The situation.
We endeavored yesterday to show that the
Confederate States have nothing to hope for in this war but what they could obtain by their own valor and their own perseverance.
This fact has been demonstrated so clearly since the commencement of the war that we had, until very lately, thought It was admitted by everybody.
Within the last few weeks, however, we perceive a growing disposition to rely upon other sources of relief, such as the disordered state of the
Yankee finances, the menacing attitude of the Democratic party, and the violent discontent of a large portion of Northern society with the Emancipation proclamation of
Lincoln.
We very well remembered how nearly fatal to our cause had been the illusions of the last year, and how sternly we had been reminded by events that the only just dependence of the
Confederate States was in the arms and hearts of her sons.
We would respect the lesson we then endeavored to teach every day in the year, if we could thereby the more deeply impress it upon the minds of our countrymen.
We have nothing to depend on but our own prowess and our own firmness, yet are not these enough?
See what they have already done for us. As long as we depended upon foreign intervention, we lay supine and did nothing for ourselves.
The enemy employed the interval, which we were wasting in idle dreams of approaching peace, in making the most gigantic preparations for subduing us and reducing us to a state of absolute vassalage, if not downright slavery.
We awoke from our dream to find ourselves already half undone; but we woke us a giant wakes from a short slumber, and we mapped the bonds which the foe had attempted to rivet upon us while we slept.
It is because we fear the same lethargy may again creep over our senses, that we lift a voice of warning to our countrymen.
Affairs are not so gloomy now as they were last Spring.
We have abundantly shown our ability to beat the enemy in the field, and have demonstrated to the world that we cannot be subdued as long as we are true to ourselves.
What is there in our situation that ought to discourage men engaged in a struggle for their liberties?
After a series of victories unequalled in this country, not surpassed in any other, we have met with two reverses.
They appear to be by no means decisive.
Our armies are not destroyed — Our
Generals are not captured.
Our material is but little impaired.
The spirit of our troops is not broken.
What also can we expect than to meet with occasional bad fortune in a war waged with such determination?
It is not in the nature of things that it should be otherwise.
The victories of one part of the country must be sometimes counterbalanced by the reverses in another.
It is only upon casting up the accounts and striking a balance, that we can fairly estimate the importance of our lessees and our gains.
We have met two reverses, by no means decisive, in
Kentucky and
Mississippi.
As a set-off, we have gained eighteen or twenty great victories, captured a whole army of nearly 12,000 men, and established a reputation for valor not surpassed by that of the oldest nation in the world.
The balance is enormously on our side.
Instead, therefore, of desponding, we see cause to entertain the brightest hopes, if only the people will cease to indulge in the dream that they can be saved in any other way than by their own valor.
