East Saginaw courier. (East Saginaw, Mich.) 1859-18??, 1863-07-07
NUMBER 40.
DisGRACE.


Mr.. Lincoln may add another to bis
budget Of military failures. Fighting
10 Hooker has gone out Of existence
quietly and meekly, like lamb; or, we
may say, for force of simile, like a sheep,
ripo for the sacrifice. Amid the blare
of trumpets and the crash of popular
thunder, he went in. He rode a Pc
gasus which strode with princely pace
over our mountain topped troubles ho
scofed at circumstances, and played
with war as at bagatels he answered to
the nation in its cry for relief-Ego-
f" | am" He strutted his brief hour,
and disappeared. -H
1t would be food for mirth, this spec,
tacle, if the smile did not die Of very
dreariness in the contemplation. a
man invested with power over the for
tunes of the country, whose words con,
demped him as vain and weak in tho
very beginning; whose career has been
one of ignoIninious failure from first to
last; and who now, in tho very face of
the enemy-in the very hour, OF peril
IN tho very moment when man should
throw himself into tho breach to como
out successful, or never to come out at
all.-at this time, ho grows sick like a
woman, becomes again pulling babe,
and begs and prays to be relieved. All
the world may now look on and see how
a weak stalk can wilt under the heat OF |
adversity, 1t can soc how vapoiipg
egotism may be reduced to helplessness,
eager to seize the drowning Tan's straw,
even if that straw be hopeless disgrace.
Of all who have danced through this
solemn farce, and come out in the end
to swell the list of failures, mono have
brought with them the stain which be.
longs 10 Fighting Joe Hooker. y
Pope, trumpeter of his own fame, was
yet man enough TO stand up in the face
of the enemy, though il was to 90
knocked down as fast as he stood up
Burnside, weak and vascillating at first,
was stronger in tho end, for he possessed
the manhood to admit bis failure; and,
" hatever other faiings may be laid Ia
bis charge, he had none of the peacock
about him. But Hooker, wanting
Pope's manhood, or Burnside's humility,
vaporel and threatened while he could,
and then broke down like a school boy
driven 10 the fence corner, and cried out
Justify to be relieved of bis respopsibill-
tics. Tho peacock, with feathers be-
iraggled in the mud, would be pulled
out 6y that glorious appendage which
was his pride in better days.
Men who strike for power are almost
Invariably men who can retain it when
once within their grasp. But it has
been the besetting sin of our military
heroes to reach :or anything within the
yift of man with reckless disregard OF
heir capacity to sustain themselves
They arc urged to this by the hero wo-,
,hip Which is part and parcel Of thiA
war; by which every individual who
wears the insignia of rank becomes
great man the moment his name
inown. Weak men mistake this adua
ion for well merited tribute, and seeing
heir names in print, coupled with high
sounding phrases, they str..ightway i'm
Igine themselves really great. 1t is thus
hat we find pigmies piiing Ossa upo1
oelion Their brave hearts would drad
he gods from their thrones, but tha
heir weak knees refused to carry then
here.
Let us hear no more of simp!c
rinded soldier boys leaving the baitl
behind them and going home when thsi
ilne expires That they have stood u
Ike men until their whole duty wa
one none can deny. But that com
handing officer, whose duty it's to me,
ndauntel any danger, should cowe
nd fairly turn his back to tho trouble
e has invited, is Disgrace, AMI nothn
hort Of disgrace. And so the natio
'iIl adjudge it.-Chicago Tines.