The Daily Dispatch: January 17, 1865., [Electronic resource]

If the miserable croakers who, within the last three weeks, have been converting Richmond into a perfect Frog-Pond, will take the trouble to read Mr. E. A. Pollard's "Results of Ten Months Observation in the Enemy's Country," published in the Examiner of Monday, they would probably feel ashamed of their unmanly fears, if they have not altogether lost the power of blushing. Mr. Pollard enjoyed the most ample opportunities of judging, being a sort of prisoner at large, living at a hotel, and mixing and conversing freely with all sorts of persons — political, private and military. Among a great many things of much interest, he tells us that the Yankees are on the point of exhaustion in the recruiting business — that their last draft of three hundred thousand brought in but seventy thousand--that the larger portion of recruits since Lincoln's proclamation has been made of negroes — that Grant's army, in the lines of which he spent six days, is composed of negroes, in the proportion of three negroes to one white man — that the next draft will fail more signally than any which have preceded it — that a conscription must necessarily be resorted to — and that then the war must break down. Such, he says, is the universal belief in the North. All parties agree that the only hope of subduing the South lies in the desire of the South to get rid of the war, which they all hope will lead to its submission before it becomes necessary to enforce a conscription. The vote of all the armies around Richmond in the Presidential election was but eighteen thousand, there being only that number of native-born or naturalized white men in it; an over whelming proof of the utter distaste the Yankees have for campaigning, and an index of the trouble which a conscription, calling for all classes, is sure to produce. But before that time, the Yankees hope the Confederates will submit — croaking and peace resolutions in this quarter having induced them to believe that we are on the point of caving in. In these circumstances, Mr. Pollard thinks it far more important than anything else to convince the Yankees that our resolution is not changed, and that our courage is still unbroken; for, notwithstanding the resistance of four years, certain of them still really are, or, at least, affect to be, unconvinced.

That these observations of Mr. Pollard are accurate, and that they lead him to a correct conclusion, there cannot be the shadow of a doubt. Lincoln is assuredly convinced that he has run nearly the length of his tether, and that he can no longer recruit his armies without resorting to a general conscription. When that comes, he knows it may break the back of the war. Nor is that all. The New York Herald tells us that, if the war continues one year longer, the United States must become bankrupt, and suspend it through sheer exhaustion. Mr. Pollard says there is one question in everybody's mouth at the North, and that is: Have the South the resolution to hold out? And the answer to that question is more important to the people at Washington than would be plans of every fortification held by the Confederate forces. And it is at such a time — when the enemy has nearly gone the full extent he can possibly go — when peace is almost within our grasp — that the army of croakers is spreading over our country, like the frogs, lice and locusts of Egypt, defiling and debasing everything they touch, and poisoning the very atmosphere with their pestilential breath. Why, the very fact of his allowing old Blair to come here is proof positive that he is in a state of extreme anxiety, and ought to encourage our people to the utmost.

These croakers are already making themselves ready for submission.--Things, they say, will not be half so bad as we apprehend. Negro emancipation will not take place. The same power that has already emancipated and made soldiers of two hundred thousand slaves, where there is a large army opposing them, will become moderate as soon as that army shall have been disbanded and our means of resistance annihilated. Contrary to every example presented by history, as well as to common sense, the Yankees, as soon as they are absolute masters, will become moderate and merciful; and in this hope we are called on to throw away our arms and submit! We are to believe that Yankee nature is capable of a magnanimity of which human nature, in no other shape, was ever before capable.--So the croakers tell us, and the Confederates are expected to believe it. If they really believe it themselves, they are greater fools than we took them for. But let them not lay the flattering unction to their souls. Mr. Pollard has been among them down below Richmond, and he has had an opportunity of hearing what fate they design for Virginia in general, and what for Richmond in particular. For Virginia, they mean to divide it into hundred-acre farms, and call in the whole Yankee nation to share. The Valley especially is an object of desire with this self-denying race. For Richmond, they profess, openly, a determination to visit on her the very extremity of Yankee vengeance. The measure that has been dealt out to the meek and submissive Savannah is no criterion to judge of the vengeance reserved for Richmond. Its private hordes of tobacco are, first of all, to be appropriated. The croakers may croak submission, but they cannot save their tobacco. Everything worth stealing is to be appropriated. There are to be no stores here but Yankee stores, no hotels but Yankee hotels, no druggists but Yankee druggists. Everything — all employments, all trades, all professions,--is to be Yankee. A Virginian must take the oath in its vilest shape. He must be watched like a thief wherever he moves. He can hope for no employment beyond that of blacking a Yankee master's boots, or bringing him water from the hydrant, or brushing his coat, or, perhaps, waiting on him at the table. Such is the fate the croakers are invoking on Richmond, at the very time when Lincoln has nearly exhausted his supplies of men, and another year must bring with it a collapse in his plans of conquest.

Arouse yourselves, people of the South, and be men once more. All is within your power if you do but will it. For the croakers, we know not what punishment they deserve.