The war spirit at the North.
We are permitted to publish the following extract from a letter written by a resident of Philadelphia to his father in Virginia:Wasn't that an awful battle at Manassas? The announcement here of the complete rout and disgraceful stampede of the flower of the Federal army was like the shock of an earthquake. People were at first utterly incredulous, but when the facts were fully certified, their indignation knew no bounds. It is now generally conceded that the South can boast of braver troops and better Generals than was supposed before, and that it will be no easy matter to wipe out the ‘"rebels."’ It is understood that the contest must belong and desperate, and to my mind, I confess, the expectation of the conquest of the South seems absurdly preposterous. Knowing as I do so well the temper and determination of the people in the South, I am satisfied it is impossible. How long it will take the present Administration at Washington to find it out, I cannot tell; but if this desperate war is to be protracted, and if Abolition counsels are to control it, as seems likely from the recent proceedings in Congress, then the Northern half of the Republic may count on one less citizen and the Southern half on one more, for this individual ‘"will be bound to turn up somewhere among the niggers."’ I have no hope now of a reconstruction of the Union; least of all, that it can be done by the sword. The sword can sever, but it cannot heal.
