Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1875-07-01
A correspondent at Thomaston makes

Du, IN announcer SldlF. w & nave HcllncI
seen nor heard word of fault-finding
with the manner in which the clergymen
who attended upon Wagner and Gordon
performed their difficult and unpleasant
duty, and if an impression has been crea-
ted by what we copied from the Herald
that the "unseemly quarrel was at Thorn
aston we trust this explanation will correct
the mistake.
LETYER 70 GEAERAL HOBEH16.
PORTLAND, juno Doth, 1915.
Geheral Charles ". Roberts, Bangor
GENERAL The Democratic State Convention,
whose proceedings witnessed a reporter, Sc
lected you as candidate fer Governor for the
reason that you were patriot Soldier" You
were certainly not chosen for any personal knowl-
edge of State policies for any experience in civil
leg slatve life, about which your parzan friends
had great zeal to say before your candidacy was
resolved upon. | observe that since your nomina-
ton they have been dscrecty silent in regard to
that point, and several criticisms which were quite
ready for Gen. Conner, in case Mr. Talbot should
have been his competitor, may now be considered
as indefinitely postponed. believe your warmest
friends do not advocate your election on any
ground of your personal fitness for the place.
Ostentatiously selected because of your war re-
cord, shall not be accused Of violating the sug-
gestions of delicacy or the laws of propricty if
subject that record to q searching examination.
When the war broke out in 1861, you belonged to
respectable militia organization that had been in
existence for several years, and you promptly unit,
ed with your fellow members in rendering your
services to the government. The Republicans anx-
ious to recognize your patriotism as a Democrat,
warmly assisted in procuring for you the high COM
mission of Lieutenant Colonel in the regiment of
the gallant and amentcd Jameson. On his promo,
ton to the rank of Brigadier General, Republican
influence gladly advanced you to the command of
the regiment. / do not intimate that you ever fail
ed to do your duty in that position, or that you
were wanting in true soldierly qualities. 1t is
with great sat isfaction, on the other hand that
recognize and record your personal bravery and
your general popularity with your command. 1t
was however the misfortune Of your military ca
reer that you were associated with Fitz John Por-
ter, that you eagerly attached yourself to his for
may be quoted in your behalf come largely from
that disgraced and degraded officer. The Fifth
Army Corps was composed of splendid troops, your
own Second Maine ranking among the best, but
be lieve it is the general conclusion among
soldiers that the great misfortune Of the Corps
was that it fell for time under the command Of
Fitz John Porter, who ended his military by
being eashered when the judgement of many good
officers was that he should have been shot. / OBJ
serve that Porter very appropriately turns up as
an office holder in highly lucrative position I'M
der the present Democratic regime in New York
Your resignation, General was ill-timed for
"Patiiot Soldier" You left the serv ice when the
help of every man was needed; when every man
was mrlored to stay and when Gen. Hooker said
that "every officer was indispensable to his COM
mand." You resigned when you had been out but
little over a year-and when the fortunes of the
army and of the Union itself were at the lowest
conceivable ebb. No patriotic man can even now,
after the lapse of thirteen years. recall without a
chill of horror, the condition of the L MON in
1862: army driven from Virginia, after the
untold disaster of the Peninsula; held at bay ev-
where in the South west Kentucky and Missouri
IN partial revolt with such a discouraging reac-
ton among the people as to very nearly involve
the loss of Congress and the consequent power to
raise armies and levy taxes. Then was our pecu-
liar and momentous peril. And it was just then,
General, that you turned your back on the Cnion
cause. And you came home without having your
name assoc lated with one decisive victory for the
Union arms.
As reader of history, General, if you ever
waste any Of your valuable time in that innocent
recreation, you may learn from that good old
writer, Weems, that the officers who insisted in the
Revolutionary Army upon resigning the ir commis.
sions in the autumn of l777, and during the ensu-
ing terrible winter at Valley Forge, were never
forgiven by the patriots of that day. And Wash
ington himself, of proverbially prudent speech,
classed them with ignominious herd whom
will not mention lest | might seem to apply de-
rogatory epithet to yoursef-and of that you know
am incapable. But it is nevertheless a notice
able coincidence, General, that these dissatisfied
and disloyal officers turned their backs on the
Revolutionary Army after about the same period
of time that distinguished your own service; that
moreover they left as you did when the American
and patriot cause was very dark, and in the judg-
ment Of many, hopeless.
But resgning your commission Just as Fitz
John Porter was cashiered, U do not say because
of i) was not the worst feature Of your record as
a patriot soldier" As military man you saw
only the initial battles Of the war, when our
troops, though brave were raw, and when misfor-
tune resulting from incompetent command, seemed
to be the fate Of our armies. The gigantic, con-
battles, the glorious victories under experienced
and skillful generals, in great part ensued after
you had left the service. And it is your conduct
after you retired that | think will never be for
given or forgotten by the troehearted soldiers of
Maine.
Had you returned to reassure the failing conf
dence of those at home; to urge the volunteering
Of soldiers and the reinforcement of our armies.