The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1864-12-28

would be made.
We do not know that SHERMAN had the
means to make an immediate crossing of the
stream, even supposing that the occupation
Of the left bank of the Savannah would have
been feasible. He may have judged it expe-
dent 10 cross without being able TO carry the
project into instant execution. Believing his
force to number so many thousand men, it is
easy iOr us TO lay our finger at a certain point
on the map of Savannah Riveraud say that
across there he should have sent a strong de-
tachment. If SHERMAN were present, ho
might properly retort in the language OF the
celebrated TURENNE, "that he could if the
finger was bridge.
In every movement SHERMAN, has proved
himself to be a consummate general; and we
ourselves place so much reliance upon him
that we confidently await details of his opera
tions about Savannah, well assured that he
did all that could be accomplished by man.
REBTL SENATOR ON THE SITUATION.
| Mr.. HENRY S. FooTE, Senator in the
Rebel Congress, and who is by no means the
wisest statesman that the world ever saw, is
IL
advance of his fellows, that the Rebellion is
nearly played out. On this side of the line of
war, at least, he will receive credit for some
intelligence and more candor, while the South
ern traitors, whose cause he is about to DESERT
| would much more surely secure their best
interest by taking Mr. FooTE's view of their
situation, and, like him, abandoning it, than by
struggling longer against fate that all signs
now show to be inevitable.
HENRY S. FoOTE never was in all his pub
lie career, it must be confessed, remarkable
for steadiness Of purpose, and his weakness in
that respect may be attributed TO his want of
any fixed principle or clear ideas Of duty. If
he had possessed either, he never could have
been seduced into the fearful dilemma from
which he is now preparing to escape with his
life, if not with his honor. Nothing but lack
of understanding could, we should think, lead
any man into the support Of bad enterprise,
if he had not the courage to adhere to it in
its desperate fortunes.
The feebeness OF will that gives it up in
extremity is the natural counterpart of the
feebleness of mind that embraced it in the
outset.
No person, we apprehend, of the least sense,
could ever have Joined in the Rebellion
against the National Government, except by
virtue of some profound moral motive strong
enough to set aside in the beginning all ques-
ton of failure or success, and to cling to the
Rebel cause with the desperate devotion of
the martyr who is willing to risk ALL even life
ITSELF for the faith that is in him.
FooTE, however, is not man of that mould.
He was vain enough TO seek personal advance
ment and distinction, or, as milton would
say, "bad eminence," by engaging in a revo-
luton which he fancied might prove trium-
phant; and seeing now his mistake in that
regard, he is weak enough to seek safety in
desertion, on pretexts which cannot even
redeem it from baseness. Mr.. FooTE, it is true,
declares very distinctly that in his opinion, the
interference of President JEFF. DAVIS with
the military policy Of the Rebellion has brought
itsarmies TO disastrous defeat; and he predicts,
with 4 sagacty that is worthy OF NAPOLEON
/ /, that, if HooD's army should be destroyed,
and SHERMAN, after taking Savannah, should
90 to the aid OF GRANT, Richmond must fall /;
and that, with that end accomplished, the game
Of Southern treason would be up. Since that
prophecy was made il has been very nearly
completely fulfilled. HOODS army has been
virtually destroyed; SHERMAN has captured
Savannah and the next grand movement we
may expect to hear Of is that SHERMAN,
in cooperation with the magnificent naval
force with which he is in communication, will
move against Charleston and Wilmington in
detail, and then close up his splendid campaign
BY eflecting junction with GRANT, and the
capture of the Rebel capital by combined
attack upon all sides. This is substantially
the horoscope of the war as Mr.. FooTE
has lately drawn it, and its speedy realization
viii entitle him TO the character Of a seer.
But it should be remarked now, and here
after born in mind, that Mr.. FooTE does not
put his threatened retirement from the des-
perate adventure in which he loolishly and
blindly embarked, on its obvious failure,
though that is clearly his real reason for run
ming away from his associates in the "bloody
business" which informs against his conscience
and makes him unwilling 10 meet the
consequences of his folly and his crime. He
prefers to sneak out Of the scrape in a manner
which may preserve some Ostensible consist
ency with the pretended motives which
induced him to get into it; and he hopes by
that means, no doubt, to cheat future history,
as well as his contemporaries, with the mise
rable profession that as he only became Rebel
against a Government which constitutionally
guaranteed civil liberty to every one of Its
citizens, because it had ceased to be free,
he now, in turn, forsakes that bastard abor-
ton Of empire which he helped 10 create and
uphold, only because 1t, also, denies him the
freedom Of which he has been In search.
Aleer asserting that freedom Of deliberation
arr.af a