Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 07.djvu/243

Rh a government and placed more than 200,000 men in the field with an adequate staff and commissariat. A still larger number of men are ready to take the field if it should become necessary, and experience has shown that the only limit to the disposition of the people to give what may be required for the war is to be found in their ability. The enemy, with greatly superior numbers, have been routed in pitched battles at Bethel and Manassas in Virginia, and their recent defeat at Springfield, Missouri, was almost as signal as that of Manassas. The comparatively little foothold which they have had in the Confederate States is gradually being lost, and after six months of war, in which they employed their best resources, it may truly be said they are much further from the conquest of the Southern States than they seemed to be when the struggle commenced. The Union feeling which was supposed to exist largely in the South, and which was known to us to be imaginary, is now shown in the true light to all mankind. Never were any people more united than are those of the Confederate States in their purpose to maintain their independence at any cost of life and treasure, nor is there a party to be found anywhere in these States which professes a desire for a reunion with the United States. Nothing could prove this unanimity of feeling more strongly than the fact that this immense army may be said to have taken the field spontaneously and faster almost than the Government could provide for its organization and equipment. But the voluntary contributions of the people supplied all deficiencies until the Government could come to their assistance, as it has done, with the necessary military establishments. And what is perhaps equally remarkable, it may be said with truth, that there has been no judicial execution for a political offence during the whole of the war, and so far as military offences are concerned our prisons would be empty if it were not for a few captured spies. Under these circumstances it would seem that the time has arrived when it would be proper in the Government of Great Britain to recognize our independence. If it be obvious that the Confederate States cannot be conquered in this struggle, then the sooner the strife be ended the better for the cause of peace and the interests of mankind. Under such circumstances, to fail to throw the great, moral influence of such a recognition into the scale of peace, when this may be done without risk or danger, may be to share in the responsibility for the longer continuance of an unnecessary war. This is a consideration which ought, perhaps, to have some weight