Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-06-17

To 1o Editors Of the Daily Press: .
Since the Goth of April last l have been
regularly in and about this city and Camp
Dennison. have been in position enabling
me TO make daily observations on those
passing. events now "casting their shadows
before"
AS bas always been the case in free com
munities, governed by politicians, blunder-
ing and stolidity have been the rule, even
hey ond most known precedents, even of
Spanish follies, which have hitherto been
most prominent among those committed by
nations supposed to be within the pale of
ancient and modern civilization. Saying
nothing at present of follies and blunders
committed and in course of commission,
there is an omission which has been fire..
quently referred to, without seeming to
excite any attention on the part of our
General OF State Governments or the people
That omission, which, if persevered in, must
result in terrible and IEost fatal results, is
the almost entire absence of any effort to
establish at least twenty batteries of light
artillery, Of six guns each. If the General
or Stste Governments will not supply this
Ito be) absolute necessity, the cities and
counties should lose no time in doing so.
Civil wars ever have and ever will be i'm
mediate and dire progenitors of mutinies
and mobs.
The witty demsgogue and street bully of
peace (more especially the frst) is the mobo-
crat and mutineer in war, and to repel them
successfully other arms are necessary than
the revolver and the rife. One single bat
terry of six light guns and howitzers has
always been more effective in case of mob
or a mutiny than six thousand well. appointed
infantry troops, to say nothing of cavalry,
which are but partially effective in a city
brawl, and must be fatally exposed to a hid
den fire.
There is no more perfect example of a
moral and military lesson of the highest
order, than that given by Napoleon in his
hrst, and indeed greatest, achievement of
quelling the Paris mob in defense of the
National Convention. No other was ever
necessary while he remained in power And
Charles X and Louis PHILIPPE, had they had
sufficient moral courage, might have died on
the throne of France by following his ex-
ample.
Cincinnati, at this moment, would be
about as bad without her fire department as
without an efficient regiment of light artil-
lery. There are, in the city, men of mill.
tary education, not now disposed 10 go into
our present military or militia organization,
who are competent to- organize and instruct
this artillery, one.companyhof which, prop
erly appointed, would, in an emergency, be
worth more than all the Home Guard on
which the corporation could rely.
Without cavalry and artillery an army in
the field is next 10 useless in more respects
than one, and the city is, at any time, sub
ject to ruin and destruction irretrieVable
till the war is Over-a war which, for the
want of such an arm as artillery, may be
as disastrous and disgraceful in its progress
as terrible in its results. Let, then, the
city, or the merchants of the city, act in this
matter. Ample material and abundance of
horses can now be had. Men of intelli-
gence and reliable principles are, by hun
dreds, out of employment, and the wealth
of the city, if not devoted to some such OBJ
ject, may come to much worse one at best.