MMOVAL OF GENERAL FREMONT.
AFTER six weeks of divided counsels, conflicting orders, and timid resolves, the American Government has -made up its many minds, and removed General Fremont from the command of the West. We related the first part of the story a fortnight since—the quarrel with Colonel Blair, the charges hidden in private letters, the hints about peculation, the informal inquiry made while the General was still in the field, the apparent incapacity of the Govern- ment either to remove or to acquit the bold Freesoiler, and their almost scornful contempt for every principle on which established Governments rely to secure fidelity. The last incident then reported was the despatch of a telegram from Mr. Seward, assuring the West that their favourite should not be recalled. General Fremont, of course, deemed himself safe, but he had yet to appreciate the vigour which wounded party-feeling can lend to personal enmity. While the telegram was rejoicing the West, Mr. Lincoln was reading an official report upon his commander's mis- deeds. The Secretary at War, it appears, in his tour through the West, took with him his Adjutant-General, Colonel Thomas, to report on such matters as might escape an un- professional eye. This gentleman is unknown to fame, in Europe at least, but, as it happens, we have some evidence by which we can test his capacity for an impartial judgment. Only a fortnight ago, on November 5th, New York gave a reception to the Secretary at War. Mr. Cameron was at- tended by his faithful adlatus, who made a speech, of which this is the peroration : " Yet we now possess an army—and I have surveyed it, in every part, with a military eye—such as was never mar- shalled before since the foundation of the world. (Tremendous cheering.) That army will be found irresistible, and when we move—as move we will—it will pour over that whole Southern country like the sea. (Renewed applause.) I have looked at every part of it—artillery, infantry, and cavalry. It is perfect and complete, and when the foe gazes once upon the array with which we will charge down upon him, my word for it he will have no more heart to meet it. (Great cheering.)" The army, be it remembered, is the army of the Potomac, described by the Americans themselves as too small for the exigency, badly officered, badly equipped, and composed of a half-drilled crowd of militia. Colonel Thomas, in making his preposterous statement, either believed it, or he did not. If he believed it, his " military eye" is a worthless organ of sight ; and if he did not, his testimony is, by his own con- fession, hopelessly unreliable.
He went to the West, however, visited General Fremont's camp, and sent in an official report, which is, we venture to hope, unique even in the United States, suggesting, as it does, the idea that a tenth-rate stump-orator bad corrected in proof the views of an ungrammatical sergeant. The re- port would extend over three columns of the Times, and it is from end to end a collection of camp gossip, unproved stories about contracts, wild opinions on military movements, and bitter remarks from discontented subordinates. In Europe, an officer sent upon such a mission—were that possible—would have questioned the General himself, examined accounts, and perhaps even helped his own judgment by a careful but secret cross-examination of a few staff officers. That method, however, is too slow as well as too accurate for Republican smartness, and Colonel Thomas adopted a simpler and easier course. It is palpable, from his own story, that he stated to General Fremont's highest subordinates the charges cur- rent at Washington, and asked, in a gossiping way, what the Generals thought of them. Let our readers imagine Lord Herbert despatching an officer to the Crimea to ask all the generals of division if they thought Lord Raglan a thief, and they have the situation clearly before them. The Generals seem to have held aloof from the question of pecu- lation, but they, as regulars, could not refrain from so fair a chance of expressing contempt for the volunteer who, though regularly trained, had leaped per soltum over their heads. Colonel Thomas, for example, asked General Curtis, com- manding the cavalry, what he thought of the matter. That officer answered, "That be found no difficulty in getting access to him, and when he presented business connected with his command it was attended to. General Fremont, however, never consulted him on military affairs, nor informed him of his plans." General Curtis remarked that while he would go with freedom to General Scott and express his opinions, he would not dare to do so to General Fremont. He deemed General Fremont unequal to the command of an army, and said that he was no more bound by law than by the winds. He considered him to be " unequal to the command of the army in Missouri;" and the reply, though so p pably dic- tated by personal feeling, was accepted as evidenc , and em- bodied without comment in the report. Then the djutant- General betook himself to General Hunter, the cond in command, with whom, he says, he " talked freely." General Hunter gossiped away about various incidents of e cam- pai,gn, gave his opinion that Lexington ought to have been relieved, and that Price could not be pursued, and wound up his judgment by relating an incident at which even ithe Adjutant-General stood aghast. General Fremont was guilty—one can imagine the horror-struck whisper—was guilty—was guilty—of self-reliance, the last of Republican crimes. " General Hunter also stated that although the second in command, he never was consulted by General Fremont, and never knew anything of his intentions. Such a parallel (sic), I will venture to assert, cannot be found in the annals of military warfare." This was enough, in sooth; but to make conviction certain, to leave no loophole for doubt or misgiving, Colonel Thomas resolved on applying a final test. He asked some "‘ intelligent" men of Missouri what they thought of the General : "The opinion entertained by gentlemen of position and in- telligence, who have approached and observed him is, that he is more fond of the pomp than of the stern realities of war ; that his mind is incapable of fixed attention or strong concentration ; that by his mismanagement of affairs since his arrival in Missouri, the State has almost been lost ; and that if he is continued in command, the worst results may be anticipated. This is the concurrent testimony of a large number of the most intelligent men in Missouri." And all this went on, be it remembered, in an army then in the field, was directed against the General who had created that army, and was officially sanctioned by the presence and approba- tion of the Secretary of State for War ! If such trash deserved a reply, it would be contained in a single sentence. The army General Fremont commanded mutinied on his removal. Armies have loved evil men before now, have trusted men without principle, and have died for generals whose only desire was power. But military history may be ransacked in vain for an army ready to rebel in order to retain an incompetent commander-in-chief. General Fremont may be a dangerous politician ; he undoubtedly sent his proclamation into Indiana after the order to cancel it had been received, but the testimony of an entire army must be taken at least as an equivalent for the gossip of "intelligent" Hoosiers.
