Sioux City register. [volume] (Sioux City, Iowa) 1858-1871, 1864-01-23

The War In America.
The state Of war has. rapidly become
normal in North America. The spark
dropped on the sun.burnt prairie has rap.
idly filed the horizon with FIRE, and one
sees no ou;let-not q break in the wal! of
flame. War, having now ravaged Eastern
Virginia, will either be continued under
much greater disadvantages to the Caro-
linas, or on tie comparatively unexhaust.
ed soil Of Penns5 lvania. On either side
victory only entails a greater distance
from the base Of operations. Meanwhile,
there has started into sudden life militia.
~ class; men who eau do nothing but
fight, and who have no sooner spent their
pay than they take the bounty. There
are now, On either side, host Of Gene erals,
and men who hope soon to show them.
selves better Generals than any yet tried.
There is an aristocracy said to b. created
by the war, contr actors and manufacturers
of all the things wanted for this NOS. con.
sumptive ard spend,hrift of wars.
Everybody is said to b. enriched BY the
war, aud no doubt many thousands pray
that it may last their time. The old buc
aneering spirit is thoroughly aroused, aud
the sea now vies with the land in sudden
Productiveness and the ready prize. Glory,
money, power, distinction, all that dazzles
the crowd, is now flung about broadcast
We do not hear single protest against
the war on the Federal side on the ground
of its private and public injuries, for any.
body who can speak thinks himself the
better for it. Ii the tide Of war roll
northwsrd, we shall hear another story;
but then passions will come to reinforce
se'ishness. If i. be the turn Of the Fed.
erals to see their cities besieged and BON.
barded, their homssteads ravaeed, their
haryests destroyed and their country made
desert, they will 6nd revenge the master
impulse. But that revenge they will have
to seek under enhanced difficulties. No.
body can doubt tha: they will continue to
seek it, but with what success lime alone
can show.
Disabused as we all must be Of our FIRST
hopes as to the early termination of the
war, perhaps We are driven by the force of
reason to the other extreme Yet every
analogy justifies the worst fears. We can.
no. find much fault with the Federals If
they are as long finding out their mistake
as We were seventy years since. Mexico
has been in state Of civil war, diversified
BY foreign interference, for forty years.
Our own Wars Of the Roses may be con.
sidered to have lasted thirty years, as did
also the German war Of opinion. From
the division Of the Roman Empire its ter.
rtory was for several centuries the scene
of an almost incessant struggle between
the so.called northern bArbarians" and
the more selfish inhabitants of the South.
There is much to be said for the rather
gloomy anticipation that North America
is beginning her Middle Ages, and that,
with a new variety Of manners and forms,
she will follow the successive stages Of
European progress, some fifteen hundred
years behind. What is there to make
peace? There is no third power to inter.
vene at the happy juncture and mercifully
compel the vanquished to accept the best
terns. Both belligerents have been t.ugh,
to regard US as alters and intruder.. Hi,h.
erto the two sides have been singularly
balanced, for if numbers and money have
been on one side, personal strength, gen.
eralship and national sentiment have been
on the other. Our old history tells US
that the latter always constitute the win.
ming side, aud it is at least difficult to con.
ceive that they will in this case be- the
characteristics Of LOSERS London 7iues.
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