The opening of 1864--foreign opinions.
We yesterday gave an article from the London Times on the opening of 1864, and what had been accomplished by the North in 1863. We give to-day some further foreign extracts, which show what is thought in England of the prospects for the Confederacy for 1864.
[from the London Standard.]
Territorially, the South has no doubt lost something, but she has lost infinitely less than was generally expected, and not a fourth of what some peculiarly audacious partisans of the Federal cause have lately set down to its credit. They say that the Confederacy now holds only one-half of the territory it claims. The answer is simply that this is utterly untrue. In the "claim," of course, are included Missouri and Kentucky, of which the Confederate Government never held possession, and of which the North will not keep possession when once it is defeated in its main object. Of the eleven States represented at Richmond in July, 1863, only one has been temporarily reduced under Federal rule, or rather occupied by Federal armies. Since the outbreak of the war the South has lost Tennessee and a fragment of Arkansas, a little portion of riverside territory in Louisiana, and isolated positions in Florida and the Carolinas.The Federal occupy posts in Mississippi, but that is all. Northern Virginia is simply a devastated battle field, of which the North cannot be said to have possession. For all practical purposes ten of the eleven States are still held by the Confederates, excepting such portions of them as have been actually occupied by the Federal troops under the protection of their gunboats. A territory more than three times as large as France remains entirely on subdued, and at their present rate of progress, which is not likely to be maintained, it would take the North ten years to overrun it.--Even when overrun it would not be conquered; but we need not enter into any discussion of what may happen in a case so far removed from practical probability.
If at any moment that should occur which has more than once seemed on the point of coming to pass; if the Confederates should gain a decided victory in the West, while driving the army of the Potomac out of Virginia, the North would have lost at a blow everything — except New Orleans — that it has pained in three years of warfare; while, as we have seen, the South may sustain a defeat without losing anything of her essential strength and power of self defence. It is quite clear that she will maintain it until her independence is recognized; and it is for Europe to consider whether the termination of a war which is a disgrace and an affliction to mankind shall be allowed to await the slow recovery of the North from its fever dream of conquest, booty, and empire.
[from the Liverpool Mercury.]
The very latest news from the seat of war in America, like most of the news of the preceding three months, is as unfavorable as it can be to a speedy termination of the war, either by the complete success of the North or of the South. The Northern army of Gen. Grant, after having gained a very considerable victory at Chattanooga, and after having sustained rather a sharp cheek at Ringgold, has been reduced to a state of inactivity by the want of supplies and means of transport for a winter campaign. It may hold its ground at Chattanooga during the winter months if it can keep open its communications with Nashville, and it may advance into Georgia in the spring; but it will have to fight its way from one strong position to another, and at every march it will be further from the base of its operations and in a more exhausted country.Its advance, should it take place, will compel the Confederates to burn the cotton grown in former years, and will effectually prevent the planting of a cotton crop in the spring of 1864; but it will take months, if not years, to conquer Georgia and Alabama, and even if conquered they will be more wildernesses. This is the prospect even at the point where the Federal fortunes look brightest, and even there any considerable success gained by Gen. Longstreet would render it impossible for the Federal to advance into Georgia. In South Carolina and Virginia the Federal are utterly powerless, and so long as Charleston and Richmond continue in the bands of the Confederates they must continue to be so. After months of concealment, we learn that the Federal Iron-clads were so totally defeated in the attack on the Confederate batteries at Charleston, in April last, as to render it impossible for them to do anything afterward; and in Virginia the Confederate army is not only able to hold Richmond against all the attacks of the Army of the Potomac, but even to keep that army continually on the alert to defend its own position.
[from the New York correspondent of the London Herald]
One thing is clearly evident even at this early stage of the President game. No military man can be elected if he is successful in obtaining the nomination. I am inclined to think that Mr. Lincoln will be renominated by his party and will be re-elected, or, if he is not, he will hold over in the way pointed out by Mr. Seward in his autumn speech. Still, many changes may take place before November 7, 1864, when the Presidential election takes place. If a dashing Southern General of the Stonewall Jackson school could be found he would be in Washington before May, and this would seriously complicate the plans of the parties anxious to be the next President.The joke of Old Abe making or requiring that all the slaveholders South should take an oath to become Abolitionists after the most radical pattern, has not yet been settled. It will probably make the millions in rebellion ten times more ferocious than they now are. This and a good military leader would soon change the face of things. So think the great financiers of Wall street, for gold is up to 152, and sterling exchange at 165--higher than has been reached for some time. Breadstuffs are all up too. The solid men here and elsewhere are all laughing at the bill introduced into the United States Senate by Senator Lane, of Kansas. It makes it a criminal offence to buy or sell gold and silver. It is not likely that such a bill will pass both Houses of Congress and become a law. Yet there is no prophesying what will be done with such a Congress as the present one.
Four new States will be admitted this session, making thirty-nine that will vote at the next Presidential election. The new ones are Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. These will give twelve electoral votes far Mr. Lincoln. Under Mr. Lincoln's new arrangement for reorganizing new States out of old ones, he will also get the votes of South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Florida, Arkansas, and Tennessee--about thirty-nine electoral votes. It will be a fraud, but, as they say, a justifiable one. We shall see. The admission of these new States will give a large administrative majority in both Houses for either the purposes of legislation or for electing a President. There may be a hitch in admitting Utah, owing to her poliga my institutions.
