Year: 1861




energetic enough that l have not been
efficient enough that have not pushed
forward the work as vigorously rs l
should have done. That may be true.
That | may have committed errors, l
think it is not only very possible. but
very probable. 1t would be the he light
Of presumption in me 10 assert the con-
trary. l think that all our public men
have committed errors. Look at it -
When the President of the u S. issued
his Proclamation for $4,000 men for
three months, the whole country arose
and applauded the act. And yet this
was a mistake. Those three month s
men should have been three years men.
We could have had them for three wears
as well as for three months. If this had
been done, the country would not have
had to witness the spectacle Of whole
Regiments retiring from service at the
very time when the roar Of the cannon
was heard at Bull Run Once enlisted
for the service, they could have been
kept there and the country would not
have been !evered with excitement, lest
Washington should fall into the hands of
Beauregard.


talk to you under the assumption
that you are honest and patriotic men,
and that it is your wish to do right; but
you will pardon me if | say you expect
too much of your public officers. You
expect them to be what you are not
neutrality-suspicious.. You can't expect
from them exemption from error. You
and can very easily see after thing is
done whether it was right or wrongly
done. Yet had we been called upon in
the first instance to meet the same exi-
gency. we would in all probability have
committed a graver error. Now press
this thing, not on my own account, be +
cause what becomes Of me is of little
consequence. But you have the Ad-
minstration at Washington, on the sup
port of which everything depends. Upon
you and each one of you the Admins
tration leans for support, and say it
plainly and boldly, you are not standing
by that Administration as you should
stand by it. You may search the history
Of this world over, | care not where YOU
read its pages, and you cannot find a
Government which has ever done in the
same length of time tithe of what has
been done by this Administration in the
last four months, taking into account the
condition Of affairs as it found them
when il came into power, And yet pick
up your newspapers, go into your har-
rooms or offices, so where you will, and
instead OF tiuding encouragement for the
good it has done, you find carping and
denunciation. came recently from
Washington City, and say 10 YOU what
| think | know. that this same spirit oil
lault-fhding, this same spirit of denun
/ citation, is dscouraging and weakening
/ your Administration at Washington. /,
has to fight jeff. Davis and Beauregard
on the one side, and men who should
rail- around it on the other. was
pleased with a remark of President Lin
coin which l saw attributed TO him in a
newspaper the other day. When urged
TO change his Cabinet, he said, " Go TO
work fighting the enemy and stop fight.
ing your own friends !" You will find
the newspapers filled with, and you will
hear wherever you go, attacks upon this
man, or upon that man in the army, the
navy, the cabinet and all the departments
of Government. A newspaper Editor, or
newspaper correspondent perhaps withal
a disappointed Office seeker, seizes
his pen. and with single dash will de-
molsh u General in the army, a member
of the Cabinet, and even the Executive
F, of the Government himself. charging
corruption to this man, imbecility 10
that, and ineficiency everywhere as.
sailing the best men Of the Nation rs re-
morselessly as you would set your foot
upon worm. This is wrong. and they
who do it do the country wrong. Ii
you expect to find public officers who
commit no mistakes. then you must re,
Archangels and not men And | do
insist upon it, that instead Of hunting
something TO find fault with. you should
strengthen and uphold your public agents
Give them credit for what is right ; and
il you see that which appears TO YOU to be
wrong, remember that you may be mis-
taken AS well as they, and even if they
are wrong attribute il TO the natural i'm
projections of man Ii has been said
that | have not raised men fast enough
| have raised all that have been asked
for. Iowa has poured forth her thous
ands as fast as called for by the Genera
Government 1t has been said that the
Iowa volunteers have not been clothed Il,
we'll and rapidly as they should have
been clothed That is your fault, no
mine had not the money TO do it
You have il, and have not been fur
nished with il. The clothes worn b,
your First. Second and Third Regimenu
to-day have not been paid for Not ;
dollar has been paid for them. Thre,
thousand men-among them your sons
and brothers--are wearing clothes whicl
are YET unpaid for Much fault has bee,
found with me because your soldiers a
keokuk di not receive their poor piptanc'
OF pay which they were 10 receive from
the State for the period intervening be
between the time of the enlistment in tn
. service of the State. and their accep
, tance into the service of the Unite,
. States. They were there without none,
To buy even tobacco or postage stamps