The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1864-01-01
!. NEW YORK HERALD FRIDAY, JANUARY l. 1864.

I. NEW YORK HERALD.
cars. and all descriptions Of military stores in
proportion. aud half q miAlaOa of negroes.
The great military advantage thus gained 70
the Union Cause is the complete separation Of
the States concerned in the rebeilioa on the
west side from their confederate States on che
east side of the Mississippi. Thus In fact. the
rebellion. 10 q military view. may be con-
sidered a. reduced to the seabosrd States from
Virginia to Mississippi; for with the reduction
Of these there will be NO other alternative
left 10 the rebel forces west of the river than
unconditional submission or q reasonable de-
parture for Mexico t.
On last New Years Day, however, the rebels
held an almost undisputed control Of ell the
bordering country west of the Mississippi. from
the southern line of Missouri to the Rio Grande,
while to-day Arkansas stands as State sub
stantially redeemed, and Louisiana is in SINH
larly encouraging condition, and Texas is not
far behind
This, Notwithstanding all the blunders COM
mitted at Washington, is good exhibit Of the
general results of our military operations since
last New Years Day. Surely, from these re-
suits, considering the crippled, demoralized
impoverished and hopeless condition Of the
rebellion in every way, especially in its rotten
financial system, we may predict that our next
Fourth Of July will be celebrated not only in
honor of the independence Of the United States
OF America, but also. In honor of the complete
triumph of the Union in the absolute suppress
sion of the most causeless, and yet the most
formidable rebellion in the history of mankind.
The Present Struggle I'm Europe.
New worlds have been discovered, society
has been formed, and all the arts of civilization
have grown up, through struggles for dominion,
and mainly through the struggles of some one
man to rule all the rest. Such ambitions have
been the forces that have in all times moved
the chaotic mass Of mankind, and have fur
nished the influences through which the world
has taken shape. Group together Cambyses,
Cyrus, Xerxes, Alexander, two or three repre-
sentative Romans, Alaric, Brennus, Mahmoud,
the shadowy heroes of the Mahabharata, Chen
we may write the history of mankind
down to modern times. Around them all
that was known Of ancient skill and all that
appeared Of ancient courage were brought into
play, and the energies OF the human race were
wholly given up to and concentrated in the
struggle to sustain these men on the one hand
and to overthrow them on the other.
Modern history records one grand instance Of
the repetition Of this in Napoleon Bonaparte
who came up in Europe like an earthquake, or
as if the tabled Titan, roaring for so many CEN
turtles under Etna, had suddenly arisen and
cracked the old continental crust to its utmost
extremities. He struggled for q grander do
minion than had ever shone in the dreams Of
the ancients. Europe owned and ruled Asia,
Africa and the greater part of America, and he
struggled to render France supreme in richly
realmed Europe and through France to be su-
preme in his own person over all. All of the
ancients had tried to reach their ultimate su-
premacy by strictly military means, and he
tried it in the same way. He repeated within
a few years the battles by which the fate of the
world had been decided centuries before, and
fell in a defiance Of the elements wilder than
that Of Ajax.
And now, in our own times, his successor
tries, but in different manner, to
reach the same grand result Impressed
with the conviction that the military power
cannot succeed alone in . scheme Of such mag
nitude-since it inevitably provokss resistance
that must ultimately be too great for it-he
uses it emily as an auxiliary. and employs diplo
macy as his principal force. He holds war in
his hand and in reserve, az one may hold .
loaded piece which, while it lie still loaded, may
threaten at any point, but must take definite
direction when we discharge it, and leave all
points except the one at which it is simed 1t
ease. Thas. with an immense military power
and possibility Of war at command, he plays
the European governments against one another
by diplomacy for the advancement Of his own
purposes, and then launches war at the Power
be cannot otherwise move. He protects the
Pope that the church may lean upon France.
He fights two or three battles in Italy that he
may belittle Austria, and that from one great
empire there may grow two little ones.
he badgers Russia with Great Britain, to
he damage and disgust OF both and
he glory of the French army. He sees in our
emergency fancied opportunity on this conti-
,ent. and he dabbles in the dirty puddle Of
Mexican history. He invites the European
Powers to mediate on our affairs, and meets
with repulse; bat, ike the boy who could not
help being beaten for his peccsdilloes, but was
determined not to be made any better by It, be
yet leans with the weight Of France against
our cause; not shrewd enough to see that what |
ever harm he can do to the United States Is a
harm to the only great commercial Power with
which be might balance England-his most seri-
Gus rival.
Finally, he has proposed European con-