Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1870-08-14
A ON THE WAR.
What he Thinks IT VIII Amount tO-Why the
North 81 mpathizss With Germany.
Comparison Between this and the War Be-
tween the States.
What will be the Effect Upon our Trade and
COmmerGe-Grant Happy Over the
Prospect.

From the New York Sun, one of
whose reporters recently interviewed
the President at Long Branch, we
copy the following. In response to
the reporters question as to his views
of the situation, General Grant
ansWered-They seem to be getting
into a free fight. They can't be sepa-
rated now. When two boys fight you
can stop the fight, but when every
body is fighting there is no one to
step in and separate. Atfrst Thought
the wal would be shOrt-nOW i think
it will be long, and it seems as if
every power in Europe will get into
it. England must stand by Belgium,
the fruits of Waterloo, and we know
Napoleon, as he said to the Mayor of
Rouen in 1866, 'hates the treaty of
1875" This treaty Napoleon /. signed
against his will, and, although he
gave up the south bank of the Rhine
then, in form, the French have never
given it up in spirit. The fight with
Napoleon is for the south bank of
the Rhine. With Prussia it is a de-
tense of the Bismarck-N OrthsG German
Confederation. Then Napoleon needed
SOu4CtAluS W MIL 1eOCLGlOItLSn db
home. He needed what Alexander
III. Stephens suggested to President
Lincoln and MI. Seward, when they
thought of patching up a truce at
Hampton Roads, in BS62-an ertrinSic
policy to unite everybody on. Eng
land knew what Stepens' ertri7sic
policy meant, for Stewards dispatch
made them open their eyes wide. 1t
meant North and South Join against
Canada. 1t took diplomacy to get
this eEtrinsic idea out of Stephens and
JEFF; so it took diplomacy to get the
French signature to the secret treaty
which would enable Napoleon to COB
bic up Saarbruck and Landau, and re-
store Luxembourg to the French. But
it took greater diplomacy to reject it.
Bismarck did it, and he nov hands
the rejected proposition over to the
other powers, as Seward handed over
Stephens's Canada policy to Eng
land. The defeat of King William
is the squelching. of Belgium.
Our sympathy is the result of COM
merce, German emigration, and be-
cause the Germans took our bonds
and stood with us during the. war.
France didn't. King William and
Bismarck sent three kilograms of con-
graduation to us. Not one came from
Napoleon, who, on the contrary, was
all the time hitting US sly dabs in.
Mexico. Seward LET him hit, because
his army was all the time eating up
the beef and tanning the hides which
otherwise would have gotteninto the
rebel army. In fact, Macmillan was
a sort of provision destroyer in Mex
leo. If we go back of the last war,
there is no reason why we shouldn't
sympathize with France. Napoleon
sent troops and Lafayette came to
help us, while Frederick the Great
hired out a lot of Hessians to Great
Britain.
What do you think of the capture
of Saarbruck, General?
General Grant-Little skirmishes
and a reconnaissance now and then
don't amount to anything. We must
wait for the campaign. Sometimes,
in checkers, a man gives away one
man, and by-and-by takes three. So
in war. Then, Saarbruck don't seem
to have beena German town. 1t was
like the rebels first taking Bowling
Green, KY, or Little Rock. 1t rather
belonged to tkem but when General
retook Little Rock, that was a
victory. / think Mayence will be the
Fredericksburg of the war, and, may
be, the Black Forest will be the VII
derness. At least, / should think that
modern warfare had demonstrated
the fact that it is foolish TO assault a
fortified town when you can just as
well march around it and compel the
attacked party tOStarve or come out
and fight you. General Hooker and
General Burnside both stormed Fred
eritksburg, but 1 think if they had it
to do over again you would
see them marching right round to |
the rear Mayence, Coblentz,
and even Ehrenbreitenstein, the Gil
braltar of the Rhine, if managed atall,
will have to be managed as Fred
erieksburg was at last. You can't
storm Ehrenbreitenstein any more
than you could Xicksburg from the
flats. You can lombard it,
but, when taken, it will have to be
starved out. Now / don't think these
French fellows are much on thestarve-
put process; they're too fast, and here
Prussia has the inside track.
Sun Correspondent-What will be
me probable strategy of the Prusslan
General Grant-It will undoubtedly
strictly on the defensive. The
.~russians are now where the Aus
,rians were during the last war. They
Will find defending themselves against