tupidity. One
of this motley finds in McClellan a Norman chin, the other muscle, the
third a brow for laurels (of thistle I hope), another a square,
military, heroic frame, another firmness in lips, another an
unfathomed depth in the eye, etc., etc. Never I heard in Europe such
balderdash. And the ladies--not the women and gentlewomen--are worse
than the men in thus stupefying themselves and those around them.

The thus called arbitrary acts of the government prove how easily, on
the plea of patriotic necessity, a people, nay, the public opinion,
submits to arbitrary rule. All this, servility included, explains the
facility with which, in former times, concentrated and concrete
despotisms have been established. Here every such arbitrary action is
submitted to, because it is so new, and because the people has the
childish, naive, but, to it, honorable confidence, that the power
entrusted by the people is used in the interest and for the welfare of
the people. But all the despots of all times and of all nations said
the same. However, in justice to Mr. Lincoln, he is pure, and has no
despotical longings, but he has around him some atomistic Torquemadas.

It will be very difficult to the coming generations to believe that a
people, a generation, who for half a century was outrunning the time,
who applied the steam and the electro-magnetic telegraph, that the
same people, when overrun by a terrible crisis, moved slowly, waited
patiently, and suffered from the mismanagement of its leaders. This is
to be exclusively explained by the youthful self-consciousness of an
internal, inexhaustible vital force, and by the child-like
inexperience.

The Congress, that is, the majority, shows that it is aware of the
urgency of the case, and of the dangerous position of the country. But
still the best in Congress are chained, hampered by the formulas.

The good men in both the houses seem to be firmly decided not to
quietly stand by and assist in the murder of the nation by the
administrative and military incapacity. This was to be expected from
such men as Wade, Grimes, Chandler, Hale, Wilson, Sumner (too
classical), and other Republicans in the Senate, and from the numerous
pure, radical Republicans in the House.

Burnside's expedition is a sign of life. But all these expeditions on
the circumference, even if successful, will be fruitless if no bold,
decided movement is at once made at the centre, at the heart of the
rebellion. Bu