The New York herald., 1863-07-11
Wanted-A True statesman.

Wanted-A True Statesman.
The speeches Of President Lincoln and his
Cabinet, on Tuesday evening last, and of Gov
ernor Seymour and his companions, on the
Fourth OF July, have attracted great deal of
remark throughout the country. We are sorry
to add that the comments everywhere heard,
both in public and private, are the very re-
verse Of complimentary. All these speeches,
although delivered by different persons, upon
different occasions, are alike in their want Of
spirit tact and craftsmanship, and they ell
equally lack talent, eloquenoe and force On
the whole, after careful consideration Of the
matter, we are inclined to think that the two
Seymours and Mr. Peodleton, or Peddlngton,
were ahead; but our only reason for this
opinion is that the President and his Cabinet
had the greater opportunity, and utterly failed
to improve it.
The speeches of Governor Seymour, Of New
York, Ex-Governor Seymour, of Connecticut,
and Mr.. Pendleton, Of Ohio, at the Academy Of
Music, were remarkable because they ignored
our glorious victories and our victorious gene
rails, and were mainly devoted to vallsndigham
and other copperheads The speeches of Pre-
sident Lincoln, Secretaries Seward and Stanton
and General Halleck were noticeable for
almost precisely the same causes. Governor
Seymour and his friends did not deign to allude
to our triumph at Gettysburg. President Lin
coin and his Cabinet carefully avoided men,
tioning the name Of General Meade. We are,
Of course, aware that any congratulations upon
our victory would have completely nullified
the orations of Seymour and Company, as
these orations had been prepared with refe-
renee to defeat, and we cannot expect public
speakers to cruelty sacrifice rhetoric to the
news Of the day. A French savant, being re-
minded Of certain facts which conficted with
his favorite theory, angrily replied, $50 much
the worse for the facts" In the same vein
Governor Seymour might have said to the
newsboys who were crying out the great VIC
tory, "Confound the victory 1t shall not in
terrupt my speech" But the President and
his assistants have not even this lame excuse
for not eulogising General Meade The crowd
called upon them, with band Of music,
! to hear and cheer just such praises
Wendell Phillips will probably say that
the administration is Q great electioneor-
ing concern, and that the President and
his followers did not care to say anything
about Meade for fear of creating another rival
for the next Presidency. This theory may be
correct; for Wendell Phillips tells great deal
oftruth in his way; but we should imagine that
the Washington officials had learned from their
dealings with Mcclellan that jealousy and
neglect sometimes make . man more popular
and increase the very dangers they seek to
avoid
During this war we have managed to dis
cover three or four good generals, such az
Mcclellan, Grant Rosecrans and Meade. We
have not yet had the good fortune however, to
happen upon one great statesman. At one
time everybody though that we had found q
prize in President Lincoln, and at another
time Governor Seymour was hailed as the man
for the crisis These anticipations have un-
fortunately proved fallacious. Sometimes Lin
coin is the brighter, and then Seymour eclipses
him, and then Lincoln flares up again; but
neither Of them is very brilliant even at the
best. If anything great was ever expected of
Secretary Seward, beyond his administration
Of the State Department, he has at last
plainly demonstrated that such expectations
| were unfounded; and Lincoln, Seymour
and Seward make up trio of incapa-
bles. Their recent speeches are very
characteristic Of the men, and no one can read
those speeches without feeling of disappoint-
ment. 1t was very natural that the Connecticut
Seymour, and Mr.. Pendleton, of Ohio, should
waste breath in defending the copperheads, and
just as natural that Stanton and Halleck should
make themselves ridiculous by abusing the cop
perhsads and by claiming the credit of victories
which were won rather in spite of them than by
their aid. From the President of the United
States, the Secretary Of State and the Governor
of the State Of New York, however, the public
had q right to anticipate something worthy
of their exalted positions, and not namby-
| pamby and balderdash. Our race OF great men
seems to be extinct, and political dwarfs now
| fll the places of giants. Perhaps this war,
which has already produced US splendid gene
rails, may give us true statesmen by-and.by who
will be equal to the requirements of this ma
tional crisis and of the great future before us:
and then the present breed of mere politicians
will soon be totally forgotten, or remembered
only as Kissing and a reproach to the age
which permitted them to exist
-
INCREASED ACTIVITY or THE BLOCKADE Run
NERs-NEGLIGEScE SoMEwHERE.-lt will be seen,
by a statement published in another column.
that there had arrived at Nassau within a few
days no less than eight vessels from Charleston,
and five from Wilmington, N. c. These, no
doubt, all contain valuable cargoes of cotton,
and the impunity with which they have run the
blockade does not reflect much credit on the
vigilance Of our cruisers. If the vessels com
posing our blockading squadron are too slow to