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SHERMAN in the field and LINCOLN at the polls
is the aim of all their efforts. Then they say that the way is clear " to
commence negotiations for peace." Will negotiations for which our military
disasters and the overthrow of an Administration pledged to maintain the
Government pave the way be likely to end in an honorable or permanent peace ?"
Granting that the Chicago
Convention was an assembly of the purest patriots—that mere party success was
scouted by them—that they were inspired by the most holy horror of corruption in
every shape, from swindling your partner in business up to stealing
Indian funds in the War Department—yet considering that the rebels
show so morbid an anxiety for the success of the Chicago candidate, may not
every loyal hearted citizen who wishes the rebellion subdued and the Union
unconditionally maintained; properly ask whether the way to secure these results
is to vote the ticket which the rebels recommend?
THE CHICAGO CONVENTION.
THE Platform of the Chicago
Convention will satisfy every foreign and domestic enemy of American Union and
Liberty. It declares that the Government of the United States is guilty of
resisting rebellion, and that the American people can not maintain the authority
of their laws. It has no word of righteous wrath against the recreant citizens
who have plunged the country in the blood of civil war, but lavishes its fury
upon the constituted authorities which have steadily defended the Union. It has
no censure for any act of rebellion, but the war measures taken by the
Administration, under the authority of the Constitution, are branded as
tyrannical and despotic. There is not a word in it that can cheer any soldier or
sailor fighting for his country ; not a syllable that stirs the blood of a
patriot. It is craven, abject, humiliating. It confesses the defeat of the Union
cause, and covertly implores the mercy of JEFFERSON DAVIS and his crew.
And this at a moment when stout
old
FARRAGUT is thundering at
Mobile ; when the inexorable
GRANT clutches at the Weldon Road, which, as an
officer in his army writes, is " like touching the cubs of a tigress ;" when
EARLY'S Shenandoah invasion is too late for success; when
SHERMAN is closing around
Atlanta ; when State
after State is supplying its quota of fresh soldiers ; when gold steadily
declines ; when a universal public confidence is awakening ; and when the rebels
are plainly, palpably struggling to hold out only long enough to see if the
election, by the elevation of the Chicago candidate, will not turn to their
advantage.
Never again will this nation have
a fairer chance of maintaining its constitutional authority than it has now. For
three years it has, at every disadvantage, battled against this formidable
conspiracy, and never was the conspiracy in so desperate a strait. The country
has it by the throat. A little more force, a closer pressure, and the monster
falls strangled, dead forever. A little less force, a relaxed hold, a wavering
purpose, and the scaly folds of rebellion thrill with hope to the extremity ; it
renews its strength, it recruits its venom, and darts a deadlier blow at the
life of the country.
As the Chicago Platform declares
the war hopeless, its friends will of course wish to see its position confirmed.
Every victory of GRANT, of FARRAGUT, and of SHERMAN will therefore be unwelcome.
Every brave man who enlists will be grudged. The rise of prices will be hailed
with delight ; while universal disaster to our armies and navies, and the
victories of the rebel armies will be hailed with exultation as conclusive proof
of the " failure to restore the Union by the experiment of war." There is not an
English lord or European aristocrat, not a sneerer at popular government and
friend of despotism in the world, who will not applaud the Chicago Platform and
hope for the success of its candidate.
The political campaign is opened.
It will be short, sharp, and decisive, and the most momentous the country has
ever known. If
Mr. LINCOLN is re-elected the Union, the
authority of the Government, and the national honor will be maintained
unconditionally ; the rebellion, strained and baffled on every side, will be
suppressed; and the peace and prosperity of the country be permanently
re-established. If
General McCLELLAN is elected there will be an
attempt to negotiate, to compromise, to bargain with the rebels. In the effort
it is not the disputed point, it is the dignity and character of the Government
which will be compromised. A treacherous truce will be patched up and labeled
peace, and after staggering under its dishonor and disgrace for a miserable
while the country will plunge forward again into the flaming gulf of war.
The issue is simple and sublime.
