Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1864-03-07
LETTER ROM WASHINGTON.
Opening of Our fourth Campafga-Ouaook
"A Desperate Contest Ahsad-HoV Our

| OpG""S " OuE EOuttH SuHpuIyN-OutEOOF
"A Ds,perats Cont,st AhsGd-HoO Our
Expenditures are Sveliing- Contemplate
Numbers II The Rebellion NoW.
Special @ yrrssPOadenee Of the oInsInhAa Gazette
WAsHnGroS, FEB. %.
We are catering upon the fourth cam
paign-and are very near the fourth year
of the war. A flying column, uuder
Gen. Sherman, is performing with infantry
what it has hitherto been the highest and
widest dream Of our prudent generals to
attempt with cavalry; aud the nation waits
and witches TO see where the bold blow
will strike. Clouds Of Infantry are pour.
ing down from the mountain Businesses of
Chattanooga upon the alluring champaign
country beyond; aud we are once more
trying to deciphsr victory from tho cou.
fusiug dispatches from the front, The
Army of the Potomac-faled emblem of
the sessOus-ip moving, RithltHe spring,
agniu, though whittier of 70 lfhSt snd few.
know: ARd fSSn. Sss diP,ant eolump 10
Florida, there come the hrst distinct It'd
ings of the cRmpaigu. Il opeus, as have
all our campaigns, with reverse. We have
mot failed before to mould these initial re.
verses into substantial victory. Let US
hope for the same good from evil fortune
still.
Meantime, while our pulses tingle at the
break Of the lull along the line, and our
hopes grow dariug as We remember the
wide sweep Of our last years lriumphs, it |
is natural to Overate our prospects A |
year ago many were disheaftened, and all |
were despondeut; COW there is as much |
danger of too great confidence as there
was then Of too little. or the final result |
OF the war no one kAu duub,. "I am sure of |
success, simply and only because believe
- n II a -
clans. in the dark days preceding GrIlys- |
burg. 10 that faith there need never be |
despondeucy; We are certain to end the |
war in the triumph of the national arms
over our whole domain. But let US count |
nothing done till we see il ended.
Oue hears eTeryR6ere that the war Is |
about over; that the, rebsls are exhausted; |
that their CommissatiaL has no food, and |
their Treasury no money, that their army |
is melting away bT deserliou. and that
there are no materials left with which to |
fill it up. There is Au element of truth in |
all this, but still it is deceptive.
II is a most dangerous mistake to sup |
pose that au easy battle or two with dis |
pirited foe will eud the war. When the
wounded stag turns At bay the hunter pre-. |
pares for his most dangerous cOufiict. We |
may we'll prepare for ours Some one, at |
the recent Fair-opening in Cleveland, spoke |
the sentiment of all we'll Informed people |
here, military or civil, when he said that
the approaching spring campaign was
likely to be the most desperate of the war. !
We have hacked about the eXIremities of
the rebellion; have cut OF one limb after |
another, ill now we can strike no stroke |
that does not tell upon vital part, and !
their resistance must be as determined as
their situation is critical.
L. - het ttyfth tN,,t
Government which has reached the point |
of seizing whatever it wants will rot break |
down in the crisis of desperate adventure |
Tor luck OF money to pay for it They may
not be able to protracI the contest long |
without money; but they may protract 1t
long enough to make u terrible struggle !
1t is true they are short Of provisions, out |
it is folly to talk of utterly starving out an |
agricultural population; aud it their trans.
purtAtiOn system was brOkeR down till |
they can't take food u the arnIv, they have |
the last resort of taking the army to the
food. 1t is true their army loses from de- |
sertions. but it has been melting away"
in the same manner ever since Hulleck |
took the thirty Thousand prisoners at Cor
inth, urd it still has an uncomfortable
faculty of turning up uncommon lively |
whenever we attack it. And il is true |
their fighting population at home is about
exhausted, but the boundaries they have |
to defend are now as mush diminished as |
their army.
In short, there is everything to encour-
rgc us, as we enter upon the new cam
paign; but there is also everything to ud-
munish us that we must grid ourselves |
for our best efforts. The hardest work,
the blOOdiest work of the war is in all |
probability just ahead Of US.
Not less dangerous. than the folly of sup
posing the war practically ended, is the |
other folly Of suppOsing that we can go
on with impunity, conducting it as long
US we please, on the most extravagant
and reckless system Of expenditure ever
known in tho whole history of war. We
do not add to-day one soldier to our ranks
whU does not cOSt us, IN one way or an
other, double what any Nation, ancient or
modern, ever paid for its goldiors before,
II is n very cheap style Of popularity
seeking to answer that they are worth all
we pay for them; but when they them
selves and their children como to pay of
the debt we are incurring, the answer
may not seem quite 50 satisfactory.
We have conducted the war three
years. For the first its expenses were, in
round numbers, about S269, ,U34, 600.
For the second it swelled to about S5S5,
OS7 600. For the year nearly closing it
will foot up (including defciencesl, ac-
cOrding tU appropriations already passed
and estimates in, about $92S, 439, 900.
On this expanding scale, very simple
urithmetical rules will show how long
it will take TO bankrupt the nation.
We cannot strain and strain our finances
without limit; there must come d time
when with sore labor and many tax-gath.
erers we begin to pay the debts we are 50
lavishly incurring, or depreciate our
bonds. Already Mr. Chase has sent his
earnest protest to the Committees, and
has notified them that he will not under
! .nl... IL