Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1865-01-16
THE REBEL ORY OF DESPAIR.
The Cali for COnventiOn--Denunesa-
tiOns of Davis.

Men are asking one another, is there no
remedy Is it fatal necessity that We
should sit still with folded hands and see-
ing the Confederacy going from bsd TO
worse, by reason of one constant system OF
perverse passion and obstinacy, of which
we can all trace the course in the past and
foresee the miserable ending2 If the Con-
federate Congress cannot, or will not consti
tulionally interPose to stop US on this sloping
descent to perdition, or if any rsmonstrance,
action or resolution of that Congress is
sure to be eonstitutionslly and contempt
uously bsf1ed and snubbed by veto
what then2 Have we enclosed ourselves
in an iron circle of necessity, out of which
egress is none2 Have we put ourselves
into an inexorable piece Of machinery,
wound up to go for s1x years certain and,
the spring once touched, are We bound to
revolve in it like blind mice, though We
know it is sWhirling US to the devil? Men,
we say, are asking themselves these ques-
tions, snd especially tho question, Is there
no remedy3
Yes there is one remsdy-conventio
of the several States, and to begin with q
convention of Virginia, here in Richmond.
All men say that q genersl-in- chief is
needed, but when the law is proposed, it is
assumed thst Congress has not the power
to make it. Well g convention has full
powers. The constitution is interposed.
Well, conventions make constitutions. Let
US have convention-s convention Of
full powers-the convention Of Virginia
first of all. The Legislature of Virginia
is in sesslon--let it call a convention Of
the State.
We know why most persons, both in
Virginia and elsewhere, have been reluc-
tant hitherto to say the word it is be-
cause the recommendations for calling con-
ventions, which have bean made in two
States of the Confederacy, were supposed
to contemplate, or seemed to contemplate,
breach or faith and base abandonment of
allies in the very crisis and agony of war
for our common Independence; therefore
such suggestions were very properly re-
buked, both in Georgia and North Caroli-
ma; and in the latter State ihe present
Governor was carried triumphantly into
Office expressly as the opponent and de-
nouncer Of State Convention for any such
purpose.5
But State Conventions are our highest
political tribunal, the most potent express
sions of that sovereign independence that
We are now banded together to assert. If
some have invoked a Convention, but in
vain, to offer an sbject submission to the
enemy, it does not follow that Conventions
themselves are condemned. They may be
invoked for good as well as for evil-to
make successful war as well as disgraeeful
peace. And what is now proposed is that
Virginia and the other Confederate States
forthwith meet in separate State Conven-
tions-to be followed by 8 convention of
delegates from them all, in order to con-
slider the present and past conduct Of the
war, and to recommend some measures to
the central agency (which is the creature
Of the Ststes) with view to its speedy and
triumphant success.
Of course this proceeds upon The ss-
sumption that there is very general dis
content with the present administration of
military affairs, and distrust and uneasiness
about the result, if the present manage
mant be continued. For the assumption
that such feeling exists there are but two
good grounds. 1t is in the air, it is in the
eyes and the voices of men; it goes with
them to church; it attends them to the
market; lonely pickets feel it around them
at night, and black care mounts behind
the horseman. Neither is it superstition
and baseless hallucinaton. This people is
rational, logical consequent; and while
persistent effort and indomltable conflict
and defiance come natural to it, yet it re-
quires to feel that it is not befooled. God
knows that the people of Virginia have
ehrupH frorn M Tooril eoo-idoa ~ ba,5,L;-,.
neither will they shrink; but they need
to be assured in their own hearts that,
when they march they ara going some
whittier; that when they suffer they can
see their way to the reward that when
they make sacrifices there is not some
body making a sacrifice of them.
1t has been with an anxious
wish to see the best side of eve
rything and put the best face on every
thing, that our people have watched the
progress Of events thus far; but they have
met with some rude shocks. Perhaps the
last performance, relieving Gen. johnson,
putting Hood in his place, and then an
nouncing in public speech that Hood and
his army were going to make a tour, and
that Sherman had carte blanche in Georgia
and now continuing to hold Hood in his
place, and in continuing to keep johnson
out of his place, in the teeth of reason and
experience was the rudest shock of sll.
They had not believed Mr.. Davis, with all
his errors, so utterly weak and narrow as
this.
1t was a misfortune to the ConfedeTacy,
SIS is long since evident, that its first Presi-
dent was, or thought himself to be, a mill
tsry man. If he had been some worthy
planter, who never was either at West
Point or Mexico, and had no special qusli.
icstion save q manly, straightforward
Southern spirit, then he would never have
thought himself competent to plan distant
campaigns and interfere with generals in
the field he would then have been well
pleased to repose the entire military con-
troll in the hands of some great captain,
whom the unanimous voice of the array
and the country would soon have designs
ted to him. But Mr.. Davis unlucEily
studied at West Point; still more IN
fortunately, in Mexico, he one day
formed his regiment Of two hundred
and fifty Mississippi volunteers into the
shape of Y, and received a charge of
Mexicsps Ia foNrehetts. All the learned
newspaper chroncilers of the Mexican
business extolled beyond the skies that fatal
foWreAette; by reason of that tiresome
fourehetts the Colonel conceived himself
indeed military genius. We feel its evil
effects TO this day, and if We are to perish
the verdict will be, d" Died of a vi. For
the horns of this Y are not like the horns
of dilemma, one Of which you can al
ways choose to be impaled upon, but he
cores US with both horng, like bull.
However this may be, there is a real
danger, not so much that the military re-
sources Of the country, but what is more
important, the military spirit may be
wasted, the proud resolve TO go all lengths
in resistance to an infamous invasion, that
spirit which would have borne US and our
cause triumphantly through to glorious