Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1861-09-04

management OF puoHc aHals, reSaruiess as IL Is OF
constitutional obligations, and considerations Of
sound public policy I" The King can do no
wrong" is now the maxim of the Republican
party. The infaIlibility Of Mr. LINCOLN and his
Cabinet must not be questioned, for the reason
that they are clothed with official authority
wear the robes of Office Who is Mr.. LINCOLN,
that his judgment should be deferred to implicit
ly in this crisis Of our country? Is he any more
wise. sagaciors OF patriotic than thousands upon
thousands of the citizens of Indiana2 Has he
any more claim to public confidence and respect
lis he any more capable of Judging the true pol
icyof the country than any other citizen who has
had his attention directed to public affairs? And
what has CALEB B. SMITH, one of his constitu-
tioual advisers, ever done TO command the conf
dence of the people of Indianal Must the free
and enlightened citizens of the State defer their
judgment to such men. and implicitly and blind
" follow their lead2 In all seriousness, we ask
every man who may read this article. whether he
does not feel himself just as competent to judge
as to the policy that should direct in the pres
ent crisis Of our country, as the men who have
been accidentally placed at the head of public af
fairs? Are the people capable of self-govern-
ment, or have they suddenly become incompetent
since the advent of the Republican party into
powerl But this current of thought, although
not inappropriate, was not the purpose We had in
view in indictng this article. We have been
charged with disloyalty to the Government be-
cause we have dared to question the wisdom. the
integrity and the efficiency of the Administration in
all things. Mob law has been threatened TO in
timidate US, for no other reason than that we
doubted whether LINCOLN and his Cabinet could
comprehend the true condition of public affairs
the exigencies of the country-and could prop
erly and effectively meet the great crisis. But
what is considered by our Republican friends a
crime in US, is no. only tolerated. but is regarded
as great virtue in those of different political
faith. A leading Republican contemporary, in al
luding to the disasters which have happened to our
armies east and west, says:
The result. let it be explained as it NAV, and
palllated as it my, shows strange feebleness or
folly somewhere in our Administration. We do
not know that it is in the War Department IL
seems 10 perrdde the rhole concern. In the Navy
Department matters are still worse. There we
had every advantage None of them have been
used except so inefiicently as TO actually endan-
ger our relations with other maritime powers.
Has any Democratic paper ever made more Bit
ter and perhaps truthful charges against the Ad-
ministration-the feebieness or folly which seems
to pervade the whole concern-than those? If we
had said the same things editorally or copied such
article from the New York Day Book, instead
of the Indianapolis Journal the organ of Gov.
MORTON, we have no doubt indignant Republicans
would have attempted to make bonfire of our
Office. Yet the same journal charges us with
treason-with disloyalty to the Government-for
much less offensive attacks upon the "feebeness
or folly which have thus far characterized the
Republican Administration. But this is not the
only attack that Gov MoRroN's paper has made
upon Mr.. LINCOLN and his Cabinet, whom it
recognizes as the Government. From late issue
we make the following elegant extracts:
The President has acted a good deal as if the
army were no particular portion of his business,
though affair of interest enough to induce him
to go out and look at it once in a while. He has
reviewed the troops few times, and visited their
camps for few moments probably dozen times
But we have no information at all that he busted
himself to find out or improve the condition OF
the men. .
The army is to be the salvation of the country
if it is to be saved, and the President could do
nothing more judicous or graceful than to give
his presence and help to the proper and diSci
pline of the soldiers. Men have suffered tor food
within FIVE miles of Washington. Whole resi-
ments have been nearly in mutny because their
clothes were rags and their food rotten. a visit,
not of parade but aid, from the President, and
word to a commissary, would sootiie the men and
E0rfrN 10
1t is not necessary for him to play Cromwell
and drill the men, or curse the commssaries, him
self, but is necessary, rather it would be very
beneficial, for him to be among the men so much
that he would know how they were drilled, and
see il the clothing and food fell short of the
standard, if their doctors were attentive, and
camps clean. At
Fort Monroe there are two regiments actually
srorthless so worthless that portion of each has
been taken out of the field, and they have become
so solely because nobody has cared for them
Their food has been abOminable, their camps fiji
thy, their clothing rotten. Their officers in dis
gust have resigned, and the men, sick and with
out officers, are disorganzed. What
is true of the President is true of the Cabinet
What he can do they can do, in some cases bet
ter than he. But Secretary Cameron is too busy
settling the conflicting claims of his friends for
army contracts and laying out anchors 10 pull
round Presidential nomination by, to bother
himself about the clothing and food of the men
whose courage alone gives him the means OF keep
ing his place. Webers regiment at Newport
News is let 90 10 pieces for want of care which
would not have taken more than two DAYS of the
Secretary's time. The Pennsylvania 4th reg-
nent goes home on the very day OF BATTLE and
from the field of battle, marching to the sound of
the guns that were slaughterng their associates,
because they were cheated in clothing, starved in
food, and glad to be at the end of a service that
was long abuse. The Secretary could have had
that regiment, and all the regiments az Washing
ton, well cared for, if he had been as anxious
about it as he about getting contracts distri-
buted to suit him. 1t IS true that such personal
inspection of the army is not his duty. But could
not he have gone a little outside the red tape
lines OF routine 10 do SO great service p?
We beg the reader to remember that these
structures upon the competency and honesty of
the men who now represent the Government, are
from Republican paper, Gov. MoRroS's paper.
They are not Democratic structures If we had
tried we could not have said meaner and perhaps
more truthful things Of the men, who unfortu-
nately at the present time and under the grave
circumstances which surround us, arc placed at
the head of public affairs No wonder that East
ern capitalists demand renovation Of the Cabi-
net as condition of their aiding the Government
with money to sustain it. LINCOLN is the most
feeble, but perhaps the most honest of the whole
concern There is not member Of his Cabinet
but who is his superior Intellectually, but in moral
qualities not one of them rises above the red tape
officials who have fastened like vampires upon
the public treasury. and whose only idea of Gov
eminent is machine to give them good living
OF out of which they make fortunes, neither
oe rb;ah tna,. no,,Id affair. IN hnnnrahIo a,.rna