The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1864-03-12
JUNE, 1899

y.
| faith there need never be desnor Jorc,-.
we are ceTt0i, to end the war in the tri
umph Of the national arms over our whole
domain. But let us count nothin~ done
till we see it ended.
! One hears everywhere that the war il
about over; that the rebels are exhausted. /.
that their Commissariat has no food and
their Treasury no money; that their army
| IS melting awav bv desertion, and that
| there are no materials left with which to
| MI it up. There is an element of truth in
all this, but still it is deceptive.
ltls most dangerous mistake to suppose
That an easy battle Ortwo with dispirited
foe will end the war. When the wounded
stag turns at bay the hunter prepares for
his most dangerous conflict We NAV
well prepare for ours. Some one at the re-
cent Fair-opening in Cleveland, spoke the
sentiment Of all well informed people here,
military or civil, when he said that the ap-
preaching spring campaign was likely 10
be the most desperate of the war We
nave hacked about the extremitiea Of the
rebellion: have cut of one limb after moth.
er. till now we can strike no stroke that
does not tell upon vital part. and their
resistance must ba as determined as their
situation is critical.
1t is true that they are wisl,o',. ,oa the
pon. OF seizing Whatever X waits Will not
break down in the crisis ofa desperate ad-
venture for lack Of money to pay for it
They may not be able to rrotract the con-
test long without money bnt thew may
protract 1t long enough to make a terrible
struggle. II is trne they are short Of pro-
visions, but II il folly II talk Of utterly
starving ont an agricultural population;
AMI il their trans portaticn svsternNwas bro
ken down till they can't take food to the
arYnv. they have the last resort Of taking
The army 10 the food 1t is true their army
looses from deserhons, but it has been
Al
since Halieck took the thirty thousand
prisoners at cnrinth, and II still has m IN
comfortable faculty Of turning M uncorn-
mon lively whenever we attack u. And
II - true their lighting population 1T home
is about exhausted. put the boundaries they
nave 10 defend are now as much dimirish-
90 as their army. Eg
In short. there is everything to encour-
age rs, as we enter npOn the new earn
paj.r but there Is n so everything 70 ad-
monish n1s tina. we must grid ourselves for
our best efforts. ''he hardest work, the
boodiest work of the war is in all n-oba-
Dilisy iust anead of rs.
No less dangerous than the folly Of sup
posing me war practically ended, is the
other folly OF sdpposing that we can go on
with impunlty, conducting il as lorg as we
please, on the most extrayayant and reck-
less system Of expenditure ever known in
the whole history Of war. We do not add
us, in one way or another, double what any
Nation, ancient or modern, ever paid for
its soldiers before. II is very cfea y style
OF popularity-seekingt to answer :hat they
are worth all we pay for them but when
they themselves and their children come to
pay OF he debt We are mourning, the an
swer may not seem quite so satisfactory.
We have conducted the war three years.
For the first its expenses were, in round
numbers, about $2G9, ,034, eco. For the Sec
Ond it swelled to about $5S5 .0S7 900. For
the year nearly closing it will foot up Gn-
cluding deficiencies,) according to apprO-
priations already passed and estimates in,
about Sg2s, ,439,0 coo! On this expanding
scale. very simple aritElnetical will show
how long it will take TO bankrupt the ma
ton. We cannot strain ard strain our
finances without limit; there ,nltst.foa.e .
gatherers we begin 10 pay the debts We are
so lavishly incurring. or depreciate our
bonds. Already Mr.. Chase has sent in his
earnest protest to the Committees, and has
notified them that he will not undertake to
meet the new and ever increasing demands
upon the Treasury, unless they promptly
inauguraie system Of thorough and un-
| sparing taxation. When that begins to
press, We shall see whether demagogues
will still insist that from month to month
the expenses Of the war shall be swelled to
more and more exciting proportions.
So much for what lies ahead of us-in the
way Of lighting and of paying the bills.
But can we not speedily end the war;
Undoubtedly. There has been no time
| since it begun, when, if we had known
what we afterward came to know, we could
not have ended it within year. It ought
TO be substantially ended now before the
summer heats are upon the army; there can
be scarcely any excuse that viii suffice to
explain a failure to have it ended before
another winter.
Look at it. The rebels can no longer
draw either provisions or recruits from one
half the territory originally supplying the
strength they taught rs so thoroughly to
respect. Here is the population they have
left:
Alabama ,121
Georgia 55a5 O6S
e~v; s.As,