The charge of incapacity is however only one of the two great accusations. Whenever a politician in America is to be ruined, he is accused of peculation, not because that is the charge most hateful to the people, but because it is the one which they, from their long experience, think Rrimtifacie most probable. If the victim has nothing, he is accused of direct bribe-taking ; if he has much, he distributes contracts among his friends ; if he has visibly no opportunity of plunder, he was expelled college on suspicion of theft. General Fre-. mont having the disposal of very large contracts, for which the departments hungered, was of course an excellent mark. We have not the means to examine the charges which Colonel Thomas brings forward and in which he plainly be- lieves, though, as he says, "without examination of the accounts ;" but they resolve themselves into this : General Fremont undoubtedly suffered his staff to take contracts— partly, no doubt, as a mode of payment, but chiefly because they, and they alone, could be depended upon to get the work done. The practice was most unhealthy, but the re- sult was certainly not extravagant. The Western leader had in three months, by Colonel Thomas's own showing, collected an army of forty thousand men, armed them so that they trusted themselves and him, and provided such means of transport that he overtook a retreating enemy a hundred miles in advance. He bad to do this in the face of a competition for arms so eager that the Home Guard of Kentucky have " taken" the army supply ; of the purchase by Governor Morton of Indiana of equipments for fifty thousand men ; and of the determined resolve of the Western farmers to keep all the arms they have for the defence of their homes. And the bill for all this, at which Colonel Thomas holds up his hands in horror, is exactly one million sterling. We can only say, that in England, where men and officers are paid at one-half the American rate, Government would be only too glad to contract for the equipment of a similar force on General Fremont's scale.
The report thus prepared was submitted to the Cabinet, and after weeks of indecision the power of the Blairs pre- And he knew when this order was written that the man for whom he made this appeal was the officer on whose gossip Adjutant-General Thomas had mainly relied. In thus acting he did only his duty, and Englishmen will not fall into ecstasies because a General does not prove himself innocent by committing an act of treason. But what are we to think of a Government which, expecting its General to head a rebellion, sends its Adjutant-General a thousand mike to inquire if the neighbouring country folk think him competent to the command P One little incident remains to be recorded. So frightened was the Administration at the possible consequences of its own act, so immediate was the necessity for damaging Ge- neral Fremont, that the Cabinet not only published Colonel Thomas's report, but left in it a sentence which betrays the one secret they have hitherto carefully tried to keep. After quoting General Sherman's opinion that 200,000 men were required only to keep Kentucky, Colonel Thomas reports : " The Secretary of War replied that he supposed the Ken- tuckians would not in any number take up arms to operate against the rebels. But he thought General Sherman over- estimated the number and power of the rebel forces ; that the Goi,ernment would furnish troops to Kentucky to ac- complish the work ; but that he (the Secretary) was tired of defensive war, and that the troops must assume the offensive and carry the war to the firesides of the enemy, that the season for operations in Western Virginia was about over, and that he would take the troops from there and send them to Kentucky." If the Secessionists of Kentucky require a F4pur, that sentence is likely to make them prompt. If Mt. Jefferson Davis seeks information worth a year's revenue, he has it, published by the Cabinet and signed by the Adju- tant-General. vailed. ' General Fremont, then in the face of the enemy, and hourly expecting attack, was removed by the President, and General Hunter, the officer who had condemned him, and who was two days' journey away from the scene of action, ordered to take the command. The army was furious on behalf of its incompetent General. The men held mass meetings, the officers assembled in tents, and at length a distinct offer was made to their chief to Make him Dictator of the South-West and independent of the Administration. The position that General Fremont was believed to desire was at last in his grasp, and was calmly waived aside. Fre- mont expostulated with his men, remained, "at the una- nimous written request of the brigadiers," to head the defence should the force be attacked before General Hunter arrived, and then, his last duty performed, issued the following order : " Springfield, Missouri, Nov. 2. " Soldiers of the Mississippi Army,—Agreeably to orders received this day, I take leave of you. Although our army has been of sudden growth, we have grown up together, and I have become familiar with the brave and generous spirits which you bring to the defbnce of your country, and which make me anticipate for you a brilliant career. Continue as you have begun, and give to my successor the same cordial and enthusiastic. support with which you have encouraged nth. Emulate the splendid example which you have already before you, and let me remain, as I am, proud of the noble army which I have thus far laboured to bring together. " Soldiers, I regret to leave you. Most sincerely I thank you for the regard and confidence you have invariably shown the. I deeply regret that I shall not have the honour to lead you to the victory which you are just about to win ; but I shall claim the right to share with you in the joy of every triumph, and trust always to be personally remembered by my companions in arms. "Joni C. FnEmoNt, Major-General."
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