Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1864-10-27

thoughts" but that he had formed and expressed
them six months before that date We see then
that, if he had formed" such opinions sia months
previously to January 27, 1868, his attack on the
Administration, contained in his letter to Mr.
Hurlbert written in December, 1852, was as gratu
ltous as it was false, because it places him in tn,
attitude of making charges which he now says h,
then felt to be SO unjust that they could only be
"impudently made"
In view of such transparent contradictions every
reader must come to the conclusion that the testi
mony of General Barnard can hereafter be held
credible only against himself. His memory has
such lack Of tenaciiy (to use no stronger ex-
pression) that he cannot hold his mind to con-
slstent statement of any transaction he is called
to reoite under different circumstances. What
wonder that he has been abduced by an eminent
citizen as melancholy examr le of those who
fail to speak their honest convictions where
they have reason to suppose their uudisguised con-
victions will give offence to men in power? In
his "review'' he replies to this charge of having
shaped his official report to please the War Com.
mittee by saying that he was unconscious that
such committee yet existed when he wrote the
report"
BY thus overwhelming the point he would seek to
establish Gen. Barnard produces on the mind of bis
reader an impression directly contrary to what he
wishes He forgets that there is legal presump-
tion against men, qnando Sc minis purgitant If
he had simply denied the Impeachment of his can
dor such denial might have passed for what it was
worth as set-off against the insinuation of his
critic. But when be asks us to accept his dis
claimer on the ground that when he wrote his off,
cal report in January, 1868, he was not conscious
that the War Committee was still in existence he
greatly impairs the credibilny of his affirmation by
over-taxipg our credulity. Not conscious in Jan
uary, 1868, that the War Committee still existed !?
Then we venture to say he was the only man of
any intelligence in the country who was uncon-
s ,ious Of the fact For it was on the Goth of De-
cember, 1862, that the War Committee, acting un-
der solemn resolution Of both Houses of Con-
gress, proceeded to Fredericksburg to inquire
into the disaster of the preceding 18th Of that
month. And it was week or two later that the
War Committee spread before the country the
result of their inquiries into that terrible blunder
The bureau Of engineers was deeply interested in
the result of their investigations, and yet General
Barnard would have us believe that when he wrote
in the very shadow of these Investigations and
publications by the War Committee, he "was uu-
conscious that the War Committee yet existed r
The mimic queen in the play of Hamlet ex-
claims:
"Nor earth to me give food nor heaven light!
Sport and rePose lock from nae, day and night
To desperation turn my trust and hope!
And anchors cheer 10 prison be my scope,
Each opposite that blanks the face of Joy
Meet what would have WELL and it destroy
Both here, and hence, pursue me lasting strife
u once a oidoio, ever 4 be pifs."
But though this vow of constancy was SO deeply
sworn" it did not produce upon the auditors the
desired impression, if we may judge from the COL
loquy with which Shakespeare accompanies the
vehement asseveration:
Hamlet--Madame, how like you this playi
"Qncen-1he lady doth protest too mach, mtthiaks."
If Gen. Barnard had said that he wrote his re-
port " out Of his own mind" we might have Gre
dited the statement but when he says that in
writing 1t he twas unconscious the War Committee
yet existed" he makes claim on our "retrospec-
tive confidence" which VIC are only the less dis
posed to honor because he "protests too much"
And here We leave this hapless engineer, in his
double capacity of military reviewer and political
pamphleteer. he meditated, doubtless, by his un-
worthy assault on the military reputation of Gen.
Mcclellan, nothing less than the injury Of that
officer in the popular esteem but this is not the
first instance in which those who mediate as.assi-
nation succeed only in committing suicide. And,
as in olden times, under the stern rule of the
English common law, the Jelo de So was buried on
the highway, with a stake run through his body,
we have thought it no more than just to impale
this offender with the shaft of truth, that all may
see in the nature of his punishment the quality of
his offence.