The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1864-03-04

a few hundred square miles, in possession
of the rebels. Is this success9 We do not
ask if it is success proportioned to the enor-
nous scale Of our expenditure, but is it not
preposterous to consider it as success at all +?
Washington has been almost constantly
menaced; the invader has been twice upon
OUR soil in great force; and no longer ago
than last summer the safety of our great
Atlantic cities depended on the issue of
single battle. That battle was, by fierce
and vigorous fighting, decided in our favor;
but since then, east of the Alleghanies we
have gained absolutely nothing. To settle
down in exhaustion and impotence after re-
pelling formidable invasion, gives but fee
bic promise Of that complete conquest of
the enemy's country which is the object of
the war.
In the West, where our generals have
been further removed from the laundering
surveillance of the administration, our sue
cess has been more proportionate to the vast
scale of our expenditures. But even in the
West our gains are as yet so insecure that
one great rebel victory might change the
whole face of affairs. If Grant should be
beaten by Johnston, and Tennessee be there
by recovered BY the rebels, our most impor-
tant advantages in the West would be al
most annihilated. While matters remain
Fin such state that a single battle might
dispossess us of a great part of what We
have gained, exultation is premature, and
preparations to administer upon the estate
of the dead rebellion absurd.
If we get through the spring campaign
without heavy disasters we shall owe little
thanks to the administration. They have
triRed away the fall and winter in ventila
ting crude abolition follies and in president
making; andthe spring campaigns are open
ing with inadequate preparations. We arr
to have an immense draft in March or April
If, as we arc told, the great death-grapplC
with the rebellion is to take place this spring
how can these raw levics profit us? They
are too late to help us win victories; they
are not even early enough TO arrest and rol
back the tide of defeat, if the fortune o
war should be against US. The administra
;. ton has no foresight; all its chief move
ments are forced upon it by the prepare
tions or the. successes of the rebels. L
found out, all of sudden, in the summe
of 1852, that it needed six hundred thou
sand more men than it had anticipated tn
listments. The draft last year was ordered
close on the heels of rebel invasion. Th
draft ordered for this spring results from al
unexpected discovery Of the great extent o
the rebel preparations during the winter
An administration which is never wise til
after the event, which is perpetualy max
ing representations that the war is near it.
close, and following them up by such enor
nous calls for new troops as prove then
! unfounded; an administration which gives
these constant proofs that it neither under
stands the present nor sees an inch before
its nose into the future, is incapable of re.
storing the Union.
But can the Republican party substitute
a bctter2 A large majority of the party car
discover no clearer way out of our Difficult
ties than to re-elect Mr.. Lincoln, and keer
in the same set of incapables that have Sc
long mismanaged the war. The dissentiept;
do not go outside of Mr.. Lincoln's cabinet
for candidate. They do not promise tc
put into the government any greater wis
dom than is already in it. The chief point
Of superiority claimed for Mr.. Chase is that
he is a more reliable abolitionist; which, il
it were merit, would only place him in re.
lation with questions to arise after the war
not demonstrate his capacity to manage it.
The Republicans have been making party
capital, for the last six months, out of the
idea that the rebellion is about to break
down from exhaustion. For it to end from
such cause would reflect little credit or
the administration, which ought to have re.
covered the revolted territory by military
vigor, while it had yet wealth to alleviate
the burden of our taxes. But we fear that
the expectation of an easy conquest this
spring is delusive dream. We have nc
doubt the war will run into the next admin.
istration, and if that administration is Re.
publican, then, farewell, long farewell tc
| the Union. y. Horzd.