The Great Boaster.
A Northern dispatch says: ‘ "Gen. Scott boasts that the evacuation of Harper's Ferry is in perfect accordance with his plans, and that no Southern movement will, in the slightest degree, affect his programme." ’Gen. Scott ‘"boasts"’ somewhat too much for a man of action. ‘"Let not him that putteth on his armor boast himself as he that taketh it off."’ That is what the good book says, and the words of inspiration are not beneath the notice of even so great a man as Gen. Scott. It is obvious, however, that the ‘"great captain of the age"’ is making the civilians about him understand that Napoleon and Wellington were mere children in the art of war compared with Win(g)field Scott. There is no one in his immediate neighborhood that can disprove that proposition, for the Generalissimo permits no rivals near the throne, as the dismal fate of Gen. Wool significantly illustrates. The evacuation of Harper's Ferry is, therefore, ‘"in perfect accordance with Scott's plans, and no Southern movement will, in the slightest degree, affect his programme."’ Oh, far-secing and omnipotent Scott! Was it in ‘"accordance with your plans"’ that the Star of the West was sent to Charleston and came back as she went? That the largest military and naval expedition ever set on foot by the United States was sent to reinforce Fort Sumter and was compelled to return without firing a gun? That it was determined to march up the Peninsula to Richmond, as well as by Manassas, and that no Southern movement has, in the slightest degree, affected that programme? That repeated attempts have been made to demolish the batteries which prevented the landing of troops, not one of which has succeeded, but, on the contrary, been repulsed with disastrous loss? And yet no Southern movement can, in the slightest degree, affect his programme ! The civilians of Lincoln's Cabinet may accept all this as gospel, but we should not wonder if some of the regular officers of the United States, including perhaps even the beloved Wool, laugh scornfully over the prodigious vaporing of the vencrable military peacock at their head.
