Yankee preparations.
The New York Tribune is of the opinion that unless the Yankee armies and fleets do something very desired within the next sixty days, the great powers of Europe will inevitably recognize the in dependence of the Southern Confederacy, and it urges upon the Yankee commanders with all the eloquence of which it is master, the absolute necessity of abandoning the defensive attitude to which they have been reduced, and at once entering upon an setive aggressive campaign. What effect this advice may have upon McClellan, who does not seem as yet quite ready to advances, to be seen. But it is very evident that it has already been anticipated in other quarters, and by other Yankee commanders. Coln. Porter, we are told is at St Louis making arrangements to carry a powerful fleet down the river. We may therefore presume that Vicksburg will shortly be attacked once more, for the Yankees have neither forgotten nor forgiven the defence made by that gallant town. Beast Butler has left New Orleans to superintend operations against Mobile, where already seven or eight men of war have congregated, to be followed in due time, no doubt, by a much larger squadron. The late affair near Charleston is but the beginning of a prodigious land and naval expedition which it is designed to send against that city and Savannah. Everything indicates a design on the part of the Yankees to capture the remainder of our seaboard cities, If they can, during the winter, and thus to cut us off still farther than the blockade has done from all intercourse with Europe, and to secure on all sides gates by which they can pour their troops into the interior of the country. Should they succeed, it will not advance them a single stop on the road to subjugation for before we can be conquered the whole interior must be subdued. They have New Orleans and almost the entire navigation of the Mississippi river, and yet they have not advanced one step in their favorite project. They are no near or success now than they were when, the Confederate flag flew over every town on the father of waters.Our Government and our people have deliberately made up their minds to a condition of affairs which shell see our three remaining seaports in the hands of the enemy, and they see no obstacle even in such an event to the indefinite continuance of the war. As long as our great armies remain unbeaten in the field — as long as they continue to face the enemy with that herein courage which has already won for them the applause and the admiration of the civilized world — as long as the people remain-true to the cause, and prefer any hardship any loss, any suffering, to the domination of the detested Yankees, so long is conquest an impossibility and any partial success of the enemy only the herald of reverses yet to befall his arms. They remember that in the war of the first Revolution Charleston and Savannah were both in the hands of the British, and that the lion of St. George flew over every port on the Southern coast. They remember that not for that did the patriots of that day despair, but that on the contrary they gathered fresh strength from every defeat until, at last, they conquered their inheritance from the strong grasp of the spoilen. They-know that the men of this day are no way inferior to the men of that — if they are to be judged by their sections, they are, in deed, greatly superior, and they take courage accordingly. Nevertheless, it is not to be supposed that the Yankees will obtain possession of these seaports without a desperate struggle — We expect it, and we are prepared for it.--The example of New Orleans will never be imitated during this war. Thanks to Beast Butler and the lesson he has taught, that is impossible.--Thanks to that other, and far different example — thanks to glorious little Vicksburg, our people have learned what a resolute spirit can enable men, even in the most desperate circumstances, to accomplish. Thanks to the Legislature of Virginia, which chose to see the capital of the State reduced to a pile of ruins rather than surrender it tamely to a semi-barbarous foe, the blood of the whole country is completely stirred. There will, we venture to predict, be no more surrenders for fear of being bombarded. There will be no more talk about saving the towns because they are our towns. Better would it have been for the wretched inhabitants who were caught by Butler in New Orleans, that they had permitted their city to be burnt to ashes rather than have surrendered, to become the sport of a murderer and robber, such as Butler the Beast.
The people of Charleston, and Savannah, and of Mobile, have a plain duty to perform. it is never to surrender their cities so long as one house be left standing. If they choose to bombard, let them do it. Let them remember New Orleans and Memphis, but above all let them remember Vicksburg. We have no fear for these gallant cities. Their sons will defend them to the last.
