bels treat us like children -- We
lose time -- Everything is defensive -- The starvation theory --
The anaconda -- First interview with McClellan -- Impressions of
him -- His distrust of the volunteers -- Not a Napoleon nor a
Garibaldi -- Mason and Slidell -- Seward admonishes Adams --
Fremont goes overboard -- The pro-slavery party triumph -- The
collateral missions to Europe -- Peace impossible -- Every
Southern gentleman is a pirate -- When will we deal blows? --
Inertia! inertia!

As in the mediaeval epoch, and some time thereafter, anatomists and
physiologists experimented on the living villeins, that is, on
peasantry, serfs, and called this process _experientia in anima vili_,
so this naive administration experiments in civil and in military
matters on the people's life-blood.

McClellan, stirred up by the fools and peacocks around him, has sent
to the War Department a project of a showy uniform for himself and his
staff. It would be to laugh at, if it were not insane. McClellan very
likely read not what he signed.

The army is in sufficient rig and organization to take the field; but
nevertheless McClellan has not yet made a single movement imperatively
prescribed by the simplest tactics, and by the simplest common sense,
when the enemy is in front. Not a single serious reconnoissance to
ascertain the real force of the enemy, to pierce through the curtain
behind which the rebels hide their real forces. It must be conceded to
the rebel generals that they show great skill in humbugging us.
Whenever we try to make a step we are met by a seemingly strong force
(tenfold increased by rumors spread by the secessionists among us, and
gulped by our stupidity), which makes us suppose a deep front, and a
still deeper body behind. And there is the humbug, I am sure. If, on
such an extensive line as the rebels occupy, the main body should
correspond to what they show in front, then the rebel force must
muster several hundreds of thousands. Such large numbers they have
not, and I am sure that four-fifths of their whole force constitutes
their vanguard, and behind it the main body is chaff. The rebels treat
us as if we were children.

McClellan fortifies Washington; Fremont, St. Louis; Anderson asks for
engineers to fortify some spots in Kentucky. This is all a defensive
warfare, and not so will the rebel region be conquered. We lose time,
and time serves the rebels, as it increase