Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1863-04-09
THE ATTACK ON THE PRESIDENT

Such portions Of the Report made by the Com.
mittee on the Conduct Of the War as we have al
ready laid before our readers must have left pain
full impression on their minds in at least one Of its
aspects. We alude to the imputstions it casts
none the less significant because not presented In
the shape of formal accusations and bitter impeach
ments, on the capacity of the President, as dis
played by his management of the war. These
blows are not always aimed at him over the heads
of the men whom he is represented to have retain
ed in military command long after their incompe-
tency had been demonstrated to certain others,
Especially to the members Of the martial commit
tee but are sometimes direct in their delivery and
application.
1t was doubtless foreseen by the committee that
they could not arraign the military character aud
conduct Of Gen. Mcclellan, from the beginn pg OF
the autumn of 1861 down TO the period Of his re-
moval in November 1862, without at the same
time arraignirg the President, who so persstenty
STOOD tween them and the object of thir assaults.
Aud that there might BE- no doubt Is to the bear
ing of their report in this regard, they preface it
by laying the ultimate responsibility for the failure
W pun uOWu tuc Ou cuuuiuCio VI VIC
| Executive "whose duty it was rightfuly to apply
the means" SO lavishly furnished by Congress aud
the people. To this effect they argue as follows !:
"The Administration called by the people to the head
of the Government in this the most critical period IT the
than that If any other Government Of Whieh HISTORY
any record The cal Of hi President for money
and had been hancemDlisd acih legislation
,oheh he had deemed ID been denied Congress-
and The people had m"st noby and SUPP ored
sustained what their representatives ha promised
their The Congress, fresh from their SIT
tuents had sgan met and there could b. ubt that
they had before acted would TIN continue to act 1t
nerds but to refer tn the history If the Congress
c sed, ITS prompt and thorough action = thing the EIeca
tire ei the fullest poOsr, placing ms disposal all the
Of and money which this nation
prove that your committee judged rightly that Congress
needed prompting from them to do It's entire duty Not
upon those whose duty to provide the
sary put down the rebellion but upon those hoss duty
ioas 'orighaAy apply those means and the age Is They
EMPLOYED for that purpose, rests the blame, if any,
that the hopes OF the Laton have not b. realized aud s
| expectations have been 30 long disappointed"
1t was unnecessary to be any more explicit than
this, and the public press has not been slow to
apprehend the drift of the report. For instance,
that ardent Administration paper, the New York
Evening Post, points the bearing Of the committees
disclosures in the following moral which it deduces
from the report:
This report will be read by millions but If there
by whom could hope that it would be read at
tenvey than any body else Il Is abraham Lncoia Fr
cannot disguise from ur,eves that although the dis
asters and fniurs Of the Army of the Potomac
Immediately owing to General Mcclellan while hr he u
command The ultimate responsibility for them upon
The President 1t no answer say THAI having nriher
military education military experience he could not
be expected to know any thing ai military ma t-rs He
10 exper d-and the country must hold him to the ul6
of the expectnion-to knw the difference between
good general aud incompetent He is expect
to know ush Of select for thu diff agencies
through which the powers g m-n ex rt themselves
those who best III. ir country. He Is exp ed
to employ the alb est to le, cur armes-h- ttrst
men to command our f-ets-the men who " gue most
deeply into The science VI military campag counsel
him the conduct Of The This is his ity. aid the
country viii claim its strict PEI form He has right
to keep al officer in command moment af er his uLftness
is made apparent
Journal, not protesting any political friendship
for the President manifest under this head ten
derness for his reputation that quite exceeds the
faithful wounds" of his friends, who rejoice in
the exposures of this manifesto, some Of them we
presume because they really have not sagacity
enough to perceive the reco ofthe blows the head
of the President, and some, doubtless, because they
hold the President in ill-disguissd contempt while
protesting to be his supporters. Among the
journals which concur with the Evening Post in
it's view of the tendency Of these disclosures hut
are disposed to speak with kind consd ration Of the
part assigned in them to tie President, We may
cite the Journal Of Commerce, a Democratic paper
In its comments on the COMMITTEE 8 Report, so
far as that report bears against the President, it
says:
| what the committee think and say about Gen Nc
Celan II OF little iDpr since they by
dyes Of military m,t But the exposure the ger
raj conduct OF thu hich they did intend to IN ke
but which is made by tb, ir report his its vSlus We
Impressed with the at uh which shines out of their
whole story that the relations betw en- the esident aud
Gen Mcclellan were Of the kind and cordial char
acter, and that Mr. Lincoln have been earnestly
DESTROYS Of supporting Mcclellan in III military opera
tons but that the interference OF int such his
committee prevented the bone earnest desires Of the
President, and destroyed b. hope of The country In the
armies under Mcclellan. The kindly and most sincere
tone of the President Except when his words through
the hands OF other persns) always visible and the p,
trioc and noble utersnces Of Mcclellan always resp md
fully and upmistsksbly Th- political parsans who
between the President and Mcclellan hsve been the
Of the cuntry They have ruined magnificent army and
| p olonged the war indefinitely"
But there is part of this report, embraced in
the porsions already laid before our readers, which
is in the nature of direct accusation against the
President, Who in exercising bis functions as consti-
tutional Commander-in-C Chief is charged with hav-
ing frustrated IN important movement of the Army
of the Potomac while it was under the command