, 1863-01-19
'Obifa9> Qribt1,rt.
MONDAY, JANUARY 10, 1868.


TUE pRESIDENT*S LETTER.
The Presidents letter to Gen. Mcclellan,
printed in the te1cgrapAic correspondence
Of the TRIBUNE yesterday, is complete
and IN unanswerable yindication of the Ad-
n1inist1ation. The kindness Of its tone;
its unaffected sincerity, its plain statement
Of the facts Of the situation; its justifca-
ton Of the action that tho writer, as Com
mandcr-i in Chief, was compelled to take;
its picture Of the defenseless condition Of
Washington, as the General would have
left it; its well expressed but modest dis
cent from the plan of tho campaign, upon
which, in spite Of entreaties, Mcclellan was
resolved and its urgency for a movement
and victory, will command universal
praise. But while 1Ir. Lincoln is exoner-
ated, Mcclellan is thrust deeper into the
mire, Supported rs he was by tho President;
his faults pardoncd; his querulous com.
plants, for the most part untrue in fact, oil
answered; his inaction endorsed; his
plans permitted as he conceived them; his
wants met; his acquisitions filed he did
nothing, or worse than nothing. He COM
manded the army only to lead it from the
camps in which it had rotted by reason ofllis
1ndecislon, to disaster and defeat Never
in modern times has any General had such
means at his disposal rs lie welded; never
since Wa1lenstein exacted conditions ofthe
Emperor Of Germany, has any General de-
manded as much as he; and never since
that Wallenstein faced Gustayus Adolphus
at Nuremberg, and wasted eighty thousand
men before that seventeenth-century Ma
nassas, have the resources Of great nation
been SO needlessly wasted as he squan-
dered the physical and monied wealth
Of this people. He is out Of the way now,
and probably will not be again entrusted
with a command; hence we might, did
not Interests that touch the whole nation
require yindication Of the ,Administra-
tion. be silent. Since, however, the oppo-
nents Of the war have made the fact Of his
dismissal the reason for attacks upon the
President, as furious rs they are false;
since tile name of Nc Clellan has become the
ra1lying c1y Of all who are disaffectcd
and all who are but semi-loyal,
and since large and by no means power
less party look to him as their representa-
tiye man who will wTest the Government
by force from the hands of those whom
the people have chosen to administer, it is
due to truth and to the country that his
disgraceful mismanagement involving con
sequences that can never be measured,
should be spread before the people, who
are, after III, the arbiters Of the fate, and the
true guardians Of the reputation, of
Generals and Presidents alike.
We have no need to say that the TG1B-
uNE did its duty in the premises. It be-
gan cariy-as soon as it was convinced
that Gen Mcclellan did not intend to hurt
the enemy-and it never relaxed its efforts
until he was relieved Of his command.
We had then q deep conviction that he
was unequal to, or unfit for, his plnce; and
that conviction has been confirmed and
strengthened by all that has since occur
red; and now every new development
makes it more thorough and abiding. Be-
fore this war ends, the Judgment of the
country will declare that whatcycr Of
doubt and danger envelops the national
cause, is due to the shameful waste of the
national resources, the criminal inaction.
the doubtful strategy and the useless bat
ties for which Mcclellan Is RESPONSIBLE