It is the life or the degradation of the nation. It is to show that a Government
of the people is equal to every exigency—ready for taxation, ready for military
service, ready for endurance, ready for forbearance—that it is as strong as any
Government in the world, and stronger—that in war it is as powerful and resolute
and orderly as in peace it is industrious and prosperous. There seems to us but
one way in which this can be
shown, but one way in which utter
national humiliation can be avoided, and that is by the steady and strong hand
of war until the rebels confess the authority of the Government. That is the
policy which is personified in ABRAHAM LINCOLN and
ANDREW JOHNSON, and which we shall most strenuously support,
for it is the cause of the peace and happiness of the American people.
GENERAL SEYMOUR UPON THE
WAR.
WE hope our readers have not
failed to see General SEYMOUR'S letter to Mr. W. E. DODGE, Jun., and printed in
the daily papers. It is full of matter, and inspires the most loyal confidence.
The General, it will be remembered, was captured in the
Wilderness, and was
afterward taken to
Charleston, and could not be suspected of any peculiar
prejudice against the
rebels, for he had had no political sympathies against
them, and was—we believe unjustly—accused of injustice to
colored troops of his
command.
General SEYMOUR'S conviction
agrees with that of every judicious observer—that the rebel cause is approaching
exhaustion. This is apparent from various considerations, but from none more
strikingly than the universal and forcible conscription ordered by Governor
BROWN in Georgia. A letter from one rebel to another, which fell into the hands
of a fellow prisoner of the General's, confirms this view of the depletion of
the rebel cause. " The people are soul sick and heartily tired of this hateful,
hopeless strife....The men who, to aggrandize themselves, or to gratify their
own political ambition, brought this cruel war upon a peaceful and prosperous
country, will have to render a fearful account of their misdeeds to a wronged,
robbed, and outraged people."
To release this people of the
South who have been taught by false leaders that the people of the North are
their enemies, the sole want of the moment is men. Our armies are large and
brave, and skillfully commanded. They fight with indomitable courage, and in
this summer's campaign have driven the rebellion to bay. But, as General SEYMOUR
says, we ought to have four to one in the field, and an army of reserve now
would confirm the hold that the terrible GRANT has upon the rebellion, and
enable him to shake it speedily to death. The one hope of the rebels, he says, "
is the result of our next election for President. If a Democrat succeeds to Mr.
LINCOLN they profess to feel sure of negotiations, and sure of their
Confederacy. They believe a
Democrat will be elected. In Mr. LINCOLN'S
re-election they see only subjugation, annihilation, for the war must then
continue, and continuance is their failure and ruin. In military affairs it is
an excellent rule never to do what the enemy desires—is it not equally true in
politics ? Certain it is that the only remaining hope of the South lies in Mr.
LINCOLN'S defeat."
The whole letter is a manly
rebuke of the pusillanimity which sighs and sobs that we " can not conquer the
South." Of course we can't do it by whining that it is impossible. But, says
General SEYMOUR, " behind the James only boys and old men are to be seen, while
here men buy and sell as in the olden days of quiet, and regiments of able
bodied citizens crowd the street." With just and patriotic indignation the
soldier who has fought and suffered exclaims in conclusion—redeeming the name of
SEYMOUR in this war—" There are some who speak of peace ! Of all Yankees the
Southron most scorns those who do not fight, but are glad enough to employ them,
as they do their slaves, to perform their dirty work.
Peace for the South will
be sweet indeed ; for us, except through Southern subjugation, but anarchy and
war forever. The Pacific, the Western, the Eastern States would at once fall
asunder. The South would be dominant, and the people of the North would deserve
to be driven afield under negro overseers, to hoe corn and cotton for Southern
masters."
DOCTORS DISAGREE.
The Richmond Examiner of August
22 says :
"General GRANT'S army may now be
considered as utterly and signally and finally defeated. Whether the moment is
come when the remnant of it is to be driven to its ships,
General LEE is the
best and sole judge. That measure, however, when he shall decide upon it, will
be a noble movement in the interest of peace."
