The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1864-09-30

r of the plantation.
1t will show the fighting population of the
insurgent States reduced, by battle, by ai.
sease, and by captures, from three touths of
a million to between hundred and hun
dred and fifty thousand men.
1t will show this force-the folorn hope of
the rebellion-separated by an interval of a
thousand miles, divided into two armies, the
one of which, driven from Chattanooga to
Atlanta, has at length been compelled to give
up that point, the material capital of the
Confederaey, while the other is shut up in
Richmond, the political capital Of the Con-
tederacy.
1t will show that the annihilation of both
these armies is a mathematical certainty, if
We put forth the strength at our command.
1t will reveal, finally, as the result of all
this, the radiant figure of PEACE lowering
not afar off, and plainly visible through the
cloud of war that still overspreads the land.
If this be the magnificent result which We
have to show for the three years of war for
the Union, it will give the people of the 10y
al States criterion of action in the great is
sue now before the country-an issue that
will determine whether ny the maintenance
of the Administration under which the war
has been conducted to these results, and
lch,ch can alone carry it through, We are
willing to crown and justify all that has been
done by Peace that will vindicate and es-
tabllsh forever the unity and integrity of the
nation; or whether We shall surrender our
destlnes into the hands of party commit.
ted to peace which makes the war for the
Union mockery-a party whose creed
| hrows to the winds all that has been achiev-
ed by the toll and blood, the faith and the
sef-sacriice of this nation, in the most terri
bic war in the worlds history, whose creed
casts disgrace on every soldier under the
sod, makes the heroic bones that on hun
dred battle fields render the continent sacred
the monuments of folly, which makes every
sailor that has gone down at his guns for the
love of the old flag fool, and every man
who wears the insignia of glorious wound
poor slmpleton a creed finally, the delu-
slve peace resulting from which can only be
the beginning of unending war.
THE TASK LAID UPON THE ADMINISTRATION
! By TIE WAR.
! When overt war. begun by the firing on
Fort Sumter in April, 1861. and brought to
head in the battle Of Bull Run in the Jny
following, had fairly inaugura.ed the rebel
lion against the constituted authorities OF
the United States, the Administration found
itself committed to Il struggl le continental in
its proportions. The task imposed upon it,
as described in President Lincoln's inaugur-
al, was to "repossess the forts, places and
property which had been seized from tie n
ion." But to do this it was needed that the
embodied power of the Government should
sweep armed resistance from the whole terri
tory of the insurgent States. 1t is the ma
ture of the war like that OF a conf grafton
to involve and swallow up everything within
its reach. The Southern heart, fired by
few powerful leaders, plunged into the war
with reckessness akin to madness, and
from the Ohio to the Gulf, from the Potomac
on the Mexican border all was aglow with
hot rebellion. The Government accept
ed The task put upon it, for the people willed
it, and it was the peoples war. Conscious
Of its strength, arousng itself as a giant
from slunber, the nation accepted the gage
of war for the Union.
There are, however, certain considerations
which, little thought of at the time, entered
so deeply into the military problem then pre-
sented, have so influenced the course of war
and count for so much in proper estimate
of what has been accomplished as to demand
immediate statement here. They all 90 to
show that the task Of quelling this rebellion
was much more difficult than was conceived
at the time or than is commonly apprehended
even now.
1t is common fallacy in estimating the
amount OF force the Government could bring
to bear on the revolted States to state it
merely in the ratio of the population of the
two sections-twenty millions in the loyal
States against eight in the revolving States.
But it is proper to consider that the rebels
had within themselves slave population OF
over foul millions, and that this population
was able to carry on all their simple indus
tries while It required more than double tina
number to carry on the much more compli-
Gated industries of Northern civilization. 1t
is thus apparent that the whole fighting white
population of the South was available for
service in the field, while nearly half OF our
own population was necessarily neutrallzed
! in the way just mentioned. 1t is not won
Gerfui, therefore, that the rebel leaders were
able to put into the field, at the vely start
+ armies nearly eqnal to our own, though our
! own levies were unparalleled IN history
To this must te atded the astonishing as
y cendsncy which small minority of leading
men had acquired over the Southern popua
,ion, and by which, when they had once
y usurped power, they were able to WELD az