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The Prospects of Peace.

There can be no peace until the rebels lay down their arms and yield obedience to the laws. At what precise point of time this event will happen, cannot, of course, be told, but that it will happen soon may not be doubted. It is thought by many that our retreat from Manassas will prolong the contest, but in this opinion we do not coincide. That it will serve to galvanize the rebellion into spasmodic activity will not be questioned, but it must also be borne in mind that the same affair has added an hundred fold to the war spirit of the loyal States and has inaugurated military reforms and set on foot military movements before which treason cannot long continue to stand. The tremendous strength of the Government will now be put forth and will prove resistless. The traitors have learned that Northern patriots, in equal numbers and an open field are far more than their match, and when once driven from their strong holds and forced to open encounter, their defeat is, in every engagement, almost certain. — Secession, though at first an angry and swolen stream, sweeping State after State into its mad current, is subsiding as rapidly as it rose. The brilliant hopes of a peaceful separation are dispelled by the presence of hundreds of thousands of Federal soldiers on Southern soil. — There is no divided North to aid rebellion. Not a single European Government recognizes the Southern Confederacy. Southern ports are blockaded and all trade out off with the North and with foreign countries. And, above all, treason has discovered that Cotton is not King — The reverse of all this was the foundation upon which Secession supposed it was building a grand Southern Confederacy. The foundation is gone, or, rather, never was laid, and the rickety fabric of treason cannot long withstand the shock of war. The rebel treasury is empty, and there are no capitalists to whom traitors can go and borrow. Even the slave-holders, for whose benefit the rebellions was started, refuse to furnish the required aid. Forced loans will have to be resorted to, and then discontent will show itself. Indeed the murmurs of dissatisfaction are already heard, and more than one leading secession paper has predicted failure under Davis, Stephens & Co. Already the traitors begin to contrast the happiness, prosperity and honor they enjoyed a few months ago in the Union, with the misery, the disgrace, and the ruin that overwhelm them now, and pride alone keeps them back from a public acknowledgement of the commission of a fatal mistake. It is against rebel pride alone that we are now contending. In addition to the pride of section, almost every Southern family has some relation in the rebel army, and pride takes alarm last defeat or disgrace overtakes those so dear to them. Right skillfully has Jeff. Davis played upon these private heartstrings, and the music that followed his touch has been the clinking and jingling of silver and gold. The gold and the silver are gone, but the pride remains. Crush out this pride and rebellion is ended. A few decisive Union victories will accomplish this work. When the prestige of Southern valor has faded before the greater prowess of the North, and when it is shown that there is more of true chivalry, more of honor and more of humanity in our Northern soldiers than in those of the South, then Southern pride will give way, for it is only upon the supposed invincible bravery and chivalry of the rebels that this pride is based. The great mass of the Confederate army have no hatred toward the Government of the United States, but, on the other hand, were they free to express their honest sentiments they would confess to an affection for it. But they have so often heard it said that one Southerner was equal to five Yankees in battle that they have really come to believe it, and they have become traitors more for the purpose of proving that superiority than for any thing else. Take this starch out of them — convince them that this is a fatal delusion and that Yankee grit is equal if not superior to any in the wo rld, and they will be far from fighting or voting for a Southern Confederacy or separate nationality. With the great mass of the Southern people this war is waged more for a trial of strength and courage than for any purpose to destroy the Union. Let the North prove in both her superiority and peace will at once be restored.