The Richmond Enquirer of August
23 says:
GRANT'S plans on the Danville
Road are now revealed, and all the energy and gallantry of the army under LEE
and
BEAUREGARD will not be too much to beat back this bold movement to the south
of Petersburg."
DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE.
THE MILITARY SITUATION.
ON Wednesday, August 24, the
rebels disappeared from the front of the Fifth and Ninth Corps; and it was
inferred that Lee was contracting his lines. The Second Corps and the Tenth had
recrossed the James to the south side on Saturday night, the 20th; and the
former was sent to the support of the Fifth on the Weldon Road. On the 25th,
while the First and Second Divisions of the Second Corps were engaged in tearing
up the road, they were attacked by a portion of Hill's and
Longstreet's corps.
The battle occurred at Reams Station, the Second Division falling back to that
point in order to connect with the left of the First. The line was a crescent,
the right flank being nearly at right angles with the railroad, the centre a
little beyond and nearly parallel with it, and the left recrossing and receding
from it. It appears that the rebels, disappearing from Warren's front, had gone
around westwardly, with the intention of flanking the Federal force holding the
road. The enemy first assaulted in front, and then made two charges on the
extreme right, and were each time repulsed with severe loss. Then another charge
was made against the right; two regiments stationed outside of our works
wavered; the entire rebel force came on without firing until they reached our
works. They were mown down by our musketry ; still they pushed on. Some new
recruits on the right centre gave way, and the enemy gained an advantage,
compelling the two divisions to withdraw into the shelter of some woods,
where they again formed in line
and advanced against the rebels in their works, flanking them, and compelling
them to abandon the position. The attack had been made late in the afternoon,
and night now put an end to the conflict. The rebels, fearing that we would be
so strongly reinforced that they could not expect to hold their ground,
abandoned the field, leaving their dead and wounded. Our loss in this battle is
stated at about 2000, while that of the rebels is estimated at 5000. The length
of Grant's line may be estimated from the fact that Reams Station is twenty
miles to the left of Butler's head-quarters. Our forces still hold the Weldon
Road, and a railroad has been projected to connect City Point with General
Warren's Corps.
In the fight on Thursday we lost
nine guns. Captain Henry Sleeper, of the Tenth Massachusetts Cavalry, was
wounded. The Weldon Road had been destroyed for a distance of eleven or twelve
miles.
From Sherman there are no
detailed reports, and our only information is Secretary Stanton's dispatch
stating that that General's movements to place his army on the communications of
Hood's army have been successful. On the 21st of August the rebel
General
Forrest made a raid into
Memphis, Tennessee, probably for the purpose of
securing the persons of Generals Washburne and Hurlburt. The particulars are
given on page 588.
Early, it seems, has disappeared
from Sheridan's front ; but as the reabsorption of his force into Lee's army
would leave the Lynchburg Road open to our forces in the Valley, it is probable
that the rebel retreat was necessitated by the want of supplies. A portion of
this force will doubtless join Lee's army to assist in driving our forces off
from the Weldon Road, and this will prepare the way for Sheridan's advance
southward. The rebels are now at every point driven to a purely defensive
conduct of the war. This has not been true before since the war commenced, and
is a most encouraging sign that the war is speedily drawing to a close.
From Mobile we have the simple
announcement made in rebel journals that Fort Morgan is now in our possession.
THE CHICAGO CONVENTION.
The Chicago Convention met August
29, and Ex-Governor Bigler was appointed temporary President. A Committee of
delegates was chosen to report resolutions. The next day, upon the assembling of
the Convention,
Governor Seymour was elected its President, and the following
Platform was adopted with but four dissentient voices:
Resolved, That in the future, as
in the past, we will adhere with unswerving fidelity to the Union under the
Constitution as the only solid foundation of our strength, security, and
happiness as a people, and as a frame-work of government equally conducive to
the welfare and prosperity of all the States, both Northern and Southern.
