Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1863-05-04
From the New York Times.
A Suicidal PolIey-The Rebellion and
Slavery.

| federacy that Gen. Mcclellan was choser
chief of the Federal army, and was continu.
ed so long in that position. 1t declares
/ that with the immense numbers at hi.
command, an officer of truth, courage, en-
terprise aud daring would have pushed nj
severely"
Now, so far as regards the unftuesa Of
Gen. Mcclellan for aggressive warfare, we
have nothing further TO say. That oaes-
ton is forever settled 1t has been made
as clear as mid day that be lacks the prime
essentials of enterprise, daring, rapidity
and the rare faculty of coming to prompt
and sure conclusions in sudden emergen-
cies, which Napier calls "a certain mark OF
master-spirit in war" A few party
hacks, long bent upon turning him to some
political account, still shut their eyes to all
evidence, and complain of his removal -
This folly is now simply laughed at Ishas
ceased to engage serious attention.
But the Richmond paper greatly mis-
takes in deeming this long period of delay,
"ccasiened by the iuehciency Of General
Mcclellan, matter for cougratuIaLion TO
the shareholders rebellion. 1t of course
judges with primary reference to the in.
teresrs of Slavery. But it can easily be
shown that those interests required that
the strife should be decided on the one
side or the other in the quickest time pos
sIole. Whatever other damage the pro.
Iougation of the var necessarily works,
Slavery especially suffers and each
new month has reduced its chances of
recovering its old strength aud security
Mcclellan was in command fifteen months
At the time be assumed the responsibility,
the general sentiment of tus Northern
people was strongly in favor of subduiug
the rebellion without disturbing the reIa-
tious of Slavery. It was believed that il
might and would be done, and that speedi-
ly. In all earthly probability such
would have been the result, had M'Clel.
Ian used to the best advantage the
means at his disposal. Richmond would
have been taken, Virginia and all the
border States would have been speed
lily lost to the Coufederacy, and the
whole concern would have fallen through,
long before the present time, leaving Sla-
very essentially nnharmed But the mac
ton of Mcclellan gave the rebels time to
discipline and consolidate, saved Richmond,
chilled and suppressed all loyal feeling at
the South, filed the rebel heart with con
hdecce, drew every Southern young man
into the army, created the belief through.
out Europe that the South was uuconouer-
able, gave the Northern people an over
estimate of the real formidablsuess of the
rebellion, recouciled them TO delay, caused
them to CANVASS more thoroughly than
before the real character of the STRUGGLE
and by the unexpected sacrifices it imposed.
engendered a deeper hatred of Slavery
than in the ordinary course Of events could
have been reached in years Never were
the brains of the people more active than
while Mcclellan was lying still and go
great was the change which was gradually
and yet surely wrought, by the next Sam-
mer Congress passed, without exciting the
slightest feeling. such Anti Slavery meas
ures emancipation in the District of
Columbia, the recognition Of Havti and
Liberia, the perpetual prohibition Of slav-
very in the Territories, the bill giving fu
giuve slaves the right of trial by jury ana
debarrlug all rebel slaveownerp from all
benefit of the Fugitive Slave Law, and the
conhscatiou Of the slaves of all rebel OH
clals-measures which nine months before
would have started q perfect tempest of
party opposition. The long halt in effec-
tive operations wrought similar effect
upon the religious mind of the country
as was strikiugly manifested in the unLre-
cedentIy strong anti slavery utterances Of
its general conventions, without an excep-
ton change of even greater moment
gradually came over the soldiers in the
army, multitudes of whom were at first, in
the strongest degree, opposed to any inter-
ference with slavery. This change in the
army WAS strictly in accordance with hu-
man nature. a protracted conflict, how
ever conducted, would inevitably aggra-
rate hostility aud all such aggravated
hostility must necessarily react upon the
Institution which gave birth to the war
Our own policy, from the beginning, has
been to put this war through with the ut
most practicable energy, without reference
TO its effects upon slavery one way or the
other. We believed in one paramount OBJ
Iceland that, the speedy aud effective re-
establishment of the National authority
however it might affect the peculiar iusti-
tuition. Our doctrine has been that the
war should be conducted strictly on mill
tary principles, without regard to political
considerations of any character whatever.
That, We are confident, is the only true
doctrine. But there have been large num-
bers who have practiced upon u different
principle: PrO-SlaTery men on the one
hand, who have been for subordinatiuq the
preservation of Slavery, and radical Anti
Slavery men, on the other, who have been
for subordluating the whole management OF
the war to the destruction of Slavery. Its
astonishing how events have proved that
both of these classes " ere all the while real
ly working against their own ends, though
they knew it not. The one class clung 10
Mcclellan with the bliudest devotion
through all his fifteen months of ineficien-
cy, which were all the while telling with
more injurious effect than anything else
could have done against their favorite in.
stitutiou; and the other class labored for
his removal, though uneouseiously to them
selves and 10 himself, his dilAtory manage
meut was promoting their ends infinitely
better than any swift and decisive action
could have done. No discerning man now
fails to see that expedition was the true
policy of the friends of Slavery. and DELAY
its enemies. And yet Mcclellan, the Yer7
embodiment of delay, has found his oppo-
nents among the latter, and his supporters
amon0 the former