Year: 1864

What have we been fighting for? Too long have
they been deluded, but now they are throwing off
the shacklcs which bound them to the Confedcr-
acy, and are seeking liberty.-Erehange.


We have often heard it said that the reb-
els are on their last legs, though people begin
to think they are exceedingly long legs We
have heard it dinned into our ears every day
for nearly three years that the rebels wers
starving actually starving; and of all the
lies this one is repeated and stuck to with
the most singular pertinacity. We have
been told, too, that they were out of cloth
ing. Two years ago they were all ha,less
and bootless. They were out at the elbows,
out at the knees, out at the toes, out esei
where; and if this was so them what hor-
rible condition they must be in now, after
two years more of wear and tear The old
tig leaf costume, or the Arkansas wardrobe,
consisting of a shirt collar and pair of
spurs, must have come in vogue. Ia addil
ton to all this we are informed by an up
country exchange, in the language Of the
above extract, that "the scales are beginning
to fall from their eyes" They have not only
lost all their clothes, but are going through
the operation of being scaled! What the
next process will be we are not informed
but presume it will be broiling them over
the Goals, preparatory to a grand Abolition
feast. We would like to have some of our
truthful ''oyal" papers inform US about how
many people at the South have starved since
the war commenced Perhaps the appeal
can cypher it out. The telegraph has told
US at least three hundred and sixty five times
year that the rebels were starving. Such
a continued state Of starvation must have
carried off at least one-half of the popula
ton; and if so, we may set down the deaths
from that cause at five millions. A friend of
ours, who has endeavored to keep an account,
according to the telegraph, of the number of
Confederate soldiers that have been killed.
wounded and taken prisoners thus far, makes
it between one and two millions. Again the
loyal telegraph tells us that the rebel armies
are entirely demoralized AS they com
menced getting demoraized two or three
years. ago, and have continued ever since get.
ting more so, they must indeed be fearfuly
demoralized, and the only wonder is that
they do not turn cannibal and devour each
other. Then they are desertng by hundreds
and thousands. Every day we hear of squads
of rebel soldiers in Tennessee, North Caro-
lima, Virginia, and even South Carolina
that "hot-bed of secession who al fleeing
to the Federal lines. The only way Jeff can
keep an army together is by compelling one
portion of it to watch over the other portion;
though if he could contrve soma way to
glue the scales to their eyes so that they
would not fall off, he might get along better.
From the amount of noise made over de,
frn,, 4 81, l. - u
that not less than one million of men have
abandoned the rebel cause and joined the
Union service. Putting all these various
losses together, population must be getting
scarce down South, and we should begin to
think the rebellion was about crushed out
were it not for one singular fact. Every
time that battle or a skirmish takes place
the reliable telegraph informs us that, all
though our loss is tr1ng and the slaughter
among the rebels terrible, their forces far
exceed ours, being usually doubl, the mum.
ber. How these rascally rebels, decmated
by losses in battle, by starvation and deser-
ton, manage to always confront US at every
point with an army of superior numbers sur
passes our understanding, and we turn the
problem over to the consideration of the
loyal press. The Southerners must multiply
and replenish the earth with great rapidity.
Mythology teaches that in the oden time
from dragons teeth planted sprang armed
men. The Southerners having abandoned
the cultivation of cotton, have probably
turned their attention to planting dragons
teeth. Seriously, we ask if there is anything
gained by this miserable, systematic decepl
tion9 Are the American people so destitute
of reason, so blinded by passion that they
cannot, will not see that every channel
through which we derive information regard
ing military operations is one in which false
hoods fly with lightning speed, while truth
worth fig that state of starvation or want
to any great extent exists in the South, or
that either the people or the soldiers are de
serting the cause in which they are engaged.
On the contrary, there is every indication
that they are preparing to put forth efforts
greater than ever before on the opening of
the Spring campaign. The call of the Ad-
ministration for five hundred thousand more
men of itself refutes all these idle tales of
demoraized, starving, ragged, deserting,
crushed out rebellion. When Abraham Lin
coin was elected President on Abolition
principles, dragons teeth we're sown in the
soil of America, and crop of armed men
spraug up that neither three or three hun
dred years Of war, waged though it be upon
scale of magnitude without parallel, can
subdue. They might have been, and per
chance may yet be, won back to the Union
by an assurance, ample and unmistakable
that the old Government as made by our
fathers shall be restored and the rights of the
people in their local governments respected.
But the Administration propose nothing OF
the sort. The sooner this systematic lying
is abandoned, and the full magnitude of the
contest in which we are engaged is under
stood by the people, the sooner will the>war
come to an end.


E..s.>S.L ira.aalal lai ial,,