Resolved, That this Convention
does explicitly declare, as the sense of the American people, that after four
years of failure to restore the Union by the experiment of war, during which,
under the pretense of a military necessity, or war power higher than the
Constitution, the Constitution itself has been disregarded in every part, and
public liberty and private right alike trodden down, and the material prosperity
of the country essentially impaired, justice, humanity, liberty, and the public
welfare demand' that immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities,
with a view to an ultimate Convention of all the States, or other peaceable
means, to the end that at the earliest practicable moment peace may be restored
on the basis of the Federal Union of the States.
Resolved, That the direct
interference of the military authority of the United States in the recent
elections held in Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, and Delaware, was a shameful
violation of the Constitution, and a repetition of such acts in the approaching
election will be held as revolutionary, and resisted with all the means and
power under our control.
Resolved, That the aim and object
of the Democratic party is to preserve the Federal Union and the rights of the
States unimpaired, and they hereby declare that they consider the Administrative
usurpation of extraordinary and dangerous powers not granted by the
Constitution, the subversion of the civil by military law in States not in
insurrection, the arbitrary military arrest, imprisonment, trial and sentence of
American citizens in States where civil law exists in full force, the
suppression of freedom of speech and of the press, the denial of the right of
asylum, the open and avowed disregard of State rights, the employment of unusual
test oaths, and the interference with and denial of the right of the people to
bear arms, as calculated to prevent a restoration of the Union and the
perpetuation of a Government deriving its just powers from the consent of the
governed.
Resolved, That the shameful
disregard of the Administration to its duty in respect to our fellow citizens,
who now and long have been prisoners of war in a suffering condition, deserves
the severest reprobation on the score alike of public and common humanity.
Resolved, That the sympathy of
the Democratic party is heartily and earnestly extended to the soldiery of our
army who are and have been in the field under the flag of our country, and in
the event of our attaining power they will receive all the care, protection,
regard, and kindness that the brave soldiers of the republic have no nobly
earned.
On Wednesday General
GEORGE B. McCLELLAN was elected as the Democratic candidate for President, receiving 162
votes.
INTERESTING ITEMS.
MR. CHARLES BABBAGE, in "Passages
from the Life of a Philosopher," tells the following anecdote: Once, at a large
dinner-party, Mr. Rogers was speaking of an inconvenience arising from the
custom, then commencing, of having windows formed of one large sheet of
plate-glass. He said that a short time ago he sat at dinner with his back to one
of these single panes of plate-glass : it appeared to him that the window was
wide open, and such was the force of imagination, that he actually caught cold.
It so happened that I was sitting just opposite to the poet. Hearing this
remark, I immediately said, " Dear me, how odd it is, Mr. Rogers, that you and I
should make such a very different use of the faculty of imagination. When I go
to the house of a friend in the country, and unexpectedly remain for the night,
having no night-cap, I should naturally catch cold. But by tying a bit of
pack-thread tightly round my head, I go to sleep imagining that I have a
night-cap on ; consequently I catch no cold at all." This sally produced much
amusement in all around, who supposed I had improvised it ; hut odd as it may
appear, it is a practice I have often resorted to. Mr. Rogers, who knew full
well the respect and regard I had for him, saw at once that I was relating a
simple fact, and joined cordially in time merriment it excited.
ABOUT ten months ago two
gentlemen of San Francisco laid a wager, by which one of the parties was bound
to the following condition: If the Federal forces did not capture Richmond
within three days from that date, he was to give his opponent a single, sound,
eatable apple; if Richmond held out sixty days he was to give him two apples,
and as on, doubling the number for each mouth until Richmond was taken—to the
end of time, if that event did not occur before. Nine months have passed since
the first apple was handed over, and the list of apples delivered at the end of
the successive mouths is as follows: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256—total 511.
Apples are 4 cents. If Richmond be taken within the present month he will get
back all the apples he has lost, and one more, which would make him more than
even; but should it hold out a year longer and he continues to pay his losses,
his last payment would cost him 40,960 dollars, and he would be 81,900 dollars
out ; in three months more he would be out 686,340 dollars.
