The New York herald., 1863-12-28
The Suppression OF the Rebei'ion-Tne
Work Done I'm the West-Rtchnsoud.

The Suppression OF the Rebeiiion-Tns
Work Done I'm the West-Rtcnnsoud.
The letter which we submit to our readers
this morning from one of our industrious army
correspondents, summing up the grand results
achieved by our gallant soldiers and sailors ir
the West in the patriotic work Of the suppress
sion of the rebellion, will be found exceedingly
interesting and suggestive. From these achieve
ments we can realize to some extent the ire
sistible, incalculable and enduring power o
the glorious Mississippi river as an ally OF the
Union, and as involving the most foolish and
the most disastrous of all the miscalculations oi
JEFF. Davis and his fellow conspirators.
The artillery captured from the enemy along
the Mississippi might be so disposed that pass
! ing steamboat, from Cairo to the Gulf oil
Mexico-some twelve hundred miles-wonld
not for a single instant be out OF range OF
two or three Of the guns of this continuous
battery. The rebel rams, turtles, floating
steam batteries gunboats. &c, captured or
destroyed between Columbus and the Balize,
all restored to their original fighting condition.
would be sufficient in smooth sea TO sink the
whole wooden navy Of Great Britain in half an
hour. The rebel armies captured on or ex-
PEELED from the line of the Mississippi would
all together, present more formidable array
than the victorious allied army Of Waterloo.
The extent of country substantially reclaimed
from the rebellion by these military operations
eclpses the conquests of the great Napoleon;
and the damages thus inflicted upon the enemy
have simply decided the fate of JEFF Davis and
his dismantled confederacy. In this connection
our unpretending Western soldier Gen. Grant.
has achieved military distinction which will
place him in history among the greatest OF
military heroes of modern times. Hence the
CONSERVATION among the plotting politicians of
the day at The bare mention of the name OF
Grant as the peoples candidate for the next
Presidency.
Leaving these perplcxed politicians for the
present to deliberate upon the question what
they are to do with him. let US briefly consider
the great advantages to the Union cause gained
by these glorious triumpbs in the West. Two
years ago fears were entertained OF the safety
of ST. Louis; now Missouri is as cffectuaiy re-
claimed as Maryland. Two years ago a rebel
uiiutu CldlUleu tut TlrHt 10 tuc
State government of kentucky now the re-
manning soldiers of that usurpation are sub
sisting on half rations among the shattered
regiments of the rebel army of Georgia. Two
years ago an outspoken Unionist in Arkansas
was at once disposed of by hanging; but to-
people of Arkansas are breaking out every
where in enthusiastic Union meetings These
popular manifestations convince us that Ar
kansas, of all the States dragged into this sui-
cidal rebellion, has been most the victim Of
secession violence and rufiianisin-excepting
perhaps, the State of Texas. From Missouri
to the Rio Graude little comparatively remains
to be done but to CLEAN up the broken fragments
Of the rebel armies, while from the Georgia
and Alabama northern border to the Gulf the
kingdom of King Cotton and King Davis is
fairly within the grasp of General Grant.
Thus from Chattanooga to the Gulf and the
Rio Grande the numbers and the disposition
of the Union forces may be considered equal to
the task of finishing the work before them with
the return Of spring. But while Richmond re-
mains untouched, and while the army of Lee
holds our Army Of the Potomac in check at the
halfway river from Washington, the suppress
sion of the rebellion from the West towards the
East will still be something like a siege-the
work Of regular approaches from point to point.
Take Richmond, and the effect will be q general
collapse. If the administration desires to end
the war at single blow 1t has only to call into
the Notifications Of Washington fifty thousand
three months militia, and with twenty or thirty
thousand men added to the army Of General
Meade move it over or around the army Of Lee
upon the rebel capital. The time has surely
come when the fall of Richmond will be the
end Of the war; and, therefore, instead Of re-
ducng the rebellion any longer by piecemeal
over half dozen States, the main object Of the
government should now be to finish it at once,
from Virginia to Texas, by the capture Of Rich