The daily Green Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1861-1865, 1862-11-17
The Policy of Concluding the Political
Ennr,ninn nf The AAr.;.i.a-oliA..

. Enemies of the Administration.
The historian who shall write the annals of on
times, if he has access TO the secret storehouse
OF information which will give him an insigh
into the springs of action, and the motives tbs
have inhuen ced the Government in its
management of the war, will find that indeci
slon irresoluteness, and desire to conciliale all
parties, have been the dead weights that have
held down the people from rising to the grand
heights of achievement and success, which lay
in easy reach at the outset of the rebellion. In
looking back over the weary months since No.
vember 1860, we find that what WAS hoped, c K
pected and promised as the days passed, has
been, oftener than otherwise, but the word of
promise kept to the ear and broken to the hope,
but the buds and blossoms which, wthered
blasted and fallen, have been followed by no
fruit. To illustrate this, we need not 20 back
to the administration of Mr.. Buchanan, al
though VIC all agree that from November 1860,
until March 1861, each hour of argument with
treason was golden opportunity wasted, en-
failing upon the new administ!; ton the legacy
of a broken Union and a civil war. If we but
go back to April, 1862, we shall find enough,
since that moment, to abundantly support our
position.
We believe the government at the outset made
its greatest and most disastrous mistake, in
doubling for moment the loyalty of any por-
ton of the people of the North, and prosecuting
the war with any reference 10 anything but the
simple question, how most speedily to dcmolist
treason. 1t was one OF the grandsst spectaces
in the world, the unanimity with which the
whole North cried out against treason and vol
unteered for its overthrow, when the news
flashed through the country that the flag of our
nationality had been fred upon in Charleston
harbor Party feuds, party politics, and parti-
san views dropped out of sight, or were indig.
nantly driven from the face OF day by the
aroused and angry patriotism that everywhere
took possession of the people. Only contemp-
tlble fraction Of the multitude of freenen had
any other thong bit than devotion to the cause of
the government, and this fraction were COM
the dark dens and caverns of their traitorous
hearts. From the Aroostook to the Rocky
Mountains, and beyond to the flashing waters
of the Pacific, twenty millions Of people, with |
scarcely discordant note, shouted The flag
of our Union forever,' and stood ready to w.
hold the hands of the administration while it |
waged terrible, unrelenting, and vigorous war
upon treason and traitors till they were over
thrown and trampled in the dust. Aud |
what, if possible, in view of the bitterness OF |
previous party strife, was more wonderful !
still mullitudes, who had before stood by and |
defended tic South in all their demands for pro-
lection for slavery, at once pronounced the in
stitutlon doomed and asked no favor or quarter
for this accursed relic of ba.barism ; standing
practically in their avowed opinions, as far ad-
vanced as the majority of Republicans in their
condemnation of the institution which had |
plunged tho nation into disastrous and fright !
tul civil war Notwithstanding this almost
general unanimity Of the people,-a few prom-
nent politicians proving almost the only excep-
lions to the geNcIal rule,-the government pro-
ceeded IN It's work of suppressing treason, with |
a tenderness and respect for the opinions of
pro-savery politicians who pretended to be
loyal that amazing, and, as We now look
back upon it, seems the blindest aud most I'M
sagacious policy that could have been adopted.
1t was the policy of vacillaton, doubt, hesita-
ton, Of mistaken kindness towards treason, and
disbelief in the honesty, determination and ter
rible earnestness of the people. The people at
that moment and for three months thereafter,
only wanted a leader, bold, defiant, energetic,
10 move with, and direct this swelling current of
patriotic, avenging justice, augmented, as it
was, by the spontaneous overhowing of millions
of loyal hearts. and they would have moved
forward, an unbroken phalanx, against the ref
uges of treason. The sharp clear words of com.
mand of such leader would have been as IN
splritlDg to the nation, as the roll of martial
music to whose time batlaions close in tho
fierce shock of battle. But the nation waited
In vain for the voice of such commanding, tow
ering, controlling genius, whose words should
cut as with a knife the net of miserable sophis-
tries in whose tolls the royal strength of the
nation was being bound, and set free the mighty
energies Of the people, in the unrestraned work
of carrying the stars and stripes to every part of
The national territory. Congress suffered itself
to be led into passing resolut tons defnino the