TORTURE applied to extort
confession was discontinued, it is said, in the public courts of Portugal, in
consequence of the following circumstances: A conscientious judge, having
observed the effects of the rack upon supposed criminals, in making them confess
any thing, to the sacrifice of their lives, to get released from the torture,
determined to try an experiment. It is a capital crime in that country to kill a
horse or mule; and he had one of the former which he much valued. He took care
one night to have all his servants employed, so that no one but the groom could
go into the stable. When all were fast asleep in their beds, he stole thither
himself, and cut the horse
so that he bled to death. The
groom was apprehended and committed to prison. He plead not guilty ; but the
presumption being strong against him, he was ordered to the rack, where the
extremity of the torture soon wrung from him a confession of the crime. Upon
this confession, he had sentence of hanging passed on him, when his master went
to the tribunals, and there exposed the fallibility of confessions obtained by
such means, by owning the fact himself, and disclosing the motives which had
influenced him in making the experiment.
"I REMEMBER," says Dr. Leichfield,
in his Autobiography, " being particularly struck with the personal neatness of
John Wesley as he came out of his carriage. His coachman also attracted my
notice ; for he seemed to be his master's valet de chaining, his clerk when
necessary, and his deputy, to converse and even argue with people. I heard that
on one occasion an individual, who was one of the class of captious questioners,
addressed himself to Mr. Wesley with an air of impertinent curiosity. The
preacher had no time to spare, and, furthermore, felt it necessary to check
annoyances of this kind for the future. He therefore gravely asked his
questioner, ' Can you read Greek?' ' No, Sir, I can not,' was the reply. ' Oh,
then,' rejoined
Mr. Wesley,' my coachman will be able to satisfy you."'
WHENEVER you find a man whom you
know little about oddly dressed, or talking ridiculously, or exhibiting any
eccentricity of manner, you may be sure that be is not a. married man; for the
little corners are rounded off, the little shoots are pruned away, in married
men. Wives generally have much more sense than their husbands, especially when
the husbands are clever men. The wife's advices are like the ballast that keeps
the ship steady. They are like the wholesome though painful shears snipping off
little growths of self conceit and folly.
IN the burial-register of
Lymington, Hants, there is the following entry: "12th August, 1722. This
forenoon the body of Samuel Baldwin, late inhabitant of this parish, was
conveyed in a vessel off to sea, and was committed to the deep off the Needle
rocks, near the Isle of Wight." "This appears to have been done," says a
Hampshire paper, "in accordance with the wish of the deceased, to prevent his
wife from dancing over his grave, which she threatened to do."
CURIOUS anecdotes are related of
the effect of music upon animals. Manville has given the following amusing
ac-count of his experiments : "While a man was playing on a trump-marine I made
my observations on a cat, a clog, a horse, an ass, a hind, some cows, small
birds, and a cock and liens, who were in a yard under the window. The cat was
not the least affected; the horse stopped short from time to time, raising his
head up now and then as he was feeding on the grass ; the dog continued for
above an hour seated on his hind-legs, looking steadfastly at the player; the
ass did not discover the least indication of his being touched, eating his
thistles peaceably; the hind lifted up her large wide ears, and seemed very
attentive; the cows slept a little, and after gazing at us, went for-ward ; some
little birds that were in an aviary, and others on trees and bushes, almost tore
their little throats with singing; but the cock, who minded only his hens, and
the hens, who were solely employed in scraping a neighboring dung-hill, did not
show in any manner that the trump-marine afforded them pleasure." That dogs have
an ear for music can not be doubted. Steibelt had one which evidently knew one
piece of music from the other; and it modern composer had a pug-dog that frisked
merrily about the room when a lively piece was played, but when a slow melody
was performed he would seat himself down by the piano, and prick up his ears
with intense attention until the player came to the forty-eighth bar: as the
discord was struck he would yell most piteously, and, with drooping tail, seek
refuge from the unpleasant sound under the chairs or tables.
