Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1862-01-30
THE QUALITY OF A GENERAL.

A correspondent of the Boston Daily Ad-
vertiser recalls to the impatient and censori-
Gus public of our day the following portrait
ure of Military Commander, q. ravu by
Edmund Burke, with that felicity of style
and that niceness of discrimination which
give to his writings such an enduring interest,
making them applicable in all time to the sit
nations and circumstances conceived by his
comprehensive intellect. As our Boston con-
temporary remarks, it will take some by sur
prise, perhaps, to find how accurately he has
described the case of the General in whom,
under Providence, our hopes are bound up
Would it not be we'll if some cavaliers and
grumblers were to listen to these words Of the
philosophical statesman?
"The forhtude required of him is very diff
ferent from the unthinking alacrity of the
common soldier or common sailor, in the face
of danger and death. 1t is not passion, it
is not an impulse, 1t is not a sentiment: it is
cool, steady, deliberate principle, always pre-
sent, always equable; having no connexion
with anger; tempering honor with prudence;
melted, invigorated, and sustained by gen.
erous love of fame informed, moderated and
directed by an enlarged knowledge Of its own
great public! ends ;'howing in one blended
stream from the opposite sources of the heart
and the head; carrying in itself its own
commission, and proving its title to every 9th
er command by the first and most difficult
command--that of the bosom in which he re-
sides. It is fortitude which unites with the
coarage Of the field the more exalted and re-
fined courage of the council which knows
as we'll TO retreat as to advance; which can
conquer as well by delay as by the rapidly
of a march or the impetuosity of an attack.
which can be, with Fabius, the black cloud
that lowers on the tops of the mountains, or,
with Seipio, the thunderbolt of war; which,
undismayed by false shame, can patiently en-
dure the severest trial that a gallant spirit
can undere o, in the tauntS and provocations
of the enemy, the suspicious, the cold respect,
and mouth honor of those from whom it
should meet cheerful obedience; which, I'M
disturbed by false humanity, can calmly as
sumo that most awful moral responsibility of
deciding when victory may be too dearly pur-
chased by the loss of a single life, and when
the safety and glory of their country may de-
mand the certain sacrifice of thousands"
The old Latin proverb declares that sit is
right to be taught by an enemy +" in matters
respecting which ian enemy" is in position
to pronounce an intelligent judgment. What
the Richmond Examiner thinks of Gen. No
Clellan's policy, considered In. its effects on
the Confederate forces, may be read In the
following extract from an editorial article
which appeared in that paper on the 18th
instant:
While the political leaders of the South
have been reposing in dreams of approach
ing peace, and while our accomplished cap
tains of engineers have been expanding their
remarkable scientific ingenuity in the erection
of works as wonderful, and almost as extern
sive, and quite as valuable as the Chinese
wall, to resist invading forces from given d.
rcction, the enemy have gradually and at
leisure gathered up their vast resources and
concentrated their tremendous energies to en-
velope the Confederacy with their armies and
fleets; and to penetrate the interior from some
one of many alternative points. Although
they can now do nothing,t they have their gem
eral programme in perfect order for execu-
ton when the weather changes in the ordin-
airy course of the es.. h round the sun and
at this. moment we find ourselves in the face
of superior forces wherever we look, whether
to the north, the east, or the west, or the south
itself. Gen. Sydney Johnston has to strain
every nerve to prevent the military as well
as geographical heart of the country from
slipping out Of his grasp. Generals Joseph
Johnston and Beauregard are held by Nc
Clellan on the Potomac as IN a vice. A gi-
gantic armament is ready to attempt the des-
cent of the Mississippi, and their fleets on the
Atlantic seacoast and the Gulf are too freshly
before the public attention to require remem-
brance Such are the fruits of policy pure
" defensive. Without even the hesitancy
which would come Of possible inter-
ruption, the enemy have thus surrounded the
Southern Confederacy; and if permitted te
repeat as often as may be desired their efforts
to penetrate its heart, they viii necessarily
attain the place and time where success awaits
them"