From the North.
the Northern press on the Critical situation.
the Supreme duty of the hour.
[From the New York World, July 9]
Richmond is in possession of the Confederates because General McClellan has not men enough — The people have decided opinions us to where the responsibility for this lack rests; they would have ceased to be freemen if they had not courage to express their judgment of their public servants.
A change in the Cabinet would promote enlistments; but if it is not evident by the middle of the month that men volunteer with the requisite alacrity, the Government must adopt vigorous measures and promptly resort to a draft.
An additional hundred thousand men in twenty days will throttle the rebellion.
If they cannot be had in one way they must in another.
Gen. McClellan must immediately be furnished with men enough to co-operate effectively with Captain Wilkes and take Fort Darling, which is the key to Richmond.
Fifty thousand men for garrison duty, to relieve trained soldiers, and another fifty thousand to fill up the decimated regiments, would enable our army to take Richmond within five days after the arrival of reinforcements at Harrison's Landing.
Reinforce McClellan promptly and adequately, an no subsequent blundering in the War Department can defer the fall of the Confederate Capital, whatever else it may defer or prevent.
The capture of Richmond will not end the rebellion, but it will destroy its prestige.
It will have a greater moral effect both at home and abroad than any other possible military event.
We must not expect foreign nations, with their notorious prejudices to look at the recent occurrences through our eyes.
Regardless of extenuating minutic, they will see only the main fact that we marched our finest army against Richmond to take it, and, after a terrible sacrifice of life, were repulsed.
Diplomacy is powerless to meet the conclusions they will draw from this bread fact.
The only rebutting argument that will tell in our favor is the actual capture of Richmond.
This powerful and entirely conclusive argument should be forthcoming before the opinions of the foreign Powers shall mature into resolves.
The results of the late battles will incline them toward recognition but it is not probable that their action will be sudden.
It behooves us to arrest their deliberation in its early stages, and induce them to hold their judgment as to the success of the Confederates in still further suspense.
This can be effectually accomplished only by doing without delay what our finest, best equipped, and most vaunted army has thus far failed to do.
The Anaconda.
[from the New York Tribune, July 9]
Advices from various quarters justify the gratifying belief that conception of ineffable stupidity the great Union ‘"Anaconda."’ is defunct.--Henceforth we are confident, the policy of massing our disposable troops into one grand army, and hurling it swiftly and strongly upon the chief strongholds of the rebellion successively, will be adhered to. The Anaconda has cost us a year's time, one hundred thousand men, and five hundred millions of money, and its fruits are not at all commensurate with their cost.
Had it never been conceived, we should have failed to take New Orleans and some other ports quite so soon, white we should have ere this utterly extinguished the rebellion in Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee.
The ‘"Anaconda"’ makes a present to the Confederates of the all but exclusive use of railroads and telegraphs.
It enables him to choose among our several army corps that one on which he shall precipitate his entire moveable force.
It enables him to be uniformly superior at the point of collision though we have more and better troops in the field than he has. It enables him to know the result of any conflict within a few hours after its occurrence.
while we must wait a fortnight for any account of it but such as he chooses to give us. In short, the ‘"Anaconda"’ is a blunder, a humbug, and a nuisance.
Away with him!
Mr Lincoln called upon to act.
[from the New York World]
What means this indecision at Washington?
Why are the people kept in this suspense?
Is there to be a change or not?
The call for more troops has not yet kindled the first flash of enthusiasm.
Distrust weighs like a pall.
A sullen gloom is setting upon every heart.
The firmest loyalty is staggered.
The chariest minds are bewildered in trying to account for the Presidents inaction.
Why stands he passive in this turning hour of the nation's destiny!
How is it that he can fail to heel a necessity which is as notorious as the sun above him?* * * *
The President cannot act too speedily.
The people who have been invoked to volunteer, are waiting for an earnest of a new and more satisfactory war policy.
Had that earnest been promptly given.
it would have been responded to as promptly.
In the absence of all signs of it, the people are coldly motionless.
Of all things, the thing which is most needed in the head of the nation, in this day of trial, is decision.
decision, decision.
Virginia.
[from the Courrier des State Unis.]
The presumed plans of McClellan are mildly discussed but people on in the dark for no one knows the project of the young General.
Some assert that he will soon be master of Fort Darling--the key to Richmond — while others declare that be is thinking of re-embarking, to watch over the safety of Washington.
