The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1862-12-03
[ooNr1Nurn FROM FIRgr PAGE

CONTINUED FROM FRET PAGE.
original number attest the desperate
valor with which the confronted death.
Not with the rank and file is
the blame The leading There
has been the secret of failure.
With all the advantages of just cause
over our enemies, we have suffered them
TO Guido US in earnesness. We lack the
enthusiasm which made irresistible the
charge of Cromwell's Ironsides. We need
the invincible impulse of a sentiment.
We want, above all, leaders who know
and feel what they are fighting for. This
is war in which mercenaries avail not.
There must be higher motive than the
pay of a Swiss-a holer duty urging
on, than the professional pride or the
blind obedience of soldier. BY par
liamentary usage, proposed measure is
entrusted, for fostering care, TO its friends.
So should the war be. It's conduct SHOULD
be confded to men whose hearts and
souls are in it.
Again. 1t has long been one of our
national sins, that we pass by, with
scarcely rebuke, the gravest public Of
fences. We utterly fail in holding to a
strict Accountability our public men.
The result of such failure, in peace, had
almost escaped our notice. In war, we
have now beheld its effects, fragrant and
terrible.
1t was not to be expected that among
30 many thousands of officers, suddenly
appointed, there should not be some hum
dreds of incompetents. Such things
must be No one is to blame if in field
or garden, weeds spring up. The blame
rests with him who leaves them there to
choke the crop and cumber the ground.
Accountability - that should be the
ACCOUNTABILITY, stern, un-
relentng Office has its emoluments;
let it have its responsibilities also. Let
us demand, as Napoleon demanded, sue
cess from our leaders. The rule may
work harshly. War needs harsh rules.
Actions are not to be measured in war
by the standard Of peace. The sentinel,
worn by extreme fatigue, who sleeps AT
his post, incurs the penalty OF death.
There is mercy in courts martial-drum-
head courts martial. A dozen officers
shot whenever the gravity of the oiIense
demands it, may be the saving of life to
tens of thousands Of brave men.
Eighteen months have passed. Eight
hundred millions have been spent. We
have a million of armed men in the field.
More than a hundred thousand rest in
aoldiers' graves. And for all this, what
result? Is it strange if sometimes the
heart sinks and resolution fails at the
thought that, from sheer administrative
infrmity, the vast sacrifice may have
been all in vain?
But let the Past go! It's fatal faults
Difficult, perhaps, to avoid, under an eff
fort SO sudden and so waste can never be
recalled. Doubtless they had their use.
Itneeded the greyous incapacity we have
witnessed, the singing reverses we have
suffered the invasion even OF Tree states
that we have lived to see commenced; ii
needed the hecatombs Of dead piled up
unavailingly on battlefield after battle
field-the desolate hearths, the broken
hearted survivors-it needed air this to
pave the way for that emancipation which
is the only harbinger of peace.
The Future that is still ours to I'M
prove. Nor if some clouds yetrest upon
il, is it without bright promise. Signs
Oh udsGtub uCllNllbi NhNlHJ "''' {" ANSN
luton to hold accountable for the future
the leaders Of our armies, are daily
apparent Better than all, the mi
tiative in n true line of policy has
been taken, The twenty third OF Sept
has had its effect. The path of safety
is before us ; steep and rugged, indeed,
but no longer doubtful or obscure. A
lamp has been lit to guide our steps; a
lamp that may burn more brightly be-
fore new year dawns upon us. The
noble prayer of Ajax has been vouch-
safed in our case. AT last we have light
TO fight by.
We shall reach quiet haven if we but
follow faithfully and pcrseveringly that
guiding light.
There is, at this moment, in. the
hearts of all good men throughout the
length and breadth of the land, no
deeper feeling, no more earnest long
ing, than for peace; peace, not for the
day, not TO last for a few years; but
peace on a foundation of rock, for our
selves and our children after us. May
the hearts Of our rulers be opened to the
conviction that they can purchase only a
stumbling counterfeit except at one cost!
God give them to see, ere it be too late,
that the price of enduring peace is general
emancipation
am, sir your obedicnt servant,
ROBERT DALE OWEN.
New York, Nov 10, 1862,