Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1863-06-18
UNTIMELY CIVILIZATIONS

UNTIMELY CIVILIZATIONS
In the counsel elsewhere given, advising the re.
call Of Gen. Mcclellan to active duty, we have
proceeded on the assumption that the country i,
beset by some real danger, and that the invasion
of the Loyal States is calamity against which it
would be well to guard The reality Of the peril
is, We take it, sufficiently attested by the extraor-
binary call of the President for hundred thousand
men--since increased to one hundred and twenty
thousand--to serve six months. Such call surely
would not have been made except under the pres
sure Of grave emergency
That the invasion of the Loyal States is a calami-
~ calling for regret as well as remedy, was pro.
position which we had supposed would find admis.
sion at the hands of all who profess to uphold the
National Government In this 1t seems we were
mistaken. We find in an Administration paper,
which it Is not necessary to name, the foil wing
Fluctuations on the invasion Of Maryland and Penn
sylvania:
There 10 another why rejoice at "a her than
regret this raid into the Loyal States It 10 king
hing else could have evoked the loyalty of the
North From all quarters comes the intelligence If
| demonstrations the meaning of which cannot be mis-
| t,ken.
Yes such step this the part of the rebel.
ioas need to bring out the latent loyalty md p triofism Of
the NORTH The eIsnc- Of the COW rument and it, mil.
ary chefans has hi ro erved the Free from
ceiling the eaormlty of the wrong and cruelty ,h.
herrnt la this rebel ion. Let the coil their DOORS
let them appreciate the gaituds Of The struggle icheh
The GoDernmsnt engaged let Them realize ,ohat IS
schat they DC hitherto saped and vha
czPec the rebellion succeeds and they scA iust up
tho help of tn. Government noble Efforts to rsssaj
ish the reign Of lao and order, the Consution and .he
Union."
We would not have our readers suppose that
his is the language of malice or of inhumaniry.
Il is simply the dialect of official ineptltude,
awkwardly gropipg to find political consolation in
the military misfortunes of the country, and doing
the grossest injustice to those in whose behalf it
purports to sleak.
We observe that another Journal which, from
its intelligence, is not open to suspicious of this
kind-we alude to the New York Evening Post
contents itself with assuring those contem pora-
ries whom the advance of Lee has filed with
such gloomy forebodings that the military au-
thorities at Washington have not been taken by
surprise; they have been preparing cautiously
for the expected movement of Lee and if they
have waited, till this movement began, to call
upon the militia Of the States for temporary help,
they did so on he soundest prudential motives
It would have nipped the hazardous movement
Of Lee in the bud to have called out the militia
a month or three months [weeks] ago."
We have no more "gloomy forebodngs" per-
haps than the Post but we must refuse to believe
that our military authorities at Washington con-
nived with Gen. Lee to bring about this invasion
of the North, whether for moral and political ad-
vantages such as the Chronicle predicts from it, or
for prudential motives, such as the Post describes
in it. If the Eruption Of the enemy into the VAL
Icy of the Shenandoah did not take our military
authorities "by surprise" why was Gen. Milroy
left to encounter the enemy with such inferior num-
bers that he congratuates himself on having had
the good fortune to " out his way OUT with loss
of his artillery and two thousand men If the
Eruption Of the enemy into Pennsy lvania was de.
sired by our military authorities for strategic
reasons and prudential motives" why we're any
troops ever placed at Winchester, Martinsburg,
Harpers Ferry, and elsewhere obar the approaches
into the Cumberland Valley If these forces
were too few for defence they were altogether too
many to be placed where their presence was worse
than useless because it stood in the way of the
strategy" which, We are told, invited invasion.
If there are those who rejoice in the misfor.
tunes Of their country, and find solsoe for the
invasion of loyal soil, in the thought of oontn-
gent political or military advantages that may
ensue, they are welcome to the solitary enjoyment
of their optimism or Of their unnatural and un.
timely exultation. We do not believe that any
such calamities were needed for the purpose Of
developing the "latent loyalty and patriotism"
of . commonwealth which has already poured
out its blood and treasure like water for the de
fence Of the Government and the enforcement of
the laws. Suoh people need no armed invader
at their resides to remind them of the duty they
their country and instead Of learning by such bitter
experiences to appreciate the magnitude of the
struggle 10 which the Government is engaged"
they are much more likely, We fear, to ask, while
smarting under their humiliations, whether those
who conduct the war are equal to their high and
responsible duties. From the frequent changes
made in military commands, the people are autho-
rised to infer that this has not always been the
case in the judgment Of the President, and since
some Of these changes were made they have been
left to draw their own differences from succession
Of misfortunes Detailing the Army Of the Potomac