Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1864-07-14
The Prospect.

Never, since the beginning of the war;
have the National armies held positions
which threatened the rebellion with such
imminent and irretrievable disaster as do
those which they occupy to-day.
Two vast armies of veteran soldiers, led by
Generals of approved skill and enterprise,
and animated by an uncomfortable purpose,
simultaneously press upon the most vital
points of the Instruction
The success of one of these movements
defeat both, or both will succeed. If Atlanta
| surrenders to SHERMAN, the fall of Richmond
must follow. If GRANT succeeds in entering
Richmond, the key to the possession of Geor-
ga and the cotton States must speedily be
surrendered to SHERMAN. And with Atlanta
and Richmond held by the National authori-
| ties, armed resistance to the constitution and
laws of the United States upon any consider
able scale of operation, must cease.
Bushwhacking and guerrilla raids may con-
tinue for some time but the rebellion in its
larger and more threatening aspect will be
crushed.
| The rebels and their abettors seem fully
impressed with the alarming nature of. the
| crisis they have reached. Precisely in pro-
portion to the imminence of the danger
| which confronts the cause of treason, rises
| the eclamor of their Northern allies. At no
time during the progress of the war, has
such venom exuded from the copperhead fac
ton as within the past few weeks. Never
before has the hiss of the reptile brood SWELL
| ed into such breadth and resonance. In a
Wisconsin newspaper we have seen the as
sassination of the President Of the United
| States suggested as ameritorious act ! Frantic
! attempts are made to dishearten the people,
Terrible pictures ofthe blOodshed and suffering
experienced by our armies are drawn, and all
this misery and loss of life charged, not upon
| the fends in human form who instigated and
| now lead this foul and unnatural rebellion,
but upon the Administration which resists
| their murderous assaults and seeks to main
tain and perpetuate the Republic and its be-
! calls on the people to rally around the old
| flag and save the country from anarchy and
| death, is represented as thirsting for human
gore and delighting in the sacrifice of his
fellow countrymen, by men and newspa-
pers that laud the purity and statesman
| ship of JEFF. DAVIS and that magnify the
achievements of LEE and BEAUREGARD in
eulogies full of affection and sympathy All
| the base and deadly elements of treason, cow
| ardice, selfshness and corruption that tester
| and rankle in 'high-yiced cities" strike hands
at the commercial metropolis of the nation,
to embarrass the government by an attempt
to break down its credit, and rebel sympa-
thizers and fanatic: partizans receive with ex-
ulting glee the tidings of the depreciation of
| government securities
In the desperate tone of the Copperhead
press, in its exultation over the price of gold
echoing back the joy of the rebel organs at
Richmond, in its increased malgnancy tow
ards the Administration, in its exaggeration
of the losses of our armies, in it's efforts to
discourage enlistments, may be seen the ev-
licences of an apprehension that unless some
speedy and precipitate ruin to the national
cause can be wrought, it will be too late, and
the rebellion will receive a..fnal and finishing
| stroke.
In this they are unquestionably correct.
At no period has the prospect of final and
complete triumph to our arms seemed so ia
1 vorable as now. Sherman's great army moves
irresistably forward into the very bowels Of
the revolted districts. He has emerged from
the mountain barriers that, with all the force
the rebellion could muster, could not be hello
against him, and is close upon Atlanta
Grant, the indomitable, the man who has new
er failed, is slowly but surely enveloping the
rebel capital. Whatever the Northern allies
of treason do to sustain and strengthen the
enemies Of the country must Individually be
performed without delay or it will be too
late Their friends are in desperate straits
What aid and encouragement there is for then
must be extended now it will be of no avail
if postponed. .-... .-.. ...
Obviously this is understood by those mos
Immediately concerned. Hence the clamor ant
demonstrativeness of Northern Copperhead
ism, benumbed and paralyzed for time b,
the blighting frosts of last November, bu
aroused to activity once more by the morta
peril of its friends. Let not any one b.
appalled, by "the importunate chink" of hos
tile utterance and encouragement kept up b.
these fre-in the-rear men. They are not nov
more numerous than they were last y 'ar
| when with such overwhelming unanimity
both they and their cowardly and wicked
| purposes, were repudiated and condemned a
the ballot-box. They are active and nois,
but not formidable in numbers nor of inf1u
ence with the mass of the people.
Death Of 1t. Col. John A. Savage.
~