What they will say?
It has been suggested that the European journals will express some amazement when they hear that, instead of Richmond being taken, Washington has been scared out of its boots by the apparition of a Confederate army at its gates. We care very little what Europe says about this or any other Confederate subject. When shall we cease to be slaves to European public opinion? What Europe does is more important than what Europe says. Her gracious compliments to Confederate valor are not an equivalent for the recruits which she furnishes to Federal armies. Even the laudations of her principal journals are so equally distributed between both sides that it is easy to see she only desires to encourage the continuance of the war till both are incapable of any further influence upon the destinies of mankind. We cannot put away from our lips the cup of blood which has been forced upon us; but we may at least turn a deaf ear to the flatteries of our fortitude, uttered by those who have long prepared the draught, and who gloat over the hope of our destruction.