Eastcot relates that a hare left
her retreat to listen to some choristers who were singing on the banks of the
Mersey, retiring whenever they ceased singing, and reappearing as they
recommenced their strains. Bossuet asserts that an officer confined in the
Bastile drew forth mice and spiders, to beguile his solitude, with his flute;
and a mountebank in Paris had taught rats to dance on the rope in perfect time.
Chateaubriand states as a perfect fact that he has seen the rattlesnakes in
Upper Canada appeased by a musician. And the concert given in Paris to two
elephants in the Jardin des Plantes leaves no doubt in regard to the effect of
harmony on the brute creation. Every instrument seemed to operate distinctly as
the several modes of the pieces were slow or lively, until the excitement of
these intelligent creatures had been carried to such an extent that further
experiments were deemed dangerous.
SIR WILLIAM NAPIER was one day
taking a long country walk near Freshford, when he met a little girl about five
years old sobbing over a broken bowl ; she had dropped and broken it in bringing
it back from the field to which she had taken her father's dinner in it, and she
said she would be beaten on her return home for having broken it then, with a
sudden gleam of hope, she innocently looked up into his face, and said, "But yes
can mend it, can't ee?" Sir William explained that he could not mend the bowl,
but the trouble he could, by the gift of a sixpence to buy another. However, on
opening his purse it was empty of silver, and he had to make amends by promising
to meet his little friend in the same spot at the same hour next day, and to
bring the sixpence with hint, bidding her, meanwhile, tell her mother she had
seen a gentleman who would bring her the money for the bowl next clay. The
child, entirely trusting him, went on her way comforted. On his return home he
found an invitation awaiting him to dine in Bath the following evening, to meet
some one whom he specially wished to see. He hesitated for some little time,
trying to calculate the possibility of giving the meeting to his little friend
of the broken bowl and of still being in time for the dinner party in Bath; but
finding this could not be, he wrote to declined accepting the invitation on the
plea of is "pre-engagement," saying to one of his family as he did so, "I can
not disappoint her, she trusted me so implicitly."
Tam number of looms employed in
making Cashmere shawls does not exceed five hundred. Of the finest shawls not
more than half an inch is completed in a day, although three workmen are
employed on each piece, the shawl being composed of a number of separate pieces,
which, as they rarely correspond in size, will account for that peculiar
defectiveness which is often to be observed in the real "Cashmere." A long,
narrow, but heavy shuttle is used ; those of which the pattern is variegated are
worked with wooden needles, there being a separate needle for the thread of each
color. The people at the loom are superintended by is foreman, who is a skillful
artist, with a fine eye for color and ornamental design. He explains to them, in
a peculiar chanting tone, the figures, colors, and threads they are to use.
During the whole operation the rough side of the shawl is uppermost on the
frame, notwithstanding which the foreman never mistakes the most intricate
designs. The shawl is not complete until all the separately-woven pieces of
which it is composed are taken to the men who are employed in sewing all these
portions together, so as to form a harmonious whole. At this tedious, and, as it
would seem, puzzling work, they earn about a penny a day; and the experienced
superintendent who overlooks their operations is very little better off than
themselves.
We could give scores of instances
of bad taste shown in the choice of patterns on our walls. The difficulty would
be to find many which are not. In the choice of paper for the walls of rooms, it
ought to be borne in mind that in most instances the covering of walls is only a
back ground for prints, water-color drawings, or paintings , rooms may be seen
hung with valuable drawings, papered with the gayest colored flowers. The force
and beauty of works of art are completely destroyed by such a mounting. In
addition to the bad choice of time paper, much damage is often done to prints
and pictures, which now supply the place of the ancient tapestry, by the style
of the Gaines.
THERE are above a quarter of a
million of persons in England and Wales bearing the cosmopolitan surname of
Smith, and above 45,000 persons in Scotland. If you meet 73 persons in England,
or even 68 in Scotland, you may expect to find a Smith among them. Next to Smith
there comes in each country a purely local name—Jones in England and Wales,
Macdonald in Scotland; in every 78 persons in Scotland there is a Macdonald.
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