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(Previous
Page) "Democrat"—that every man who
counsels the surrender of the Government by making terms with citizens who are
trying to overthrow it is a " Democrat"—considering that there is no man, party,
or measure which is now or ever has been working in the interest of the
rebellion, and consequently for disunion, which is not " Democratic," we submit
that the Maine "Democracy" perpetrate a tragical joke when they solemnly resolve
that the "Democratic party," of which JEFFERSON Davis, FRANKLIN PIERCE, SLIDELL, VALLANDIGHAM, MASON, WIGFALL, and FERNANDO WOOD are accredited leaders, and
which excommunicates
BUTLER, STANTON, DICKINSON, LOGAN, and GRANT, is and ever
has been the true Union party of the country.
THE
"PEACE" APOSTLE AND
THE MAJOR-GENERALS.
WE had supposed that Mr.
VALLANDIGHAM was sent to Chicago by his political friends ; but he tells us at
Dayton : " I expect speedily, by the grace of God—and I ask no higher
authority—to be at Chicago." This effectually disposes of the authority of the
Convention that sent him. But would he kindly inform an inquiring public, in
case he had been dissatisfied with the authority he asserts, to what " higher
authority" he would have appealed ?
In the midst of his speech the
worthy orator paused to ask this most puzzling question : " What shall I say, as
an honest man ?" What, indeed ! That question may be called, in the language of
the rude street boy, " a sockdologer."
But recovering toward the close
of his address, he proclaims his purpose " to remain forever ' God's noblest
work, an honest man.' " It is a most commendable resolution. The delegate who
holds his office as the old kings claimed to hold theirs, "by the grace of God,"
doubtless remembers what Othello says to Emilia of her husband Iago :
"An honest man he is, and hates
the slime That sticks on filthy deeds."
But being an honest man, why does
the immaculate orator proceed to asperse the honesty of the soldiers. "I do not
look for personal aggrandizement. If I did I should have been a Major-General
long ago, and had millions of money laid by as the spoils of any part in the
war." This is the plain assertion that the commission of a Major-General is the
result of a desire of personal aggrandizement, and that Major-Generals lay by "
spoils" to the amount of millions of dollars. Mr. VALLANDIGHAM should remember
that he is a "peace" man, and not a good authority upon soldiers ; who as they
read such words will be apt to exclaim, as he remembers Othello did, with a
peculiar emphasis, when his mind awakened to the truth, "Honest, honest Iago !"
TWO
NATIONS ON THE SOIL
OF ONE.
THE question is often asked
whether England did not declare in our Revolution, as we do in this rebellion,
that to yield to the demands of the colonial rebels would be to connive at the
humiliation of the Government ; and whether, after all, England was ruined by
the separation of the Colonies. This is another form of the favorite remark of
rebel sympathizers, that the secessionists are doing only what our fathers did.
The British Government was
unquestionably humiliated by the separation of the Colonies, and the English
have always borne us the grudge which they are now gratifying. But the
Government was not overthrown, simply because the Colonies were subjects of a
country three thousand miles off, and because the bond between them was not like
ours. In a word, the cases are not alike, because they are altogether different.
Thus, our fathers did not say that, because government justly exists by the
consent of the governed, therefore any number of people any where, at any time,
and under any circumstances, have the right to overthrow the Government by
force, with all the inevitable and melancholy consequences of war. They said
only that, when the consent of a people is permanently and injuriously
disregarded by the Government, and experience shows peaceful redress to be
hopeless, and the consequences of submission are more calamitous than war, then,
rehearsing their wrongs to mankind, and appealing to human sympathy and divine
justice, those people may forcibly overthrow that Government.
That is what the American
colonists did in 1776. Is that what the American rebels are doing in 1864 ?
The Government, so far as the
Colonies was concerned, was destroyed, but the consequences ended there. But if
the British monarchy had been a Union like ours, if the counties of Kent and
Sussex had been parts of the whole in the same way and by the same bond that the
colonies of Virginia and Massachusetts were, then the whole bond would have been
loosened. But even then it would not necessarily have plunged the island of
Great Britain into anarchy, for the revolted section of the empire was separated
from it by an ocean.
But if thirteen English counties
on the soil
of the island, separated from the
rest by no natural barriers of any kind whatever, had risen in insurrection, and
after a war of four years the British Government had asked them upon what terms
they would submit, or had agreed that they should form an independent power upon
the English soil, how long would the majesty and force of the British Government
last? Should we have heard the London Times complacently asserting that there
was plenty of room for two monarchies in England ; or would the London Times
perceive, what all the world would know, that the British monarchy was at an
end?
