Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1864-09-09

ever may be thecOst in time, treasure or
blood" and the President has done so. Yet
Mcclellan puts himself at the head of one of
the very political factions to which he al
luded, and mounts a platform which COM
plains in the following terms of those very
disasters:
"ResolVed, That this convention does explicitly
declare, as the sense of the American people, that
after four years of failure to restore the Union by
the experiment OF war, during which, under the
pretence Of military necessity or war power higher
than the Constitution, the Constitution itself has
been disregsrded in every part, and public liberty
| and private rights alike trodden down, and the
paired, Justice, humanity, liberty and the public
| welfare demand that immediate efforts be made tor
cessation Of hoatfties with view to an ultimate
means, to the end that, at the earliest possible mo-
| ment, peace may be restored on the basis Of the
/ Federal Union Of the states." .-..r
None of the military disasters of the war
exceed in their bloody sacrifices or gloomy
| results those of MeClellan's campaign
against Richmond. He felt as he lay at
Harrison's Landing, with the shattered
wreck of his once splendid army, that the
disaster was enough to cast apall over the
nation, and it was to take away the effect
of that disaster from the mind of the Pres
ident that he wrote the above eXhorta-
tions. The latter listened to the cOunsels,
but he sought and found better generals,
and for 30 doing the Administration is
abused. and Mcclellan becomes the cham
piou of the NAL. contents.
But there is a great deal more in the
same letter worthy of comment, as, for
instance, in the following passage about
slavery.
sslayes contraband under the act OF Congress,
seeking military protection, should receiVeit. The
right Of the government to appropriate permanently
to its own Service claims 10 slave labor, should be
asserted, and the right Of the owner to compensa-
tion therefor should be recognized. The principle
might be extended, upon grounds Of military ne
cessty and security to all the slaves within par
ticular State, thus making manumission in such
State and in Missouri, perhaps in Western Virginia
Also and possibly even in Maryland, the expediency
of such measure is only question of time"
Here Mcclellan touches the precise
points of the administrative action. lie
advises the use of emancipation as mil
itary necessity in particular States, just
as the President did in his subsequent
measures, and he designates the very
regions, Maryland, West Virginia and
Missouri, where alone the administration
has carried out an emancipation policy.
1t might, on the same grounds, have act
ed in Deleware and Kentucky, but 1T has
not done so, and there is McClellan's
own record to show that where the gov
ernment has acted upon this subject 1t
was by his exortation.
We beg the reader to observe that
phrase of the resolution quoted above
" ith charges against the Administration
that, "under the pretence of a military
necessity, or war power, higher than the
Constitution, the Constitution itself has
been disregarded in every part" This
refers to arbitrary arrests, to draft, and
the emancipation policy, all ofwhioh are
on record as having been first advised
by Mcclellan, the candidate who is
mounted on this very platform. We
have elsewhere cited the documents show
ing his paternity for the arbitrary arrests
and the draft; and in the paragraph we
quote above from his letter to the Pesi~
dent, we show him Unidentified with the
emanc ipation measures of the Admins
tration, He expressly says "this princi.
pie might be extended, upon grounds of
military necessity and security, to all
the slaves within particular State, thus
making manumission in such state, and
and in Missouri, perhaps in Western
Virginia also, and possibly even in
Maryland, the expediency of such
measure is only question of time" For
acting upon this very suggestion Presi-
dent Lincoln is charged with having made
this abolition war"