Dayton daily empire. [volume] (Dayton [Ohio]) 1850-1865, 1865-03-22
The price OF Gold.

price Of Gold illustrates very luminously
some Of onr national characteristics. The
French have hitherto been regarded as ills
most volatile anil unstable Of all the ma
tions. and the Jews are called by scoffers
the most credulous; but the French as tc
instability, and the Jews as % credulityt
are both surpassed by the Americans oI
this present day The price Of Gold is Of
course somewbst affected BY other causes,
such as tight money market, large ex-
pora,ti0n Of COTTON, heavy Investments in
oil lands and companies, and the like, but
il Is not To be denied that the chief reason
Of its decline is the fact that within
the last few weeks, our people have been
seized and blinded for the twentieth time,
with the delnsion that the Rebellion is
crushed and that peace is Just at hand-an
idea which tits hardly necessary to say is,
to us, so absurd that its statement seems
to be its sufficient rcfutation But the ma
jority Of our people believe It; and even
the "loya'' merchants, who, four weeks
ago, had sufficient faith in jeff Davis and
"maas Robert" to buy large stocks Of
goods when the price of gold was two hun
dred and upwards. are now, although we
have had no unexpected military successes,
in the profoundest depths of. despair be-
cause they deem the rebellion "gone mp"
and a return to aspecie basis just at hand.
The only possible escape from bankrupt
cy for many of these gentlemen--here in
Dayton as well as elsewhere-is, they be-
lieve, in the defeat of Grant and Sherman
in the pending campaign, and it would be
an unjustifable impeachment of their de-
yotion to their God, Mammon, to suppose,
for one moment that they were not pray
ing, night and day, tor this longed-for
consummation a#r
OnlSunday evening, Nay l5th, 1854,
when the campaign against Atlanta and
Richmond had Just begun, one of the
ablest, sincerest and best specimens of the
War-Christian minister that this section
of the country can furnish, is reported. at
the close Of the service, to have made this
thrilling announcement
"Goneral Sherman is at Atlanta, and The
aI..l NJ ha Ga. ~ e. q.
in these three years Of war, has met with
Waterloo defeat After a furious contest in
the Wilderness, General Lee, leaving fifteen
thousaud killed and wounded upon the field
of battle, and thirty thousand prisoners in the
hands of General Grant, is flying, with his
disorganized battaHons, with all possible
speed, to the defeRses about Richmondl" TO
General Sherman gotto Atlanta about
sixty days after that and General Lees
"Waterloo defeat" has not occurred to
this day; hut the minister believed every
word of his announcement, and SO did his
congregation. .'
So now, this gullible people, being told
by the newspapers and the telegraph that
"the rebels are in despairS" that "their
resources are entirely exhausted )" that
General Lee has sent word to jeff. Davis
that he cannot possibly hold out against
the combinations of Grant and Sherman"
and so on, receive it all eagerly, and be-
lieve implicitly that in a very few days we
sEall sec the grand pyrotechnic display
with which the performance will con-
cude.
While we cannot help being amused at
these pecuiaritiss of our countrymen, we
sympathize most heartily with all those
whose honest desire to see the end of this
struggle makes them so ready to believe
that it is almost here; bpt we feel bound to
tell them that in our opinion, they are again
doomed TO disappointment. They are
like the iainting travellers in the desert,
whose hopes are excited by visions of
placid lakes and ripping rivulets apps-
rently close at hand, butwhi vanish as
they approach. General Lee is not now
to be overwhelmed, and even if he should
be, the vast and varied country we inhab-
|Yit will furnish him with many Businesses
to which he may and will retire, to
reorganize for that sort of warfare by
which the great 'Fabius rescued Rome