There are such things as nations
and a national life. There is an American nation and an American people, exactly
as there is an English or a French nation and people. And the American nation
proposes to continue its existence.
GENERAL SHERMAN AND HIS
SOLDIERS.
A PRIVATE soldier in the First
Illinois Artillery lately sent to
General SHERMAN a bridle and collar which he
had worked in camp, " as a slight token," he said, "of the high regard and
esteem which all the soldiers entertain toward you as our commander." The
General, with that hearty recognition of valor and character, which is ennobling
to every man and sure to endear him to others, in acknowledging the present,
says :
"I have always borne testimony to
the peculiar intelligence, good conduct, and gentlemanly deportment of the young
men who comprise your battery, and, when the war does close, if I survive it, I
will make it my study to give full honor and credit to the soldiers in the
ranks, who, though in humble capacity, have been the working hands by which the
nation's honor and manhood have been vindicated.
"As Battery A was one of the
first to fire a hostile shot in the war in the great valley of the Mississippi,
I hope it will be one of the last, and that its thunder tones will in due time
proclaim the peace resulting from a war we could not avoid, but which called all
true men from the fancied security of a long and deceitful peace."
The final sentence shows General
SHERMAN'S just appreciation of the nature of the war. The reader will observe
that he differs from Mr. DON CARLOS BUELL, late a Major-General in the United
States army.
"COMPROMISE WITH THE
SOUTH."
THE powerful picture of Mr.
NAST'S, which we print this week, shows at a glance the condition which
compromise presupposes. Those who urge it represent the friends of the Union as
in the condition of the Northern soldier in the picture, utterly defeated,
crippled, and crushed ; while by letters in their papers and by the mouths of
their orators they depict the Rebellion as rather more stalwart, vigorous, and
victorious than ever. And again, when compromise shall come, the consequence to
the North will be the total prostration represented in the picture. For
compromise with armed rebellion is abject submission.
When the free and independent
citizens of the United States are completely overwhelmed and conquered, like the
Union soldier in this picture, as Copperheads now believe them to be—when they
are ready to send back into slavery the brave black boys who have fought for
their
flag—when they forget the massacres of
Lawrence and
Fort Pillow, and the
burning of
Chambersburg, and the long, long story of the hanging and torture of
Southern Union men at home and of
Union prisoners in rebel hands—when the people
forget the meditated shot fired contemptuously at the
American flag, and the
thousands of true and brave men who have been slaughtered defending it—and when
they forget their betrayed and deluded fellow-citizens at the South forced into
the service of the rebellion, and are ready to renounce honor, self respect, and
all that makes man noble or a nation imperial—when they are a pack of cowards,
and no longer a sovereign people—then, and not until then, will they make the
picture true, and agree to relinquish by compromise the authority of the
Government their fathers founded, and the Union for which their sons and
brothers have died.
LITERARY.
" OUR Burden and our Strength"
(from the steam presses of the Daily Times, Troy, New York), by DAVID A. WELLS,
A.M., one of the highest statistical authorities in the country, is, as the
subtitle of his most timely and valuable pamphlet asserts, a comprehensive and
popular examination of the debt and resources of our country, present and
prospective. The importance and clearness of Mr. WELLS'S statement are already
so well appreciated that its substance has been issued as a "broadside" by the
New England Loyal Publication Society, and a cheap popular edition will be
published under equally loyal auspices in New York ; while the newspapers have
not failed to appreciate it, so that we may confidently expect every voter in
the land to understand that a large debt is not for this country necessarily
ruinous. The title of the pamphlet explains its purpose. It must be seen by all
who care to know the truth ; and we can assure our friends that Mr. WELLS is
justified in saying, is he does at the end: "Enough of statistics (which no
partisan zeal can wrest from their true meaning) have been given to satisfy our
readers that the country can not be destroyed or even crippled by any probable
future debt ; and to induce every loyal man, as he reflects upon our resources
as a nation, to 'thank God, and take courage. ' "
" The Destiny of our Country" (A.
