nemy has
been obliged to resort to forced conscription, and to declare every man
within its limits a soldier, while we have not as yet had recourse to
drafting; nor, as the late sudden call showed, nearly exhausted our
volunteers. A thousand, and even fifteen hundred dollars have been
offered in Virginia newspapers for a substitute, and yet behind this
there has followed an Executive order for enrolling every man in the
army whether he have purchased a substitute or not. 'Our flag floats
over Nashville and Natchez, over Memphis and New-Orleans, over Norfolk
and Pensacola, over Yorktown and Newbern.' We have girded them in on the
Mississippi, on the Atlantic, and on the Gulf. We know that they are
destitute of almost every thing save mere food and arms, and that every
month sinks them deeper and deeper in destitution and misery. The war is
on their own soil, and their own armies are a scourge and a curse to
their own estates. Every where the plantation and the farm are made
desolate--every where the direst distress is taking the place of
comfort. And all this they brought on themselves by the most determined
will. They believed that Northern men were all cowards and
half-traitors--their allies and friends among us promised them easy
victories and certain independence--they thought that the greed of money
was stronger among us than the sense of dignity and honor--and now they
are reaping their reward.

Yet despite the bitter need into which they have brought themselves, it
does not seem that those of the South who are in earnest have lost any
of their desperation, or gained a better opinion of their foes. Their
journals still trumpet the loudest lies and the mass still believe that
sooner or later their shattered bark will outride the battle and the
storm, and float safely into the broad sea of independence. Would that
they could see the North as it is, in all its comparative prosperity,
with millions still left to volunteer, and with thousands of foreigners
eagerly seeking for places in the fray. We have found it necessary to
instruct our ministers and consuls abroad that we can not accept for the
present any more of the many military officers of different nations who
desire to fight for the stars and stripes. We have money in abundance,
and there is no flinching at taxation--indeed, the great source of
apprehension at present is an excess of 'flush times' such as is too apt
to bring on a reaction. When the war broke out