Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1864-01-06

Ehe starvation Theory.
40 - The American people have s decided
weakness for prophecy. This weakness
has been alarmingly developed since the be-
81 ginning Of the war. Wehaye, so far as we
know, no prominent public man who has
not indUlged In vaacinaHons Mr.. Sew
ard Is 8 rensrkabls example. We have
styled II . g weakness for prophesy :" GER
tsinly there are no utterances Of Mr.. Sew
ard's % weak as his sixty-dsy and ninety
day representations of thirty months ego.
ItWOuld seem that 50 mary failures andsO
much bitter disappointment should have
q taught them better but in spite Of the
past many Of our journals and politicians
sre. af their old tricks again. We do not
recall itnoE how many times since the be-
ginning Of the war it has been on the
point Of being terminated, but, in the
opinionof many, the time has at length ar.
rived and the hslcyOn days Of peace are
a. Just ahead of Us.
No doubt the COnfederaey has received
some staggering blows in the campaign
just closed, but that there is any evidence
that It's strength and vigor are exhausted,
we deny. The most popular way just now
Of ending the rebellion is by starvation !
he Adherents Of this theory reason thus
- uThsre ia, IN the South, great scarcity
Of al the aecsssariss Of life, amounting in
many plsees to complete. .destitution. The
supply Of food and clothing Is SO nearly
exhausted that the Confederstes will be
compelled to yield from sheer want Be-
sides, their currency, vital tc their cause,
Is almost worthless. Without sufficient
food, without clothing for their armies
without hnsncial ability, they cannot
much longer sustain the unequal conflict"
This argument appears plausible, but
notwithstanding Its plsusibility We pro-
nounce it fallscious. In the frat place,
the same argument has been urged from
the commencement Of the war to prove 1t
could not last, and before the war to prove
il could never commence. When will our
people learn few plain facts When
will they learn that the organizers and
conductors Of the rebelli, n are determined
and desperate men, not to be deferred from
accomplishing their designs by the search
ty Of food or The depreciation Of their cur
rencyf The great mistake of the North
has been In not conceding esrnestness and
honesty to the South. When the South
talked "disunion in Congress, they we're
met with retorts Of Z" "bosh," bunocmb,"
"for political effect" etc, when there
were no more determined men on the face
Of the globe. 1t is true we all, or nearly
all, talked 50 then, but there is no reason
why We shall not now confess our error,
especially, since it has SO often threatened
to ruin Us.
But We are met with the statement, " The
Confederacy is nearly destitute Of the sim
sWs Of usr, and without the sinews
there esn be no twsr lit is simply an
inpossibility." Has the COnfederaoy, we
answer, yet come to the desperate straits
through which the men Of 1776 passed
SvIrTs1SEt1'S EI11y " Sle'1A -
What Washington and his fellow soldiers
endured at Valley FOrge7 Has the gray
back currency become as worthless ss
the eOntinental?' To each of these
questions a negative must be returned.
It may humiliate us to confess any paral-
lei In the two cases, but 50 long as it e1-
iSts We may as we'll have the honesty 10
confess It True, the South ia not con
tending for the holy Gauss that sustained
oGr fathers in the Revolution, but soldiers
fighting to sTenge fancied wrongs; gOlded
By what seems to them real injuries and
prompted BY fanaticism, fight equally
wei as while struggling for freedom.
Asthe influences so much relied upon are,
1t is true, valuable suxilisries to our cause,
but we must not over-estimste their value. |
Frost, Hosr Frost the "Jotun, deihed in
the Northland Mythology, is powerful |
foe; Hunger, we wonder that 1t was not |
represented as an H0gre, grim and |
gsunt" by the fertile Imagination Of the |
East is q formidable antagonist; but |
neither the one nor the other, nor both |
combined, is to conquer the rebellion. Nor |
do we believe with many that the Presi-
dents Amnesty" is going to overcome
the rebel armies. Those who know the |
material Of which these armies are COM
posed, md who sttach proper weight /
to the iron vigor Of military discipline, do
not expect such an amnesty" to have
much influence until the cohesion Of those
armies is destroyed by the shock Of battle.
We are confident the war can be ended in !,
one more campaign, but not by starvatien, |
not BY degenersted currency, notify al /
amnesty" but by the armies of EsAde
and Foster, Grant and Banks. Ts should |
not be thus pointed in our striOsaFes, did |
snot see danger to tt.e Rapablio in the
dslusivs prophecies just new SO common.
There is no OtEgeF way but to cease prOgnOs-
tieal1ng: FL TIA regiments and hurl them
once nGae upon the foe.
Pie Rebel Congress Stark Mad.
The Rebel Senator Brown of Mississippi
Ass gone into the ecstscsies of legislative
lunsoy. 1t would seem that all OoznOn