THE WESTERN STATES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXI, Issue 1189, 28 January 1864, Page 2

THE WESTERN STATES.

(FROM Tim TIMES aIM'X'JAL (JOIUtESPOKDEST.) CrNci.NNATr, Ohio, Sept. 30. While the issue? of this great American civil war are pending on the banks of the Tennessee river, a no less momentous political contest is about to come off in this State of Ohio,the results of which will have no slight weight on the general destinies of the country. The 12th of October has been appointed for the election of the Governor and other State authorities here, and the choice of a head of the State lies between the Eepublican, Mr. B rough, and Mr. Vallandigham, the leader of the Democratic party, now banished beyond the limits of the American Union, and living in retirement at Windsor, in Western Canada, opposite to Detroit. That same 12th of October will be election day in Pennsylvania' no less than in Ohio, and the turn of New York will come in the ensuing November. Yet the tug of war, it is felt on all sides, is to be seen in this western region, and it is to Ohio that all the inter-States look up for a casting vote in this long debate between parties. It is on account of the great .interest attached to the Ohio election, that I deem it expedient to tarry in and about Cincinnati till the great day is over. I have hitherto been endeavouring to spell out and define in my mind the various cognizances and denominations by which men in this country descend into the political arena, and think the time has come when I may lay before the j reader all I fancy I know upon the subject, not only as to the aims and views of the different parties, but also as to their relative strength, their chances of victory or defeat. The broadest distinction between the political men of the Northern part of the Dis-United States is that between " Eepublicans," or supporters of the Administration, and " Democrats," or opposition men. The former are divided into Conservative or Moderate Eepublicans, and Radicals, or Black Eepublicans. The Conservatives are Union-men at heart; sticklers for their " great" country and their constitution. They think the war should be carried on to the full restoration of the Union; they deem themselves in duty bound to stand by the Government so long as it is striving after the primary and most essential object; but, for the rest, they do not go with it through thick and thin; they profess no transcendant admiration for Mr. Lincoln and his Cabinet, disapprove many of their measures, and think that many of their decrees and proclamations should have no greater weight than so much waste paper. They must have the Union at all price, however, if possible, with due acknowledgement of State rights, with due regard to the interests of the South, with the least possible violation of the laws and the constitution, with the [ least possible prolongation of this disastrous war, —but, at any rate, the Union. Men of this stamp are, on principle, abolitionists, but ready to put down slavery, or to put up with it as may best be conducive to the interests of the Union, and the pacification of the country.

The Radical Republicans are anti-slavery men above all things. They talk a great deal about the Union, but at the top of all their thoughts is the " everlasting Nigger." They are for " war to the bitter end," mid shrink from the close of hostilities as a mad dog dreads and shuns water. They hope by two or three years' hard fighting to overrun the whole South, to lay it waste, to break the chains of the blacks by the utter ruin of the whites, to recolonize the desolated land, to reorganise the culture of the soil on the principle of free labor.' If this scheme be feasible they will carry it on so long as the North has a man or a dollar for the purpose. Were their aim unattainable and the South strong enough to resist all attempts at subjugation, they would rather let it go ; they would rather accept the inevitable separation than come to terms with slaveholders, and be partakers of that iniquity which, as they think, has been the disgrace of their Republic, and has now wrought out this terrible war. The men of this party are staunch to their Government after their own fashion. They carp and snarl at and find fault with it a good deal; they urge it on fretfully, rancorously; they damn it for excessive tenderness and lukewarmness, and intimate to it at every moment that " whoever is not with them is against them."

The Democrats are also classified into several sects aud fraternities, according as they are or declare themselves more or less decided Unionists and peace men. The only rallying point among the.Republicans is the Government. The only subject oil which the Democrats are truly of one mind is hostility to the Government. They all think that the war might and should from the beginning have been avoided; they charge the Government with having plunged the country into it by sheer intolerance and precipitance. A war begun upon flimsy pretences, and from vain punctilios, they think, is now perpetrated from mere obstinacy, from craven instinct of self-preservation, from blind inability to get out of a scrape. This war is, in their estimation, the ruin of the country, physical and moral ruin, political aud financial destruction. They lay upon the rulers at Washington all its shocking mismanagement, its awful waste of human life, its ruinous expenditure; they lay to their charge the choice of inefficient generals, the removal of able leaders, iu obedience to paltry views of mean jealousy or bliud party predilection. They blame them for the disastrous state of the national finances, for the reckless tampering with the currency, by which the country has been brought to the brink of bankruptcy. They charge them with the most flagrant abuse of power, with numberless arbitrary arrests, utter disregard of the most sacred rights of property, gagging of the press, interference with the right of meeting, violation of State rights, outrages against the Constitution. They expose them or their subalterns for flagitious contracts, shameless embezzlement of the public money, every variety of dirty jobs and dishonest transactions. Whatever may happen to the country, the first thing, according to the Democrats of every denomination, is to withdraw it from the power of Abe Lincoln and his associates. The ground must be fought against them inch by inch till the expiration of their term of power, and every nerve must be strained so as to secure their downfall at the next Presidential election.

