The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-02-08


peremptory order from his superior. 1t was
his Boosting of il as a deed of glory that
damaged him. There we're many other neces-
sites of war, involving no moral wrong in
the actual perpetrator, which it is quite as
we'll to bury in oblivion, for they are not
pleasant subjects of meditation. To this
category of painful necessities belongs, emil
nently ''bridge- burning" A bridge has
many peaceful, picturesque associations con-
nected with it; and vet it is conceded that
bridge may be a military, and hence mis-
chievous, adjunct of great Importance. Over
a bridge friendly neighbors greet each other,
families go to their rural church, weddings
to the altar, the funeral passes to the country
graveyard, and the physician drives on his
errand of mercy. But, then, over the
bridge safely go infantry and artillery
and cavalry on errands Of destruc-
ton. The true soldier, who thinks of
possible retreat, as every soldier ought to,
never burns bridge without qualm, and, if
his enemy is in 'front.' rarely without blush
for it is a confession of weakness. When,
therefore, in the blessed days of restored
peace, we read of "bridge burning" and
especially by wholesale, it is with something
if not of suffusion, certainly of sorrow that
such things should ever have been. Not so
the paralytic parson who now misrepresents
in the Senate the State of Tennessee. He
thinks ''bridge-burning" heroism of the
highest order, and being hangedfo doing it
Is the Doblest martyrdom. Under his infiu-
ence the Senate has, within day or two,
unanimously passed bill to make liberal
compensation to the widow of mana
foreigner too-who, with others, burned
bridges without stint, in line from Bristol
in Virginia to Chattanooga, and, being
caught, was hanged for doing 80. The
bridge-burners name was Jacob Harmon.
This bill was examined by no committees its
preamble, which Senator Morton went out of
his way to pronounce model, had in it more
than one recital historically false and defa-
matory; and yet, to oblige Brownlow, it was
passed without dissent. "AIl the bridges"
it says, Sin East Tennessee, between the Vir-
ginia and Alabama lines, distance of 2i0
miles, were burned in the fall of 1861, by
order of General Mcclellan, who stipulated
these are the very words with certain promi-
nent Union men, then refugees in Washing
ton, to do this secret work of destruction.
Accordingly again quote-"on the
night of the 9th of November, 1861, pre-
cisely at midnight, the bridges were all
fired. On its part the Government pledged
itself to follow up the burning of the
bridges by the immediate occupation of the
country by the forces under General George
II. Thomas, then on the Tennessee borders"
They ''utterly failed" to do it, and the bridge
detect fling at two gallant men-one living
and one dead-which we regret the Senate so
unanimously endorsed, but which leads us to
doubt the whole story, at least as to one of
them. General Mcclellan may have ordered
the bridges to be burned, and have good rea-
sons for doing so; but Parson Brownlow and
the unanimous Senate do not convince us that
he did it in this style, or did it at all. The
bridges were burned simultaneously, show
ing there was elaborate prearrangement, on
the 9Th or 9th of November, 1861. McClel-
Ian had then been nominally in command
exactly six days, being appointed on the 31st
of October; and we incline to think he was
actually in command still shorter time. For
ourselves we do not believe that, with the
thousand things nearer at hand sharply press
ing upon the young soldier then, he had time
to bargain with the vagabond foreign refu-
gees who were hanging about Washington,
or that having done SO he would have left his
agents unprotected. 1t sounds much more,
with its intrigues and bargains and impo-
tence, like chapter of Cameronian history;
for this was in time, coincident with his
reign. Cameron was turned out in Janu-
ary, 1862, and the advance into Ten
nessee was not till February; all which
time Harmon and his confederates were left
to rebel mercy and were punished in squads.
For the sake of human nature we hope this is
not true. The words we have quoted are
from Brownlow's written speech, read for
mally by the clerk, while in the statut ~
preamble the i'm putation is withdrawn and
the act attributed directly to ''the Secretary
at War. e. Cameron. 1t is this preamble
which charmed Mr.. Morton, but which scan
dalized even Mr.. Pomeroy, who desired it to
| be stricken out, and which, among other
things, recites ''that one Capt. David Fry did
recruit and enlist as a portion of the force
| Jacob Harmon and his sons; that be (Fry)
| administered the oath to them, and there
being no Bible at hand he caused them
| to place their hands on the Union flag
| while he solemnly administered the oath to
be ever faithful and true to the Union, etc
| ETC. ! Such is the trash which the Senate
1 makes part of its solemn statutes, and such
the precedent of improvidsnt and reckles;
expenditure of the public money which they
| furnish. There are other hideous and absurd
| oddities in this case which our limits do mol
permit US to notice; the mortgage
given to the lawyer-whether rebel or not is
not said-the foreclosure the prospective liti
| cation, of which Congress agrees to pay the
expense-all this we pretermit, simply saying
in conclusion that, while within a month the
Senate (the debate being confined to radi
cals) hesitated long to pay poor loyalis
whose house was destroyed by the Fedora
engineers to make way for the range of ar
tillery at Fort Pillow or Paducah, they do no
pause a moment to pay the speculative
damages of these very equivocal bridge
burners, trying to make the job palatabl'
by havoring it with SANDER on Democratic
soldiers.