D. F. RANDOLPH, New York) is the title of Judge CHARLES P. KIRKLAND'S address
originally prepared for the alumni of Hamilton College, and now enlarged for
publication. It is an ample and
accurate statement of the origin, course, and probable consequences of the war,
made with judicial calmness and patriotic earnestness. The cause of the
rebellion the Judge finds in the aristocratic ambition of a certain class in the
Southern States ; an ambition nurtured by the social and industrial system of
the South—that is, Slavery—and essentially at war with the spirit and natural
development of our popular republican government. The right of Nullification and
the Slavery agitation he considers, with General JACKSON, to be mere pretenses
for insurrection. The real object sought is the salvation of the aristocracy, to
which a slave system is essential. Although an opponent of the present
Administration at the time of its election, Judge KIRKLAND justifies its
official conduct upon the highest patriotic ground. He evidently does not love
the word abolitionist, although he thinks slavery is doomed by the war. But he
is too good a scholar not to know that the one thing that is never harmless
until it is stone dead is the exclusive principle in human affairs. The fathers
in the Constitutional Convention of 1787 thought that slavery was dead. But
eighty years afterward it is still lustily kicking. While it lasts war, open or
hidden, will last in this country.
"The Gospel of Peace," Part 3,
has been published for a few weeks, but, as usual, has received little attention
from the press. It is remarkable that the most popular brochure of the war
should have made its way into universal recognition without newspaper assistance
of any kind. Nor is it less remarkable that a literary secret of the kind should
have been so long and faithfully kept. A great many persons are sure that they
know the author, but their assertions are still inquisitive. Whoever he may be,
he may congratulate himself that he has reached and enlightened many a mind that
would otherwise have been ignorant, indifferent, or confused in the great
struggle. The broad humor, the felicitous allusion, the trenchant truth telling,
and the familiarity with all the curvatures of the New York " ring" are as
striking in this part as in the others.
"Not Dead Yet" is the last novel
of J. C. JEAFFRESON (HARPERS), whose name is already known among the most
popular of current novelists. It is a story which begins " not far away in the
past" —emphatically it is a tale of today. It is a story of love and crime, told
with that peculiar intensity of style which characterizes the author, and
winding up, as all well regulated novels should, with the passing away of the "
subtle, selfish, clever, false Rupert," and the happy marriage bells of " Kitty
and Nat," of " Edward and Flo'."
The HARPERS publish "Willson's
Larger Speller," one of their School and Family series. The peculiar value of
Mr. WILLSON'S school-books is already widely acknowledged, and every parent or
teacher who can speak of them from experience speak most highly of their simple
and comprehensive method. Primers, reading books, and spellers, they make the
painful path as pleasant as it can be made without shirking the inevitable
difficulties or helping the child to shirk.
DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE.
THE
MILITARY SITUATION.
GENERAL GRANT evidently does not
intend to leave
Sheridan,
Farragut, and
Sherman unsupported. He will not allow
General Lee to dispose of the rebel army in
Virginia at his own option entirely;
if the latter chooses to send reinforcements to Maury, or Hood, or Early, the
last few days' operations north of the James and in the vicinity of the Weldon
Road will certainly teach him that he can not deplete his army with impunity. In
last week's record we gave the details of the engagement near Dutch Gap, August
14. After the battle the Confederates took up a stronger position further back.
On the 18th our line extended from Curl's Neck on the James to White Oak Swamp.
While the rebel line was drawn out thus extensively to confront our right, other
operations were undertaken south of Petersburg with a view of gaining possession
of the Weldon Road. At 4 o'clock on the morning of the 18th the Fifth Corps,
which had been for some days held in reserve, started for Reams Station with
four days' rations. The event proved a surprise to the enemy, who gave way,
leaving the Fifth in possession. This was at 7 A.M. Four or five hours were
spent in tearing up the track, when the enemy made his appearance marching down
the railroad. The Second Division held the road, supported by the Third and
Fourth on the right, and on the left by the First. The rebel force, a portion of
Hill's Corps, after a fight of two hours, was repulsed. The next day the rebels
attacked again, and succeeded in breaking between the Fifth Corps and another,
said to be a portion of the Sixth, which had come up to its support. About 1500
of the Fifth Corps are reported to have been taken prisoners. The general
assault, however, failed, and the road was still held by the Federal troops, the
Ninth Corps having come up in time to regain all the ground which had been lost.
On Sunday, the 21st, the rebels attacked again, and were again repulsed with
great loss in killed and wounded, besides 500 captured. Grant still holds the
road. The Second Corps recrossed the James Saturday night.
