The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1864-12-24

lican.
extra BILLY's' PLAN.-Gov. Smith Of
Virginia known as extra Billy
lin default Of being able to take a cheer.
full view Of the war, as seen from the South
side, is constrained to take, in one respect,
sensible view, and this is the more
remarkable 40 coming from Extra Billy
inasmuch a. good sense has not hereto
been considered his strong point; It In in
. single conclusion, however, rather than
in his method of reaching it, that this new
trait Of character IL best displayed. Ac-
cording to the Governor, it was the North
the war began, that it was Of short. dura.
ton, and that the former, ''relying upon
its great superiority in numbers and ma
terial," expected TO over run the latter
not only with facility but With cease
But the North, Notwithstanding its grea.
superiority, soon exhausted its Floating
population" and has since REINFORCED its
armies by recruiting in Europe and ON the
Southern plantations! With an antago-
the South contends at q disadvantage, and
he does not hesitate to confess thatln war
of such magnitude she cannot rely upon
the natural accretion" for sufficient sup
ply of men. BY all this His Excellency
means that they never looked for q short
war, and were quite prepared for and ca
pablo Of carrying ON . long one had it been
fought on anything like fair terms; but
iiized war;" having exhausted all their
own resources, sent abroad for few hum
dred thousand men, and stole few hum
dred thousand ''Djggers', to supply their
armies In such . contest, of course, the
natural accretion" gives out, and 1--WE
find ourselves" says the sagacious Gov.
ernor, Stocking around for material to en-
large our armies. Whence is it to come ~
Unless they are enlarged, and that speedi-
II. he acknowledges that the question is
between '.liberty and independence on the
one hand, on our ttheir) subjugation and
utter ruin the other" /: Is certainly a
most sensible conclusion, whatever we
may think of the reasoning by which he
arrives at it, or the remedy with which he
proposes to meet it. Wherever our ar
mics have come from, they have brought
the rebellion to its last legs, IS Gov. Smith
honestly testifies.
But what is his remedy? OF course he
has one. He throws aside all ''mawkish
sensibility," proposes to appropriate the
slaves" and urges the Legislature to give
the subject its early consideration. He
proposes to appropriate the slaves for
the purpose Of achieving the freedom Of
Southern whitemen, If the result Of such q
step should be that these fighting bond
men should be rewarded with their own.
He has clearly another lesson yet to
learn in common sense. A Rebellion on
the eve Of failure for want OF men, he hopes
to save by putting arms into the hands of
all the able-b bodied slaves. To them he
holds out the possibility Of gaining their
personal freedom-not freedom for their
wives and children, not for parents and
sisters. but for themselves alone. On the
contrary he says: Slavery will undoubt-
eddy be- at an end II we are subjugated,
and making 1t aid in our defense win i'm.
prove the chance of preserving it! Is the
slave quite fool, or 10 Mr.. Smith? He
said his fellow. Rebels can only be saved
by getting the slave to fight for them, II
he fights for them. perhaps they will give
him his freedom for saving them and sla-
very. 1.-The does not fight for them, he
and his will be free forever, and Slavery
be forever abolished. The slave probably,
can see this if Mr.. Smith cannot. And ii
the slave wants any aid to q comprehen-
sion Of the subject, Mr.. Smith is kind
enough to tell him where to look for ii, or,
at least to tell him where he will be sure TO
find 1t. "Our free negroes" says the wise
'.are very disorderly, many Of
them doubtless disloyal. They are found
cooperating with the enemy. and OCCASION
ally INDUCING in the utterance of treason
able sentiments, and threats against our
fellow-citizens." We certainly hope the
Legislature will adopt the advice
SO characteristic Of Extra Billy" and
arm the slaves forthwith. He will be
more firmly pursuaded than he is now
that it was the want of Irrational secretion"
that played the mischief with the Rebellion.
N. Y. Tribune.
SKETCH OF NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. is the
largest, and was, previous 10 the compile
ton of the Davis secession, the most -four
ishing commercial city in the State of Geor-
gia. It is the capital of Chatham county.
and was port Of customs entry before the