The plot thickens.
The plot of the great crusade of Yankeedom for the subjugation of the South thickens as the ‘"fifth act"’ of the drama progresses. The curtain has risen upon that act, as we believe, and the play will go on with tolerable rapidity to the denouement in which the villain is exposed and punished, and the wrong righted.The Northern press has been for weeks on the tip-toe of expectation. They have repeated with increased energy the off-heralded prediction that the rebels would be, in a few days, surrounded, and rebellion crushed out. They have predicted falsely so many times about the onward movement of their grand armies, and the striking of the final blow, that little faith is to be put in what they say; but the wolf may come at last, however often the false warning may be repeated. From the signs apparent in the naval preparations, and the movements and the manœuvering of the land troops of the enemy, it may be fairly inferred that the threatened blow is soon to come. It is, probably, only delayed now by the condition of the roads. Yesterday was a bright sunny day, and such a day brings out the adder. A few of such days would make an improvement in the roads and bring on some fighting; but, whether this be the case or not, we may fairly infer that the next sixty days will be marked by some very bloody battles. Lincolndom staggers under a load of debt and grows desperate at the waning of public confidence at the North in the Government and the army. Longer delays will be, in their opinion, fatal. The credit of the Government, the confidence of the people, must be revived by a bold movement. Even Lord John Russell has declared that the absence of a great victory for the Federalists by the last of January will be fatal to the Government.
The blow will, therefore, soon fall; but we shall be well prepared to parry it, and deal the enemy one which he will not recover from so easily. Yet it behooves our people to arouse themselves from the lethargy of a long repose and elevate themselves to a level with the exigency — that they shall fully understand the desperate and expiring struggle of the enemy, and meet it with that vigor and resolution which are necessary to resist and defeat him. We have the power, we have the courage, we have the resolution. Nothing will enable the enemy to make headway, and gain important advantages, but the apathy of prolonged inaction.
