The Sun. — 1863-01-05 (London, England)

LINCOLN. He might almost as well be boiling on COBBETT'S gridiron, as enduring his present penal worrying. With the staunch Republicans at him on one side, and the Democratic majority threatening him on the other, it must require no little nerve to pursue his course without faltering. His good intentions, it appears, no party questions; his pertinacity to his convictions is equally undoubted : but his is not the order of mind to grasp a great subject comprehensively, and hence he is exposed to the influence of abler minds than his own. Their counter influences have thus often caused the appearance of vacillation, but it was infirmity of intellect, not of will and purpose.  The news brought by the Arabia compels us to respect his "pluck," whatever we may think of his wisdom. Were he in the position of an English Prime Minister he must have gone out of office ; had he been in that of an English Sovereign, he must have changed his servants; but he does neither. A caucus—an informal meeting to decide the course of action—is convened of the Republican members of the Senate, that is, of his chief supporters, and in many things his masters. They declare their want of confidence in his Government. Mr. SEWARD is pointed at as especially objectionable to them. Mr. SEWARD ana Mr. CRASE, his Chancellor of the Exchequer, both tender their resignations ; but Mr. LINCOLN refuses to accept them! They have resumed their portfolios. The resignations of General HALLEcx, the Commander-in-Chief, and of Mr. STANTON, the Secretary for War, are no longer talked of ; even BURNSIDE'S resignation is not accepted, and the Administration, after a goad shaking by the military earthquake at Fredericksburg, remains, apparently, the same as before. It was built on the Presidential rack, if that name can be given to what has but a quadrennial tenure of existence. "We are accustomed to suppose the popular will in the States omnipotent, and not only that, but able to enforce its policy much more quickly than in England. It is, however, by no means always so. Like Sir ROBERT PEEL'S first revised. corn law, it has leaps—four year leaps. A President is half Sovereign, half Prime Minister for four years certain. He cares nothing, or little, for a vote of no confidence in the Cabinet of which he is the head. He both reigns and governs for his limited period of office ; and hence, as in Mr. LINCOLN'S case, though a majority of the electors may denounce his policy, and though his own party may proscribe the servants who advise it, he does not change it. Re is sure, as his friends say of him, that he purposes well; he knows his integrity if he knows nothing else, and we can imagine him (on the supposition that 1:101aCE was ever read by the self-educated rail-splitter) muttering to himself MOSLCOMplaCently, Just= et tenacem propositi virum Non civium ardor Prava jubenu ; Mente quatit solids. um It is wonderful, indeed, to see how honourably all the high-placed authorities make the frightful disaster and slaughter of Fredericksburg their own American leaders cannot at any rate be accused of shirking responsibility. No apparition qf the ten thousand victims of that murderous day wrings from any the exclamation, "Thou canat not say I did it." The Senate institutes an examination, the Generals are, of course, all catechised, and General BURNSIDE boldly takes the whole responsibility on himself. It was supposed that he had changed the base of operations from Warrenton more towards the north and west to Acquia Creek, on the Potomac ; that he had been disappointed by the Waroffice of the pontoon bridges requisite for crossing when he arrived; but no, says the LUCAN or CARDIGAN of this American B%laklave, LINCOLN, lIALLECK S "I did it all." , STANTON, all wished me to attack from the direction of Warrenton, I chose to go to Falmouth (the village just opposite Fredericksburg, north of the Rappahannock), and, d of being pressed to fight by them, I attackedinstea at an earlier moment than they directed. He only said, incidentally, that he had not been properly supported by HALLECZ and /UM. While speaking