Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-10-13


down hill, from the canal to the river, with
but little difficulty, and that there might
have been some other reason than the one
assigned by you? But, admitting all that
YOU claim, did it never occur to you that
the entire detail, attending the movements
of large army, is to be superintendent by
the commander thereof in person? will
even grant you that In theory you are right,
and that General Mcclellan should not |
have had officers attached to his staff, who
neglected to use every precaution to pre-
vent failure. But be charitable-don't fail
to remember the awful disappointment
when that pontoon train failed to appear
upon the Rappahannock, and when the
vials of wrath were poured, not upon the
head Of the tavorite of your party, General
Burnside, but upon those of Generals Hal
leek, Meigs, and Woodbury.; and again be
charitable, and do not fail to remember how
carefully you have secreted that more ter
rible blunder than ever occurred in this or
the annals of any other war, by which we
have 10 less than twenty-three monitors,
constructed at an expense OF over twelve
millions of dollars, and which, by the nice
calculations of the naval engineers brought
| in after one Of them was launched, it was
determined that with their armament they
would float just five inches under water.
Now, Judge but do not fail to remember
| table, that the President and Gig lting Joe
Hooker" carefully concealed their plans
from the Commander-in-Chief and the Sec
retary of War to that extent that, while the
battle was going on at Charlottesville, l
was informed directly, by the best authority |
in the premises that ''neither General Hal |
leck nor the Secretary of War knew more |
of what was going on than did" and 'that
all the acquisitions made during the prep |
arations for the movement, instead of go
ing through the ordinary channels, were
ordered directly by the President" and do
you know that, to the present hour, the
country las never been informed that, on
that occasion, Hooker and the President
fought the best army that was ever got to-
gether, numbering no less than one nun
| dred and siXty-fve thousand men, against
| General Lee, with an army of hfty-seven
thousand, lost thirty-fve thousand men-
were completely routed, and to such an eX-
| tent that, as | said before, but for the prov
idential killing of Stonewall jackson, our
army would have been annihilated? why
has not Mr.. Stanton told this to the families
of the thirty-five thousand so unnecessarily
slaughtered, instead of attempting to con-
sole them with the pitiful story that 'the
Eleventh army corps gave way in confus-
| ion," and that "but one. third of General
Hooker's army had been brought into ac-
tion?"
Why did not your committee on the
Conduct of the War exhaust few of those
five hundred days, and n portion of those
seventeen hundred pages, devoted to Cen
eral Mcclellan, upon the military successes
of that great leader, General Butler, before
Petersburg, where six thousand of his men
were marched prisoners into Richmond-
almost without his knowledge-he and Mr..
Stanton coolly assuring the country that
there had been a great fog, and that 1t came
before breakfast?
Before leave your friend Mr.. Stanton,
| will instance another evidence of his
treachery to General Mcclellan. All know
of the disasters caused by the interference
of the President and Mr.. Stanton with the
, Army of the Potomac. 1t was necessary
to have victim, and General Mcclellan
, was selected and removed. A short time
afterward Pope, being placed in command,
, failed most disastrously, and Washington
was again threatened The President and his
Cabinet were alarmed to that extent that a
> steamer was prepared and ready to assist III
their escape. With earnest entreaty and
supplicatiOn, Mcclellan was solicited to as
sumo command and save them and Wash
ington. He onsented-ignoring the solicit
tations of his friends, who desired that he
should first insist upon the removal of Mr..
Stanton, which he utterly refused, replying
that he would not permit any personal con-
siderations to influence his conduct when
the capital was in such imminent danger.
He then accomplished the greatest military
9 success OF the war; He reQrganized the
g demoralized army of Pope while on the
1 march, and gained the glorious victory at
e Antietam. McClellans star was again in
a the ascendant Mr.. Stanton begged for
, giveness for the past, and promised his de-
voted friendship for the future.
Again Gen. McClellan's trusting nature
prevailed over the advice OF his friends,
and the treacherous conduct of Mr.. STAN
ton was forgiven by Gen. Mcclellan, only
l to be again more wickedly betrayed than
5 ever. Washington was no sooner relieved,
1 and the President and his Cabinetsafe, than,
by the influence of Mr.. Stanton, Gen. Nc
: Clellan was again removed from the COM
5 mand of the Army of the Potomac, when
= upon the verge of battle, and ordered into
f retirement.
: You call up the ghosts of the departed
: soldiers. Be assured Gen. McClellan's sleer
: will not be disturbed by them; but wha
= must be the broken slumbers of those who
f are responsible for the tens of thousands
lost by Pope, and Burnside, and Hooker, IL
Q attempting to carry out what the Presiden
|, called his 'plan," and the hundred and fifty
# thousand lost since the 4th of May, soutl
: of the Rapidan; and what must be the
S dreams of the PRESIDENT who could, amid
r the groans of the dying that lay upon the
r CORY field of Antietam, call for the singing
: of a ribaldsong?
3 In times like these we want some other
] than the week and vacilating President who
Y assured Mr.. Crittenden, and the patriots
/ who accompanied him from Kentucky, that
. they might go home and inform their friends
: that he would not violate their rights and
/ interests by any proclamation of enamel
5 patton. Before these assurances could be
\ transmitted to the people of Kentucky, his
4 promises had been broken, and just such 9
v proclamation, violating all those pledges
G was issued. aI~
If any State has done nobly, and earned
Y distinction for pure patriotism under the
e most trying, dreadful sufferings of this war
D in which whole people have been despoil-
t ed, families embttered against families, and
/ members of the same family against each
y other, to that extent that harmony can never
0 prevail, it is the State of Kentucky and il
L there was any one State that should have
t had influence with the Administration, il
was that State. But her voice, amidst the
{ din and blood of battle, has never beer
e heard, or il heard for the moment it was
!, soon lost under the influence of Massachu.
: sets, aided by the demon yells of radica
n men, who cried out determination, and IL
Il the same breath proclaimed higher Law
O than the Constitution, Which they only
t denounce as covenant with hell. .Aa
s The people of the South are members o