IS light, it has given a very decided advantage to the Rebels. They have had the inner and the shorter lines, and o^ course tne greater facility for the concentration of troops. Add again, that, owing to the structure of Southern society, Jeiferson Davis has been enabled to wield ihe resources of the rebellion with a despotic unity and rapidity of execution, which have not been practicable at the J^orth. His theory has been that of making a tremendous struggle in comparatively a short time, a very good theory if successful, yet exhausting and absolutely fatal if unsuccessful. It consumes the war-power of a people very rapidly, and soon brings them to the extremest limit of possible endurance. I doubt whether any people in the whole history of the world were ever pressed into so much military service in so short a time. Certainly nothing like it has been witnessed in the loyal States. So too, the institution of slavery enabled the Southern people to furnish a larger number of white soldiers in proportion to their population without essentially breaking up the industries of society, than could be supplied from the North. The black man remaining at home, and tilling the soil, was an element of military power ; and this is one reason why the contending armies were for a time so nearly equal in numbers. It is a good reason too, why the Government should strike at slavery, and by placing the black man on the side of the Union, seek to weaken the Rebels in this direction. Add once more, that in the outset the Rebels had a distinct, definite, and desperate policy, for which they were previously prepared. They started in their full strength. The loyal States, on the other hand, were for some time feeling after a policy. It took time for them to find out what they had to do, and then to prepare for doing it. The task grew upon their hands ; and it was not until they were thoroughly instructed by experience, that they fairly settled down to the deliberate business of war. It is true also, that in the commencement the Rebels had the advantage in the line of Generals. Circumstances had made them more of a military people than we were. It required time for the Government to lay its hands upon the right men to lead
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