The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1863-10-23
McClellan,s last Strategic Movement.

McCLellan,s last Strategic Movement.
No blow has ever fallen upon the late COM
mander of the Army of the Potomac with a
weight half so crushing as the recoil OF his
own letter, written for political partizan effect,
and published on the eve of the Pennsylvania
election The friends of the General had
boosted of his prudence, and he had been held
up as a model of an officer RETAINING from
mixing up with partzan striies, aud this had
been done not simply to exalt him, but for the
purpose of rebuking those real fighting gen.
erals who have dared open their mouths in
favor of sustaining the Union cause at the
ballot box. What such eulogists of Little
Mac will say now remains to be seen. As
yet they are as dumb as so many oysters. 1t
IL well known that Pennsylvania, in her In
gersols, her Hughes and other leading demo-
cratic p politicians, is cursedwith as precious
set of copperhead rebel sympathzers as can
be found this side of Richmond, and whatever
the exact status of their late candidate for
Governor, or whatever the feelings of the "rank
and fle," the party organization was in the
hands of such men, and was being welded by
them for reasonable purposes; and the sue
cess of their schemes at the ballot box would
have been hailed throughout rebeldom as a
favorable augury, and would have been cele-
brated with bonfres and Examinations.
1t Is with such men that Gen. Mcclellan has
identified himself. True, he spoke in favor Of
the war and of its prosecution, but at the
same time he threw his influence in the same
direction with those who are laboring to en-
barrass the government, to subvert its author
ity and to defeat its high purposes.
"Alas, poor Yorickv' He has tumbled in
to the grave which henceforth will have no
openinIexcept downwards. For those who de-
scend to its corruption there is no resurrection.
Thinking, no doubt, to arrest the great pop
ular tide of sentiment and change its course,
he became swift and volunteer witness for
Woodward, fastened to his skirts, and the re-
suit is that, with his friend, he has gone down
among the dead men," and henceforth will be
known only as dead cock in the pit" For
once his excessive caution was laid aside, and
in making dash, though he dashed his head
against simple Curtin, he as effectually
knocked out his brains as though it had
struck rock. Politically he has made the
mistake of his life. Those who have hereto
fore doubted him will find in his readiness to
join hands with vile and disloyal men the sure
evidence of his past unworthiness and the
Justification of their past harsh judgment,
while his judicious friends will regret that he
yielded to an impulse that were better resist
ed. Such friends have no word of apology to
offer in his behalf
For ourself we do not feel exactly satisfied
in relation to McClellan's real spirit. If he is
a firm, wise and determined man, it is hard re-
sisting the impression that he is also not so
good man as we have always wished to re-
gard him. With such qualities attributed to
him it is difficult to explain how, as a loyal
man, with whole heart devoted to his coun-
try's cause, lie could for moment have lent
himself to such cause as that of copperhead-
ism in Pennsylvania, when nearly all our gen.
eral officers and nine-tenths of all our sol
diers in the field are coming to look upon cop
perheadism in the North as the twin sister of
rebellion in the South, and equally worthy of
the opposition of all true and loyal men.
1t is charitable to believe that Gen. Nc
Clcllan Is not a man of flrmness, is not man
Of determination, is not SO great man as
many have believed him to be. 1t is charitable
TO believe that, as on former occasions, he has
been beset by unwise or false friends, and
yielded to their evil counsels. He may have
proved too supple an instrument in the hands
Of designing and wicked men, who thought,
through the use Of his name to chan &c the
result in the State, or, by placing him in the
front" to kill him off so that hereafter he
shall not stand ia their way. When they first
began to swing their hats for Mcclellan, and
trotted him out upon the presidential course,
they evidently thought him more available
man than he has proved to be. But how to
get rid of him was a question not so conve-
niently disposed of. The elephant was in
their hands, but the public exhibition of him
didn't pay. 1t may be that the trick of induc-
ing him TO write his late letter was resorted to
as the easiest mode Of getting out of a diem
ma 1t was perhaps easier to induce him to
commit political suicide than to dispose of him
in any other way. If so, it only shows
what we have often asserted in these columns,
that no man has more reason than Geo. b.
Mcclellan to put forth the prayer, ".Sdre me
from my FRIENDS" However this may be,
the late great hero of the "peace democracy" is
no more. Politically, his bones bleach OH the
fresh bloodless battlefelds of the old Keystone
State, and his dry hide hangs upon the fence
only To rattle I'm the autumn wind