Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1863-05-28


sponslbihty Of the disaster of Roanoke
Island"
Again he speaks of the slowness and
want OF decision Of the rebel authorities,
in remarsing upon the destruction of the
Merrimac Tor "virginia"). He says.
''lf the government made no decision
OF question which for a week stared it
In the face, it certainly was very strangely
neglectful Of tho public interest. If Mr..
Mallory visited Norfolk when the eyacua-
ton was 9oin on, and never thought of the
Virginia, or, thinking of her, kept dumb
never even giving even so much as an
official nod as to what disposition should
be made Of her-he must have been even
more stupid than the people who laughed
at him in Richmond, Or the Members of
Congress who nicknamed him without
mercy, took him to be-"
We must close our extracts, for want of
further space, with the following highly
interesting sketches of JEFF Davis and his
Cabinet:
unfortunately, however, President Da-
Wis was not the man to consult the senti-
ment and wisdom of the people he desir-
ed to signalize the infaHbihty Of his own
intellect in every measure of the revolu-
ton, and to identify, from motives of van
ity, his own personal genius with every
event and detail of the remarkable period
Of history in which he has been called up
on to act. This imperious conceit seemed
to swallow up every other idea in his mind.
Many of our generals fretted under this
pragmatism of an executive, who, instead
of attending to the civil affairs of the
government and correcting the monstrous
abuses that were daily pointed out by the
newspapers in the conduct of the depart
ments, was unfortunately possessed with
the vanity that he was great military
genius, and that it was eeressary for him
to dictate, from his cushic 4 seat in Rich
mond, the details of ever campaign, and
70 conform every movemvut in the field to
the invariable formula of the defensive
policy.
president Davis was not a man to con-
suit, even in the smallest matter in detail,
the wisdom OF Cthers, or to relax his pur-
poses or personal preferences, at the in
stance OF any consideration that might
co. promise him in respect Of conceit or
punctillio. About nothing connected with
the new government had the pop ar will
been so clearly and emphatically expressed
as the necessity of a reorganization of the
Cabinet. Nobody expected those offices
to be permanently filed by the provision
al appointees. They were put there un-
der an emergency in some instances
simply as compliments to certain states,
and without the slightest expectation that
they would be imposed on the country for
seven long years. Had the Union con
tinued, and Mr.. Davis elected to the Pres
idency, the selection of such cabinet of
intellectual pigraies from the nation at
large would have astolnded the public
The Two great branches IF the administra-
tion--the War and the Navy departments
were in the hands Of men who had
neither the respect nor the confidence OF
the public. Mr.. Benjamin, the Secretary
of War, had been seriously injured by
number Of doubtful official acts in the pub
lie estimation, which never held him high
err than smart, expeditions and ahable
official. Mr.. Mallory, the Secretary of
the Navy, had, IN the old government, in
which he was chairman of the Senate
Committee on Naval affairs, been the butt
of every naval officer In the country for
his ignorance, his sang froid, his slow and
blundering manner, and the engrossment
Of his mind by provisions to provide graf
fcations for his social habits.
+" President Davis refused to concede
anything to public sentiment with refer
ence to the reorganization of his cabinet;
although it is TO be remarked that the de-
mand for change was made not by a pop
ular clamor, which a wise ruler would
have done right to disregard and to con-
tenn, but by that quiet, conservative and
educated sentiment which no magistrate
in a republican government had the right
to disregard.
This rebel historian claims as victories
many of the most palpable defeats which
have attended the rebel arms, but admits
his cause has received deadly if not ire
parable blows On the whole he gives
but a sorry picture of the condition of
Southern affairs, and does not hesitate, as
seen above, to denounce the administration
of jeff Davis, as well as the conduct of
the Confederate Congress.