Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1864-08-25
The Chances Of Peace in America.
from the London Spectator, July 2s ]

| After believing for nearly two months that
! the South would be ultimately defeated, that
| the dauntless persistency of the North would
| wear out the fiery courage of its opponents.
| that numbers and will would prevail alike
over skill and patriotism" it has suddenly
| arrived at the conviction that the cause of
| the North is lost. Immediately after Gen.
| Grants first battle even the Times wrote re-
| spectfully Of the chances of the invasion, but
the check suffered in the direct advance on
Richmond, the long pause before Petersburg,
| the excessive rise in gold, the dismissal or
resignation of Mr.. Chase, the rumor of an
invasion OF Maryland" and the natural re-
coll OF oYer-excited anticipation, have once
more depressed the balance; the Confeder-
| ate loan has gone up to seyenty-six the con-
servatlVe papers once more speak of "the
victorious South" and the widest rumors,
If only they tell to the disadvantage of the
| North, are received with instant credit, All
| this while the facts of the case either remain
| exactly where they were year ago, or when
| they have altered, have altered, with one con-
| spicuous exception, to the advantage of the
Federals. The military change has been
conspicuously in their favor. Last year they
were contending in the West for the Missis-
sippi, unprecedented the loss of New Orleans,
were doubtful of the fidelity of Missouri. and
wavered in policy for fear lest they should
affront irretrevablY the neutral " politicians
of the State of Kentucky. This year the Ar
my of the Mississippi has quilted the banks
of that river, and fought its way steadily and
surely to the very heart of the Confederacy,
has traversed such a section of Georgia that
military critics already discuss the possibility
| OF Gen. Sherman intervening with decisive
| effect in the Virginian contest. This great
pesl has l,ol,oJ
| the teeth c. the strongest resistance, of bat
ties so severe that southerners estimate Gen.
| Sherman's losses at thirty thousand men, of
efforts so great that the South is obliged to
explain defeat by the northern device of call
| ing every fresh retreat a new strategical
| movement.
Missouri Is either repentant or so COM
| pleteIy controlled that the Government can
| rely upon the action Of the State Legislature,
| and Louisiana has established Government
which, however little 1t represents opinion,
: still prohibits the State from exerting any
: organized force On the Confederate side
! Kentucky, which ruled the situation. has lust
| been placed under martial law, and even
ooutherners have ceased to speak of the cam
palgn IN the Far West. In Virginia, where
the case seems so much worse for the FEEDER
ais, 1t is il reality even better. Those sew
| mond which were pronounced so impossible
have been traversed-traversed in spite of
| resistance rising into the heroic-traversed
with such loss to the defendants that General
Lee, boldest of all Southern Generals. is re-
| duced to a policy of comparative inaction,
suffers General Grant to march past him
without attacking his exposed line, and leaves
his adversary south of Richmond rather than
risk another general action.
That this advantage has been obtained at
an immense sacrifice Of life is true, but the
very first datum Of the struggle is that the
North can afford this loss, and that the South
cannot. The supply of men in the North is
almost inexhaustible, owing to immigration
that Of men in the South strictly limited
quantity. Then the Southerners, we are
told, are invading Maryland and going to
capture Baltimore. So they were last year,
only they did not leave vast army in sight
of their own Capital They had one hundred
and twenty thousand men instead of twenty
thousand, and they were commanded by Lee
instead of Ewell. That was true invasion,
this is only a raid that army might have
captured Baltimore, this could not take Fort
McHenry, which commands the city, or the
gunboats which could lay the port in ashes :;
that required the sudden return of the whole
defeated by calling out the local and neigh
boring militia. The struggle is hot enough,
no doubt for these Southerners are good
soldiers, they are fighting from the inside,
and they have most audacious and able lead
ers, but, taking the campaign as a whole,
which is as yet the victor?
Then take the political situation In what
is it worse than it was last year? Three
more States have been reduced, if not into
hearty obedience to Washington, at least into
sullen acquiescence, which is comparative
ly almost as favorable. Two more have al
tered their constitutions, so as to abolish
slavery forever, and so establish communi-
ty of interests between themselves and the
free states which allows of immigration
The President has g ven up his last lingering
hope of compromise, and accepts platform
which, as regards slavery, is in effect though
not In theory, abolitionist His new Con-
gress, which was to have been so democrat
ic, ard have controlled him in the direction
| of peace, turns out on all questions connect
ed with war or slavery an ultra-republican
body. The coalition of Governors which
| tried last year to dictate terms to the Presi-
dent has disappeared, and if Ohio is violent
now, Illinois last year openly resisted the
| troops sent to enforce the draft. The Times
has story that Governor Seymour has re-
fused to send the militia to Washington.
This is one of the inventions of the Times
correspondent.
But the rise in the value of gold? 1t is
no doubt the very worst symptom in the
whole aspect of northern politics. for it sig
uifes that the war is becoming crushingly
expensive. Prices rise with the fall in the
currency, until, if the process continues,
! soldiers ration tmay cost next year as much
as turtle soup and CHAMPAIGN cost last. But
what is the premium on gold throughout the
great cities of the South? There is no fact
better ascertained in modern politics than
| that when peoples once determined finance
will not stop war. The Convention had
100000 men in the field when assignBts
| were at / 200 per cent, and Russia drove out
Napoleon and raised new army to traverse
Germany when they were almost valueless
The only effect of the rise on the war is to
compel the government to take the taxes in
kind, and in the end to substitute reuuisi-
tions for taxation. For the few articles re-
CURED from abroad, such, for instance as
saltpetre, the North can always pay, just as
the South can pay, for it can use its store of
corn as the South uses its store of cotton.
The rise in wages may derange labor, or even
suspend it but then the effect of suspension
may be, as in France, to hurl the laborlng
class into the ranks, where alone they are
secure of food. The North if reduced to
state Of barter, with its industry suspended
and its commerce paralyzed, its finances non
existent and its private fortunes disappear
ING can still if il will while seed produces