Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1862-02-21
From the Springfield Republican.
PROM1SCUOUS RAMPAGE,

Of the crisis and conduct the war upon tho
rough principles. That sort of free pitching
in is such very easy writing that we cannot
refuse so small a favor. and we therefore pro-
ceed to the extent Of several paragraphs, after
the most approved metropolitan models. IL
the reader shall detect some slight ncoheren-
| cy and inconsistency, he must attribute it to
| the pcculier style, which is nothing unless
| critical" Here goes -
This war is conducted wrong emf foremost,
bottom end up and inside out in fact in ev-
eey (which way" but the right one. The
grand plan Of the campaign, much talked
Of is grand absurdity. It is preposterous
to think of surrounding the enemy on so ex.
tcnsive a line and fighting him at SO many
points at once. There should be no line at
all. The common sense method would have
been, as soon as we had collected ten thou
sand volunteers at any point, and had found
guns or horse-pistos for them, to launch them
at the enemy, with orders to go straight ahead
like rocket, and not stop till they had cut
bee line through Socessia and come out on
the other side. The idea of loading our add
vancing armies with heavy guns and baggage
is prep0sterous. No artillery should be taken
larger than two stout Normoutcrs could lug
Lane OF Kansas is the only man that under
stands war. If he had been COMMANDMENTS
Chief something would have been done We
should have seen our armies driving through
tho south in every directions compelling the
enemy not only to feed them but TO supply
them with powder and bali lffve or SIX ar
mics had run against something and got used
up ia this process, what matter, so long as we
have plenty of men, and if the process were
kept up long enough the South must eventu-
ally be cut into fiddle strings But there
really has been no plan at all everything has
been at loose ends The President abdicated
his post Of Commander-in-Ch ef on the 5th Of
March, and has exclusively devoted himself
to editing new edition of Joe Miller
Since Secretary Stanton came in he has taken
up the office of Commander in-Chief. which
he found lying round loose and getting trod
on. and this accounts for the forward move
ment in Kentucky aud Tennessee, which Gen.
Mcclellan opposed, although he now makes
feint of congratulating Gen. Grant and Com
modore Foote, as if he had had anything to
do with the war in any way, beyond looking
after his Potomac division and keeping it in
quiescent state Gen NJ Clellan's policy has /
been TO do nothing which was calculated to
damage the enemy, and nearly all the regular
and volunteer army officers agree with bin. /
In fact nothing will be done I'LL he whole .
crowd is superseded and shut up in Fort La
fayette, and an the volunteers who sympa- +
fhze with them or uphold the policy of the
administration are dismissed and drummed out
of the ranks to the tune of the Rogue March.
Then let Lane be made generalissmo and
Phelps concentrate the remaining skeletons of
the armies in one invincible phaanx, read his
Ship Island manifesto to them, and drive in
to the heart of the enemys country, and
something will turn ofimmediatey.
The late victories in Kentucky and Tennos
see are specous and unsatisfactory they
look well TO superficial people, and the enc
my is considerably alarmed by them, but both
are mistaken In fact victories are not to be
desired until the government has some more
policy than the naked putting
down of rebellion As long as "the chair of
slavery stands in the capitol ready to be re-
occupied, victory and peace are not to be de-
sired, and every fresh triumph Of our nisguid-
ed soldiers should be received with a growl
Of distrust. Secretary Stanton went INFO the
war department with some just notions as to
how the war should be conducted, but the :
possession of power always makes men con
servative, and he already shows signs of
yielding to the exigencies Of tue case, and has
in fact become SO hunkeiish to refuse TO
the newspaper men the free run Of his depart
H1hh HuA INC llotiAy w puullSh dll Nuc ildua u
and movements Of the campaign as soon as
they are projected 1t is to be feared that
even Mr. Stanton is falling into the gross de-
fusion that this war is to be conducted ON mill
itary principles and with certain unity of
PLAN when every a.deut patriot, whose brain
is in his spleen, knows that we have changed
all that, and the only sensible way to fight
this rebellion is to give every man who asks a
brigadiarship carte blanche to raise an army
and fight the enemy whenever and wherever
and however he chooses.
But the great delusion Of all is that the
Union is to be restored. The president is the
most melancholy victim Of this absurd notion.
He reads no paper but the Louisville journal,
and thinks Kentucky is the whole Union
And more monstrous than all, he INDUCES a
sort OF sympathy and tenderness toward, the
slaveholding Unonists OF Kentucky, Tenncs-
see, North Carolina and elsewhere, who are
being robbed. outlawed aud murdered by
their own kinsmen aud neighbors for their
loyal adherence to the Union, aud thinks to
protect them and make them the nucleus of
revived loyal party which shall ultimately get
the ascendency in every southern state and
make the Union again reality. Instead Of
| this, every man with half an idea in his head
sees clearly that the government should in
conunenlly KICK the border states out Of the
/ Union, and make it manifest that there is to
/ be no restoration till the entire South be sub
jugated, the slaves all made free, and the ter
ritorial government established over the con-
quered province. The man who desires any
thing short Of this is traitor at heart, and
indeed any man who gives his sympathy and
support TO the present administration demon
strates that he loves slavery better than the
Union. and had rather see the Union perish
than to see slayesy suffer. Thus it is that our
armies are no better than an expensive
police for the protection Of slavery, and no
true man can see anything to choose between
the government at Washington and that at
Richmond.
There are several other strong points that
might be made in miscellaneous rampage of
this sort, bat this should be enough for one
day to satisfy those Of our friends who want
the government to be "in earnest" but are
sure that it isn't, while the people are paying
two millions day for magnificent delusion
and fraud, and are too stupid to see IT,, or to
60 on the high rampage, as they would if they
knew what was what.