Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-09-24

the President.
[Mr. Cox here gave McClellan's military
career in detail.]
1t was not wholly because of his military
character that Mcclellan was nominated
He had a political history. He believed
that all military results should be accom-
panied and followed by conciliatory meas
ures. "By pursuing such a political course
he held sit to be possible to bring about a
permanent restoration of the Union-a re-
union by which the rights of both sections
shall be preserved, and by which both par
ties shall preserve their self-respect, while
they respect each other" In his Harrison's
Bar letter, he laid down the rules by which
we could, since the war was on us, conduct
it according to the highest principles
known to christian civilization, with but
one view, peace and Union. In this letter
he protests in advance against the policy of
the Administration, what has always work.
ed such disaster and ruin.
1t was because of this antagonism, based
on correct ideas of our Government, that
the Democracy sought out the young Gen
eral of the Army of the Potomac as its
leader.
Would that you, my friends, could have
heard the shouts and seen the scenes at
Chicago, on his nomination. In that vast
theater, filled with the beauty, intellect and
worth ut this nation, when McClellan's name
was announced, the applause rang from the
lips of the assembled Democracy with a
unanimity that made the faces of our enc
mics blanch with fear. 1t is said that when
the lofty palm of Ceylon puts forth its flow
er the sheath bursts with report which
thunders through the forest. SO it was
there, in that wilderness of human beings,
when the very cOnsummate flower of our
American manhood was chosen as our lead
er, and his name burst upon the assemblage.
the report rang with rapturous echo that
gave assurance of victory. Why this unan-
unity? Because he is man of prObity and
honor; he has been tested as such. Amidst
the feebleness and fickleness of the Admin
istratiOn; the wavering support and per-
sistent opposition OF the President; the fear,
vanity and trifling of those in power; the
daring interference and secret prosecutions
of those who could not understand his plans
or were determined to foil them-he has
come forth refined from the fire. Calm,
vigilant without rest yet without haste,
clear in conception, vigorous i'm action, with
a grasp of mind and comprehension of in
tellect possessed by few, with power to
organize confessed by all, and power to
execute rarely equaled, he presents the
type of Christian soldier, whose views of
political necessity far outshine any of the
disjointed ideas of the fanaticism of the
day. Such man is the hero of the people,
for he has no interest to subserve but that
of his country.
Again, he was selected because it was
the impression that, if unhindered, he
would have ended the war in 1862. A re-
cord of that wonderful year, with his gen.
eral plan to strike all around at once; his
movement in February, forced by the Pres
ident; his protests; his salvation of Wash
ington and of his old army; the battles of
the Seven Days and in Maryland; his cruel
and shameless recall on the 10th of Novem-
Der, 1862, while moving after the enemy;
all these are history, and vindicate him as
the best soldier of the Republic.
Every battle fought, where we have had
disaster, was fought against his plan and in
spite of his warning; but for his care, the
nassas, Chantilly, and all through the Pope
campaign, would have sealed the fate of the
Republic. Nay, more, every one of the
thousands who have been massacred in de-
fiance of his general plan would to-day be
living witnesses of the resurrection of our
hopes and our Union, but for the disregard
of that general plan, which he pursued with
view to peace and Union.
This general plan is thus developed in his
report; and by it he shows that he at least
never underrated the power and magnitude
Of the rebellion.
In speaking of the probable capture of
Richmond, he had Burnside on the LETT i'm
North Carolina. Norfolk held securely,
our center connecting Burnside with Buell.
both by Raleigh and Lynchburg. Buell. in
Eastern Tennessee and Northern Alabama,
and Halleck at Memphis and Nashville.
The next movement would connect w. 7.
Sherman, then at South Carolina, by reduc-
ing Wilmington and Charleston, to advance
the center into South Carolina and Georgia,
to push Buell. either toward Montgomery
or to unite with the main army in Georgia
and to throw Halleck Southwark to meet
the naval expedition at New Orleans.
Then being in condition to reduce the
Southern seaports, occupy all points of COM
munication, use the outlet of the Missis-
sippi, re-establish Louisiana and Arkansas
and give the grand coup de grace with his
own Army of the Potomac.
This plan, which would have closed the
war, was foiled by the President, even be-
fore his dismissal.
But the powers at Washington would not
let him alone in his retiracy. Like Leopold
of Austria, after his capital had been saved
from the Turks by the skill and prowess of
Sobieski, and when all the nation rang with
his praise-he alone turned away, too proud
to receive the hero, who was only an elect
ed Monarch of Poland-so Lincoln has
turned upon the savior of the capital and
even descended to ostracise and dismiss the
officer at West Point because he permitted
Mcclellan to speak words of laudation over
the dead soldiers of the republic!
But time sets all things even. The twen-
ty-six days of General Grant from the Rap
idan to the Appomattox, with their bloody
battles and hecatombs of slain, all speak the
praise of him, who would from the first
have saved such losses by bringing the
army. nay, by keeping the army. where
now it is, near the avenues to Richmond,
until that capital was OURS.
Mr.. Cox then discussed the conduct of the
President at length. First, as to the dis
missal of Democratic Generals. Second,
his claim to override the laws by his war
power. Third, his confscation and eman-
cipation policies. Fourth, the destruction
of the Union by his plans of reconstruction,
and the Wade and Davis manifesto. And,
lastly, the determination policy of the Ad-
ministration as contrasted with the policy
of the Democracy and Union. 4
@ o5 concluded on Monday, J