Year: 1864




IN. !. Journal Of Commerce.


Gen. GilEnoTe and fEac President
The Senate Military Committee have
reported against the confirmation of Gen
erals Gilmore and Schofcld. 1t is not
improbable that the report will be adopted
by the Senate. The country will not be
surprised at any exhibition of petty rarti-
san malcvolcncc by either branch of Con
gress, but the action Of the committee in
relation to General Gilmore is relieved
from the contemptibiity attaching to it as
a measure of spitcfulncss by the policy
which seeks to shield the President By the
ccnsure Of Gilmore for the Florida expe-
dtion.


Ii the version which Tie miscegen press
has given concerning the origin Of the
expedition is true, Mr. Lincoln is jointly
responsible with General Gilmore. Its
plan and objects were laid before him
lie cam ct be permitted to shelter himself
behind the pitiful plea that his want of
military knowledge prevented his appre-
hension of the probable result He was
so confident of his capacity to direct that
he declined to consult with tho Gencral-in-
Chief lie has SO frequently assumed the
responsibility of debating the movements
OF our armies that he cannot, with any de-
gree Of manliness or consistency, plead his
exemption from responsibility in approving
the Florida expedition and giving the
necessary orders Tor the execution of the
project


The country will remember his letter to
General Mcclellan detailing his my plan"
and his letter to General Grant setting forth
the strategy which he had conceived to be
the proper one for the capture of Nicks-
burg. 1t will remember also numberless
other instances in which his uneducated
military common sense has shown him the
defects ofplans conceived by officers school
ed in the arts of war; especially will it re-
member his improvement upon the ma
tured projects of General Mcclellan when
commencing the Peninsula campaign. If,
with these plain facts confronting him, he
now consents to the sacrifice Of General
Gilmore, it will be the most cowardly
pleading of ''the baby act that any man
with reputation outside of his own coun-
try has ever presumed to make in this
nation.


1t is mere fustian to alege that he can
not control the Senate in the matter. He
can, by frank acknowledgement of his
responsibility, exonerate General Gilmore
from the accusation which is alleged as a
reason for reporting against his contirma-
ton. 1t is not probable that the Commit
tee would prove its Willingness to preserve
him from censure unless it was confident
that its subscrviencc would be approved
by him. Either this, or the report against
the General is made in the interests of the
'loyal" opponents of Mr.. Lincoln and in
tended as a condemnation of him Upon
either hypothesis-and one Of them is un
doubtedIy true-Gcneral Gilmore is sacri-
feed to partisanship.


The expedition, its object, its frightful
result, the fiercencss with which General
Seymour was assailed by the miscegen
press, and the assaultof the committee up
on General Gilmore, furnish a commenta-
ry upon the motives controlling the sdmin-
istration and its party, to which discussion
can lead no force The interests of the
nation, the lives of our soldiers, and the
regulations Of skillful and brave officers,
have been gambed with and sacrificed as
rccklessly as ifthey were toys not worth