g the motives
which pushed the rebel army across the Potomac. As the Marylanders
rose not in arms, and joined not the rebel army, the invaders had
nothing else to do but to retreat and to recross the Potomac.
McClellan ought to have thrown them into the river, which Hooker, if
not wounded, would have done, or if he had the command of our army.

The rebels would have retreated into Virginia, even without being
attacked by McClellan, even if he only followed them, say at one day's
distance. Not having destroyed the rebels, McClellan, in reality, and
from the military stand point, accomplished very little--near to
nothing. Hooker estimates the rebel force, at the utmost, at eighty
thousand men, and that is all that they could have. McClellan had
about one hundred and twenty thousand. And--and he is to be considered
the savior of Maryland and of Pennsylvania. O, good American people!
The genuine Napoleon won all his great battles against armies which
considerably outnumbered his.

Mr. Seward menaces England with issuing _letters of marque_ against
the Southern privateers. The menace is ridiculous, because it will not
be carried out, and, if carried out, it will become still more
ridiculous; it would be a very poor compliment to the navy to use the
whole power of private enterprise against a few rovers, and it would
be an official recognition of the rebels in the condition of
belligerents. _Quousque tandem_--O SEWARD--_abutere patientiam
nostram?_

_Sept. 30._--Nearly three weeks after the battle of Antietam, General
McClellan publishes what he and they call a report of his operations
in Maryland; in all not twenty lines, and devoted principally to
establish--on probabilities--the numerical losses of the enemy. The
report is a fit _pendant_ to his bulletins; is excellent for bunkum,
and to make other people justly laugh at us.

OCTOBER, 1862.

Costly Infatuation -- The do-nothing strategy -- Cavalry on lame
horses -- Bayonet charges -- Antietam -- Effect of the
proclamation -- Disasters in the West -- The abolitionists not
originally hostile to McClellan -- Helplessness in the War
Department -- Devotedness of the people -- McClellan and the
proclamation -- Wilkes -- Colonel Key -- Routine engineers --
Rebel raid into Pennsylvania -- Stanton's sincerity -- O,
unfighting strategians! -- The administration a success -- _De
gustibus_ -- Stuart's raid -- West Point -- St.