Litchfield enquirer., 1863-01-15
. Communications. \
THE oCLAMAfIoN.fAND THE 2 GRAVE REYIEW OF THE POSITION.

l. AsssS
 and is here placed on record as Review of
 the Position. of Affairs at the turning point,
 when the Proclamation of Emancipation was issued, and of the policy which seemed to be
 indicated by that event. If once entered upon
 deliberately, wise people will naturally ex- i pect to pursue the policy adopted.
 We have from General Mcclellan very l fine prescript on the duties of the Army at the present crisis. No spirited response is of- | red to the country.in acco with the proc
 lamation, having in it the hope and prophecy l of victory, but moral military lesson, precise enough for the meridian of the schools. Is there not something too much of this9 Is not 1 a year of this sublimated leading of armies enough of it? The last collision was terrible,
 fatal successful enough, to csewn comn and, on which the world has looked impatiently for
 year, with prestige enough to be relinquish-
 ed with honor Let it pass then, into hands l which will assume it in that spirit of success,
 the earnestness, which, in any difficult affairs, alone can secure it. The short, sharp and de-
 cisive was child's phrase, mere monosylla- | bles, which the action of the man did not re- cognize again. DelibeTation was compelled upon him, and after years gestation, energy 1 was born of it, in cry of discontinue at the change of base. This would do for the term defining itself under the Border State policy, which grew warm and luminous the longer it endured, with the blessings of contractors, the smiles of scheming democrats, the favor of rising officers, and sacred upon the tongues of conservatives.
 The recent Maryland campaign filled itself out apparently by the card. What was written was done. That Harper's Ferry was omitted, is to be charged upon the same pressure upon the resources at headquarters, to which an available scLems of victory is to be credited. It was lett cut of the bill, which nevertheless was very good bill, and better than we have been accustomed to of late The enemy, in his pretence of an easy. reckless triumph, was reached and met and defeated. The Com- manding General will pursue him, when it be- comes apparent whether he will retire, ana adapt the efficiency and promptness of pursuit, doubtless, precisely to the occasion, to charge
 upon him in force, or advance with caution.
 This was for the interval, when the Adminls-
 tration was resuming the reins, and the ante
 chamber of the Border States being shut of from the Cabinet of the Union Every tryst- ing ground of spies and traitors had been in eommuni ation with it it burnt blue lights at the windows the Capitol Kas thsught- al one time to redden with joy signals visible at Nun sons hill. This was passed with the change of base, and even victory had become . neces- sity, whea conquest had brought its skeleton alternative to the gate, on an apple day. Maryland was saved.
 Tine Proclamation opens the United States polcy-the subjugation of all reyolted DOT tions of the cosntry to their constitutional uni y and duty. It aims ts eeneiliate by fairness and reason. or,| fAiling this, it proposes te de feat and subdss. It hesitates not from doubt or fear, but from forbearanc: and considera- tion It hesitstes no longer as to it's decision;
 
 its right. It seeks not to avoid the complica- ton of interests and facts, which challenge it's authority while they assail its power. It will disperse and scatter them rather, and disabuse the system, whose yindication it assumes, of the weights and hindrances, . strange and an- tagonistic system he'd interposed in it's working, and vas used in it's destruction Its aim is right, its method is wise. its end only just and com plete. It cannot execute itself. The strength of half million of men is embodied to exc cute it. resource of that number is ready to sustain that complement in every contingency of the service, but it must be led, directed, yielded, if you please, not by skill of disposi- tion only, but in the snergy of its will. Who is master of this strategy of the soul, is gifted in the clements of command, and exercise
 with full effect the might of armies? Is it
 Burnside, whose soul glovs with intenser fire than that which brings the rank and file to climb the parapes, and makes them one with him in the triumph he desired? Is it Rose crans, whose forethought anticipated surprise, and made it victory because in advance of it SiyeI, who permits no odds to deter him, and no uccsss to withstand him? Mcclellan, who, in the last great fight, met pawn and knight, bishop and castle, each with its kind, and gain ing another point, would have eheck-mated his antagonist with the Kingf Who is the Achil les of the strife7 Is Phelps. whose lofty theo-
 ries have become the practice of the Govern. ment that distrusted them, the admiration of the press that derided them, whose gallantryf
 is that of the masses, the instinct of duty? Is it Heintzelman, Sumner, Hooker, Grant, Itis much that the soldier aud commander become identified, and one in action. The head
 is one, the members are diverse, but the army l is all one body. Habit gives it identity of
 character it partskes of one spirit as of one
 destiny. t has besn so with our's for 2 year
 back It may continue to be so with kindred
 results for year to come, and the results be fatal to it. If the spirit of fbe Proclamation