Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1862-02-17

thunder and ressts the exercise of anything short
of Supreme power with an elemental force that
defes all the little expedients of earping man..
These complaints about the are getting as
common in the press and the House as they were
before they produced the Bull Run disaster A
few of these impatient people then learned les
son from their incautious impulsiveness; but here
we have it again. They belong to that class of
skeptics who take everything incomprehensibe
to their feeble sghtas unknown and non existent
They can not see Mcclellan doing anything;
therefore he does nothing. They are not part
ners IN his confidence; therefore he does wrong
He has not rushed about in wild theatric style;
therefore he Is unfit. He has no retinue, no laced
and gilded supernumeraries. no blast of trumpet
and boom of guns to announce himself here and
there. He does not dress his child up like the
young Prince Imperial in the Tuileries therefore
he lacks the esprit. He has no clan, no dash, no
plumed nonsense; therefore the public faith in
him must be sapped. Most of all, be regards this
as great war for the Union and Constitution,
for the salvation of the white mans free Govern
nlent of America; and becaus., he does not
play General Phelps in proclamation, or FIRE.
mont in deeds of manumission, he is abused and
maligned.
Who are those that thus question McClellan's
ability? Did they see and understand his mas
terly strategy in Western Virginia, the fame of
which is the pride of the Western soidiery1 Do
patience with which he now pursues his schemes
by sea and land. by river and road, grouping
whole sections in his comprehensive combinations
of strategy, and striving, without irritating and
ineonsequential skirmshing, to end the war BY
"a sharp. though it may be desperate struggle"
and thus restore the Unionl He has pledged
himself to the President that, If he live and be
allowed to carry out in action what he has ma
tured in design, that we shall soon see our flag
triumphant and the rebellion crushed.
These ready military critics have not even the
militia training, which was SO important years
ago, to make them experts.
former colleague of ours, in the days of
le4O, when the campaigns of Gen. Harrison were
discussed by a Brigader General of the Michigan
militia, with grotesque humor held up to the rid
icule of the American Congress the peculiar
military studies by which the member from Mich
igan was fitted to the subtle criticisms on strate-
gy, and the careful reviews of battles. he ven
tured to believe that the militia General might
have studied the title page of Baron Steuben
enough 70 know that the rank stands right
behind the front Laughter.l Besides, the
critic on that occasion had the fortune to have
been in the tolls privatons, sacrifices, and bloody
scenes through which militia officer in time of
peace was sure to pass. 1t is long since Tread
that graphic picture of muster day in the West,
touched by the tints of Corwins facile humor.
The troops in motionl the corn stalks, umbrellas,
hoe and AK handles, and other like deadly imple-
ments of war overshadowing all the field, when
10! the leader Of the host approaches Far off
his coming shines need not describe his horse
the rising cloud, the rain, the retreat, the re
morseless fury with which the water melons are
slaughtered. and the whisky drank in neigh
boring grocery. lLaughter.l If, with such ex
periences, the member from Michigan was re-
garded then as the prince of military critics. what
shall we say now Of the. member from Ohio,
whose gentle life has been passed in the green
pastures By the still waters of peace, and whose
every prospects was the millennium, in which the
lion and the lamb shall lie down together, and
the little child shall lead them
OH how it jars to hear the voice so often raised
in benediction and prayer. and tuned to the sweet
accents of love and mercy, ass
'sphtting with tremendous sounds our ears asunder,
With gun, drum trumpet blunderbuss, and thunder"
Here the hammer fell, Mr. Cox's hour having
expired. Leave was granted him to print the
remainder.l o v1s
If a militia General was so well fitted for the
task OF criticism ON war. a fortiori, what heed
shall We not pay to my reverend colleague. whose
only experience has been that of Bull Run
treat? Such critics ought at least to know a
spear from pruning hook, or a sword from a
plOw- share. 1t is doubtful if they tell
ambulance from a caisson. They could not bite
cartridge without biting their tongue. The
only fuse they know is political fusion; they
can deploy around convention or caucus, and
fire the political thunder from the batteries of
demagogue, masked with the negro. If they
fired gun and should hit, they would do it, as
did WInkle, when he killed the rookie shut his
eyes and blazed away in timid despair.
Ny collea que is one of those whose politics
and prayers have ever been to be delivered from
the men of war. In times past he has thought
more of Saint Peter than of saltpeter. When
the Mexican war was declared, the class to which
he belonged echoed Summers "true grandeur of
nations" when he said ssthere was no war which
was not dishonorable." They sang the ronical
Yankee slang of Hosea Bgelow to the recruiting
Sergeant of Colonel Caleb Cushing:
"Fife away. you film feller,
You may fife till you yeler,
Fore you get hold Of me -
There, away down in some New England vii
lage, ''they kind o. thought Christ went agin war
and pillage," and that eppyletts warn't the best
mark of saint" Now they are willing 10
swear "that the apostles were rugged out in their
swallow tail coats, an marched round in front of
drum and fife." Now, they agree to the ironi-
cal verse:
"John P.
Robinson--he -
Says they didn't know everything downin Judee-''
These men whose lives have been dedicated to
coiisidering the horrors of war and slavery, and
cOlScleDctS
downtrodden when they wanted votes now uil-
dertake, by Congre ssionaI committees, declara-
tons and military ciatrbes here, to set squadrons
in the field and to show Mcclellan how he is not
doing il at all, or how he might do it With the
aid of armed blacks so bravely and at once. Not
satisfied with the President Of their choice; not
content with that which they voted in the Crit
tenden resolutions as the object to which the war
should be devoted; not happy in the calm pro
.f IL
Mcclellan is concerned, has been comparatively
successful. and certainly without bIunders, they
want movement Eat all hazards" even if il
moves the country and the Government to seces
sion, dictatorship, chaos, or destruction. Such
political dyspeptics and martial zanies ought to
be sent home 10 teach boarding school misses
the doctrines that brought many members here |
the beauty Of John Browns life, and the glory
of his death.
Judging by the remarks made here, one would
infer that these gentlemen were all ready to re-
ceive and provide for the fonr millions of blacks |
who are to be freed by the war power; that the /
corn bread and fat pork were all provided for the
jubilee of freedom. But where viii they get the
food, or where win they FIX the locus in gao for
the festive scenef In Kentucky ?-Ohio? Some |
Of our soldiers, who have Just fought so nobly |
under Gen. Thomas, have written me complaints
that they get clothes through which they can put |
their fingers, and chickory for coffee. We do
not even feed decently our white braves; yet /
these gentlemen, who reason so lunatically, think
that there is some virtue in u colored child or
woman, and that the Lord somehow viii provide
for them ms he did by Elijah with the ravens.
Why, sir, the whole country viii be swamped
and deluged by tn axation, without the double tax |
of having an erodus Of four millions Of blacks so
Huently talked of in this chamber.
Why, do not these extreme gentlemen know
that thew are. in some part responsible for this |