Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1861-11-28
THE CITY OF WASHINGTON.

THE CITY OF WASHINGTON.
"A portion of the northern press, and
particularly some of the leading Republican
Journals of New York. are evidently desi-
roas of removing the Capitol to some other
point than Washington City, and are en-
deavoring to prepare the public mind for
the change. as the following article from
tie New York Duly Times, leading Re-
publican journal, will show:
4 We learn from Washington that severe
inconvenience is already felt in that city by
reason of the loss of the navigation of the
Potomac. The sole railroad line that re-
p,ains is wholly inadequate to the comforta-
Ole supply Of the population of the city and
;he vast army in its front. The pinch Of
This deprivation will grow more severe as
winter approaches, and may become dis
ltressing social evil. But this is triae to
SHAT would happen in certain, perhaps very
improbable, contingencies of the present
tnsurrection.
The events Of the war have tended to
reduce very much the admiration of the
Ipeople for their national seat of Government.
Nv ashington City has cost the Government
fdearly, SO dearly indeed that the Capitol,
sthe White House and all the public build
Iings there, might have been blown up or
abandoned at the beginieg of the war, with
la positive saving to the Government
saving not only of money, but of painful
papular anxiety
Washington has no strategical importance
! whatever, apart from its political character.
! As military camp it is an outpost merely.
The real base of the national army of the
Potomac is this side of the soil of Maryland.
1--WE communicate with it, or have been COM
Imunicating with it, by the Potomac river
and by one railroad possessing single
track. The navigation of the Potomac is
now annihilated, and the single track rail-
road is the sole plank that bridges the gulf
between the people and their Capitol. We
have only to recur to the events of the 10Th
jof April last to comprehend the worthless
mess Of that line of communication in case
tof serious disaster to the national cause
/ near Washington. The entire length of
the road lies in hostile territory, and so do
at least four score miles each of it's two con-
nections north of Baltimore. We may safe
ly say that the loyal North is separated
from the Capitol of the nation by gap of
10 miles of hostile territory, the railroad
me- snFvug swhieh ttoiieratedi tie son}y.-.
Let the smothered fires of rebellion break
out in Maryland-and we know how hot the
smouldering embers are-and the railroad
lines to Washington would snap like flax in
a fame
The nation has had two great rights for
Washington. The first, when the Balti-
more rebel mob forbade our Government to
march Union troops through that city, and
slew the men of Massachusetts, the second,
when the scattered regiments from Bull
Run sought shelter and food, from house to
house, on their return unarmed to the Cap
itol they had gone to defend. tits needless
to allude to the enormous cost of the extra
ordinary measures that were resorted to by
the Government, to protect Washington af-
ter these two calamitous panics Fortunate
ly, the disasters were repaired. The Poto-
mac remained open, aud the exhaustless
facilities of water transportation we're avail
able to the Government
How would it be now? Let us not be
misunderstood. We are not alarmists. -
We are not afraid for the safety of Wash
ington. We are simply considering the
situation. If Washington had fallen into
the hands of the rebels in April we should
have lost prestige only. The de facto Gov
ernment Of jeff. Davis, installed at Wash
ington, would have stood very much better
abroad. If it had been captured by Beau
regard after the battle of Bull Run, we
should have lost prestige as before, but we
should have lost also an entire army of 49,
600 men, and an incalculable amount of ar
tillery, small arms, ammunitions and stores
that had been gathered there for that army's
use. But let us lose Washington now, and
our loss would be we'll nigh remediless.
We have an army of near 200, 600 men de-
pending on Washington as its base The
guns. the ammunition, the horses, the wag-
ons, the clothing, the stores, for one of the
largest armies the world has ever seen, are
collected at Washington. And Washing
ton is in the heart of the enemy's country !;
and the main communication with the loyal
North is cut off. The other line of COM
munication is single track railroad, run
ming, as we have shown with its communi-
cations. 10 miles through a disloyal terri
tory. These are the facts of the case.
There may be no danger. With so great
an army as we have at Washington, we are
quite sure there ought to be none. But
many surprising and Notifying results
have been witnessed in this war; and re-
garding merely the possibilities of nation
al misfortune near Washington, all persons
must admit that in that one hazard-one
chance in a hundred perbaps-the people of
the loyrl States are paying far too dearly
for capitol on the banks of the Potomac
In the presence of battle, and in the heat
of conflict. it has been found stimulating to
push the ensigns of an army forward into
the very ranks of the enemy. Desperate
struggles will frequently be made, in such
cases, to recover the periled banners and
save the national honor. But we have no