The New York herald., 1862-12-31

F-~'~asSf WV ~ 10 oihD VI sAAoSS AA1sSAAi
tent pauses in the storm which precede another
violent commotion among the elements. East
and West the opposing forces involved in this
tremendous struggle are at too many points
drawn up face to face to suppose that they can
continue more than a few days longer idly
watching each other True, the policy of the
rebels is delay, or q "masterly Inactivity" in
the hope of European Intervention, on of great
advantages to them from discords and divisions
in the loyal North. But, while delay is thus
manifestly the policy of the rebellion, this
same delay warns us, If we longer persist in it,
of the inevitable destruction of the Union, with
all the disastrous conse quences of universal
anarchy,
With its active armed land forces In the field,
amounting to eight hundred thousand men, and
with navy-salt and fresh water-which We
estimate as equal to land force Of half mil
lion of men, the government has the
forces in hand competent to put down
this rebellion within sixty days. We
think, too, that the administration is at
length impressed with the idea, to some extent,
that great as are the military forces, resources,
appliances and facilities of all kinds possessed
BY the loyal States, and strong as is their devo-
ton to the Union, we must use all these ad-
vantages now in the achievement of some
great results, or our cause is lost. If President
Lincoln could only fully realize the important
fact that all our great military failures from the
begin ming may be traced to the blundering and
intriguing managers Of the war at Washington,
we might reasonably expect from complete
reorganization of things at headquarters, .
speedy suppression of the last ragged regiments
Of this rebellion.
To secure a reconstruction of the Cabinet,
and new and practical war programme, as
the greet essentials to military success, this
journal has earnestly labored, and especially
since the late effort of the abolition disorgan-
izers to supplant the present able and satisfao-
tory Secretary of State as the responsible party
for the latest disaster to our army in Virginia.
We hold that to the abolition faction and its
malign influences in the councils Of the Cabinet
and in the management Of the war may justly
be charged this disaster, and all the others
suffered by our armies in Virginia, back
to and including our first and most shameful
defeat at Bull run. That battle at three o'clock
in the afternoon was q Union victory, which
was changed = a defeat by the arrival at the
critical moment Of five thousand fresh troops
to the rebels. There were no reinforcemonts
for General Mcdowell, although there were
forty thousand Union soldiers in the background,
scattered along from Washington up the She
nandoah valley.
In the same blundering way, the next sue
ceeding summer, fifty or sixty thousand men
were sent off on wild goose chase up the She
nandoah valley, whom, If one-half of them had
been seasonably thrown forward into the army
of General Mcclellan, he would have celebrated
the last Fourth of July in the rebel capital. In
the same blundering way Gen. Mcclellan and
his army were recalled from . strong position
and = sure base of operation within twenty-five
miles Of Richmond, while General Pope was
sent forward inland, with some forty thousand
troops, to hold at bay the rebel army advancing
upon Washington Of at least one hundred and
fifty thousand men. By the same blundering
management at Washington twelve thousand
men, sixty pieces ofartillsry and corresponding
amount Of ammunition and other warlike stores
were turned over 70 the enemy at Harper's
Ferry while General Mcclellan was advancing
upon the main rebel army at Antietam. And
so on to Fredericksburg, where, from tho crimi-
nal delay at Washington in sending forward
his pontoon trains to General Burnside, the
rebels were given sufficient time to prepare
their terrible lines Of defensive works, which,
with the loss of ten thousand men, our gallant
army essayed in vain to carry.
In other quarters our land and naval forces
have gained important victories, and the greater
the distance from Washington the greater have
been their successes. The conclusion is inevi-
table, from these facts alone, that our repeated
defeats and failures within the immediate circle
of the controlling influences at Washington are
due to those'mischievous influences, and to the
stupidity Of the grand schemes and combina-
tions Of the War Office, and to the general
negligence, confusion, looseness and want of
system there prevailing. These things we would
impress upon the mind Of President Lincoln.
We would also admonish him that the country
is dissatisfied with the existing discordant Cabi-
net and Incompetent management of the War
and Navy departments at Washington, and
that nothing short of an active and successful
winter campaign will meet the just demands
and expectations Of the country.
The people Of the loyal States are becoming
impatient under military requisition of three
millions of dollars day, They are inquiring,
while call is quiet on the Rappahannock, /" What
are they about at Washington! We UNDER
stand that the inevitable nggsr, who has been
the absorbing question and our greatest en-
barrassment there from the beginning Of the
war, still continues to rule the roast, and that
General Burnside is most probably standing
still to await the experiment Of the expected
emancipation proclamation Of New Years Day.
As the last card Of the abolition Jacobins, they