Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1862-10-27
Special Correspondents of tae Chicago Time S.
From Warrington.


From Warrington.
Gen. ScOh's Letter to tie President-TAe Pre-
dictiOas Of the old Hero FuI lied-Necesstty
for Million Of Disco shnes '7seoys-<Txs Arnsy
must haze one Head, and that Head must be
Cen Mcclellan.
WASHINGTON, Oct. l6.
The remarkable letter OF Gen. Scott to the
President. written on the day before Mr.. Iincoln's
Inauguration, and sent TO him through the Secre-
tary of State. and which is now for the first time
made public, has created the most profound i'm
preston here No one can be found to donbt the
patriotism of Winfield Scott. no one can be found
to doubt his VISION, the fruit of the experience
of long life spent the public service. There
is probably no man living Who hes more highly
cultivated mind than Winfield Scott, or is better
able to judge upon all questions affecting the vel
fare of nations, and particularly of this nation.
The views of such man, therefore, upon the ma
tional crisis, are being pondered upon by public
men here, with earnestness that may result in
good Prince John Van Buren, is certainly en-
titled 10 the national thanks for making the doc
ument public
Ii is startling to see how actually the old hero's
predictions have been fulfilled. Instead of re
quiring, Gen Scott supposed, 35, 900 troops and
fortifcations to defend Washington, it is now
found necessary to keep 1900 troops here, and
even with that immense force and with the
thirty-twO strong forts around the city, Washing
ton is not regarded as safe yeti And in the
midst of all this tremendous military array, the
friends of the President are clamoring for
strong body guard to attend him, because, as
they allese, he is in danger of assassination!
The President himself very sensibly despses
these groundess fears But to quiet the appre-
tensions OF these oicious friends, he came riding
into town a few days ago with private soldier
bundled into the carriage with him and another
one mounted on the box with the driver, both
armed with their loaded blunderbusses! Such
are his ideas of the state in which an American
President ought to ride. But to return TO Gen.
Scots letter.
1t will be observed that he says the South NAV
be conquered in three years by an army of 300 900
disciplined troops, led by young and able Gen
eral, such a one as he said, seven months after
wards, Mcclellan has proved himself to be. Un-
der the most favorable circumstances, il cannot
be expected that the work can be accomplished
in less time than he has specified. Halt the time
has now elapsed. But, so far from being half
through with the task, it has just commenced, or,
rather, we are worse off now, so far as any pros
pect of q successful termination of the war is
concerned than we were at the beginning In
stead of Richmond being attacked, il is Wash
inston that is beleagured Instead of invading
the South, we are virtually standing on the de-
fensive, and the northern States are being invaded
and the northern towns captured. Although we
have three times 500 600 troOps in the field we
have not got 100000 disciplined troops, nor more
than one third that many. The Sunth has now
500 600 disciplined troops and il is very evident,
from the experience of the past sixteen months,
that an equal number OF our troops cannot con
quer an equal number of southern troops. Ii is
not the fault OF the men; they fight well enough.
1t is not altogether the fault of the officers; many
of them are brave, skillful and prudent enough,
although some of them neither skillful nor
prudent But 1t is an nexorable rule of military
scence-a rule that has received the sanction of
all military history, from the times of Alexander
the Great, Cesar and HaniTostl, down to the time
of Nap0leon-tlat no nation can be conquered
unless the attacking army is from one third
larger TO twice large as the nation which is at
tackled; and not always then.
Our experience, therefore. | say, has shown
that we cannot conquer the South until we have
in the field an army of million of disciplined
soldiers, under one head If the radiaal and
Abolitonisis had not interfered with Gen. Nc
Clellan and broken up his plans, would have
had that force now. As it is and owing directly
to that interference, and to the fact that the for
ces and resources of the rebels have been con
stantly underIated, we have just one tenth OF that
MANY Under the eIgetc rule of Gen. Casey,
the old regiments with new recruits. and streng
thening the old bri.ades and divisions with new
regiments, the number of our disciplined troops
is fast increasing.
But it must be in borne in mind that General
Scott stipuates, as one of the conditions without
which the war cannot be brought to a successful
termination, that the army is tO be led by Young
and able general. In seven months after this let
ter was written. the old General, admonished by
the weight of years. was obliged TO retire from
active service During that interval, however,
he had marked the extraordinary abilities mani
tested by one of the young Generals in the Union
army, and, when he resigned his commission, 1t
was with the express understanding with the Co
vernment that that young General should be his
successor. The President. in his annual message
of Dec 3, 1861. says: With the retirement of
Gen. Scott and the Executive duty of appointing
in his stead a General in Chief neither
in council nor country was there
any difference of opinion to the proper person
to be selected" And the person selected by the
President, and designated by the retiring hero,
was General George B. Mcclellan Now that
General Scott's letter has been made public, /
will say what have known for the last FIVE
months that General Scott believes now, and has
believed ever since the intrigues OF the radicals
caused General Mcclellan to be removed from
the chief command that the war will not be
Mcclellan is restored to that position, and left
unirammeled to carry on the campaign.
| The last paragraph in the third plan suggested
by General Scott ought to be deeply pondered on
by statesmen all over the country, and it may yet
avert from us some of the calamities that seem
looming up in the future. Fifteen devastated
provinces, once States, to be held for generations
to come by large garrisons of troops, followed by
Protector or an Emperor; with the people of
the Northern States ground down by the weight
Of taxation that can never be paid, and every
| Northern fortress made bastile for the incar-
ceration of innocent men. whose only crime will
be t,st of invoking the Constitution, this does
not constitute pleasant picture for the contem
platon of the sons of revolutionary sres.
God bless General Scott When he is in his
grave, the American people will honor bis mem
ory as the last of the great patriots. 4.