Cameron's report.
--Naturalists tell us that the ostrich, when closely pursued, buries his bead in the sand of the desert, and thinks because he can see nobody, nobody can see him. We do not learn, however, that there is any instance of his having escaped the pursuit of the hunter by this notable device.--Lincoln's War Secretary imitates the ostrich, and hiding his head in a budget of figures and falsehoods, hopes, because he cannot see the whole world in a broad grin at his expense that the whole world is equally blind with regard to him. He tells us he has six hundred and sixty thousand men in the field, and that, counting those who have gone home, he has had upwards of seven hundred thousand. He compares his own energy with that of the first Napoleon, who during his last reign of One Hundred days, created an army of four hundred thousand men, and strikes a very heavy balance in his own favor. This mighty army of his, he tells us, has everything that an army can possibly want; arms in abundance, provisions to throw away, transportation out of all proportion, courage almost superhuman, unrivalled Generals, inferior officers of the first class, an overflowing military chest, and cannon enough to level Gibraltar in a day. He does not perceive that the whole world is asking, ‘"if you have all this, why do you not go over, and make a breakfast of the 'Rebels?' If you are really as strong as you say, and they as weak as you would have the world believe, why are you so long in overrunning them ?"’ In other words, he does not perceive that though his head be hidden in the sand, there are other parts of his person, and those the most presentable, that do not enjoy the same advantage.Cameron is gifted with commendable powers of invention — at least he finds no difficulty in inventing a lie. He says Massachusetts during the Revolution, put 56,000 men in the field, being a fourth part of her population, and considerably more than all the South put in. He does not perceive the inference against Yankee-doodledom. What a miserable set of cowards they must have been, if they had such an army in the field and yet allowed Gage with five or six thousand men to hold Boston against them for a whole year. Nay, if Washington had not come to their relief, with the rank of Commander-in-Chief, and many Southern regiments had not joined him, the British Army would have held it to this time. Washington had his eyes fully opened to the Yankees. The whole population of Massachusetts capable of bearing arms were put down on the muster-roll, with a view to plundering the Treasury in after times. Not a tenth part of them ever performed a day's service.
The South only put down such as served They kept no record of militia, as Massachusetts did, for they meditated no speculation upon the treasury. However, they whipped the British out of their country, which is more than the Yankees did. They did it, too, without the assistance of the Yankees. They went to help these same Yankees as soon as they got into difficulties, but they got no assistance in return. Cameron tells us that the same proportion of Yankeedom called into the field now would give an army of three millions. If they do no better than the Massachusetts men did when Washington had them on Long Island and at King's Bridge, we wish him joy of his multitude. Washington having witnessed the flight of a brigade of them before a dozen or two British light dragoons, and having in vain tried to stop them, threw his hat down in the mud, and exclaimed in a fit of rage and despair, ‘"Are these the men with whom I am expected to save America?"’ And most assuredly, if better men had not come to him from the South, he never would have saved it.
Cameron thinks lightly of the victory at Manassas. General McClellan is not of the same way of thinking. It has struck him with a wholesome dread of the Confederate army.--The Yankee soldiery likewise seem to think more of it than the Secretary. Nevertheless, ‘"I doubt not,"’ says Cameron, ‘"that the army now assembled on the Potomac, will, under its able leader, soon make such a demonstration as will re-establish its authority (the authority of the Yankee Government, that is) throughout all the rebellious States."’ This, at least, is good news for the ‘"rebels."’ They have been waiting for this demonstration five months. We want to see it. We are tired of hearing it talked about. But we want also to make a bar gain with Cameron. He has boasted of his six hundred and fifty thousand men, as he boasted of the Grand Army last summer. When we shall have beaten his army of the Potomac to atoms, let him not lie about it. Let him not pretend that we defeated him by force of numbers. Let him not repeat the despicable devices of July, to cover the shame of a disgraceful rout. If Cameron will agree to this, he may send on his army as soon as he pleases. But no more lying.
Let everybody take notice that Cameron says he has force enough to contend with any nation on earth, far more with a pack of despicable rebels. When his forces are routed — as they will be, if he will let them come out — mark what he says, and confront him with this Message. Recollect, he says, ‘"no force, so large and so well equipped, was ever put into the field."’ Show him this when he is making excuses for the next Bull Run races.
