The "Little Villain" in a Panic.
The invasion of Maryland by our army threw the whole North into spasms of terror. The ‘ "Little Villain"’ of the New York Times became especially alarmed, and his friends were just looking out for a ‘"change of base"’ a la Solferino, when, luckily for his reason, General Lee, after having captured Harper's Ferry, and flogged McClellan for the eighth time, restored his equanimity by re-crossing the Potomac. We have before us an editorial of the Times, published in the very height of the alarm, when all Yankeedom was looking for an immediate advance of the Confederates. It is headed ‘"Change of the rebel programme — the real peril of the country." ’ In what does the reader suppose the change in question to consist? Read the following paragraphs and he will see:‘ "We stated the other day that the real danger which now menaces the country is not so much a permanent division of the Union, as the forcible overthrow of the Government. The progress of this war has developed the fact that the great mass of the people throughout all the Northern and Border States, are immovably hostile to disruption.--The public sentiment of the whole country is more nearly unanimous on this point than on any other political sentiment or principle whatever. The South see clearly that the North will never consent to a division of the Union.--and that any peace which they may conquer based upon such division would be only a hollow truce.--laying the foundation for bitter and endless wars in the future.
"There are many symptoms which indicate that, in abandoning their defensive attitude, and invading the loyal States, they have also abandoned the object for which the war has hitherto been waged, and that they new seek to overthrow the Administration and obtain control of the National Government, instead of establishing the independence of their own. Gen. Lee, in his proclamation to the people of Maryland, which we published yesterday, declares that his purpose is to protect the people of Maryland in the enjoyment of their rights and to give them a chance to decide, by their free suffrages, whether they would join the Southern Confederacy or not. The Richmond Enquirer, which has been throughout the rebellion the special organ and mouthpiece of the Confederate Government, treats the recent battles in front of Washington as decisive of the contest, and proceeds to say that the Confederate States are ready to treat for peace whenever the North may wish."
’ An extract from the Enquirer, the purport of which is that the only terms on which the Confederate States can accept peace are recognition and permission to other States to decide, by election, whether they will go with them or not, and that the same permission be extended even to the Yankee States, is then introduced. The Times considers it as proving that the design of the Confederates, in invading the North, is to substitute the Constitution of the Confederacy for the Constitution of the United States; in other words, to overthrow the Yankee Government. As a farther confirmation, the Times introduces one of those cock and bull stories from the Washington correspondence of the New York Herald, in which it so plentifully abounds, to the effect that the Confederates ‘"are anxious to abandon the independent nationality programme, and to proclaim themselves the friends of the Union and the Constitution!"’ In proof of the existence of such a wish, the Herald's correspondent says that the rebel army under Stonewall Jackson, upon touching the soil of Maryland, laid aside the Stars and Bars, and hoisted the Stars and Stripes, announcing that they were come to ‘"restore the Union as it was and to maintain the old Constitution."’ In addition to this somebody had told the correspondent that somebody else told him, that the rebel officer had told somebody else, that the object in invading Maryland was to raise the Stars and Stripes, and to call upon the people North and South to rally to Gen. Lee, and aid in putting down Lincoln's Administration and restoring the Union. The Herald assorts that this project has aiders and abettors in the Northern States, and intimates that now is the time for combining all the elements of hostility to the Northern Government, and to bring the New England radicals to their senses, and compel them to support the Union. The Times thinks the Herald itself will be foremost among these ‘"aiders and abettors, "’ and accuses that paper of having ‘"invoked and urged the forcible intervention of General McClellan, at the head of the army,"’ to bring the agitators to their senses. The Times adds, significantly enough, ‘"We have not the slightest doubt that there is already in the Northern States the nucleus of a political party ready to strike hands with Gen. Lee at the first favorable opportunity for the accomplishment of this object There are members of Congress who would vote to-morrow for such a scheme; and if the movements of the Democratic party shall be crowned with success this fall there will be many more such members in the next Congress. To what extent the pressure of the war, the burdens of taxation, the draft upon the strength and resources of the country, and the best life-blood of its population, and the gathering conviction of the incapacity of the Administration to carry the country safely and victoriously through this tremendous crisis, by conquering the rebellion, and thus restoring the Union and the Constitution — how far all these, and the many other influences which will operate in the same direction, may give strength and vigor and possible success to such a movement, must be, for the present, matter of conjecture."’
The Times then goes on to assure President Lincoln that, just now, the dreadful apprehension of the public mind runs in this direction. ‘"Those,"’ it says, ‘"who watch the tendencies of political events most closely believe that this is the peril which at this moment impends over the Government. And they see no adequate preparation to meet it. They see no strength in the Government sufficient to overbear and crush it. Indeed, in the growing weakness of the Government, in its virtual abdication of its sovereign functions, and in its transfer of its power to the hands of a single General, they see the strongest possible provocation to precisely such results. Mr. Lincoln may not realize the fact, and none of his secretaries, probably, will venture to tell him of it; but the people look upon the Government at Washington as actually falling to pieces, and, by its weakness and incapacity, offering itself a prey to the first strong hand that may venture to seize it. This is not the sentiment of radicals or abolitionists alone. All such distinctions of party, or principle, sink into insignificance by the side of the terrible crisis which the country is rapidly approaching.--Men of all parties, who love the country and who would see it saved by its constituted authorities, tremble with apprehension when they see those parties utterly incompetent to the great task that is devolved upon them.--The natural effect of such a spectacle is to beget a longing for strength as the one thing needful, and to inspire a willingness to accept it, from whatever quarter it may come. Three months more of such disaster and humiliation as the past three months have witnessed, will incline thousands and tens of thousands, now loyal to the Constitution and the Government, to seek refuge for their country in any hands capable of carrying it through its perils and maintaining its unity, at whatever sacrifice."’
As a remedy for all these terrible evils the Times recommends a complete reorganization of the Government, and accuses Lincoln of usurping all power himself and converting his Secretaries into more clerks, thereby dispensing entirely with the services of the ablest men of Yankeedom, of whom, according to the Times, he is jealous.
This article was published three weeks ago, and we may suppose had its effect in producing the twin proclamations, by which Lincoln declares all the negroes free, and puts all Yankeedom under martial law. It indicates, however, intense agitation in that quarter of the world. The proclamation of McClellan, forbidding his soldiers even to discuss the President's emancipation proclamation, affords farther proof of a great impending movement, dependent probably upon the result of the elections now close at hand.
