The New York herald., 1865-01-04

IESDAY, JANUARY 4, l8
rendsr Of General Lee, and that win come
about somewhere IN the nelghborhood Of tho
frst Of May. His army, hemlAed In and doubled
up, cannot hold out much longer than that
The idea that JED. Davis sent for Old Blais y
visit him was absurd. Davis never regarded
Blair with any degree Of confederation 70 war
rant such an invitation. On the contrary, he
looks upon the Blair family in the light of. rene
gades In Jackson's time the elder Blair was
man Of some account, but the modern South
ern politicians never esteemed him Of any con-
sequence whatever, and least Of all JeG. Davis.
.gI- r.s4fe
The Rebel Press ON the Wharf.-The Real
Situation.
The rebel press Of this city still puts forth
the poor trash Of Vallandigham's Chicago reso-
luton, twisting It day aftsr day into countless
ridiculous shapes "The war b failurep
The NsDs cites the various expeditions Of ths
wear; declares, without any regard to the fActs
or 70 truth, that each was unsuccessful, and
then gives the whole - @argument" that the
war Is failure. Il bears heavily, Of course,
ON tho fAilures Of Banks In Louisiana, and
Glasses Grants Virginia campaign in the Same
category. Il also GLASSES Sherman with Hunter.
They are failures every ONE. Sheridan's
splendid movement up the valley, with victo-
ries at Opequan, Fishers Hill and Cedar Creek,
was also failure, considered "as movement
against Lynchburg.r We may inform the Nssos
that It was failure in smother way namely,
as an attempt to cut the Equator and move
against the South pole. Hood and Thomas are
not named, but there is great deal about the
battle of Olustee in Florida. In all this rigma-
role there is not the least reference to the real
military situation as it now is; not word
of the position Of Sherman without an oppo-
nent. Of Thomas at the heels Of Hood, or Of the
real centre ofall- Grants position on the James
Richmond is the vital point, and Lee, Its de-
fender, is held there by Grant, and compelled
to stand helplessly and wait while Grant COM
pletes his minor arrangements at other points
and gets all ready for the final blow. Before
Grant put matters in that position Lee was
very great general, who was able to throw OF
our little generals as they came at him one by
one, and in the intervals had time enough to
send men hither and thither to turn the scale
against our forces at all other points But, alasl
for Lee, we have changed all that This reminds
us Of q story. We have seen this whole history
change and all-rehearsed on our back piazza,
where the sun shines pleasantly even on these
wintry days. That pleasant sunshiny piazza
was the especial domain Of Nep-the big
Newfoundland dog-who was all the time
such Turk that he would have "no brother
near the throne" The piazza in all Its length
and breadth was as much sacred to Nep as
was the space around Richmond TO Lee. There
he lay all day and drowsed there he walked
up and down at his ease thence he opened his
deep throat at the distant passer by, and thence
he went to his dinner, only to return there when
the dinner was over Wo to the pointer, the
setter, the beagle or to the two terriers If thcy
ventured any intrusion on that "sacrcd SOIL"
But bulldog was added to the number. He
was as good natured as any. He did not know
about Nep's territory, however, and he Gin
vaded" it; for he liked sunshine, too. Nep
tried the usual game, and certainly rather sur
prised the bulldog by his weight and the sud-
denness Of the onset But the bulldog woke
up, a. bulldogs do, and thcn thore was row.
There was full argument Of the case and the
result was that the bulldogs ivories were
planted SO deeply and SO tenaciously into Nep's
throat that 1t required the Interference, u ct
aynsis, Of every person about the place to get
the ivories out, and then the application Of all
restorative remedies to keep the Newfoundland
alive. sr
That is the real state Of the case between
Grant and Lee. Lce hustled every one away
easily till the real fighter came, and now there
he is and the real fighter has him by the throat,
on his own piazza, and will hold him there and
kill him there; for in this case there is no one
TO interfere. Hood cannot be brought around
to get the ivories out, for his army is broken to
pieces. No new army can be raised to give
new life, for Sherman occupies the country that
it might have been raised in; and SO the dog
must die and in Grants own time he will die,
and nothing can prevent it
The Proposed Reduction OF the Duty ON
Paper.
There is movement on foot to induce Con-
gress to repeal the duty on paper. This move
ment originates out West and with the editors
of republican papers. Some time ago num-
Der Of these editors-principally Of Chicago and
St Louis papers-met and made their arrange
ments in the usual way to influence Congress
on this subject. They adopted resolutions,
appointed committees, delegates, and 80 en-.
Their resolutions denounced the duty as oner-
ous to publishers and not beneficial TO the
Treasury; and their committees and delegates
were sent around to influence the press at large,
70 buttonhole Congressman and other inauen-
tial persons, and in all ways to make a. much