Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1864-07-21
THE LATE HUMILIATION.

| Of the military administrations incaPaoity u
which the whole country has just been called 70
witness an illustration Of the most mournful sig
niicance We gave utterance to these words not
! because they expressed sentiment common 10
| every American heart which feels pride In the
honor of the country, but because we believed IL
to be solemn and imperative duty to lift our voice
against the Encouragement which is a standing
danger and standing reproach to the nation.
We are not of those who believe that this city
was ever in any peril from the magnitude OF the
force that recently invaded Maryland. That force
is now known to have been contemptby small,
and, after making due allowance for honest igno-
rance nothing but the nsincerity and misrepresen-
taton which may seek to bolster up official repu-
tatons vsibly sinking under the load OF an intoer-
able humiliation, will longer undertake to simulate
| any apprehensions on this ground. But we DO
believe that the city may have been In danger from
the heedlessness of the military administration be-
fore the approach of the enemy, and from Its shit
essness after that approach, when, under the pres
sure of sudden emergency, it lost, as it did, all
presence of mind and all efficiency OF conduct. 1t
| is quite possible that the few hundred men who
held Washington under siege for two days, on
Monday and Tuesday last, could, if they had suti-
GENTLY presumed on the reigning want OF vigil
lance here, have quietly ridden into the city under
cover of the darkness of night before any alarm
had been raised, seized the President and his
Cabinet, blown up the Capitol, destroyed the pub
lie buildings, and retired as mysterously (and
as unharmed) as they came.
After the specimen we have had of the state OF
preparation in which the recent approach of these
marauders found our military administration 1T does
not much surprise us that there still some per-
sons who think that the city has abundant cause
to be grateful for its recent escape from capture
and destruction by the "invader." city is
endangered as much by the incapacity of those who
are charged with its defence as by the number of
the enemy which seeks to compass its capture, and
on the former score our citizens have certainly had
much real cause of alarm. But those who confess
such alarm must be aware that its existence con-
stitutes the gravest possible imputation on the
implied want Of foresight in our military admins
tration, which, as they assume, is so negligent
and inefficient that the capital of the nation has
really DeeU III uduSSI VI pJ q low h0o0ASo
" raiders" detached in this direction as scouts
from an invading expedition numbering, accord
ing to the best information, only eight thousand
| men, all told
That the feelings we have expressed on this mori-
flying subject common to all our fellow citizens,
in Office or out of office, does not need substantial
ton to approve their justice. Writing as we did
L i &c J,,t,,
was strong, we should have written what we did
if we had supposed that our voice would find no
echo in the land But we did not do our brave
and loyal countrymen the injustice to suppose that
they could feel differently under the of such
la profound national humiliation, the cause of
which, if not removed, is as much source of fu-
ture danger as of lasting shame to the Republic.
That we did not miscaIculate the instructive SEN
timents of the American people, even among those
most firmly addicted to the political support Of the
Administration, will be apparent to our readers
from the perusa of the following article, which we
take from the leading Administration paper in New
England, (the Boston Daily Advertiser,) written
on Wednesday last, before it knew any thing more
Of the facts in the case than that the military ad
mlnlstratlon In tnls city mao again, as on some
former occasions suffered itself to fall prey to its
own want of vigilance and capacity. 1t will be
seen that the language it employs is identical with
ours os well in the object in the grounds Of its
ccnsure; and if such is the language which our
Republican contemporary deemed it proper to hold
on Wednesday morning last under the state Of facts
known to it at the date of its writing, we may east
ly conceive what added weight itwoud have given
to its well-pointed condemnation had it been ap-
priced Of the full extent of the ignorance and un-
preparedness on which it apimadverts
The article to which we refer $50 far as it relates
to the conduct Of the military administration is
as follows
THE annual invasion Of Maryland, which, next to the
excite any very disturbing spprehenons for the taety Of
Baltimore and Washington. The country has learned TO
preserve degree OF equanmity strangely uni Ike it's
cement when Jackson down the Shenandoah Valley
two years aud The fear Of receiving heavy
blow from these rruptons has been removed by repeated
escapes there general feeling that the business viii
end q. other raids have ended and that the ch e int to
be- looked after IL 10 intercept the retreat, if possible
And thus happens that the leading emotion which this
ineursion eNctes 81 modification. The country is
ashsmed that At this stage 81 the should have
rebel force beating back Union General this eide Of
the Potomae--rebr marauders burning houses, stealing
horses abd carrying OF supplies until panic is raised
which extends g. the very capital OF Pennsylvania and
Nf-.E an