Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1864-10-07

| ination, the commission adjourned till
p. NJ. on Thursday.
| McCielian's Military Recors. sssowzi zap.
Senator Ben. Wades lightly damaged
the record of young Napoleon in his
last great speech. Let every man read
| it.
Mr.. Wade < :: They the (cop-
perheads) have made me their own wit
ness now, and it is an old principal OF
law that they cannot dispute my testi-
mony. If they believe what | said
about Lincoln let them believe what
am about to say of Mcclellan.
| want the Democrats to understand,
now, that L tell the truth ut all hazards,
and l want them to receive and believe
what l say about Mcclellan. l have
announced the facts about Lincoln, now
| will announce some few facts about
Mcclellan, ,and when have done choose
ye between them. How is it we find
men SO much in the mist about plat
forms and issues? Was it not easy, if
the Chicago Convention meant to up
hold the government for them to say so:
Couldn't they have put it upon paper, so
chat all could understand it? They are
either for war or against it, are they not?
Is it not easy to set that forth? But the
Democrats are divided. One part of
them are so depraved and demora lied
as to be willing to get down in the dust
before the South and cry 'peccari" But
the larger portion of the party had fall
len so low as to have done it already.
They had to reconcile these differences,
and so they put Il big, houider-strapped
General on peace platform. And God
knows they couldn't have found a more
peaceabie General. In war. he is the
very Prince of Peace. For nearly two
years he was generalissimO of all the
armies Of the United States. He had a
staff like regiment. | have seen him
myself, when lie galloped out with his
cavalry stringing along behind him, to
take some elevated position, and have
his troops march around him. That's
what he called organizing an army.
You know this as well as |. We had
battles under McCicllan-plenty OF them.
In these battles our boys fought and con-
quered and fell as gaIlantlv and devoted
" as men ever did. 1t was the duty OF
a commanding General to lead his troops
to battle, and share their danger, of his
staff to carry his orders to and fro. where
death is thic!zest. After a year and a
half of battles, Mcclellan and all his
staff and their horses came out as sleek
and fat and fair rs they went in. Not
one lad blood drawn on him.. Why, ii
was notorious, and at any time during
| the last six months of his GeueralShip
could have gone to an Insurance Office
ana insured his life for less premium
| thaa that on the life Of I. farmer in his
wheat field. Everybody knew that il
| was safe enough to be on McCleilan' s
staff. Had he been pugna.ious he
might have hurt some of our Southern
brethren. Why did they choose Il gen
| e,'Qi to pray for peace" woman could
do that as well.
THE FALL OF 1861.
When speak of Met Clellan, speai; oI
| Il man know, for | was Oh committee
70 watch him. When he took the reins
OF command, the first thing he did wa
TO draw on the Western army to swell
his magnificent army in the East Fol
this we have the oath OF his officers. and
YOU can read it at your leisure ii the
book.
Things passed nuntii October, when
Senator Chandler and myself, feeling
| that the nation was tisgraced by the
inactivity of the Union armies-the
! largest and most Ostmagniticentty equipped
| that the world ever saw, bigger thal
tDosc Of Bonaparte-whilet the rebel flag
across the Potomac Haunted the presi-
Dental mansion in the very face, went
to him and said, 'For Gods sake save
this nation from this ineffaceablc dis
grace. Take your magnificent army
every man in it is IA good US Bonaparte';
old guard-better and truer men never
| marched TO the field of battle-and attack
| the enemy.r He said, ooh, | can't d(
that They are 220,00 strong. so {
gentleman, fresh from BeauTegard',
| Headquarters, told me when he dine,
with me yesterday.' That gentleman
was probhaly back to Beauregard tht
next day.
! Well, affairs ran on, and there McClel
ian lay before the Quaker guns on Nun
sons Hill, frightening him into silence
There they stood, in all the majesty o
| point They really looked like cannon
and Mcclellan never got near enough K
them to see whether they were wood o.
iron. He was again urged to cross the
river. But no. Mcclellan said itwoult
bring on general engagement-why
| in Gods name, was that not just Wha
he wanted ? and hadn't men enough
and the rebel Notifications We're a:
strong as Sebastapol.
So passed the fall and winter. In tht
meantime the rebels made raid on the
| Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, and carried
off all the locomotives, no more disturb
ed by McClellan's army than by shep
| herds tending their fiocks. Meantime
| the rebel batteries below Washington OF
the Potomac, blockaded our Capital. A
last the Navy Department., stung witt
a sense of shame at being thus besieged
got Mcclellan to agree to the arrange
ment of a Joint expedition against these
batteries. The naval force sailed at the
time appointed, but when they arrived
in front of the rebel batteries there were
no land forces there. They thought
some terrible accident had befallen Nc
Clellan's army, and sent back theil
couriers in hot haste to know what the
matter was. Mcclellan told them that
he had concluded after all that il
wasn't safe to move, for he was afraio
that he couldn't find good place tC
knew that by all laws of military eti-
auette, the naval commanders having
planned the expedition, it was their bu-
siness and not his to select place fol
| landing the troops. Well, they agreed
on another time to make the attack
and the naval forces sailed again, and
again Mcclellan failed to cooperate.
And so the Potomac remained block
AIDED, and our capital shut in by rebel
batteries, and England and France were
on the point of recognizing the Southern
Confederacy, because they We're strong
enough to blockade us in our Capital.
THE ARMY MovEs-THE QUAKER GUNS.
But I cannot 60 into details of these
matters as [ wish l could. All the fall
and into January orr army Law idle and
weather we were having. Spring was
approaching and still there were no
signs that the army would move, and
Mcclellan still said that it wouldn't do
to advance. At last Senator Chandler
and l went to President Lincoln, and
urged the necessity of its being pressed
forward. And he said, 1T shat move ~
Ihaa NcClellan sum moned q council of