The Portland daily press., 1872-04-05
The Tory Love of Rebels.

Blackwood can hardly contain its hatred of
the United States. Its issue for March over
flows, incidentally, with gall against this
country, the direct subject of its comments
and criticisms being the super-angelic chara-
ter of General Robert E. Lee. Its endeavor
is to hold up General Lees example, no
less than that of Abraham Lincoln, as-ene of
the highest patterns" for future generations
to follow, and to make his memory a pre-
cious possession wherever the English tongue
is spoken.'
The magazine speaks of General Lees Gin
finite purity, selfdenial, tenderness and gen
erosity." In Southern ante-Rebellion pub
lication,, such commendation might not seem
strange. Summon General Lees former hui
man chattels, and ask what they think of his
''purity, selfdenial, tenderness and generosi-
ty." Their answer would probably silence
forever any future shambling and causeless
eulogum of the traitor in Blackwood.
That periodical not only processes un-
bounded admiration of General Lees charac-
ter, but in addition labors to prove him
''third upon the list of English-spealxing gen.
erals. and as having been surpassed in soldier
ly capacity by Marlborough and Wellington
alone" The name of Marlborough is fifty in
troduced in an estimate of the Virginian, who
couldst a way fromhis allegiance, taking
with him all theplans of his chief, after having,
only few days before, declared the most un-
bounded regard for the Union, in order the
better to obtain information for the accom-
plishment of his traitorous purposes.
The passion for intrigue by Marlborough,
and his unbounded duplicity, are known
wherever Macaulay's description of his quail
ties has reached. The duke was once arrest
ed for high treason. General Lee escaped
his deserts in this respect by surrendering
himself as prisoner of war
1t is instructive to note how Backwood ele-
Yates its hero by depreciating all the Union
commanders opposed to him in any way, as
thereby the intense animosity of the review
er to the General Government in its present
hands is clearly perceived. At the outset,
the magazine states that the odds between
the two sections were, the first two wears of
the war, "ten to one; during the last two,
twenty to one, against the Confederates." So
much for Blackwood's statistics. The battle
of Charlottesville is made to testify to Lees
tactical ability, as did Luthe to that of Fred
erick the Great, or Salamanca to that OF Wei
lington."
So far as relates to strategy, 1t is admitteu
by everybody that General Lee In the Chah-
cellorsville campaign was overmatcned py
General Hooker The tactics by which the
good fortune of the campaign was restored to
the Confederate side weret forced upon Gener-
al Lee's acceptance by Stonewan Jackson.
They were executed with fiery will and de-
Termination known only to the man who re-
eeived his death-wound at Charlottesville.
Following Blackwood's style of judgment,
it would be easy to strip Gen. Lee of nearly
all his military laurels. 1t says "Richmond
was not taken by Gen. Grant, but by Gen.
Sherman" By parity of reasoning, Gen.
Mcclellan was not driven off the peninsula
by Gen. Lee, but by Stonewall Jackson. We
do not propose to follow the Blackwood crit
ic farther, as he admits that for offensive
warfare, in which Gen. Grant was constant
ly engaged, the rebel commander proved an
entire failure. Lee should have annihilated
Burnside's army after Fredericksburg, to have
satisfied his English eulogi,t, and at Gettys-
burg the rebel general is declared TO nave
been ''too big for his breeches.
B'ackwood intimates that II Generai Lee
had followed thejudgment OF one OF MS heut,
enants, Longstreet, on the eve OF the second
day at Gettysburg, and ''had filed off the left