Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1862-09-09

w e Sllali lGdlh ~ ''--
/ e.l,o no1,o,,iop civil and military, are by no
means contemplate opponents They con-
..,uod ,be north before they seeded, with
J a,or,, advantage on our side, and they seem |
! n he doing the same thing now, and against |
canal odds. Some mysterious disposition |
must have been made of our troops, or we
outnumber them two to one And yet we are
always told that lrIege the battle is fought our
armies are obliged to retreat by the over
whelming numbers of the enemy. We are
rich and they are poor, but they boast that
they can feed and cl0the their armies on sup
plies cut off from ours. Our cannon, guns,
ammunition, all infinitely surpass theirs, but
in every battle they succeed in making the
difference less, by captures from aus.
In word, now, as at the close of every po-
litical struggle since the Missouri comprom-
Use, we stand before the world, undeniably
outmanaged and outgeneraled. What does it
mean? The north is richer than the south.
Where there is one man who cannot read and
write at the north, there are ten at the south.
Do cowardice and imbecility result from su-
perior wealth and intelligence.
We do not admit it. We think the ex-
PLANTATION may partially be formed in the fact
that the south always put their best men in
to the public service, while our best men
attend to their own business, and leave
public affairs to those who have not energy or
honesty enough to succeed elsewhere. The
same class of men who used to manage our pol
itics, when the south was pressing us step by
step to the wall, have had too much the control
ling influence in affairs up to the present dis
astrous crisis of the war. And we fancy that
we have succeeded about as well thus far in
the war as we used to in our political strug-
| giles.
Bull Run Patterson boosted, a little time
ago, that in the list of line officers of the army
there were only twenty woolly heads"
However this may be, we think no one now
will deny that the blockheads have been vast
ly in the majority among our officers. There
is not battle field in Virginia, from Bull
Run to the disastrous fights of a week ago,
which does not furnish bloody testimony to
the incompetency of some of our generals,
sometimes arising from natural incapacity and
sometimes from habits of intemperance. We
cannot expect to succeed with such men in
command.
They have not the ability to cope with the
southern leaders, and too often in addition to
all other shortcomings the heart is wanting
also. Stonewall jackson prays at the head
of bis army. Night and day he invokes the
blessing Of God in his endeavors. jefferson
Davis has recently been publicly confirmed in
the Episcopal church. In addition to great
ability these hypocrites are putting their
whole energy into their work. And they
are sustained and borne forward by wild
enthusiasm which often comes to zealots in a
bad cause as well as to those in Il good one
For such men as these, our hollow hearted
as well as hollow headed officers, are no
match. 1t is the duty of the president to see
that such eat and drink no longer at the pub
lie expense, and to replace them with men of
| character, mentally and morally. Let us
hear no more of battles lost because the gen.
erals are too much intoxicated to issue proper
orders.
Let generals be found who will seek the in
| spiration of good cause rather than that of
bad whiskey.
Let men who have ideas, who are devoted
to principles, be promoted, instead Of being
removed to give way to those negative char
acters, who will give no possible offence, en-
cept to those who hope for this Union a higher
destiny than mere restoration to a coalition in
which slavery was its chief and controlling
institution.
Let this be done, and under such leadership
let our brave soldiers march forward under
the banner of those principles which our IA
theirs sought to establish, and the ignoring of
which has already cost us so dear; and if the
condition of things is not speedily reversed,
and rebellion shaken from circumference to
center with the tread of our advancing ar
mics, it will be time to begin to read history
backwards. The greatest experiment of
democratic institutions will prove a failure,
and slavery and Ignorance once more settle
| down upon the world.