Delaware State journal and statesman., 1863-01-30
A RENIARKABLE EDITORIAL

@--@Af-N- --AN
" The Yankees Hold all they hare euer Held'-
Z. Another Years Progress 10 make them Mdsiers
of Southern Confedsrdey."
From the Richmond Examiner, Jan. 20.
1t is NOT altogether an empty boast on the part
Of the Yankees, that they hold all they have ever
held and that another year or two of such pro-
gress as they have already mode will find them
masters of the Southern Confederacy. They
who think independence is to be achieved by
brilliant but iuconsequentiAl victories would do
well to look with the natural eye at the magn-
tude of Yankee possessions in our country
Maryland. Kentucky and Missouri are claimed
as constituent parts of the Confederation; they
are as much in the power Of Lincoln as Maine
and Minnesota. The pledge. once deemed foolish
by the South that he would &c hold, occupy and
possess" all the forts belonging to the United
States Government has been redeemed almost 10
the letter by Lincoln Forts Piekens and Morgan
we still retain, but with these exceptions, all the
strougholds on the seaboard, from Fortress Nom
roe to the Rio Grand are in the hands of the
enemy.
Very consoling and very easy to say that it
was impossible to prevent all this, and that the
occupation of the outer edge of the Republic
amounts to nothing. Drewry's Bluff aud Vlcks-
burg give the lie to the first assertion, and the
onward movement of Rosecrans toward Alabama,
the presence of Grant in North Mississippi, and
of Curtis III Middle Arkansas, to say nothing Of
Banks at New Orleans aud Baton Rouge, set at
rest the silly dream that thin strip of ea-coast
only is in the possession OF our foes. The truth
is, the Yankees are in great force in the very
heart of the Couiederacy they swarm on oil
our borders, they threaten every important city
yet belonging to US, and nearly two hundred
thousand OF them are within two days march Of
the Confederate capital. This is no fiction. 1t
is a fact so positive that none can deny it.
Nor is this all. The President tells us, in his
me ssage, that the troubles with the Indian
tribes have been removed, and no further diff
Guilty is anticipated. The intelligence we obtain
from private and trust worthy sources does not
confirm the Presidents sanguine assertions
The trouble with the Cherokees was, in great
part, due to the fact that some 1000 or 5000 Of
them, now in arms, had not received cent Of
pay for IA months. 1t is true that paper money
has been sent them, and ere now, it is to be
hoped, has reached its destination. But Indians
do not like paper money. Still, it would auswtr
the purpose if Gen. Albert Pike remained to dis
burse it, and to alay their prejudces, which he,
of all men in the Confederacy, is best able to do.
Pike, however, has resigned, for good reasons,
doubtless, and person said not to be the most
competent is left in his stead. Under these cir
cumstances, we shall be fortunate indeed if we
escape further trouble with the Indians. More
over, we get from Missouri members and others
distressing accounts OF the condition OF affairs in
Arkansas.
Gen. Hindman is very far from being a favor
ite, even among his own people, and SO destitute
are some of the new levies who have volunteered
TO come out of Missouri to join our armies, that
whole battalions of them have been seen march
ing barefoot through snow three inches deep.
Add to this the fact that, so far as the public
10 an IN NpVy. MpxiaO AriZOun
are for the time being lost to us, and that the
state of disaffecton in Tennessee and Missis-
sippi (growing out Of the appointment of incom
petent officers and the tancied neglect OF that
country by the Confederate Goyernment-not
from any lack of fervor in the cause), which
President Davis's visit was intended to heal, is
likely to revive under the depressing influence
of Bragg's retreat and his continuance in conf
mand-add all this to the foregoing, and it will
be seen that the Yankees have much to encOur.
age them in the prosecution of the war, and we
not little to excite serious apprehensions us to
the future.
The remedy for this state of things is obvious.
1t lies in the extension and rigid enforcement Of
that law to which we owe our salvation. We
must bring out The oOnscripts and diminish
emptiOns, If this is done, The chapter Of fail
ures in the Southwest will come 10 an end
The history of the battles in that region has
been sufficiently uniform to justify conclusion
which shall not be chargeabe with the vices ol
hasy generalization. 1t has not been so much
for want Of brains as for want Of men thai
we have been compelled to lose the fruits oil
some of the best fighting that has been done il
this war. At Donelson, at Shiloh, at PerTyville
and at Murireesboro, the story has been always
the same-vlctories achieved against great odds
suatched away by overwhelming re-enforcementi
to the enemy.
As the past has been so will the future be, un
less something is done and that speedily, to fiji
up the shattered ranks of our armies in th'
| West Exemptions must be diminished. Th'
system of details must be adopted. Young mel
must not be permitted to evade their duty bl
slipping into safe places Compaisant friend
must turn deaf ear to their entreaics. Able
bodied men must not be allowed to stay at hom
/ on the pretext of attending to twenty negroes
Here in Virginia there are, in pahy places, con
tiguous plantations, numbering in the aggregat
hundreds Of slaves, without a solitary whit
man left to guard them. The gentle authorit
of ladies has been found amply sufficient to con
troll the obedient African population.
With the first opening OF Spring comes th
last tremendous shock Of this war. Many 0
the Yankee troops are nine months men Mor
are enlisted for two years, their time expirin
in May next. Up to that time they will b
available, and we may be very sure that all th
fighting that can possibly be gotten out of ther
will be had before they are allowed to go home
They outnumber us two to one. There is a limi
to the endurance Of the brave men at Tullahoma
Grenada and Vieksburg. They must be sustain
ed, strengthened, reinforced. II within til
next two months we do not add seventy-ive or
hundred thousand men to our forces in th
Southwest we shall come to grief. If we d
add them we are safe beyond peradyenture, an
next Summer will witness the final triumph
our arms.