Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1864-07-01

solely upon their relative vital resources
We say UitdL resources, for the time ha
come when they alone are to be taken int
account.
The progress of the war has wonderful,
simplifed the problem. 1t has eliminated
many elements which once we're though
important, and by many, even decisive
Foreign interveution-civil war in the
North-seryile insuFrection in the South
starvation of the SOuth-;he wearing ou
of Southern rail roads and rolling stock
the secession of North Carolina, or other
States from the "Confederacy"- popU,
lar acceptance of the Amnesty proclama-
tiou-the bankruptcy of the rebel treasu-
ry-the ruin of the rebel currency, nc
longer appear as any part of the problem
| It is seen that they never had any real
bearing upon the result; or if they once
had it, that it has all come to naught.
What, then, are the elements now actu-
ally involved? On our side there are only
two-men and money. On the rebel side
only one-men. This struggle in other
words, now turns upon which shall first
fail-the men and money of the North, or
the men of the South. That is the real
gist of the matter. All else is "leather and
prunella."
If it be asked why we make money an
element on the Northern and not on the
Southern side, we have to answer that il ia
settled that the South can and will get
along without money, while the North
cannot and will not. 1t is easy enough
to say that there ought to be no differ
ence but war is decided by the whdt is,
and not by the ivhat ought to be, There is
Just that difference. The "ConfederaCy"
does live without money. Luxuries it does
not need; and it has completely shut off
their importations by act of Congress.
Those of its necessities which can be found
at home il obtains by taxation in kiud,
and by arbitrary impresHment. There is
no lack on that score, and never will be.
Those of its necessities which must come
from abroad it procures by cotton, run
through our blockade, which brings in Eu
rope enormous prices. This cotton it can
continue to grow to any extent it plea5es.
Nor is there any earthly probability that
that they will ever lose the power of run-
ming the blockade. English vessels, swift
er than any in our navy, will do them the
sam2 service hereafter as heretofore. 1t is
true that American skill in engine building
is equal to British skill, and in naval con-
struction superior. But this is of no avail.
Our Navy Department-either in imbecil-
ity or knavishness, it is hard to say which
is hopelessly welded to persons, and
systems, and Inventions, that render
first. class American skill unavaila-
BILE. 1t has nearly thousand vessels,
and spends hundred and forty mil
lions annually; but British skill will still
continue TO overthrow all its tubs, and
iunks, and scows, and Confederate cotton
will continue to be exported to the extent
reuuired,byIthose necessities of the Confed-
eracy which are not supplied at home. So
far, then, as the rebel Government is con-
cerned, there is no need of money, As
for the people, they easily enough make
shift to do their mutual business by bar
ter and with printed rags. On the other
hand money or something truly represent.
ing it, is necessity at the North. The
Government of the United States cannot,
like that of the rebels, rob; it must bUy.-
1t cannot, like the other, repudiatei it
must pay. Unlike the other, it has
character which it must maintain. Its
people, too, are not so near the primitive
state as to be able to transact their busi-
ness by barter, or with wamPum and cow
ries. They must have currency, with
either an intrinsic value, or Il sound basis
of credit. With scant exports, most of
what they get from abroad must be paid
for in gold. The amounts they thus get
from abroad are very large-in necessities
much, in luxuries more. This cannot be
prevented, perhaps, as furnishing gold at
the Customs for the payment of national
interest, .and strengthening of national
credit, it ought not to be prevented, if it
could be. This way of living, in Govern
meut and in people, requires money, or a
form Of credit equivalent to money, and to
the extent of hundreds of millions annu.
ally.
Again, then, we say, the questi, 1 is,
Which will fail first, the National loeu
and money, or the Confederate ment
First, as to men. On this point there is
no possibility of mistake. The census
figures cannot lie. The eleven "COnfed
crate" States, including Tennessee and Ar
kansas, and excluding Missouri, contained
by the last census, fUe millions and halt
OF white persons, OF which one million and
a ouarter were white males between fifteen
and fifty. We make no account OF the
portion of the population of those States
now within our army lines, no longer
available for the supply of the rebel ar
mics. The remaining States, oy the same
census, contained twenty-one millions of
white persons, of whom little more than
fps millions we're white males between if-
teen aud fifty. Granting that three-fourths
between these ages are physically capable
of military duIy-Which is avery large
allowance-there were about nine hundred
thousand men of whom soldiers might be
made 10 the "Confederacy," and thirty
seven hundred thousand in the loyal States.
So, in round numbers, the two sides start
ed at the beginning of the war. Have the
great LOSSES to both sides, inflicted by the
war itself, materially changed the proper
ton? There is no good reason to be-
| lieve that these losses have much diff
fered. Perhaps we have lost more life
outright, in consequence of acting more
generally on the offensive than the rebels
have done, but this is more than counter.
balanced by the fact that our wounded
have far more generally recovered that
theirs, without disablement, on account oi