The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1862-11-08
Hssry ward DeeeAsr on the KIec,o.

Henry ward DeeeAsr on the KIece,o..
The last number Of the Independent has .
leader on the .'mesning of the Elections:n fro,o
which we extract the following:
Incapacity for public affairs is the ch;ef
fault of the Administration. Each Secretarv
seems to have performed the local and tecbni.
al duties of his bureau with industry and 6del.
ity In times of peace the Administrator
would have ranked high. We believe its men,
oers capable of conducting politics in credit,
able manner. But these are times for some.
thing higher than politics. We need States.
manshir We need forecast, sagacity, strong
convictions allied to great practical wisdom
and We have not had them. The men in nov
er do the best, they know how. But thew ara
not adequate TO the situation. They do not
choose their measures, but leave them to he
forced upon them by the rebels. or to drift
down On them as hre-rsfts drift in the night
upon men-of-war; and only rouse up to great
exertion to repel special danger, and then
relapse and fall back into consultations thu,
never rlpen into purposes, or into purposes %
feeble and inGrm that they die in the ysrv
throes of birth.
Poverty Of blood is the mother of innumera.
bic diseases in the body, personal or political.
The want of connected plans the want of
Judgement in the selection and using OF men
slowness of thought and changeableness Of
purpose-in short the want of the chief ola.
ments Of civil administration, induces all man,
ner of weakness and confusion in public AT.
fairs. Mr.. Lincoln has about him men with
ideas which they do not know how to applv
to practice; or men of respectable practical
tact without general ideas. few men there
are with both wisdom of thought and of action.
but these men have had the least influence
with the Administration.
The unparalleled difficulties of the times de.
mand union of Courage and Caution, Of
holiness and reserve. We have had the eau
ton and reserve, but never the boldness. Not
once has the Government struck fire. Even
the great and good things done have been be-
reft OF their chief benefits by being surrounded
with such anintolerable sluggard's policy that
they failed of support The Proclamation was
glorious man -of-war, launched somewhat late.
but capable, with an army that had head to
it, to bear down and carry the flag with all
its old authority. But now the Proclamation
lies like ship frozen in among the iceberes
of an Arctic sea.
The country has borne this superlative in.
efficiency with an extraordinary hopefulnes.
They have laid their lives and property at the
Governments feet once and again, and said,
Take anything; take everything; but for
Heavens sake do something -.
And when, after the comprehensive blunders
of generals on the Peninsula, and waste and
slaughter OF men that the Government never
has cared to estimate, and will never dare to
publlsh after generals in mortal quarrels with
each other, by arrant and infamous disobedi-
ence OF orders, brought defeat upon Pope, and
reJoiced in it; after they were released from
arrest, without trial, reinstated in high com.
mand; after the terrible fight of Antiet am and
its half victory through The fatal hopeless,
and ineradicsl timidity of Mcclellan, (who is
more panied to have one man shot than to
lave a thousand rot in the hospitals, who
seemed SO amazed that he had fought battle
without defeat, that he regarded the heights of
Sharpsourg az an other Mount of Transfie ura.
ton, and besought the Adm Illustration tina. he
might make three three tabernacles there"
Tor winter quarters-after these and other in
stupidities in Tennessee. in Ken
lucky, where Buell. came near taking from
Mcclellan all his laurels in the art of gigantic
preparations for miserable conclusions-after
two years of promises and preparations. Of
hopes and disappointments, the country takes
an account of public affairs, and demands Of
the Administration, not what good intentions
it has had, not what it meant to do. not what
its troubles were or its perplexities, but this
simple question: What has been DoNE?-is it
strange that the answer inevitably to be given
should disgust and discourage men,
There is deep, widespread, and increasing
discomfort with the Administration. And f
is simply and only because it is weak and
helpless. But the country is going toward
disunion, and toward despotism. because one
OF the most honest men that ever held the
PRESIDENTIAL chair is not a man of affairs.
And here is our peculiar danger Men say
lnconsiderately, ANY change must be for the
better" or, ''We cannot be worse off than we
are 1t is natural that men should say, IF
Things are as you say, our public men are
found to be upapt and feeble, why not nut
political power into the hands of other mem"
l. II we were choosing President in these
the reasoning would be correct
And we take leave to say to our friends in
Washington, that if they were before the peo.
pie this fall for reelection, they would be
defeated. But for two wears
Mr.. Lincoln is President. Votes cannot take
affairs out of his hands. !.
1.-THE Democratic party shall be re constitute.
ed at this exigency, it must epidentIy become he
party Of Slavery. For the most part those old
Democrats who love the Union more than sla.
very, have gone into the army or left the party
The men that have lain silent and waitedfor their
political resurrection, are men who either love
slavery, or are morally Indifferent to it, and
who would not for one instant hesitate to strike
hand with the South, if they thereby couldre-
estaollsh the supremacy of so called Demo.
cratic party.
These men could never have stirred or stood
if the Government had given to the country
for comfort or hope. But the long,
dreary and life-wasting inaction of the army:
the stagnatiou of affairs, the constant promi,
SEES that died almost with the breath that utter.
ed them; the burden of taxation and all appar.
emily without public good, have DESTROYED con.
fdence deadened enthusiasm and weakened tina
fidelity Of men to the Administration.
Men are cross. and discon tented. They do
not want to 5etray their country. They do not
wish to aid the south. They do not aim to
build up pro slavery party in the North
But they are impatient and disguised with
their own side, and are likely to go over withs
bound OF vexation to the other, merely for the
oh nfs nseH; IL