New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-02-22
Spelling 4 SENSATION.

IL ia rumOled-thOuCh We cannot VOuCh Tor
tho truth of thc Icport--that, when Paris
capitulated, the celebrated Major Goliah
O'Grady Gahagan, who had been for three
months in hourly expectation of the surrender
Of Berlin, wandered off into the fields in fit
of bewillemcut and modification, and was
never heard of aftcrwdId. Some of his fellow
Iaborcrs nearer home are in a still more PAIN
full pcrplcxity. 1t would not surpIse us 10
hear that the editor Of The tHjrcrS6 has been
sitting all night on the sea-wall OF tho Bat
terry, mCdi.lting on the danger Of nautical
predictions, and wondering if it can be true,
afoer ill, that tho Tennessee has not gore to
the bottom. 10 the massive intellect Of this
great man it must DO incOmprcheusiblc that
vessel which "eminent engineers" have de-
clarcd unseaworthyn and which The Uni
eerse has proved, over and over again,
ought TO be lying on the bed Of tho Atlantic
Ocean, should have made a safe and comfort
able passage to her destined port; md that
The two columns of agony and doubt with
which our flesh has been made to creep every
day for the last two weeks had no foundation
whatever. Upon the assumed loss of this ship
had been based the most damaging assault
upon the present Administration which has
ever been devised. 1t was TO establish the
criminal inelicicncy of our naval authorities,
and convince mankind that death by drown
ing is the natural and inevitable result of
Radical misSOvcTpmcnt,
If haply the Tennessee bad not como down,
she had certainly gone adriii, which might be
almost as bad. We remember that, little
more than week ago, TIE URirerSe published
q remarkable scientific demonstration of he
probable fate, wbcrcat Lalf the city burst in
contncntly into tears. Tho machinery had
given out the first day or two of the passage
this was "scIf-cyident proposition" which
required no argument The frigato was then
reduced TO canvas, which was of 10 uso TO
her. She could no more sail than "a drifting log
IN hurricane" In any weather she would
DO utterly unmanageable. She had got into
tho Horse attitudes. and there q gale had
struck her. and blown her over TO the coast
of Africa Possibly she might have been
wrecked somewhere in South Amcrica-say
II ezra del FuegO or the coast of Chill. This
would not have occurred to ordinary minds
but we rccOllcct that the same authority sug-
Ccsted that the City of Boston had been lost
on the Barbary coast, between NewYOrk and
Liyerpool,-and has it ever been proved that
she was not
And then there was another theory. Maybe
the Tennessee had reached Santo Domingo,
and Ben Wade kept the correspondents under
lock and key in their cabins lest they should
tell the truth about annexation. The whole
scheme was vile Radical swndlc No news
should leak out until the Commissioner had
presented their report md completed the ln-
famous bargain. The ruinous expense Of send
ing out special correspondent, whose beard
cost 81 day, was so much money thrown
into the ocean. Admiral Lee had sur
rounded the island with u picket of men-oi-
war for the express purpose OF intercepihg
letters TO Tho Universe. The truth would not
be told until it was too late. This
conjecture, we arc bound TO say,
was not long entertained Ii WAS some
relief TO feel that our friends might have
saved their lives even at the cost of their hb-
erty. But the faint ray of home was coon
qucnched in gloom. "This here ship" had GER
tnnly "gono down" BY Sunday obituary
notices Of all tho Comm lssioneIs wero p1e-