The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1862-11-22

~ - AN1. 1OOO
any genera that ever commanded on mi. con
tinent, he had at his command every resource ~
the nation, he was still unready. At lensth-
when patience was worn out, and the President
the Cabinet, and the whole country clamored for
activity, he felt the possible dangers before him
even more than all the pressure Of Government
and Country behind him, and demanded more
men..and more means; complaining that he was
hampered and thwarted!
! = log Of wood lying upon the spring grass, il
mighter, BY its dead pressure against the hidden
roots, than oil the laws of growth! And 70 .
respectable engineer, but inert general, lay upon
the army like spell Of death, or Of motionIess
enehantment The same Fate that gave to the
Army Mcclellan on the East OF the Allegha-
nies, raised up Buell. on the West It is di6-
cult to say which excelled in practical torpidity,
Buell. or Mcclellan. Whichever figure one con-,
templates, 1t seems impossible that another
should excel him in laborious uselessness Both
we're Unsuitable in demands, and beth wasted
immense resources without any important adj
vantage. If there is anything yet to be exhibit.
ed of military inehiciency, some new man must
be imagined, created expressly for it; for every
conceivable part Of Unsuitable demand and MI
serly retention of forces and means, has been
eXudueteu Dy Lue gTcaG OTleHGdt bE lhertR ana
the Occidental Vis haertio. l - q.
Meantime, in this dismal year Of military in
competency, we have weakened the hands of all
that sympathzed with us in foreign lands, and
multiplied and strengthened our enemies. Is it
strange that, at length, there should be great
political revulsion, and that We should be
brought to the third great stage of confct-the
Political! Such q result was inevitable. No
one that is not living among the people, in daily
familiar converse, can conceive of the wearinese,
the disappointment, the actual disgust, that was
felt for the general conduct of national affairs.
Taking advantage of this state of affairs, ia
vored by the absence of hundreds of thousands
of men in the armies, there arose section of
men whose antecedents and instincts led them
into sympathy with slavery, who engineere an
opposition party. Besides the men who secretly
favored secession, or who, with the Woods,
openly avowed that doctrine of States rights,
which is the vital principle of secession besides
those who hated Abolitionists with such fervor
and sincerity that in comparison their dislike of
slavery was tame, and seemed almost of the ma.
ture of a liking; besides those strong party men
who thought this good time for the rejuvena.
tioR of the old Democratic party,-there were
enough real and sincere Union men that went
over from disgust or in hopes that any change
would be for the better, to make up the majority
position. .' III
This last great period we have just entered
No man can fortell its history. The substantial
unity of the North is broken. To all our other
difficulties, we are now to have added sharp,
fierce, uascrupulous party warfare. We neither
hope nor despond. We wait. Should the same
influences continue to mold the policy at Wash
ington-the same vague hopefulness, the same
silly tenderness to malignant enemies. the same
infatuated expectation Of bringing rebels back
by moral suasion, and forbearance which, con-
sdering Our military disasters, can be regarded
only as Impotence then will come fearful
year, through whose lurid shadow we may dis.
Germ rancorous hatreds, disastrous wars, and yet
more disastrous peace. -atsM @ f.a..6 a
But, if new counsels are taken, and men of
moral convictions and practical instincts are al
lowed to give counsel in place of fruitess drea-
mers, we may see, ere the year rolls half it's
round, an open Mississippi, reclaimed seaports,
the rebel capital won, their armies broken and
captured, or driven into the Businesses of the
mountains. 81 gaH.s rss58a. -....--.-. ....
There has nothing happened yet to prevent
an illustrious termination of Mr.. Lincoln's Ad-
ministration. But it must be by the exercise Of
forces, counsels, and men not hitherto employed.
I Meantime, the duty of Christian men is mani
fest. More than ever before, it behoves them
to 60 back to great moral principles; and, un-
perplexed by selfish expedients, by party infu..
ences, by fears of encouragement, to waiS Gods
time of Victory. And blessed are they who,
when the dawn comes, shall be found firm and
faithful upon those great truths of Mans Natur-
al Rights, and of Civil Liberty, of which have
been the outgrowth aud ripest fruits Of Eigh-
teen Hundred years of Christianity! go