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 vacilla tion, 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 ants Mr. c.3I:IASE, 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 HALLECK, the Commander-in-Chief, and of Mr. STANTON, the SE cretary for War, are no longer talked of ; even BURNSIDE'S resignation is not accepted, and the Administration, after a good 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. LiNcoLles 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. He 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 HORACE was ever read by the self-educated rail-splitter) muttering to himself most complacently, Justum et tenacem propositi virum m, Non civiurn ardor prays jubentiu . Mente quatit It is wonderful, indeed, to see how honourably all the high-placed authorities make the frightful dis• aster and slaughter of Fredericksburg their own American leaders cannot at any rate be accused of shirking responsibility. No apparition of 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 bad 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 Balaklaral "I did it all." LINCOLN, HALLECE, STANTON, all wished me to attack from the direction of Warrenton, I chose to go toFalmouth (the village just opposite Fredericksburg, north of the Rappahannock), and of being pressed to fight by them, instead attacked at an earlier moment than they directed. He only said, inciden tally, that he bad not been properly ported by HALLECIi and MEIGs. While speaking