Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1863-02-05

i
we may credit the uucontradicted statements OF
Mr.. Raymond, Of the New York Times, we fad
the President nterposing between both Gen Hal
leck and Gen. Burnside to arrest meditated
movement of the latter, and this at the suggestion
of subordinate officers whose only duty it was to
obey the orders Of their commander, and not to re-
port them to the President for his revision. II
Gen. Burnside was judged competent to command
the Army of the Potomac he should have been
allowed to discharge his duties without liability to
a surveillance from below, encouraged by official
sanction from above. This is SO plain that to
state it is to demonstrate the truth of the PROPOSE
tion for if talebesring is out of place every where
it is especially out of place in the administration
of an army.
1t is in the full sight of such military improprie-
ties, followed they by checks and hindrances
in the prosecution Of the war, that we venture to
repeat the invocation we made in behalf Of Gen.
Halleck at the time he was called ito assume the
command of the army as General-in- Chief" It is
not with at present question whether he is the
best person who could be selected to gil this pest
but whether, since he has been selected, he should
not be allowed full scope for the display of his
military ability AS it is, he comes, in the eyes
of the people, under the responsibilities without
exercising the powers of the Generalin-C Chief and
hence the complaints gnorantly laid at his door by
censorious and clamorous journals who do not un-
derstand his practical relations with the President
We were at one period ourselves SO far misled as
to suppose him responsible according to the nature
of his Office, instead of being mere military ad-
wiser of the President, and liable in this capacity
to be overruled, as in the case of Gen. Burnsde's
change of base, or to be left in total ignorance of
important military plans, as in the case of Gen.
Mcclellan during the latter days Of his military
administration.
We respectfully submit that this arrangement is
not the most judicious that could be adopted. We
give full homage to TIC President for disposition
to prosecute the war with vigor and success. We
do not question his patriotic purposes, but admit
them with all the emphasis Of his most devoted
partisans. We can conceive Of no higher ambi-
ton than that which he should propose to himself
| as President under whose administration the Re-
public is, if possible, to be rescued from perils the
greatest that ever overhung once free and happy
people. But, while we do not doubt the integrity
of his motives while can conceive Of none incom-
patible with the safety and glory of the country,
we may be permitted respectfully to doubt the
wisdom of some of the regulations which he has
prescribed to himself in the conduct of the war.
We know that he is, by the terms of the Con-
stitution, the Ccmmander-in- Chief of the army
Al. -
cessary follow from this fact that in time of actual
war he must direct supervise the operations of all
our armies on land and Of all our fleets on the sea.
In fact, nobody seems ever to think Of him as the
Grand Admiral who is to instruct our Duponts
and Farraguts in the navigation and disposition of
their squadrons, yet he is just as much the con-
stitutional Commander-in- Chief of the navy as Of
the army. 1t clearly was not intended by the
trainers of the Constitution that the President
should, as President, busy himself with the de-
tails of military operations, whether on land
As is truly said by an Administration contempo-
rary, the Chief Magistrate was made commander
Of the army and navy simply that the civil might
be maintained paramount to the military power, so
that no cheftain could have the opportunity of
making military necessity in time of public
peril, plea to overthrow the Constitutional Gov
ernment and subyert the Republic" 1t is no ne
cessary part of his duty to assume, in military
sense, the direction of army in the face of the
enemy-the Army of the Potomac, for example
any more than it is his duty to prescribe to Ad-
miral Dupont precisely how and precisely when he
shall make an attack on Charleston.
In all that pertains to the civil administration
of the war he is necessarily and properly SUI
preme. And he may, political grounds, deter
mine the objective points of military operations.
But beyond this he may not safely 90, especially
if he has called to his aid General-in-Chief who
has assumed command Of |" the whole land forces
Of the United States" For this Gcneral-in Chief,
being soldier by education and profession, pre-
sumed to possess qualifications for the active con
troll Of military operations superior to those which
possibly fall to the lot Of any civilian, however
high in Office or however richly endowed by nature
The first necessity Of all military operations, ex-
tending over wide field of operations, i, ensemble
Of movements proceeding from unity Of conduct.
The regulation and adjustment of this matter be-
long to the province Of the Generaln- Chief after
| L. L. Al i'll ~