State of Opinion in the North.
There seems to be no doubt that the
Yankee Congress has passed, or will pass, a bill, calling out the entire militia force of all the
Yankee States, and that a draft will be made sufficiently large to meet what the
Yankees consider the exigencies of their service.
It is well, therefore, to be prepared for the worst they can do, and, above all things, to avoid sinking into that lethargy of soul and body which benumbed the councils and paralyzed the arm of the
Confederacy after the
battle of Manassas.
Yet there is very little doubt that there is a large and powerful body of citizens, of whom
Governor Seymour and
Benjamin Wood are the representatives, who are bitterly opposed to the present war, who abhor the objects for which it is waged, and who dissent entirely from the principles of those who are most active in pressing it on. Persons of this description dare not face the reign of terror which has been inaugurated by the Abolitionists, knowing that it is as much as their lives are worth to speak their real sentiments.
The Abolitionists have it all their own way. It is they who are urging on the
Government in a career which can but terminate (be the
South victorious or vanquished) in the utter ruin of all the
Yankee States.
The storm must spend its fury before we can expect clear weather.
There is no such thing as arresting it in mid career.
The sooner this consummation is accomplished the better for us, for Yankeedoodledom, and for the world.
Let the Abolitionists bring all their forces to bear upon the struggle.
The result, most assuredly, will be signal defeat, whether we wait for them here, or take the initiative and go to seek them at home.
Then comes the reaction.
Then comes the day of reckoning.
Then come the accounts to be settled, and the question of raising the wind to be discussed.
Then will the people stand aghast at the folly which has led them into the unmeasured and unmeasurable debt in which they are involved at the unheard of taxes required to liquidate the claims which will rise up against their Government, at the utter prostration of credit, the annihilation of wealth, the failure of revenue, the approach of beggary, the presence of rain in all directions.
Then will the vengeance of the mob the visited upon those who took the lead in this atrocious war. Then will abolitionism be prostrated forever beneath the fury of a people deluded, cheated, and led to ruin by its disciples.
This will be equally the case, whether the
North subjugate us, or be battled in its insane attempts to do so. It is already ruined beyond the reach of hope, and the entire property of the
South did the
North hold it all in undisputed possession, could not replace the wealth of its own people, want only destroyed in the attempt to bring destruction upon us.
In this view of the case, we are glad that Abolition is putting forth its utmost strength.
Defeat it in this struggle and it can never rally again.
And joyful will be the day to all the
South when that consummation shall have been reached.
We hope it will come with all its force; that it will unmask all its reserves; that it will leave not a man behind, but stake everything upon this one crusade and this single battle.
This call for the whole militia — fearful as it may look upon paper — is to us the harbinger of approaching good fortune.
Hitherto the
Yankees have fought this battle with foreigners--Irish and German--or the scum of the
Northern cities, whom they were anxious to get rid of on any terms.
Now it will fail on the
Yankees themselves, and they have no fondness for war when it is to endanger their own carcasses.
