Year: 1862

street, it stirs gently in its cradle, and it is
swathed in unconvertible rags. No one yet dares
to own it openly. The thousands of vultures
who are living upon their prey would scream
horribly, and attack with beaks and claws any
one who should, without adequate power, inter
fere with their banquet; but still the phrase is
heard, and it is growing into more potent voice
-" Ia some way or other this war must be set
tied"


Wait awhile; wait Just ninety days. and the
rebellion will be crushed" is still the cry; as it
has been for three ninety days, the cry of the
contractors the government officials, the fanatics,
and all who find power or profit or distinction in
this civil wal The merchants and bankers and
trading classes have waited, and what do they
see 2 They see the Atlantic cities whitening from
hour to hour; they see the ware houses empty,
the larger dwelling houses untenanted, property
vslUeess, and trade dying. They see wastetul
and corrupt expenditure of half million sterl-
ing every day, and no results except an accele-
rated pace towards national insolvency and gen
eral ruin. Still they are told to wait another
ninety days a d all will be well


1t may be well for those smart individuals,
who will have gathered all they can hope to
gain, have realized their plunder, and lodged it
where waste paper is not legal tender. But
will it be well with the owners of house property
in the East, who are now letting their stores
rentfree to any one who will pay the rates


VIII it be well with the poor aud thrifty pro
ducers of the West, who are condemned by the


terms of the Constitution to be taxed in ratio
pTopOrtioned to population, and not to property


Will it be well with the holders of State bonds,
which were hitherto holding a respectable po-
sition as securities, but must now be Overlald by


the mountain of national debtl VIII it be well,
either, with the holders of the Federal State Sc
fbgy of IN
will look aroun5 in vain for some sources whence


their claims may be met, and will wake to the


reality that their property is but the deusiOn of
dream This is all that those who wait will
ever see. The very joy and exultatiOn which


the successes" of the last few weeks have
caused in the North show how little the promo
teIs of this war really expect that absolute con-
quest which they promise.


The capture of an earthwork on the Tennes-
see river, even if it be followed by the capture of
the stronger neighboring fort upon the river
Constantine, is only one of the first of a long
series of military preparations for a campaign in


Kentucky and Tennessee. If the invaders
should obtain this success its use will only be to
enable them 10 aid the army which has advanced


through Kentucky, aud to keep it in working
order for operating on a theaer 500 miles distant
from the opposing armies on the Potomac A
year of successes would give them military pos
session Of two States which were never among
the most jealous in the southern cause. As to
the descents upon the coast, they are annoy
ances rather than wounds. They are but like


the burning darts which the Spaaiud thrusts


into the hauks of a sluggish bull to sting him


from his defensive posture A hundred such


victories and such iniOads as these tell nothing


toward the conquest of country half as large


as Europe, if that country be really in earnest


in its own defense. The Southern States before


they revolted must have expected all this, and


much more. We have always in Europe given


the North credit for first successes very greatly


superior to these, and have reckOned that their


real difficulties would only commence when they


had mastered the great stategic points through
out the South. At the rate at which the war


is noN proceeding it will take, not ninety DAYS


but ninety years to " crush this rebellion;' = and


the respective grandsOns of General Mcclellan
and General Beauregard may at last fight out the


battle for Manassas.


Wall street" begins to see all this more
clesrly. 1t was worth costly experiment to
retain that rich southern business, aud New York
will be haId put TO it either to win it back or to
do without it. But the capitalists have now
come to the conclusion that the game is up, and
that the experiment is passing out of their
hands The suggestion to raise $3.50 100000
yearly, by direct taxation, does not deceive
them. They know very well that, even if the
sovereign people would submit to endure a tax
alton as heavy as that of England, America
could not continuously raise more than fl0,000,-
600 sterling annually. The rough calculation has
always been that in capacity Of taxation the pro-
portion between the two countries is that Amer
lean dollars are equal to English pounds sterling.
If we raise $50, 100000, exclusive of our Gus
TOMS America probably could, if she pleased,
raise $50 100000 or EI0,000,000. Such pos
sible revenue, even if it were not based up
on the wild improbabiity that the Western
States will consent to pay any such taxes, would
be a very poor security for half the debt which
has already accrued. In this state of things the
commercial adage, " the first loss is the best," d"
comes into play, and the capitalists Of New
York are now watching for the FIRST opportunity
when it may be safe to say openly, " This war
must be settled somehow"


This ''tirst lOss'' is indeed bad enough. There
are all the profits of the southern agencies gone.
fl. vs.ffess- al drained by q disastrous loan
of many millions. Having suspended specie
payments, of course they cannot borrow any
money fem abroad, and they have a govern
ment so recklessly manufacturing paper money
that there is no hope OF keeping up for any
length Of time the delusiOn that It is of value
Sill there would be sou.e hope if they could
stop where they now are. Peace Right restore
to them some trade relations with the South, and
while the more indolent sOutherners have wealth
the sharp nOrtheIner may always hope that he
will get some Of it. How the fTighttul current
expenditure can be stopped, or how the war eau
be settled 1t is, perhaps, premature to speculate
Nor do We venture to calculate that the power of
capital is Immediately felt as decisive on such
question. America has such impeTishable ad-
vantages in her great unbrOken wastes OF fertile
soil, that no mere financial difficulties can
strangle her. She may borrow and Tepudiate
over and over again, aud ruin every capitalist
she has, and yet rise again and thrive. But at
such a crisis as this, the interests of mOneyed
men are likely to be of great influence upon
events. We are much misnfOrmed if the Opin-
ion of the commercial body in the great cities of
Federal America has not recently veered round
and II there be not, all up and down Wall street.
a general disgust and antpathy to that ninety
days bill, and unanimous resolution to protest
Ii when 1t next comes TO maturity.


alludes.


ANOTHER ATTACK ON GEN. MCCLELLAN.
The Washington correspondent of the New
York Tribune, of the 10th, is awfully severe on
Mcclellan. He says:


The grand army of the Potomac, after drill
ng and trimming, and parading, aud review
ng, for seven months, under its msjor-general
goes down to Aqua, and up to
Leesburg, and out to Manassas, aud find desert
ID mud banks and score or so of spiked guns
80 much for strategy" So much for the COM
'rehensive "plans" of George B. Mcclellan !
20 much for the terrible anaconda which was |
o crush rebellion in its folds How long the |
oe has been gone, nobody can conjecture But |
or the fact that the President and Secretary of /
Var fairly drove him into a movement, on pain |
f wrestling from him his baton, it is doubtful |
7hetheT Mcclellan would have discovered the
bsence Of the enemy till midsummer.


LATEST FROM COLUMBIA, TENNESSEE The
huntsville Democrat says:


A gentleman residing in Columbia, reached
ere last evening, from that place. and reports
le enemy ten to thirty thousand strong across
luck river from Columbia. They were rebuild
e the bridge, which would occupy two weeks
hey bought nails crOwbars, etc, in Columbia
ad it is said, offered Confederate notes in pay
ent which were refused Another account-is,
lat the Yankees are buying up Confederate
1tes at a heavy discount with gold, and paying
T provender, etc, with themS but gold is so