Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1864-09-01

4
powerful force of Grant on his rear, and
holding his only line of communication.
This would certainly be q very different
kind Of enterprise for either of those he
has before RdVentured, in his two inyasions,
in both of which cases he had but to make
Aahking movement TO relieve Richmond
of all menace, and allow him to pursue his
course with his rear safe and his commu.
nications open. II is thus seen how, by
the admirable combination in Virginia,
Lee is bound over either to purely de-
fensiVe policy or to enterprises of RASH
ness that must insu,e his ruin.
VI.
WHAT GRANT ASKS 10 END THE WAR.
These considerations all unite in the H.
luatrOtion OF the tact thar the military
stdtas-ls very far from being Of that dis
couraging aspect which it wears, not only
in the jaundiced eyes of those whose de-
sires prompt them to invest 1t in sombFe
hues, but which Il assumes evenito the.
apprehension of many who would taiu
hope better things. l am persuaded that
if our armies did no more than hold their
own in their present positions, with the
grip they have on the rebel armies, the re-
bellion must wear itself away aud die out
from sheer lack of breath. But the duty
is laid upon us, not less in consideration
for the South itself than for the honor and
integrity of the nation, and the material
interests OF the world at large, to use
swifter means for its suppression. We all
want peace, North and South; but the
shortest cut to peace is through vigorous
blows at that alone which prevents peace
the armed forces still under control of
the chiefs of the rebellion. Even in point
of time no ambassadors could arrange
terms of peacesso quickly as the mis-.
sion of fresh hundred thousand
muskets. 1t is no mere poor judg-
ment of mine, but the authoritative utter
ance of the head of all our armies, that 1t
is in the hands of the people to end the re-
bellion at blow. Lieut.. Gen. Grant has
declared, that tsif hs had nor but a hundred
thousand fresh nd.i shs eopld, IN my days, do
up all the fighting thai needs to Be done dur
ing the IOdr." This is no shallow hearsay;
it is the authentic declaration of the high
name given; and the sentiment is affirmed
by every military man have lately met
Half that force added to Gen. Grants own
immediate army, would enable him to
stretch his line across the DanVills road
and positively compel the abandonment of
Virginia; the other half would put Hoods
army into the hands of Gen. Sherman. Is
there living patriotism enough lett in the
country to evoke the means for so glorious
a consummation2 Ifthere were not it might
well raise the question whether such q
people deserved to be saVed2
The time is fast drawing nigh when this
patriotism will be put TO the test. The
draft is designed to give Gen. Grant the
hundred thousand and three times the
hundred thousand men he needs to con-
clude the war Withal. That measure rings
the death knell of the rebellion. The lead
ers of the rebellion in the South know 1t;
the abettors Of the rebellion In the North
know it, and hence their efforts to thwart
it. The draft will be made in spite of both.
But. it can be made TRANQUILITY aud efficaci-
ously, or with lame and impOtent results,
as the people shall elect. 1t is momen-
tuons issue which hangs on that electionl
VII.
CoEFIDBNoB AND GROUNDS OF COURAGE.
There is to a people battling in any cause
force, purely metaphysical in its charac-
ter, which is yet stronger than the sineWs
of war-stronger than the sineWs of mems
arms. 1t is courage. Never has it been
more needed than of late, when q fatal
paralysis has benumbed the public sense,
and in the eclipse of faith, "the whole noise
of timorons and Aocking birds, with those
that love'the twilight, futter abeut, and in
! t06lr e0NlOu6 RhpOl6 WOulu pEOkuObtlChSo
year of sects and schisms,"
| / believe We have already touched the
nadir of our fears and our despondency,
and that breath Of patriotism and hope is
now vivifying the nations pulse. Buteach
man can swell the rising tide. To diffuse
the inspiration Of courage is the duty oi
every patriot, And happily we need draw
this Inspiration from no illusive fountains;
for the more earnestly aud honestly we
| look at the situation, the more grouDds Of
hope We fnd. Some of these grounds can
be briefly set down:
II. The body of the rebellion is mori-
bund. Gen. 7. Seymour, whose critical
habit Of thought and conservative temper
we'll known TO me, add q prodigious weight
to auy declarations be makes on this head,
states as the result Of his three months
i observations in the Interior of the South
that "tke rebel cause Is fast falling from er
hduStioR" This is profoundly true, Wheth.
sr it has regard to the material resources
of the South, from three-fourths of which
it is now cut off by the lines held by ouI
armies, or to its still more vital resources
lin men, of which the field is now Feaped
and bare. Every man and every boy Is
now in the field; there Is uothiug behind
The whole South is, therefore, in the ar.
mies confronting Sherman aud Grant. o.
the army opposing Gen. Sherman, forty
thousand men have been subtracted by thI
losses of the great Summer campaign
OF the other army, commanded by Lee
one half its force has been put out of th'
fight since Gen. Grant crossed the Rap
idAn.
> 2. It Is true, in inalctlng this damage
9 We also have lost quite as seVerely-per
} haps even more so; but (if it il lawful q
I ford Il. We can stand to lose man for man
> till every man in the armies Of the rebel
lion is put hors dU combat, and leave be
4 hind nnlnnehed q force eanal 70 All H