In the Valley Early has been
quite heavily reinforced by
General Longstreet, and has taken a strong position
south of Strasburg. This, together with a partial defeat at Berryville on the
14th, in which Sheridan's wagontrain was as completely destroyed as to embarrass
his operations, has led the latter to fall back upon
Winchester. The details of
Sheridan's movement down the Valley are as follows : On the 8th August Sheridan
assumed command, his force consisting of the Sixth, Eighth, and Nineteenth
Corps, together with Crook's, Averill's, and Kelly's commands. On the 9th he
started in pursuit of the rebels, who had two days before been beaten by Averill
and Kelly. On the 10th Early's rear was overtaken ten miles north of Winchester,
and a slight engagement followed with trifling results. The pursuit was
continued to Strasburg. On the 14th Mosby attacked Sheridan's rear at
Berryville, and owing to the weakness of the force dispatched against him,
gained an important success. Two days later Early was reinforced through
Thoroughfare Gap. On Sunday, the 21st, Sheridan was attacked near Charlestown,
in the Valley. Charlestown is on the line of railroad from Winchester to
Harper's Ferry, and six or seven miles southwest of the latter. Sheridan's line
in the morning had its front at Summit Point, Its left stretching out toward
Berryville, and its right across the
Martinsburg Pike. At 8 o'clock A.M.,
General Wilson's
cavalry holding the advance at Summit Point, was attacked and
forced back to Charlestown. Mackintosh's brigade lost 300 men. A feint attack
was then made on the Federal left, held by the Nineteenth Corps, but the main
assault fell on the Sixth, which held the right. There was a severe battle, and
in regard to the result we only know that Sheridan fell back two or three miles
on the railroad, to the heights about
Halltown.
Turning to the West we find no
material alteration in the position held by Sherman's army.
On the 14th of August the rebel
General Wheeler advanced with a force estimated at between two and five thousand
men against Dalton, which was defended by Colonel Seibold with four hundred men.
General Wheeler demanded the surrender of the place in the following terms: " To
prevent the effusion of blood, I have the honor to demand the immediate and
unconditional surrender of the forces under your command at this garrison." To
which Colonel Seibold replied: " I have been placed here to defend the post, but
not to surrender it." An attack was then made by the enemy, but Seibold
succeeded in holding his position until the arrival of General Stedman with
reinforcements from
Chattanooga on the 15th ; the rebels were then forced to
retreat.
The information in regard to the
raids made by Sherman's cavalry under M'Cook and
Stoneman on the Macon road is
yet very unsatisfactory. Stoneman passed around Sherman's left near Stone
Mountain and M'Cook around his right. From Stoneman nothing has been heard.
M'Cook accomplished his purpose against the road, but when near the
Chattahoochee on his return he found himself nearly surrounded by the enemy.
M'Cook's force consisted of his own Division, the First Brigade containing the
Fourth Kentucky, First East Tennessee, and Eighth Iowa, commanded by Colonel
Croxton, and the Second Brigade, containing the First Wisconsin, Second Indiana,
and Fourth Indiana, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Terry. Four regiments, the
Eighth Indiana, Second Kentucky, Fourth Tennessee, and Fifth Iowa, which
participated in Rousseau's raid, went along as a reserve. The Ninth Ohio, also
one of Rousseau's raiding regiments, was to be left to guard the pontoon across
the Chattahoochee, where the raiding party crossed, also four pieces of Lilly's
Indiana Battery. The other two pieces accompanied the raiders—the only artillery
along. One ambulance to each regiment was allowed, and a few
pack mules.
The entire column was not over
2500 strong, many of every regiment being left behind. Picked men and picked
horses were only admitted to the expedition, though, eventually, some of the
former were left on account of an :ability to mount them properly. Some of the
regiments were armed throughout with the Spencer rifle, the most formidable and
effective repeating arm known.
The expedition started on the
27th, crossing the Chattahoochee to the north side, several miles below the
railroad bridge, and marched down the river to Turner's Ferry, ten miles below
Campbellstown. Here M'Cook crossed the river, and leaving the Ninth Ohio Cavalry
with four guns to guard his pontoon bridge, moved eastward to Palmetto station
on the railroad from
Atlanta to West Point. Palmetto station is twenty-five
miles from Atlanta. The road was torn up for five miles, and the depot building,
full of commissary stores, was burned. Moving on, the night of the 29th, the
command, after a march of nine miles through a drenching rain, came upon the
skirts of Fayetteville, and upon a train of rebel wagons. Themselves taken for
rebels, they easily surprised and captured the train of nearly a thousand
wagons, containing all the baggage of the rebel army at Atlanta. Then
Fayetteville (forty miles south of Atlanta) was occupied. At nine A.M., on the
30th, M'Cook struck the Macon road three miles south of Fayetteville; a depot
was burned and six miles of the road destroyed. At two P.M. the column began its
return march, passing through Newman toward the fords of the Chattahoochee. At
night, before recrossing Whitewater Creek northward, a heavy force of rebel
cavalry attacked M'Cook's rear under Harrison, driving the latter. Harrison was
then supported by the Second and Fourth Indiana, and the enemy was repulsed. The
command then halted for the night, and the next morning reached Newman, forty
miles from Atlanta, and twelve from the Chattahoochee on the West Point road.
