Ellsworth American

Be True and Hopeful.

What we all want at this time, is a hopeful trust that all will end well with the government in its efforts to crush the rebellion. Distrust of our rulers, of our Generals in command and of our final success, is not only wrong, but almost criminal when viewed in the light of the present crisis of our imperilled country. The President, the Cabinet, the leading Generals, the country, all demand from all of us a hopeful trust, and a generous confidence, in ultimate success. The impatience of the people, to the extent of constant fault-finding with every trifling matter, is a weakness that should be guarded against. It is all wrong. Give all holding important trusts, time to consummate their plans before bringing them to the block. One swallow does not make a summer, says the adage. One partial defeat, nor a brilliant victory, will neither mar nor make the success of the Union cause certain. Whatever we may think or say to the contrary, there has been a steady advance of the Union cause for nine months past. We have met with reverses, it is true; and some of our officers in command have failed to meet public expectation. We have thought that the President was too slow and too cautious; and have been ready and willing to think and to say, that the Cabinet lagged far behind the public feeling and expectations, while all the time the good cause has been steadily progressing, and the end of the rebellion has been growing nearer and nearer. Events have been hastening to an end with rapidity for the past year. With how much rapidity, we fail to estimate, when we are complaining of slowness. We could hardly believe, ourselves, until we stopped to think, that the capture of Fort Donelson and Henry, occurred only last February. We put it off a year longer. Our own case may be but a sample of many others.

Then, we are prone to give more importance, to what may be termed great matters, than we are warranted in doing. This country has vindicated its claim to be considered as something more than a puling child. Twenty millions of people, even if a quarter of them are in silent sympathy with the rebellion, are not so easily "smashed up," to use a common expression. The hopes and destiny of this great country are not centred in one man, nor a half a dozen men. General McClellan hoed out his row, and gracefully retired when desired, to let another attempt to accomplish what he had in vain essayed to do. The country still lives. It will live, and the cause of the Union and of humanity will steadily go on, if Burnside fails. The man will assuredly be had, at the right time, who will lead the country safely out of its present difficulties. It may be Burnside, or it may be another. The government will withstand all this commotion and be eventually saved. The men who despond, and the presses that predict nothing but defeats, are injuring the country and are benefitting the rebels only.