Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1864-01-12
The SITUATION.

: n y Y
q 10. 10 sAuguine hope ofinterventionb buoy
mp the spirit OF the Confederate public a
g me end of 1861. No Brilliant victor
1 IKE that OF derteksburg encourages d
. 90 look torWardito speedy and suSccess
tut Termination of the war, 90 I'M the las
5llWeeks of 1852. Meade has been foiled
aud Lgqgstreet has had a partial sucees
ina Tennessee; but Meades advance va
i hardt meant ID earnest, and Bsails Sts
tioh Is q poor sstz6fF To- loss 5l tle "a
llant men who fell in the murderous assaul
on Knoxville. Another daring Yankee raj,
phas been carried ont with comparative impu
nifty to the invaders, and timorous capital
lists may well pause before they nibbIe a
eligible investments 10 real estate situated
far in the interior. That interior has beer
fearfully narrowed by the federal march
through Tennessee; aud owing to the def.
cienctes of our cavalry service, Lincoln's
lsquadrons Of horse threaten to be as uni.
yersal q terror, as pervasiVe nuisance, a,
his squadrons Of gunboats were some
months since. The advantages gained al
Ohancellorsvllle and ChickamaQga have
hal heavy counterpoises. The one victory
led to the fall of jackson and the deposi.
tion of Hooker, the other led first to nothing
and then to the indelible disgrace of Look
out Mountain. The Gonfederacy has been
cut in twain along the line OF the Missis-
stppi, and ouI enemies are steadily push
ing forward their plans for bisecting the
eastern moiety. No wonder, then, that
the annual advent of the reign of mud is
hailed by all classes with a sense of relief.
by those who think and feel Alright, as a
precious season to prepare for trying an
other fall with our potent adversely.
Meanwhile the financial chaos is becom-
ing wilder and wilder. Hoarders keep a
more resolute grasp than ever on the
necessaries of life. Non producers. who
are at the same time non spectators, are
suffering more aud more. What was once
competence has become poverty, poverty
has become penury, penury is laspiug into
pauperism. Any mechanical occupation
is more profitable than the most intellect
ual profession the most accomplished
scholars in the confederacy would be glad
to barter their services for food aud raj
ment; and in the complete upturning of
our social relations, the only happy people
are those who have black hearts or black
skins. The cry of scarcity resounds
through the land, raised by the producers
in their greed for gain, re.echoed by the
consumers in their premature dread Of
starvation and nnkedness. We are all iu
the dark, and men are more or less COW.
ards in the dark. We do not know what
our resources are-and no one can tell us
whether we shall have pound Of beef 10
eat at the end of 1884, or square inch of
leather to patch the last shoe in the con-
tederacy. Unreasoning confidence has been
succeeded by depression as unre6soninR.
and the Yankees are coDgrAtuIating them.
selves on the result, which they hawk
about as the "beginping of the eui.''
Theologians will tell US that the disas-
tiers OF the closing year are the punishment
OF our sins. This is true enough but
cheap penitenee will not save US from the
evil consequences. There is no forgive
ness for political sins, aud the results will
as certainly follow as if there had been NO
repentance. AS all sins are, in higher
sense, intellectual blunders, We must strain
every more OF the brain and every sineW Of
the will IT We wish to repair the mischief
Whtch our folly and our corruption have
wrought. Tie universal recognition of
this imperative duty is q more certain
earnest of our success than the high spirits
OF our men in the ield, or the indomitable
patriotism of our women at home, from
which newspaper correspondents derive SO
much comfort. The Incompetence and IN
tatthfnlness OF government officials have
had so much to do with the present sad
state of affairs, but the responsibility does
not end there, the guilt does not rest there
alone. Every man who has suffered bin.
SELF to be tainted with the scab of speeulas
tion has done something 70 injure the cred
1t OF Confederate securities; every man
who has withheld any necessary of life has
done his worst to ruin the country every
one, man or Woman, who has yielded 10 the
solicitations Of vanity or appetite, and re.
fused TO submit 70 any pfiIation, however
slight, which an expenditure, however
great could prevent, has Contributed 70 the
general decentralization. II may be said
that, with the present plethora Of paper
money, such virtue as We demandis not TO
be expected Of any people made mp Of
merely hdman beings. But Some such
virtue Is neeessaty for any people Whose
duty Il has become to wage such contest
as onrs and If the virtue Is not spontas
neous, IL must be engrafted by the painful
process through which We are nov passsI
ing. We cannot go through this fiery
furnace without the smell Of FIRE on our
garments. We can no more avoid the loss
OF properly than We can the shedding of
blood: ~ -
There Is no family 10 the eonfedsraey
that has not TO mourn the fall Of some
member or some connection, and there is
no family in the confedsracy which ought
70 expect 10 escape seathless in estate.-
The attempt il Ss useless, in most cases, a.
ttiS iguoble In all. A few, and but few,
10 comparison with the whole number, NAV
coms out OF the war richer than when thsy
went in bnt even they must make up their
minds to sacrifice part, and 1 large part,
in order 70 preserve the whole. The saw
iSg OF the stole philosopher, ''You can't
have somethiug tor nothing though il
sounds like trpism, in fact, conveys =
moral lesson of great Significance. Men
mnst pay for privileges. If they do not
pay voluntarily their nsighbofs gilI make
them pay, and that heavily. Had Ihose
Who employed substitutes 70 take their
places IN The army refrainsd; As a class,
from speculation aud extortion, they would
not now be lamentinR the prospect Of 4
speedy furthesauce' 70 the camp Of Eustruc-
tiou. However just their cause, the man.
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