Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-09-16
The Government and General Fremont
The Coming Man.

have been, in respect to the disapproval of
his proclamation by the Government, and of
his displacement from his Western COM
mand, there is enough in the symptoms of
General Fremonts case to lead to the suspi-
cion that there is something between him
and the Administration besides the utmost
cordiality and kindness of feeling. This is
a fact which, in spite of the denisls-as des
titute of apparent authority as the allega-
tions-seems to reside in the common con-
sciousness and is as visible in the touchy
and captious paragraphs that are put forth in
his favor, as in the equally touchy and cap
tious ones that are put forth upon the other
side. Whether this want of cordiality will
lead to an ultimate disruption between him
and the Government is question which
they who can afford to wait had better leave
to the future to determine.
1t is a real disadvantage to all our rising
men-General Fremont as well as others
that large class of the people seem resolutely
determined to take them upon trust: to con-
fer fame upon them before they have earned
it. Amid the excitements and apprehensions
which this war has occasioned-in which
nothing is so manifest as the inadequacy to
| its exigencies of our politicians and men in
| public life-there is general disposition to
| look up to every new man as the right one
| and to create upon the foundation of our ig-
norance of his real qualities, NEUROLOGICAL
hero, endowed with every attribute that for
| the time being, is thought to be desirable.
Whenever men are in trouble-which always
happens when the present man is not up to
the times-the world looks instinctively and
earnestly for him who "was to come" 1t
implicitly believes in the maxim that when
the exigency arrives, the man will rise who
is destined to meet it; and consequently is
ready to accept whoever puts on the aspect
which it had imagined he would present. 1t
forgets that the true Messiah always appears
amid crowd of false onesi and that he
is usually the last of oil to gain recognition
and worship from the multitude.
We do not certainly know that General
Fremont is not the man for the emergency;
and that is, at this time, about the sum and
extent of our knowledge. He may be the
man; but all except his partisans--for Gen
eral Fremont has already plenty of parti-
sans, as confding, as faithful and as unscru-
pulous as partisans generally are-will be
willing to admit that he may not. We
really know but little about him; and that
little is of a character to appear very differ
emily in the eyes of different person; as, for
example:
General Fremont has taken the response
bility." He has not waited to ask leave,of
the Administration, or to consult with it
but has gone on, examining the case, de-
termining what to do, and overriding all
rules, laws and official formalities, in pre-
pairing the means to do it.
Now we may as we'll state here, that we
do not know, neither does the public, that
General Fremont has done this. He may
have acted in implicit obedience to orders
from his superiors, in every thing he ha
done; but it is the opinion of his friends
and this is the ground of their admiration
for him, that he is acting with little regarC
to laws or instructions. 1t is what his oppo
nents charge, and what his admirers admi
!. and applaud; and, therefore, we accept it a
proven. Whether the real Fremont is al
outlaw and usurper or not, the mythologi
cal Fremont is both and, strange as it ma.
seem in an American people, it is upon thi
ground that he is trusted and admired.
We admit, to the fullest extent, the doc
t1ine that when Government is threatened
with destruction, the magnitude of the dan
ger is the measure of the efforts that shoul
, be made to avert it, The fact of the Govern
ment is of greater value than any of its sub
sidiary institutions; and when that is in jeop
ardy, the law OF necessity overrides a
= others, however conventionally sacred the
. may have been esteemed. But this doctrin
J, does not justify an inferior officer in actin
t independently of the Government unde
3 which he holds his position; nor will th
e people Of the United States, in their cools
moments, approve of such acts, nor entertai
E permanent feelings of respect for the man b
whom they are committed.
Whether or NOT, therefore, General FRI
It mont has assumed to act independently
e the Government his friends do him an injur
by presenting him in that aspect; and
: they are, at the same time friends Of Gener
Fremont and of the Administration, they Al
doing more injury to the latter by sanction
ing disrespect to its authority than could
done by all the newspaper organs of Sece
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