So far the Democrats agree tolerably well, and, although a new set has sprung up, who go by the name of " "War Democrats," and who are inclining to the views of the Moderate or Conservative Bepublicans, it may be taken for granted that, under present circumstances, the word "Democrat " in this part of America is synonymous with Peace man; only there are some of these peacemen who think that the blessings of peace

may be obtained compatibly with the n.. i servation of the Union; there are ' who think that the South has seceded rjl all reconciliation, and that all hopes ot *' restoration of the old republic must be <ri V( ,' up. b ( ' n Such being, as far as long contemplate of the subject enables me to make out 1 state of men's minds in this country 'wit'] respect to the great crisis through whid, !

is now passing, it may not be diJli<Mt]t t forecast the chances of the forthcomiu! election for the State of Ohio. Democrat* and Eepublicans are of course equally f . o)] fident as to its results; but there is lit|] e doubt that the latter are far more sanguis and more boastfully sure of their game than the former. Admitting for one moment that the two antagonistic parties are as near a . possible balanced, the Republicans would still have all the engines of power and 0 f Government patronage on their side. The country at large is weary of the war, doubt! less, and the lower classes, upon whom mainly fall the tribute of blood, are out of sorts and mutinous, and flatly refuse to "he driven like bullocks into the slaughter-pen."' But among the well-to-do classes, especially in the cities, the war has been the source of enormous gains, the signal for the rise of p ro . digious fortunes. The State of Ohio, like all other Western States, as I hope to be able to prove in another letter, has suffered and is suffering grievously, it is paying with it* best blood the expenses of the ruinous war, But Cincinnati, Cleveland, and other town? have had the lion's share in the people's spoils. The few who have been enriched by the spoliation of the many see no objection to the prolongation, or even perpetuation, of the war; the real gainers by this great calamity are not numerous, but their dependants are legion, and their means extensive. Half-a-dozen stump orators, a couple of ranting, unprincipled papers are easily propitiated, and these lead the vast multitude wherever they list. The Union is an idol, exercising & prestige over the great mass of Americans, which seem to deprive them of all reasoning powers, making them deaf to all arguments, blind to all interests. The Government is for Union. All opposition is sheer secessionism, rank copperhead treason, criminal disloyalty.

Were the election conducted agreeably to fairplay principles, however, it is possible that the upshot might be considered doubtful. The cheek of Rosecrans on the frontier of Georgia, the forced inaction of Gilmore at Charleston, the ill-success of the Federal arms in Arkansas and Texas, have greatly sobered down some of the most furious Republicans ; the invasion of the vast Southern region seems even to them every day a less practicable undertaking; the war which Mr. Seward promised to conclude in three month will certainly stretch far beyond the limits of the third year; there is no reason why it may not reach the thirtieth. The beginning of the end is no nearer than at the outset, and men are not forthcoming to fill the ranks, and gold is up at 143 J, and the pecuniary resources of the country are waxing lower and lower. Discontent, vague and unspoken, is creeping among the lower orders, even of those who profess themselves stanch supporters of the present rulers. The Irish are all arrant Democrats, —indeed, furious Secessionists; but the Germans, who were almost all on the other side, are now greatly divided among themselves. Their tribute in blood has been the heaviest ; one of the regiments recruited here was almost entirely cut down the Sunday before last near Chattanooga. There is mourning at every second German door at Cincinnati, and people begin to ask at last what is the use of all this sacrifice, what its object, what its result r The rabid Radicals are far more dangerous to Mr. Lincoln and his Cabinet than the meek and sober Democrats. They have already forced him into many an impolitic, inhuman, impracticable measure. They daily become more overbearing, more exacting. Their violence and intolerance hnow no limits. The members of the Cabinet are already depasses, outsped by rabid demagogues ; not all the members, however, tor some of them, at least, have the ranters on their side, and they strive to outwit, to outrun, to overreach their colleagues in the race, preparing against the day when the Lincoln boat is to be swamped, when the cleverest of the crew will be those who ti»t rat from it.