The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1863-09-15
the military Arrests In Baltimore.

The Military Arrests I'm Baltimore.
Wepubl.sh in another column a statement Of
! The facts connected with Tie suppression Of the
Baltimore Republican and the arrest Of IFS edi-
tors and publishers. We also give the silly
piece Of doggercl the publication Of which IA
stated TO have led 10 this higl-handed measure.
The best commentary, perhaps, that can be
offered upon it is tie placing in juxtapositiou
with it Greeleys famous ode upon the Ameri-
can flag Our readers wiz see, from q com
parison OF both, that the lights Of poetic fancy
which are deemed unworthy Of notice in New
York are visited with all the penalties Of trea-
| son in Maryland.
We thought that the government had got
| into discredit enough through its politi-
| cal arrests to teach it prudence in its
manner Of dealing with constructive Of
fences Of thiss&ind. Since the war broke
| out some three thousand persons have been
seized and imprisoned by the military autho-
rites in different parts of the country, the ma
| jority on charges so frivolous that they would
not bear investigation. To this day hundreds
| of the persons thus arbitrarily deprived Of their
liberty have not been able even to ascertain
| the grounds of their arrest And these stretches
| of military authority become the more OBJ
noxious and indefensible when we find the
same alleged offences assuming different com
plexions in different parts Of the loyal States.
What is there in the present condition of Mary
land, for instance, which should render matter
published there more dangerous than the same
matter published in New York? OF the two
Maryland is to-day, perhaps, the least liable to
disturbance from inf1ammatory political appeals
Of any kind.
The real mischief in poetical illusions such
a. those to which we refer lies in the
notice taken Of them Let alone, they
fall still-born. Prosecuted, they sting. To
impose letters on the free expression Of opinion
is always bad, but to seek to trammel poetical
enthusiasm is worse. 1t is the habit Of inter-
ference with such matters that has led to half
the political revolutions abroad.
Nothing could have better served the pur-
poses of the disloyal than the preparation Of
this foolish excess Of authority on the part Of
General Schenck. 1t il indefensible on any
ground of principle or political necessity. II
it had been devised by the enemies Of the gov
/
from it's recent military successes it could not
have been better adapted to the purpose Ar
bitrary and unress0ning as the conduct Of tho
War Department has BEEN we cannot believe
that General Schenck owed his inspiration to it
in this matter. 1t Is too much in character
with the onslaughts upon the press by which
the military career Of this officer has been dis
tinguished to leave any doubt as to its having
originated with his own fanatical zeal and dis
very bad thing for the government and still
worse thing for his party. The sooner his acts
are disavowed the better It will be for both
The Administration and the Coming
Campaign.
During the past two years the administration
; has in its war policy exhibited and illustrated
all the degrees Of incompetency. Blunders
worse than crimes are innumerable in the
record of every transaction into which il has
had its unfortunate fingers. Campaigns from
J which the country expected the grandest re.
! suits have come to naught, or have ended in
! miserable disasters, solely through administra-
tive interference. For the qualification of the
personal aims or the idle prejudices Of those
who constitute our so-called government. they
have prolonged a war that ought to have ended
year ago, and, at the very least two hundred
thousand more Northern families are desolats
to-day than need to have been If the men In
power at Washington had only done their duty.
Never for day have they given their whole
hearts to the cause that the whole country has
at heart.
But, while in every direction men have
} given up all that they had previously
striven for-business, home, family, the most
sacred ties-and offered their lives for the cause,
while the greatest SACRIFICES have everywhere
been made, and The no6lsst spirit Of devotion
has animated the whole country, only OF
Washington have We seen contemplate trivial
tiles and pitiful aims Of person or party pre-
ferred before tho popular cause and taking it,
place. But this must come to an end sooner
or later, and there can be no time like the pre-
sent for the administration to mend its ways.
To do what 1t should have done year ago, and
to retrieve its many errors In some degree, Is
now within Its power. With events against Il
in every direction the Southern confederacy is
to-day ct the very crisis of its existence, and is
ready to totter into ruin. 1t IL only necessary
for the administration TO take the full advan-
tage Of the position In which affairs now are to
secure triumph the most complete and satis-
factory that we could desire. Already the
Confederate attempt to concentrate in Virginia
for another advance against the North has
ended In failure. Enough men could not
be gotten together to give any promise
Of success, and the Southern government has
rslinquished the project Beauregard calls for
more men at Charleston, and Bragg for more in
Alabama. Here are the three poi6ts in which
the war concentrates, and the enemys weak