n compared with the
_faiseurs_ here. And Marat, Saint Just, and Robespierre were
fanatics of ideas: here they are _fanaticised_ by selfishness,
intrigue, helplessness and imbecility.

_August 9: L. B._--For the last few months men of sound and
dispassionate judgment tried to convince me that there is somewhere,
in high regions, a settled purpose to prolong the war until the next
presidential election. I always disbelieved such assertions; but
now, considering all this criminal sluggishness, I begin to believe
in the existence of such a criminal purpose.

_August 9: L. B._--All the open and secret Copperhead organs raise a
shrill cry on account of what they pervert into McClellan's general
Report of his unmilitary campaigns. When a commander is in the
field, he is in duty bound, as soon as possible, that is, in the
next few weeks, to send to his superior or to the Government, a
Report of each of his military movements and operations. McClellan
ought to have immediately made a Report to the Government after his
_bloodless victory_ at Centreville and Manassas; a victory crowned
with maple trophies! Then McClellan ought to have sent another
Report after the great success at Yorktown, and so on. Every period
of his campaign ought to have been separately reported. It is done
in all well organized governments and armies, and it is the duty of
the staff of the army to prepare such periodical, successive
Reports. Even if the sovereign himself takes the field, the staff of
the army sends such Reports to the Secretary of War. Nobody stood in
the way of McClellan's doing what it was his imperative duty to do,
and to do immediately.

But it is unheard of that a commander during a year at the head of
an army, should take another year to prepare his Report. No
self-respecting government would allow such an insubordination, or
accept such a tardy Report. If a government should act upon such a
Report, it would be rather by dismissing from service, etc., the
sluggish--if not worse--commander.

The so-called "McClellan's Report," concocted by a board of choice
Copperheads in New York, and of which the _World's_ hireling was an
amanuensis, that production is certainly an elaborate essay on
McClellan's campaigns, is certainly bristling with afterthoughts and
_post facta_, as pedestals for the fetish's altar. It must have on
its face the mark of combination, but not of truth. Such a
Report--not written on the spot, in the atmosphere of