Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1864-10-05
THE AMERICAN WAR.
The Ministerial Organ Of the
West.
The South Cannot be Subtugnted---
The Prospect OF Peace.
From the London Morning Star.l

From the London Morning Star.l
The principal circumstances which
would make us hope for an early peace
between the American belligerents appears
to have been overlooked. We do not al
lude to considerations of justice, reason
and humanity. In the heat of deadly
teud, especially among kinsfolk and friends
who have quarrcled, such considerations
count but little. That the South are fight
ing defensive war for independence and
self Government IS not likely to weigh
much, apart from a conviction of the i'm
possibility Of conquest, with twenty mil
lions of inturiated Republicans fighting for
empire and revenge But there is one
consideration which we should think
must have great force, even with the
Northern enthusiasts. 1t is, that by this
time the entire North must have become
awakened TO an appreciation Of the real
nature OF the war. They must by this
time have learned, and learned TO their
cost, that what they have to do with is
no mere section of Southern politicians,
but the whole united people of the South.
Such people can never be conquered nor
The war was originally undertaken and
entered upon by the North upon an hy-
poti.osis totally different from the real facts
rs they now stand revealed, and proved
by four years of Intellectual and fruitless
fighting. The theory upon which the
North plunged into the war, was, in the
presence of the facts as they presented
| themselves TO the impartial eyes Of Euro
pean spectators, one of the Oldest and
most whimsical it Is possible to imagine.
II at theory was that half 4 dozen dcspc-
rate men in the South had seized upon the
whole power OF the country, against the
wishes and the will of ninety-line hun
dycdths, or rather nine hundred and nine
| ty-nine thousaudths OF the population.
! They then pressed the flower Of the South
/ ern youth and manhood in the army, and
! compelled them to wage a reluctant war
/ against their brethren of the North, and
! their lawful sovereign, the Federal Go
/ rernment.
How half a dozen private individuals,
! the mere citizens of one half Of & Demo
cracy upon perfect equality with the rest
| Of the S'Outl!orners, with no official char
acter or authority, without an army, or
( even police force to support their daring
usurPatiOn, could work such a miracle as
this, neither the Northerners themselves,
nor their partizans on this side of the At
lantic, ever seemed to think it worth while
to explain. Indeed they do not seem to
have given it a thought, or rather they
( were not apparently in a state of mind tC
reflect at all. When there is q struggle
between two parties in the same State tc
get possession of the existing Government
the one that drives out the previous hold
ers Of power steps into their place and in
vests itself with their authority. The
successful party becomes the Government
de .tjtcto 1t has the army, the navy, the
police, the executive, and every appendage
of the Government in their hands, anC
therefore, can control the people. Thi:
is Ineligible enough.
The mass of the people may be indiffer
ent, or divided in their allegiance anC
opinion, or even inimical to the new Go
vernment, but so long as it wields tn,
civil and military resources of the Stat,
and all its engines Of power and authori
ty, it can have its own way, and com
mand the obedience of the people. Blu
this was nothing like what existed il
America. There was no established
Government in the South-no army, n,
navy, no civil power, no executive, NJ
nothing that goes to make up a Govern
ment. Whatever Of these things existet
in the South belong to the Government o
the United States-that is the Govern
ment in contravention and hostility t.
which the Southerners acted. Mr.. Davi
and his colleagues had to create thes
things, and their only material for crea
ting them was the will of the Southern
people.
What there was in the South that en-
abled them to do what they did was Stat
rights and individual rights, based on anC
growing out of the great American prin
ciple of the sovereignty of the people, ant
that no Government is lawful or LEGITIMATE
without the consent Of the people. Th
theory that it was a half dozen of dis
contented politicians who did it all, ant
made eight or nine millions Of people re
volt against their will and against Go
vernment they approved, and then pressed
! the flower Of their manhood to create al