippi
appears to be felt by rebel leaders as a heavy
blow at their power in the southwest This,
with the operations of our gunboats between
Vicksburg and Port Hudson, and on Red river,
and the movements of Gen. Grant, shows that
the military power of the rebels cannot be sus-
tanned in that quarter. Their communication
with Texas by way of Red river is destroyed;
Vicksburg is becoming useless to them; the
Mississippi will be opened in defiance of all
their efforts to keep it closed: they steadily
lose ground and have no hope of any success
es that will enable them to regain what they
lose. They have put forth all their strength
in the most earnest and desperate manner;
and the mightiest effort of man or an orga-
nized body of men can not be continued long
without some abatement of power. Such eff
forts are surely followed by exhaustion; and
when they fail to produce the desired result,
they are also followed by depression and dis
enlargement. We see this now in the mood
that prevails among the rebel leaders and
finds expression in the Richmond newspa-
pers. We are FESTIVE because we do not
crush them at a single blow they feel that the
conflict is greater than they have power to
sustain successfully.
1t must be plain to all patriotic observers
that the most powerful and promising infu-
ence that now works in favor of the rebel
cause, is that of our northern copperheads.
This copperhead influence works actively and
steadily to create a diversion in their favor.
1t assails every measure employed by the gov
eminent to crush the rebellion; it clamors
furiously against the war, and goes to the ex-
6 4~aoeor IN oqn?siug it it docs
everything in its power to divide the northern
people and weaken the power of the govern
ment; it devises apologies for the rebels and
seeks to hide the great crime of the leading
conspirators by whom treason was organized;
it supports any movement or policy that tends
to strengthen the power of the rebels and
give them success. And the men engaged in
this traitorous work have the audacity to talk,
when occasion requires, as if they desired to
save the Unionl Their machinati ms more
than anything else, threaten to make a res
toration of the Union impossible.
If the apprehension that troubles the
loyal states should suddenly and entirely dis
appear, and everywhere be succeeded by ear
nestness and uncompromising loyalty, the re-
bellion could not last many months for with
the whole united power of the north employ
ed to fill up our armies, sustain the govern.
against the rebel military power, it would give
way at once; and the southern people would
return to the Union, while all the leading trail
tors would escape from the country or be
hung. But, while the rebels are becoming
respondent, weak, and worn out with their
desperate efforts to triumph over the govern
ment, our Vallandighams and their followers
are denouncing the war, raging against the
government, and preaching resistance to the
act of congress that provides for recruiting
our armies. And these men stand up
brazenly and declare that the federal
constitution, by guaranteeing freedom of
speech, gives them right to join the rebels,
in this way, in waging war against the very
existence of the republic; that is to say the
fundamental law of the nation justifes and
defends its destroyers