Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1862-11-14
For the Journal.
New LONDON, Conn.,, Nov. 6, 1862.

away. The Empire State has chosen for it
Executive the friend Of peace and submission
the opponent Of the Administration and o
the war. For one, am not disappointed
' indeed had expected the result.
Our armies in the field had no voice in tn
election. Their streng and willing righ
arms have been prostituted to the base pur
pose of weakening the public confidence il
the Administration. They have asked to b.
led forth to battle and to victory, but hav'
been answered only by listless inactivity -
Nine out of every ten of the Major and Brig
adler Generals in the service have beer
selected from the ranks of the conservative
pro-slavery Democracy of the country. They
have had the conduct of the war. Appointed
to lead and conquer, they have brought de-
feat and disgrace to our arms. The war pol
icy of Halleck and McClellan--a policy that
has thus far been attended with no decisive
result-has been permitted by the Admins
tration to control the destinies of mighty
nation. Halleck and Mcclellan, with their
conservative understrappers, desiring either
Office or preferment hereafter, or to leech the
public treasury for their lly-earned pay, have
had the control of the movements of vast
armies. Eighteen months have fed, and we
are no nearer peace than in April, 'tl.
Our grand, conservatively led armies have
marched but to countermarch. Mcclellan,
in front of Manassas, permitted his foe to es-
cape without the firing offs gun. Fearing
he should reach Richmond, he marched his
army to the swamps of the Chicahominy, to
sicken and die. Fair Oaks and Seven Pines
drove him to new base. Again, fearing his
ability to reach Richmond, he deserted NAL
vern Hill, at the very turning point of his
Burnside campaign, where, with moderate
effort and reinforcement, he could have re-
pulsed the enemy and entered Richmond
he permitted his army to retreat in as much
confusion and disorder as characterized the
Bull Run of '61-returning to the Potomac
with his grand army broken down in num-
bers, health and spirits, to permit Pope to be
out generated and compelled to retreat
Mounted at last on fiery steed, he pursues
the rebel hordes as they menace Maryland
and Pennsylvania, and telegraphs, in flaming
capitals, that the anaconda draws its coils,
and the enemy being just where he wants
him, must surrender or die. The enemy
chose to do neither, and Mcclellan just as
soon he wouldn't.
Over year passed near the mouth of the
Potomac-thousands of lives sacrifced-ml-
lions of treasure expended-defeat and disas-
ter, one upon another-with not a solitary
decisive battle or movement, is the Alpha and
Omega of McClellan's military history during
this rebellion. For it he receives the plaudits
of Seymour, Ben. and Fernando Woods
Brooks, Rynders, Cox, Vallandigham. Van
Buren, and ilk. There isn't man in the
North, tainted with treason-not an advocate
of peace and compromise-th is not the eu-
logist Of Mcclellan. The simple truth is that
he can make the greatest demonstrations
telegraph the most fulsomc batteries of him
self, and promise the most stupendous results,
without accomplishing anything for the Union,
Of any man in the army. And Halleck is
like unto him except in self-adulation. The
nation expected great things of Democratic,
Conservative Halleck. While in st. Louis
he did well, save in order No. 3. At Corinth
he disappointed the hopes and expectations
of his most sanguine friends-did nothing,
while the enemy left his front and advanced
on Richmond to crush Mcclellan. To an
swer the popular demand for change, Halleck
was called to Command in Chief All eyes
were conferred on him. The people were will
ling to forget Corinth, so anxious were they
to displace Mcclellan. submit whether we
have not lost ground in Virginia, Tennessee
and Kentucky since that change; and the
trouble lies not with the ability of those
men. I Question not the military capacity of
the Generals. The great obstacle in the way
is their conservatism. They are Generals of
the conservative school. The conservative
element of the country demands that this war
shall be conducted without injury to rebel
person or property-that the Government
should content itself with making grand
exhibition of its power and ability to do, and
so scare the rebels into humble submission.
To do more would ALLEVIATE our misguided
brethren and friends from future political CO.
operation. The conservative generals have
needed the voice-the result has been pro-
longation Of the contest of heavy
taxes-desolation of happy homes-suspen-
sion of labor, and everything calculated to
create dependency and dis:rust. The people
know the Administration has the power to
act, if its subordinates will obey. They do
not stop to realize that troops move only when
ordered by commanders. They have realized
the magnitude Of the struggle. They have
seen our armies FILTERED away. They have
seen them driven back at the point of the
bayonet. They have seen State after State
conquered and lost-conquered aud lost
until they have at last been led to the belief.
that change must be had. It was not al
together sympathy with the sentiments of
Seymour, Wood & Co., neither was it opposi-
ton to the Presidents proclamation, that
has procured the result in the recent elections
1t was because very many Of the people be.
lieved this war was being unnecessarily pro.
longed-and to rebuke the slow, snail-like
pace Of our armies and the do-nothing policy
of our Generals in command. Massachusetts,
thus far, is the only State that sends awarm
response to Iowa. They stand out alone