There are great fears on this account.
It is apprehended that Jackson may fling himself again with irresistible impetuosity, upon the valleys of the Shenandoah and Rappahannock, and that he may appear threatening the banks of the Potomac.
It is know too, that Pope is powerless, for the moment to make any stand against a serious attack.
He has but few at Manassas, and some soldiers in the Valley, who watch the movements of the Secessionist detachments left with Ewell by Jackson.
The Southwest.
Virginia does not entirely absorb public attention. The army of Halleck is said to have melted away, no less than that of Beauregard. It is a fact that the Federal have made no progress in Mississippi or Alabama since the evacuation of Corinth. The Generals of Halleck are scattered. Pope commands on the Shenandoah; Lewis Wallace demands a place in the army of the Potomac; the astronomer Mitchell is at Washington; McClernand is at Corinth; Cook, Nelson and Crittenden, entrenched between Huntsvile and Decatur, make no movement; Buell operates obscurely and fruitlessly in Last Tennessee; and Grant, almost without soldiers at Memphis, has not sufficient cavalry to prevent the marauders of the South from burning cotton within 20 miles of the town — that is to say, in his rear.The call for three hundred thousand men.
The Governors of the States have responded to the call of Mr. Lincoln. Mr. Bradford, of Maryland says: ‘ "The North has no need to fill its ranks at the point of the bayonet like the South, by means of an audacious conscription, and that its cause will not suffer such a tyranny. If such is the belief of Mr. Bradford, this does not seem to be the general opinion. Many papers indicate conscription as the only means of procuring sufficient soldiers. The need is in fact so pressing, and the eagerness to enlist so little marked, that many towns have voted a county in addition to that already allowed by Mr. Stanton. The municipal council of Buffalo has voted $75 per head, payable by the city to every new recruit. ’European intervention.
[from the New York Post.]
All the signs show that we stand at the grave and serious crisis of our history.
The recent intimations from Europe look to speedy intervention in our affairs; and if the foreign Powers hesitate, it is not improbable that the news which the next steamer will take to England will help them to a conclusion.
The long delay and extraordinary care in the operations of General McClellan were justified to the world only by the assertion that he meant to make sure of victory; and now it has slipped from him. Manassas and Yorktown lose the poor excuse they had in the light of the results of last week; and that which was before laid to the account of wholesome prudence will now he charged, and we believe with justice, to blundering and obstinate incompetency.
It is a significant sign of what is going on abroad, that the French Princes, who have for many months been attached to General McClellan's staff, have left the army, and return to Europe by the next steamer.
They would fight for us, but, if we should have war with France, they cannot fight against French soldiers.
They see the full significance of the results before Richmond and the effect the news will have in Europe, and they retire in time.
Depressing influence of the returned sick and wounded.
[from the New York World.]
What can the authorities mean by thrusting the sick and wounded of the army before the eyes of the whole community?
Instead of providing five or six great hospitals in healthy inland locations for the maimed and enfeebled, it has scattered them all over the country to sadden and depress the spirits of the people.
Surely this is not the way to inspire our young men with enthusiasm, or induce them to enter the ranks of the army.
With conspicuous infelicity the parks has been selected in this city as the depot for the wounded, and there, day after day, in the presence of tens of thousands, may be seen hundreds of poor fellows, every one of whom is a melancholy reminder of the horrors of war, and a powerful dissuader to those who may desire to enlist.
Let proper arrangements be made forthwith to remove every sick and wounded soldier away from the large centres of population.
Recruiting — How it goes.
[from the Philadelphia press, July 9.]
The matter of recruiting for the new army levy is beginning to engross a share of public attention, but not to the extent which its importance merits, or which true hearted patriots could desire.
There seems to be a withholding of support on the part of the public press.
There is not that unity of effort among newspapers throughout the North which yielded such gratifying fruits a year ago. This is unwise, unpatriotic, and wrong.
It tends to produce
the baleful impression that the journals which heretofore had lent their whole influence to the Union cause have grown apathetic and selfish because of the governmental restriction upon the publication of war news.
Liberality of the American Express Company.
New York, July 9
--The Directors of the American Express Company of this city have unanimously resolved that any of their present employees who shall promptly enlist under the recent call for troops; shall continue to receive half-pay during their term of service in the war, and have their situations restored to them on their return.
Two thousand men are in the regular employ of the company, at an average salary of over $690 per annum.
