New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1862-03-19
FREnoNr,s sxTRAvAGANCK.


every dollar properly spent, ono "a wasted and
another ia stolen, and such q state OF things 1t
is very desirable to change so far as 10 posi-
be. But the question has not been, and prob
ably will not BIZ raised, whether it ia worth
while to put down the rebellion ut such cost
Tor the rebellion must be put down, cost what 1t
NAV. For our part. We do not complain either
Of waste or robbery, bat only Of imbecility.
The ygor that conquers The enemy is the one
thing wanted though some things else go wrong
at the same time; but when the yigor is absent
while yillaiuy fourishes, then We ask permission
to grumble.
Mr. Collax. in the speech vs.. published the
other day, took the true ground 10 regard 20 the
first command. There may have been waste AID
robbery in that Department, as there IS in
every other but the commander could neither
be cognizant OF il, nor responsible for il. He
had certain great work to do, and cerlin
tools 10 DO it with, the best that were at his
hand Did lie do the work. II he did MT
finish it, It was not his fault; and that such il
tie opinion Of the President is shown By the
fact of his new appointment.
But this is not the only defense against the
charge of extrayagance which has been urged
so yehemeutly upon the command Of Gen. Ere
mont. AZ ho is about to take tho field again,
in what may prove 70 be the most important
OF the three Departments, it ia worth while to
see whether this allegation may not, like all
the rest that have been urged against him, be
without foundation. Here aud there, We dare
say, under Gen. Fremont. As everywhere else,
rogue has taken advantage of bis position 20
cheat the Governments but let Us look, as mo-
body has ever yet taken the trouble 70 DO, at
the actual figures showing the total amount cx-
pended in that Department.
Gen. Fremont. military command extended
over al least half Of Tho territory Of tie
| 'nited States, and bis actual operations
covered much wider extent of country than
any other commander has been called upon
either 10 attack or defend. After some nece.-
sary preliminary arrangements, he left New
York for the West the day after the disastrous
defeat Mt Rull Run. The Rebels have never,
either before or since, been 80 full of hope
and yiror. In Missouri, they had oyerrun
nearly the whole State; they had usurped the
Government; their force was probably, not
les. than from $4,000 10 $4,000 men; they
had many Of the principal towns in their own
hands or else held them, and the open country
in extreme terror; st. Louis was filed with
wealthy and powerful Secessionists; there
were officers Of the U. S. Army in the
Arsenal whose loyalty was more than suspected;
and at such time Gen. Fremont entered
upon the command Of an army Of unpaid
volunteers about to disband, and when
tho Government at Washington was
not sure, at any time, whether its members
might not, within tho next four-and-twenty
hours, be flying for their lives from a captured
capital. Fremont's task was to subdue Mis-
souri,, and put an end to the rebellion in The
West, as it vas SCOTS, and McClellan's after
him., 70 suppress it in Virginia. lie was IN
command ono hundred days. When he left, he
had pressed Price down to the Southwestern
extremity of the State, aud was undoubtedly
on the point of making an end of hlm he had
fortified St. Louis, so that any attack from
without, coDjoincd with an Instruction within,
vas hopeless; he had rebuilt railroads; he had
made bridges; he had erected telegraph wires
be had built fleet of gunbOat.; and he had SO
bapished treason and reestabished order that
the mails were again running the people were
returning to the peaceful pursuits OF industry,
and Union officer could traverse the State
from Springfield to st. Louis, in his uniform,
without feur Of the slightest danger. In this
one hundred days Of such work, he expended
$i,0O0,O0O in money, and left behind him d
debt of so 200, 900, in all Sll,0OO,OOO. What
he actually did may be measured exactly BY
the condition OF Missouri when Price was at
Springfield two or three weeks ago; for all
that has been done since the removal OF FIRE.
mont was only doing over again what DO had
done once, aud Hunter had undOne. Such was
the work. and such was the cOst-thlrteen mil
lions of dollars in hundred days. Was it at
too great q cost-that is, suppOsing, with The
Journal Of Commerce that we can pay too dear
for such a whistle as Freedom and permanent
poace-psace and MOI everlasting panic and in.
surrecton--was the coat too great
II Is computed that tn, war coa.s the,
country 10. l,as thar S2.O)))O) per days i.s