The Portland daily press., 1862-12-08
An Accommodating Belief.


while. but finally stumbled on the doctrine of
original sin. She didn't see why she was to
suffer for the sin of Adam, and the efforts of
her teacher proved all unavailing her curly
hair obstinately refusing to let the dogma PEN
citrate But things took lucky turn. The
simple African was made the recipient of
peculiar kindness at the hand of her pastor,
and she was only tooeager to make grateful re-
turn for the favor received. She sought her kind
beneiactor, and with countenance eate with
10Y and eyes dilated with gratitude, she ex-
claimed, sBress de Lord, b'leeyes-I b'leeves
In Adams sim 5leeves in Adams fader's
sim b'leeves in every body's sin-I b'leeyes
de catechsm, questions and aUi''
We find parallel for this honest old wo-
mans accommodating gbeliefin Saturday num-
Der of the Advertiser, in an article headed,
ave believe in all of them" The aecommo-
dating writer says:
With scarce an exception, we have believed
religiously i'm all the Union commanders of
the higher grades--Scott, Mcclellan, Haeck,
Burnside, Banks, Sgel, Mitchell, Pope, Hent-
zelman, Hooker. Fitz John Porter, Sumner,
Smith. Kearney, Mcdowell, Buell., Rosecrans,
Stahl, Stoneham, Lyon-what glorious list
of names to which Others might be added! !!
Yes, we have believed in them ALL
Such swallowing belief, taking in men of
opposing views; placing Mcdowell on level
with Mcclellan, and embracing men in whom
the soldiery have lost confidence, and whom
the heads of the government have been COM
PEELED to displace, like Buell. for instance may
seem almost Incredible, but the closing para
graph of the article referred to explains away
the difficulty:
We repeat that, with scarce an exception,
we believe in all our chief communicative
believe in them separately however, and not
together. One poor general is better than two
good ones.
One general in the field, only one, with no
military or ciril superior-this is what our be-
lieving neighbor demands:
An army should have but one commander,
and Mcclellan should have been left to him
self. Ii it be Burnside let ii be he alone; don't
add Iialleck; much less add Lincoln and
StdReoR.
There's doctrine to be enunciated in re-
publican goyernment;-in a government OPP
posed to the " one man power" opposed to
AACOlGiidU nave
been left to hiaseyr'! Don't add Halleck,
much less Lincoln and Stanton, Here is
reverence for the Constitution! Lincoln is
made, by the Constitution ITSELF the Comman-
der-in-Chief Of the army and navy, but the ac-
tive General in the field must ignore him, be
superior to him, be left alone by him, and if
not left alone entirely, at all events he must
not be interlered with by Presidents or Cabi-
nets! Verify, despotism is reached by short
and easy strides But then our neghbor is in
believing mood, believes In " eyerybody's
sin" except Commanding Generals, or the one
who happens to be at the head of armed bat
talions. Another quotation:
If Burnside is not the man, then send Hal
leck, Fremont, Banks, or whoever may be the
man.-
That looks all very fair, but let us look at it
In the light of that STRAY CLEAN of fire" which
of late has been SO marked a feature in the
columns of our cotemporary. A short time
since the President became convinced that the
general at the head of the army in Virginia
was mot the man. and he sent Burnside
"Halleck, Fremont or Banks"-to take COM
mand. How did the gentleman who wrote
the above solidly printed lines treat this act of
the President? Ifthe reader will turn to the
Advertiser Of Nov. 22, he will find an article
headed The next Step" from which he will
obtain an answer to this question. That arti-
Gle opens as follows:
In our issue of the Both Of Sept. last, we al
luded to the insatate demands of the aboli-
tionists upon the President, and TO the fact
that, having succeeded in the "pressure" for
an Emancipation Proclamation, he
would be followed ply the same abolition
influence, and be required, as "A NEXT STEP"
to remove Gen. MCCLELLAN and install Gen.
Fremont in his place. The "next
step they have so far succeeded in, accord
ing to our predictions of their plans, as 10 re-
move Gen. Mcclellan from command; and as
foreshadowing OF their still further success,
1t is announced that Gen. Fremont has al
ready been summoned to Washington" &c.
The above extract shows the honesty of
recommending to the President TO displace
commanders If mot the men" for their posi-
tions; and the fling at Fremont shows still fur
ther the honesty of the intilnation that his
promotion to the chief command would be ad-
visable, ifto the President he shall seem to be
the man for the place. 1t may not be improp-
er here to state that Gen. Fremont, in the
above held up as the embodyment and incar-
nation Of "aboltionisn," and the only one to
satisfy the unsuitable demands of the aboi-
tionists," is the same man whom the editor of
Advertiser once commended to the people of
Portland, and of whom he said:
''Of the three candidates for the Presidency.
Mr.. Fremont is the only one whose lips never
uttered-whose breath has never been tainted
with this unpatriotic desire for dissolution
OF the Union, in any event. No affinity for
such thought has ever been heard even in
whispers from him. Nay God has not made
the elements OF his being with such iTregulari-
ty OF action as even to permit him to dream.
in the widest wanderings of his intellect when
asleep, sentiment SO abhorrent to his pafri-
otic heart as that of possible dissolution OF
this glorious Union.
And as often as needful, the oath which Jack
son added to the constitutional oaths preserib-
ed by the constitution TO be taken by the Pres.
ident OF the Union for its preservation. will be
taken anew and fulfilled. Ave- the opponents
OF John g. Fremont's election know we'll that
he, too, will take upon his soul, as chief Mag
istrate OF the Union, that same determined
and great oath,-"BY THE ETERNAL-THE
UNION MUST AND SHALL BE PREsERvEDm
We make this depression. exhibiting as il
does the estimation in which Fremont was bu
recently held by the present Hon. editor o.
the Advertiser, differing from Buchanan anC
Fillmore, the other parties to the trinity of cand
dates referred to, in that his lips had never ut
tered, his breath had never been tainted witt