Year: 1862




Fremont's Manifesto-An Attempt to


Break Up the Cabinet.


We publish in another column this morn
ing portion of the private and confidential
correspondence which Major General Fremont
appen ded to his so-called Defence" published
in Tuesdays Tribune. 1t is contrary to all
military etiquette and a violation of the rules
of the army for General Fremont to publish
such paper as his "Delence" before his case
had been investigated and verdict rendered
by the proper authorities, or at least report
made by the Committee on the Conduct of the
War; The mere fact that the paper is ad-
dressed to the chairman of the committee is
no. excuse whatever for its publication, and we
are at a less to see how the Tribune or General
T Fremont. can reasonably justify so extraor-
dinary and unprecedented departure from
the strict regulations of Congress and the army.


OF the defence itself we have but very few
words to say. 1t does not present any new fea-
lures of the case, does not allude to the con-
tract jobs exposed by General Meigs and the
Hon. Mr.. Van Wyck, and contains nothing to
alter tho popular and correct opinion in
regard to General Fremont's ineficiency.
Indeed, instead of a defence, this docu-
ment should rather be called con-
fession and apology; for by Gen. Fremonts
own admissions and by the documents which
accompany his letter. he is amply convicted of
the charge of inefficiency made against him.
Throughout the entire paper, however, and
serving as a string upon which are'hung all the
accompanying kilograms letters and des-
patches there is an obvious purpose to insinu
ate that upon the authorities at Washington,
and not upon Gen. Fremont, rests the fault of
his confessed failure. Thus, instead of de-
fence of his own acts, General Fremont has
really written an attack upon the acts of the
administration, and he therefore gives us the
best possible proof that his ideas and those of
the government are 80 inconsistent and incom-
patible that either he or the government must
of necessity be deprived of power. The re-
moval of Gen. Fremont is consequently JUS
tilted by his own arguments; unless, indeed, he
and his abolition friends suppose that it was
President Lincoln's duty to adopt Fremont's
ideas or resign.


Following up the line of argument
most relished by the abolitionists, and un-
consciously committing moral suicide all the
while, General Fremont publishes, among
other documents, the private correspondence
between the President and himself in regard to
his abolition proclamation, and a confidential
letter from Postmaster General Blair. As this
letter of Mr. Blair's has no bearing whatever
upon General Fremont's defence, and treats
entirely Of other matters, there is no possible
motive for its publication. except as an addenda
to the proclamation correspondence; for, in
effect it tells the President that one of the
members of his own Cabinet differs with him in
opinion. Its aim, like that of this whole pub
lication, is to create trouble between the Presi-
dent and his advisers, and break up the Cabinet.
For this there is double motive: First, the
qualification of the abolition hostility to the
President and, secondly, Fremont's personal
difficulty with the members of the Blair family,
who secured him his appointment, and sup
ported him zealously until they found him in
efficient. By the publication of this private
letter Mr.. Blair is put in the ridiculous position
of dissatisfied and envious grumbler, who
does not believe in Secretary Chase's "style
of managing the Treasury" who thinks he
deserves all the credit for everything and has
to exert himself very laboriously 'to get any
thing done;" who finds fault with the President
and his "feeble policy" and who intimates that
every body is coming over to his ideas at last,
but that everybody is ashamed to own it, or
has been scared out of owning it by his sex
posing mems mistakes beforehand, and taunt-
ing them with them afterwards This is by no
means pleasant for Mr.. Blair, nor for the Presi-
dent and his other advisers, and may, very
probably, lead to troubles in the Cabinet


1t is obvious that to cause this trouble was
the intention of General Fremont's "Defence."
Its premature, unauthorized and unofficial pub
lication, in a journal notoriously hostile to the
President and the administration, could have
no other object Its line of argument and ar
ray Of documents, which are not so much de-
signed to excuse General Fremont as to i'm
peach the administration, point to the same
idea. Its extraordinary revelations of private
and confidential letters, unnecessary and ir-
relevant to any legitimate defence, unmistaka-
bly, demonstrate this intention. For similar
unmilitary and irregular conduct General
Fremont was cashiered in California, and
he ought now to be Immediately dis
missed from the service, as a punishment for
his breach of military etiquette and his insolent
hostility to his superior officer, the President,
and for the information he endeavors to convey
to the enemy, by the premature publication of
SO many private, military and official letters
and dispatches. When an officer Of the army
so notoriously lends himself to aid the aboli-
ton attempts to break up the government, and
thus assist the rebels, an example should be
made of him--as in the case of General Stone
without delay or ceremony. Gen. Fremonts
letter, in words and spirit, seems to have no
other possible design, and has left him no true
friend to regret the dsgraceful fate he so richly