Year: 1862

The present campaign in Virginia Is y ..
absorbing topic of the day. The best dA'0-
plined, the best organized, the best equip9en
and the most powerful army ever mustered on
this continent awaits only the word from its
new commander, General Burnside, to advance
upon the enemy. II appears that the headquar-
tiers Of the two armies are within twenty miles
or each other, with only the insignificant barrier
Of the Upper Rappahannock between them. The
weather is favorable, the Union soldiers are
eager for battle, the country demands an i'm
mediate forward movement, aud expects that
the rebel army Of Virginia will, before the
lapse of many days, be beaten and routed and
that General Burnside will eat his Christmas
dinner in the city of Richmond


All the advantages Of prompt action are with
us; all the advantages of delay are with the
enemy General Lee has not recovered from
the damages which he suffered at South Noun
tain and Antietam. General Burnside has
twice the forces with which those vioto-
ries were won. The rebel troops are
still suffering severely for want of shoes
and clothing, and from scanty supplies
Of subsistence; the Union soldiers, comfortably
clad and we'll fed, are in the best condition of
health and vigor. The region Of country now
occupied by the rebels affords them no position
for defence which may not be readily turned but
If they are permitted, without battle, to return
to Richmond, their defeat and the occupation
of that city may involve another siege of Sc
bastopol. The financial condition Of the gov
ernment and the disordered state of the cur
rency of the country demand the relief which
only great and comprehensive victory in
the field can bring. Such a victory now,
as compared with suoh q victory next
spring, will be worth thousand millions
of money TO tho Union cause, and will
save us, perhaps, half o million of men. Nor
can we ignore in this connection the unsettled
and ominous position OF England and France.
Only heavy and crushing blow upon the main
army Of the rebellion, before the expiration of
tire present year, will secure us against the
threatened contingencies Of European interven-
ton.


Our land forces in the field can hardly fall
short of seven hundred thousand men. Our
naval forces are equal to another army Of three
III.
pletely encirclc the rebellion, and are steadily
gaining ground on every side. Every i'm
portant point that we have gained we continue
to hold; no position Of any consequence, once
recovered from the rebels, is now in their
hands. Since the battle Of Antietam, East and
West they have been expelled from region Of
hundred thousand square miles in extent,
which they had temporarily overrun. The
rebel army which advanced in view OF Ciucin-
nat. a few weeks ago has been repulsed TO the
borders Of Georgia, and that which had entered
Missouri. en- route for St Louis, has been driven
down hundred miles into Arkansas Best of
all, in every quarter and in every encounter,
the superiority Of the Union forces now in the
acld is fully established.


We only require, then, a decisive victory over
the rebel army Of Virginia to open the eyes of
the Southern people to their hopeless situation,
and to convince the world that the days
Of JEFF. Davis and his Southern con-
"becn weighed in the balance and found want
ing" The defeat Of the rebel army charged
with the defence Of Richmond will be the hand
writing upon the wall which it will require no
Daniel to interpret. With the loss of Richmond
the so-called Confederate government will
become beggarly vagrant and, once adrft,
its Confederate scrip will soon become worth
less even in South Carolina. Tho defeat of the
army of Lee secures Richmond, demolshes the
paper money system upon which the armies OF
tic rebellion are maintained releases the people
Of the South from their obligations to jeff
Davis, and will speedily convince them OF the
folly of further resistance. Not only 80, but
with the destruction Of the prestige OF Southern
invincibility in the field, which will follow a
great victory by Burnside, the people of The re-
beilious States, looking at the results of the
late Northern elections, will feel assured that
the only safety for them and their ~locai ins.itu
tions is in the ark oil the Union, and that there
under the guarantees of the. federal constitution
they will be perfectly secure.


Finally, the appointment OF General Burn
side is accepted by the country as involving the
promise Of an immediate settlement with the
rebel army of Virginia. II is believed, too,
that General Burnside is able and willing to ad-
vance at once, and that il delayed IL will be
from the same intermeddlins Msrplots who 10
frequently disarranged the plans and defeated
the skilful combinations Of Mcclellan. In a
word, the country expects that President Lin
coin will allow no nlischiefmaking politicians
again to retard the forward movement of the
Army Of the Potomac for Richmond, but that
every facility will be afforded TO General Burn
side to advance at once and bring this war to .
glorious conclusion.


IMPORTANT REMOvAL--Sam. Wilkssou, the
rr;or1s's correspondent, has been transferred
from Washington to Albany, in order TO lobby