The Union. [volume] (Georgetown, Del.) 1863-1866, 1864-02-12
The RobeI CONSERVATION.

It is growing every day more evident that
the people of the Rebellious States do not
mean to submit to the wholesale CONSUMPTION
which Mr.. Jefferson Davis is now trying to
legalize by an act of his Richmond Congress,
and which he had doubtless resolved to en-
forco at all hazards. Hardly voice is lifted
in its faver among the Rebel journals; against
il there is chorus from all quarters. The
bold though not passionate opposition of The
Richmond Whig has emboldened other pa
pers. The Mobile Register denounces the
measure as impracticablc. The Atlanta IN
telIigencer admits the necessity of recruiting
the Rebel armies, but will not assent to CON
scription. The Chattanooga Rebel, also print
ed, unless it has once more removed, at At
lanta, and hitherto an INSCRIPTIONS support
er of the EXTREMIST measures, halts at the
CONSUMPTION, and believes that other means
will equally produce the desired reinforce
ment. The North Carolina papers were
never so outspoken. The Raleigh Standard
declares that if the project is pushed the State
will secede from Secession Z" the people of
North Carolina will take their own affairs
into their own hands, and will proceed, in
Convention assembled, to vindicate their lib
critics and their privileges. They will not
submit to military despotism." The peo-
pie, says the same paper, are restless and ex-
cited, and it cries to Richmond in warning,
"Woe to the official who shall attempt to turn
the arms of Confederate soldiers against the
people of this State. North Carolina will not
DO the slave of either the Congress at Rich
mond or Washington" Again the delusive
prom Uses of the Rebel leaders are reeounted,
their deceptions denounced, and tho people
of the State are invoked ,.to command peace,
and stahch these rivers of blood"
Mobile, Atlanta, Raleigh, Richmond
does not that occurrence of resolute protest
sound ominously in the ear Of Jefferson Davis2
1t is not merely that the people are opposed
to his purpose. They have been opposed to
many which he has nevertheless persisted in
and accomplished. But the Opposition now
declares that the limit Of endurance has been
reached that general indiscriminate levy
of soldiers means absolute military despotism
at home, and holds out little promise of sue
cess in the field that they refuse to yield to
the plea of military necessity; that, in short
the CONSUMPTION must be abandoned. Yet
Davis says and knows that, unless his armies
are reinforced, a successful campaign in the
Spring is impossible. The people, then,
since even this argument does not move them,
must either believe success impossible by
any means, or they prefer defeat and sub
mission to despotism and to persistence in a
hopeless struggle. Who does not sec that
the Rebellion is losing even that hope which
the despair of brave people sometimes in
fuses into such q contest? The vital force O.
the Rebellion now lies in the centralized
military power at Richmond which still re
tains its tyrannical control.
We may add that report received yes
terday announces the call for Convention
at the capital of North Carolina to consde
the withdraw of the State fran the Confed
eracy. The writer alleges that an army o
5000 men under Gen. Butler might march tt
Raleigh without opposition, and even witt
enthusiastic welcome from the people. Th
report may be premature, but no one VIII,
watches the advance of public sentiment il
that State and the revival of half-stiacd Uniol
feeling can doubt that such revolution i
near at hand.-N. Y. Tribune.