The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1863-02-19
THE PACIFIC
Commercial Advertiser.
THURSDAY. 70

Is our last we barely referred to the news
received by the Young Hector. \ careful
perusal Of the papers, particularly the Eastern
journals, dates of which were to Jan. l, shows
that affairs are assuming a phase anything but
favorable 10 the administration and To its sue
cessful prosecution of the war to suppress the
southern rebellion. Hitherto it has had the
most cordial support of the great body Of the
northern people, and such popular support is
necessary to any administration in any war.
But that support is becoming weakened 10 an
extent that threatens great injury to the Union
cause, and perhaps ultimately may lead 10
results which the great mass of the people will
be 10th to sanction. There are two principal
causes that are now apparently tending to this.
TT frequent change of commanders,
under a rule said to be established by the
President or his Cabinet, that every general
who is unsuccessful must be displaced and u
new man tried. The adoption Of this rule is
unfortunate for the American Government, as
it would be for any other in similar circum-
stances. The intention may be very well, but in
practice it can only result adversely to the
public interest. Gen. Washington had numer-
GUS reyerses, and probably no general was
ever more severely denounced by his foes than
he. it was only after many defeats, that he
finally won, and history accords TO him a fame
which his contemporaries would never give him.
So too Napoleon had his revcrses, and his
retreat from Moscow will ever stand among the
most brilliant of his military acts. And every
great general has had numerous r~everses.
The government at Washington made its first
great mistake in displacing Mcclellan for real
- -. il 81 . -. L. ,.1-.II.
one was made in the removal of his successor
Burnside. If this rule is carried out, u new
commander may be placed over the army in
Virginia every month. The effect of such pro-
ceedings on any army must be to demoralize
it, rendering officers and men alike dissatisfied
and perhaps insubordinate. The effect of
M'Clellan's removal is seen in the telegram
received by the last arrival, that eighty officers
were to be removed from command in the army
of the Potomac, for expressing dissatisfaction
with the removal of Mcclellan and with the
sentence of Gen. Porter-a mild way of saying
that it was for Instrumentation. Does any one
doubt after this, that there are grave reasons for
believing that the report that the army of the
Potomac is to be disbanded may be correct. If
the disbandment has not been decided on, 1t
may soon become a B. military necessity for
no army-much less one composed of in
telligent northern freemen-will long submit
to such m-ismanagement as that Of being led
into battle by paper generals, to be massacred
by whole battalions.
Burnside is said TO have distinctly told the
President on more than one occasion, what the
President ought to have known himself, that
the best interests of the country and of the
army demanded the restoration Of Mcclellan 10
the chief command. Many even 20 further and
say that the times call for q military comman-
der clothed with all the powers Of q dictator,
with supreme control Of the army, north and
south. east and west. We expressed the same
opinion a year and u half ago, before the resig-
nation Of cen. Scott. Had the military affairs
Of the nation been placed in the hands of such
an officer, is there any one that doubts that the re-
would have been terminated before this ?
The want of harmony and concert in its mill
tary measures has been the great bane Of the
North while those qualities exercised in the
person Of JEFF. Davis. who has all the powers
a dictator, have been the main spring in pro-
the southern rebellion.
No army can safely be tempered with hy the
causeIess removal Of a leader who possesses It's
We have watched closely the move
nents Of the =. army of the Potomac during
the last twelve months, and the conviction
strengthens that there is less prospect to-day
It's advance and of the capture of the strong
hold of the rebellion, than any time since the