Here M'Cook encountered a heavy force of rebel infantry. He fell back and
crossed the road 2 1/2 miles below Newman. Shortly afterward the
advance-guard—the Fourth Indiana and Second Kentucky—were cut off from the main
body and had to fight their way out. Not more than half succeeded in reaching
Atlanta. On August 3 General M'Cook returned with 1200 men. His loss in killed,
wounded, and missing can not have been less than 1000. It was intended that
M'Cook's and Stoneman's commands should effect a junction on the Macon road.
Stoneman appears to have met with a determined opposition. Savannah papers
announce his arrival with 500 men as prisoners of war at Macon, Georgia.
General Kilpatrick has just
returned from a raid on the Macon Road. The details of the expedition are not
yet given; it is only known that about a dozen miles of the road have been
injured, and that the command has returned uninjured.
From Mobile there is no important
intelligence later than that given in last week's record. On pages 568 and 569
we illustrate Admiral Farragut's entrance to Mobile Bay, August 5, giving the
disposition of the Federal and Confederate fleets and the situation of the forts
and obstructions. At the mouth of the Bay is Dauphin Island, separated from the
main land on either side by a strait. It is impossible for a fleet to navigate
the western channel, which has only five feet of water. Forts Morgan and Gaines
command the eastern channel--Morgan four miles from the island, Gaines upon it.
Fort Powell is a mile above Gaines on the island. The only part of the channel
free from obstructions and torpedoes was about 1500 yards in front of Fort
Morgan. It was through this gateway that Farragut, steaming up so close to the
fort as to command its guns, effected his entrance on the morning of the 5th,,
breakfasting inside the Bay as he told his men he should.
While Farragut was passing the
forts Gaines was invested by General Granger by land. After taking Gaines and
Powell Farragut and Granger entered upon their operations against Fort Morgan, a
formidable fort with a garrison of 1000 men.
ITEMS.
Generals Hovey and Hughes lately
encountered the rebel Colonel Adam Johnson's forces at Morganfield, Kentucky,
and completely routed them, capturing nineteen prisoners and recapturing a large
amount of Government property which had been taken by these guerrillas.
The guerrilla Woodward died at
Hopkinsville, Tennessee, August 19. His command is scattered in all directions.
The faculty and trustees of
Williams College at its last commencement conferred upon General
Benjamin F.
Butler the title of Doctor of Laws. This honor from a Massachusetts college to
one of the most distinguished and patriotic of Massachusetts citizens will
certainly appear to no one inappropriate or unmerited.
FOREIGN NEWS.
EUROPE.
ALL the occasions which a few
months since suggested an extensive European war seen now to have disappeared.
The Polish insurrection has been quelled ; France has been allowed in peace to
take possession of Mexico; and the Dano-German difficulties have been definitely
settled.
The preliminaries of peace agreed
upon between Denmark and the German Allies are the following:
King Christian relinquishes his
rights over Schleswig Holstein and Lauenburg, agreeing to whatever disposition
Austria and Russia may make of those provinces; with Schleswig are surrendered
all the islands belonging to that Duchy. Denmark also cedes the Jutland
possessions south of the District of Ribe, for which Denmark receives an
equivalent portion of Schleswig.
The debts contracted on account
of Denmark proper, or the Duchies, will be borne respectively by either of them.
The debts contracted on account of the monarchy will be proportionately divided
between Denmark proper and the Duchies, with the exception of the loan
contracted in England in 1863, which will be paid by Denmark, and the war
expenses of the great German Powers, which will be borne by the Duchies.
Both parties agree to an
armistice until September 15, contributions no longer being levied on Jutland.
The two armies to remain as at present until the treaty is concluded.
Prisoners of war are to be set at
liberty on giving their paroles.
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