Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1864-08-25
From the Richmond sentineI, Aug. %.

From the Richmond sentinel, Aug. 20.
We have arrived at very critical stage
of the war; and calm circumspection, eau.
ton and patient endurance are needed to
carry us successfully through it. To wealth.
er the next six weeks will be most diff
cult task for the North. She is we'll aware
of this, and will no doubt be very busy in
endeavoriDg to entrap US into hssty COM
promises, concessions or admissions that
may deprive us of the vantage ground
which we are likelysto attain 10 less than
two months. Within that time it is not
at all improbable that the armies of Grant,
Sherman and Sheridan, by losses in battle
and by other causes, will have been al
most anuihilated. Within that time 1t is
almost certain that the approaching Chi
cago convention will have thrown its apple
of discord and destruction into the already
distracted and discordant ranks of the
North. 1t may suggest terms of honorable
peace. At least it will be cure to endeavor
to battle rather than promote the peculiar
war policy OF Lincoln, because it believes
that the war policy is equally directed
against the liberty of the North and in.
! dependence of the South. Let us await
patiently the results of that convention
before finally committing ourselves to any
specific terms of peace; for they have much
to fear from that result, we nothing to
apprehend from it. 1t may impede, thwart
or embsrrass the plans and purposes of the
war party at the North. 1t may make
their situation worse, but cannot effect
ours.
Let us await, too, the experiment of the
impending draft. If it fails, the North will
be almost without an army, and we should
be sure of better terms Of peace than we
could now even hope for. That it will fail,
AT laaat nartiallv aaana IN ha or
apprehended by all parties, even among
themselves. II may give rise to mobs, riots,
revolutionary outbursts and civil war in
that section. 1t will certainly increase and
exacerbste the hatred of New York, Penn
sylvania, New Jersey and the Northwest to-
wards New England. The former States
and section sustain the war as a matter of
honor, New England as a source of wealth.
She is growing richer and richer every day
by it's prosecution, while they are being
impoverished by it. We believe, according
to the duello code, the requirements of
honor are satisfied when blood however
Iittle) has been drawn. These States and
that section have shed whole oceans of it.
Neither the code of honor nor the dictates
of the most generous magnsnimity require
that they should shed more. Te do so
would be savage brutality, not generous
chivalry. They should say, and might say
most truly to New England, "You brought
on this war. 1t is your war. You have
made millions of money by it. We make
common cause with you, for we felt that
the storming of Fort Sumter was an insult
to the whole North. But it was mere In
suit, and one which New England men and
measures compelled the South to offer us.
We have shed enough blood and lost or
expended enough treasure to wipe off a
81 VNnh lee w and
suffer no more to satiate your hatreds and
build up your wealth, whilst by so doing we
are wasting our own lives, wasting our
own treasure, running ourselves and entail
ing hopeless poverty on our posterity.-l
This draft We will not bear ~ Even If any
one State should take the stand we suggest,
the further prosecution of the war would
be hopeless, for other States would soon
follow the example.
But suppose the draft succeeds. 1t will
only put in raw, undisciplined, reluctant
recruits and merceuary substitutes to sup
ply the places of volunteer veterans. We
shall be better situated to treat for peace
after the draft than now, even if it succeeds.
There will be long interval or gap of
time between the enlisting of drafted men
and the making soldiers of them wherein
we may carry on the war to advantage or
treat for peace on fair and equal terms.
In the meanwhile the expiration of the
| terms of service of their three years vet
Grams and one hundred days men will be
continually weakening them and relatively
strengthening us. Their currency, too, is
sure to grow continually worse, and without
money-money that is readily current, they
cannot long prosecute the war. Our cur
rency is fast and steadily improving, and
| Congress, at its next session, has only bold
ly to proceed with the stringent measures
it has already inaugurated to relieve us in
a short time of all difficulty as to money
matters.
Six weeks hence we are almost sure to
be in much better condition to treat for
peace than we are now, and our enemy in
a much worse condition. Within that time
it may be that we shall have defeated and
gotten rid of the armies of Grant, Sherman
and Sheridan, capturing part of them and
expelling the balance from our territory.
Six weeks hence, instead of waging defen-
sive warfare, We may be invading the en-
emy's soil, and carrying on offensive war
fare. We have little to apprehend and
much to hope for within that period. Time
is victory to us and death to our enemies.
We are heartily sick and tired of this long,
bloody and cruel war; so are all of our
| people. But let us cautiously beware,
lest our anxiety for peace should give
our cunning and wary enemy the
opportunity to oVerreach and entrap us
into improper concessions. at NO time
during the war have we stood on such high
vantage ground. At no time have we had
so good reason to insist on all we have
ever asked: untrammelled, unconditional
independence. In the meanwhile let us
be ever ready to listen to propositions for
peace, however preposterous the terms pro-
posed, provided those terms, like ell other
matters that either party may propose,
shall be open to free discussion and nego-
tiaIion and not laid down as ultimGtum.-
Let us be ready to open negotiations for
peace at any slime as equals treating with
equals, but in no other way. Every day
that the negotiation proceeds we shall be
growing relatively stronger, our enemy