The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-12-01
PATRIOT UNDER A CLOUD.

that power.
A PATRIOT UNDER A CLOUD.
From the NJ Y. Times.
The world has rarely had the good fortune
to possess a great General who was equally
apt with the pen and with the sword. Still
more rarely has it seen one who used his
literary talent in giving to posterity plain,
unvarnshed tale of his own campaigns.
Alexander the Great, Hannibal, and Napo-
leon left the records of their triumphs to be
sifted and arranged by succeeding his
torians. Washington and General Grant
will live chiefly in the pages of more or
less competent biographers. To this gene
raj rule there is, however, in ancient
times the very notable exception of julius
Caesar, and in our own day the equally re-
markable one of General John ONeill. With
the Commentaries Of the great Roman will
hereafter rank the "official report on the at
tempt to invade Canada" by the president
of the Fenian Brotherhood" The schoolboy
of the future may not, improbably, be as
familiar with the opening phrase, 'Since
last had the honor to address you, as with
the we'll known piece of Latinity, "The whole
of Gaul is divided into three parts"
We leave it to more ingenious chroniclers
to establish a parallel between the ancient
and the modern military autobiographer.
There are, to be sure, such points of coinci-
ueuCo dS buo lOlOWlDS' OteSar Was Guo S0no-
raj of an actual Roman republic; O'Neill was
the general of a possible Irish one; Caesar had
a good many enemies in the Roman Senate;
80 had O'Neill in the Fenian one; Caesar
''came, saw, and conquered" O'Neill went
saw, and-was arrested. Believing, how
ever, that a hypercriticsl public might
fail to see the strict appositeness of
such analogies, we commend them to the
attention of the future historian, who will
al1 a o1
ONeill shows it must be confessed, very
slender amount of respect for the chroniclers
of the passing time. Even the select band
of reporters who comforted the ill-starred
commander with the assurance that his name
would not sustain zone iota of blemish,
are only approved to the extent of
having furnished narratives Sin the
main correct" Outside of these, the Gone
raj finds nothing save lies and misrepresen-
tation. The representative of one New York
journal is credibly stated to have "made
good time to the rear" while another, who
was probably demoralized by being assigned
to investigate the Sunday mysteries of the
''palatial stables, 'was so gloriousy drunk
that he and his notebook had to be picked
up from the roadside that afternoon, by the
Sheriff of Chittenden county" If he had
been spending the day with Mr.. Tweed, he
could not have behaved worse.
Seeing that out of materials so furnished
history is made, we can hardly wonder that
General John ONeill should, in self-defense,
have taken to the writing of his own COM
mentaries. In the calm seclusion of the Jail
at Burlington, VT, the gallant leader of the
heroic band who fought at Escles Hill pro-
ceeds to narrate the true story of what pro-
fame reporters called ''the great FeniaD
fzzle" of May, 1870. Like Mavolio,
the General found greatness thrust upon
him. He now believes that the Ma
chiavellian leaders of the Brotherhood
put him forward as scape-goat to
bear the odium of certain failure. When
he undertook the job, no wever, he felt GER
tain of success. AS to its justice or expe-
diency he had no misgivings. His patriotic
creed is conprehensively summed up in the
formula that steel is the certain cure for Irish
| grievances. He joined the Fenian organiza-
tion because it promised fight, and he went
| to Canada because it was the only opening
that offered for fighting. The direct invasion
Of Ireland, while England remained at peace,
he believed to be wholly impracticable, but
Canada, "once gained, would serve as
an excellent base of operations against
the enemy" With this lucid and
eminently satisfactory programme, General
ONsill took the field. A plan of campaign
was sketched which combines in a striking
degree the original and the practicable. The
combinations of Won Moltke were not moro
elaboratsly framed, and their force would
doubtless have been as irresistible if the
men had only come up. But what could the
most original military genius do under suoh
circumstances as the following, recorded
more in sorrow than in anger by the unfor-
tunate commander? The o'clock train
from the South arrived bringing, instead
of from ten to twelve hun
dred men promised by Massachusetts,,
about twenty-five or thirty, Including
Colonel II. Sullivan. He and most of the
men he had with him would have better
served the cause by remaining at home. In
lieu of six hundred men promised by Yer
mont and northeast New York, about eighty
or ninety in charge of Major J. j. Monaghan
arrived on the train" With such materials
as this General O'NeiIl resolved to make his
great attempt, fully believing that once a
footing was obtained on Canadian soil, thou.
sands would flock to his standard It is,
however, the first step that costs-and in this
case the step was backward one
Second only in ingenuity to General
ONeill's ''plan of campaign" is his relation
of the circumstances attending his arrest.
Many interesting points are raised, bearing
upon the relative speed of horses aud rifle
balls, the efficacy of barrels in stopping q
running carriage, and such like, which we
leave to the treatment of professional critics
The General proves, to his own satisfaction