Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1864-04-02
General McClellan's Report.
From the Philadelphia Prcss.1

From the Philadelphia Press.
If the Administration is ever found guilty
of pxtravagancc. it will he because of the pub
lcatinn of General McClellans report. We
are afraid to give an estimate of the expense,
lest it should shake the confidence of the pco-
pie to pay the national debt; but we must
say that had the same money been given by
the Government to any Of the valuable tract
societies, entire heather countries might be
civilized ut once. Had it been given to the
poor. the pooi would cease to be !; had it been
generously given to the Democratic State Cen.
trail Committee, last October, it might have
elected Mr.. Justice Woodward had it been
used tn present General Mcclellan with new
sword. as testimonial of his distinguished
services. it would have supplied the hand
soonest and most costly ornament that ever
hung in generals sash. But it really seems
wasted in The publication of library; ior this
report is not one book. but many. 1t is nm
autobiography in a starting number Of vol
umes, and like the Brahnnica record of the
Hindu mythology, cannot be read in lifetime.
We shall read the beginning but only our
grandsons shall &c, to its end. Thus will it
,ake three generations Of readers to find out
of what General Mcclellan has to compl,in.
1t is true that he wrote this colossal lament in
less than three years but writing and reading
are 10, equally easy. Correspondents send
us poems, written in an hour, that we really
cannot read in months. In the old days,
when men lived nine hundred years, such re-.
port as General Mcclellan has SO Industrious
ly compiled might have found a public; but
now l,r must despair, for Mc,hnsalcl is dad.
S,me one. however, cropping i'll this mass of
d'cum ns and comments, has found a passage
which l., rnouy yh to Indicate the characi"r of
the whole work. 1t is quoted from a letter
written hy Gancral Mcclellan to the Srcreta-
ry Of War, ana da.cd June 2S, 1862. 1t
reds thus I" If saw. this army now, till
you plainly that owe M thanks to You, or to
any other person in Washington. iou have
done your best to sacrifice this army" Re-
ally it seems hand that so much money should
be spent to pnll.sll an accus .tiol th,t might
have easily bcca made in the newspapers for
not ling; for the gentleman We rhavrrmp."ycl
TO read up as much Of the report as he coa'd.
stated, Just before he was taken sick, that 30
far ms lie had gone was simply huge cont
paint Of the want ot men, the wckrdness Of
the SECRETARY Of War. and the failure 10 ap-
pr.ciatr the distinguished services of the au-
completely taken up with the crimes OF thu
Administration, that it gives compal a'ivelv
little inf ,rma'ion OF its pretended subjcc,. aud
that it should b. properly entitled "Advce
to the President; or Putting Down Rebel
lion Made Easy, in five hundred difficult vol
umrs." These statements explain the long
delay before the wooden guns of Manassas,
the mastcrly inactivity before Yorktown, tho
patient occupation Of the Chickahominy
swamps, and entirely y exonerate General Nc
Clelan for no man could at once fight sue
cessi, campaign and write such report as
this. The crushing reply to the Generals
drtractors will be "What! do you suppose
that he could govern the country teach the
President his duty; denounce the Secretary
Of War; rtfute tho arguments of Senator
Wilson prove the canfscation OF rebel pro-
perty illegal; ridicule the abolitioniss {; OPP
pose the people; defy the Administration,
and take Richmond, all at the same time
Crr.ainly not. Yet this was what he at
tempted to do" The ridiculous answer that
General Mcclellan was not employed TO gov-
ern the country, but only to take Richmond,
is SO clearly inspired by jealousy of his popu-
larity as Presidential candidate, that it will
only be heard with drrision.
With equal derision. of course, will the dec
laration that General Mcclellan did not save
the Army Of the Potomac be received. Yet
it has been made. People, envious of his tri.
umphant march upon Manassas and upon
Yorktown, when those places We're deserted
by the foe, say that he led a magnificent ar
my of one hundred and eighty thousand men
up the peninsula. and placed them in pestil
-ntial swamps for weeks, where thousands
died, while he wrote to Washington for more
men. They will say this was not saving an
army. but destroying it. They declare that
h- had every man that could be spared, and
enough, properly used, to have accomplished
work, not SO difficult as the capture Of
Vicksburg, Or the rout of Bragg's triumphant
army at Chattanooga. They declare that
when this army, scattered over line Of TWEEN.
ty miles. cut in two by rebel cavalry, and
weakened by long waiting and sickness, was
driven back by n foe that had Lot dared to
stand before, it was not General Mcclellan
that saved it. They say that this army. in
its retreat was saved by its own splendid
fighting, and the skill Of its corps command
ers that where strategy failed, hard blows
succeeded; that whenever regiment was at
tackled by the enemy it fought the enemy,
that so fighting for seven days and falling
back, this great army was not under tue con-
tro Of one mind. but directed by Hancock,
Rcyn lids. Meade. Hooker. Couch, Srdgwick,
Sumner. Kearnry. Crawford. Stevens, and
tn 'ir peers. Then these envions people. who
never wrote a report 81 long that it could not
be read. say that the General did not save
tho army. but ra'hrr that the army saved the
General. 1t WIS not till it reached Harri-
sons Landing. they audaciously assert, that