Year: 1861

Leading French Journal on the


War.


President Lincoln has advanced in perfect good
faith, we have not the least doubt, in his last
message that the uprising of the South was but a
rebellion fomented by the ambition of handful
of agtatOrs If it were so, if in fact the mass of
the white population Of the South were Indifferent
10 the independence of the Confederate States, a
few reverses on the field of battle added to the
enormous losses which such a war occasions,
would suffice to provoke in the Soutf a reaction
on the heels of which peace would be nndoubted-
ly made. But whatever confidence we NAV have
in the loyalty of President Lincoln, we find il i'm
possible to consider his assertion as well founded.
Doubles the armed rising of the South has been
aided and encouraged by leaders; but tbs never
otherwise in any undertakings to which nations
commit themselves. And what the leaders, whom
Mr.. Lincoln eliminates, have done in this instance
corresponds exactly with the public sentiment,
with the opinions and passions of the immense
majority of the inhabitants of that portion of the
United States. All the private letters received
in Europe depict the South as having but one
thOught-that of separation, and as desiring it
with feverish energy, which cannot bear discus
sion. Those letters assert the determ
nation everywhere in the South to maintain at
every cost the rupture which has separated those
States from their former brethren of the North
a
mination, however deplorable they may be-


The correspondence from the North is not less
significant than that from the South, in the sense
that the reveals, among the people ofthe North,
a sentiment which explains, and, 10 a certain ex-
tent, gives ground for and justes by reaction the
determination of the South. All the letters from
the North bear witness to the wish, in that por-
tcn of the Union, to treat the Southern States as
Mr.. Lincoln intends, that is to say as rebels, who
must be forced to surrender at discretion. They
wish to subjugate them, intending, doubt, TO
show themselves clement after they shall have
submitted. But every one who knows the Amer
lean race, and who has had opportunity of OBJ
serving it, at the South especially, will agree that
nothing more is needed to exasperate the South
and drive il so extremes. The South may be
vanquished on the battle fed it has just been
(alludlng to Garnett's defeat); it will be again;
we-would not wish, however, to guarantee that it
will not have its turn. But vanquishei though it
it may be, it will never submit to the North; it
will accept no mercy from it. The capitals of
Virginia and South Carolina may fall to morrow
into the hands of the North, and be garrsoned
by militia from New York and Boston; the South
will Lot be put down for all that When a proud
and energetic nation has taken a determination to
be Independent there is no way to make it bow its
head, unless recourse be had to those atrocious
systematised seventies which eastern despots have
successfully employed towards populations with
out moral force, but which civilized Governments
repudiate, and to which the Washington Govern
nent will never seriously appeal. - Hence
it is that the question, stated it has been BY
President Lincoln, is incapable of solution.


A comparison is then drawn between the pres
ent cause OF quarrel and conduct of both Sec
tions, and the events which drove the thirteen
colonies into revolution. The writer then con
tinues:


After three or four years of hotitities it is
probable it will have to end by the recognition of
the independence of the South. Only there will
have been slain some $50 or 100000 men: desc
lation will be sown broadcast. the impoverished
contributors will be overwhelmed with taxes; the
North will be indebted several hundreds of mil
lions and an abyss of hatred will be dug between
the two sections of the former Union


l repeat that the situations have just compar
ed are not precisely alike The North has not
yet given the South the legitimate subjects of COM
plant which the colonies had in l774 against their
mistress But that difference matters little, from
the moment the passion for independence took
possession of the South. A little after
the 4th of July, l776, the United States found a
powerful ally in the Cabinet of Versailles. and it
may be asserted that without that auxiliary their
attempt at independence, however determined it
may have been on their part would have miscar
ried. Furthermore, who can say that
if the present contest is much prolonged the South
would not find, likewise, some powerful ally among
the great European States?


Does any one believe that the states
men who govern England would be content to
recognize, for an indefinite period, the blockade
established by the North at Southern ports,
through which cotton flows toward the European
markets; blockade which is one of the principal
features of the system of warfare adopted against
the South2 1t may be doubted that they would
respect it long, even though the condition Of ef-
fectiveness were perfectly fulfilled. The more
effective it will be the less Great Britain will bear
it, for it would infallably cut off the means of
supply from the most important Of her Industrial
branches, that which gives her exports value of
more than billion of francs We shall see it in
four or five months, when the stock of cotton at
present stored in the warehouses of England will
draw near exhaustion. Now, then, if England
declared to the Washington Government that she
ceased to recognize the blockade of the Southern
ports, and if-which would be the only means of
giving force to the decaration-she were TO add,
that if the North did not raise theblockade of its
own accord, she would send feet to put an end
to it, what consequences would follow?


The article concludes with wishes for speedy
settlement and pacifcation.l