whip slaves!

The navy is glorious everywhere, and not fussy. The people can never
sufficiently remunerate the navy, if patriotic services are to be
remunerated. The same would be with the army but for the Napoleons!

The published correspondence between the rebels Rust and Hunter fully
justifies my confidence in Louis Napoleon's sound judgment. That
publication clearly establishes how the press here is wholly unable to
conceive or to comprehend the policy of the great European nations.
The press heaps outrages and nurses suspicions against Napoleon. The
Sandfords and others knowingly stir up suspicions to make believe that
their smartness averts the evil. Poor chaps! When great interests are
at stake, neither their fuss, nor any dispatch, however elaborate, can
exercise a shadow of influence.

It seems that a Babylonian confusion prevails in the movements, in the
distribution, and in the combination of the various parts of the army
under McClellan. I should wonder if it were otherwise, with such a
general and supported by such a chief of the staff.

Brave old Gideon Welles (Neptune) instructing his sailors to fight,
and not to calculate, and "not to deliver anybody against his personal
wish."

These imbecile reporters and letter-writers for the press, and other
sensationists, make me enraged with their sneers at the poverty of the
rebels. If so, the more heroism. They forget the "beggars" of the
Dutch insurrection against Philip II.

The cat is out, and I am sorry for it. The world is informed that the
revolution is finished, and now the civil war begins. Oh generalizer!
oh philosopher of history! oh prophet as to the speedy end of the
civil _war_! Oh stop, oh stop! Not by digging will your pet McClellan
bring the war to a speedy close.

I am often enraged against myself not to be able to admire Mr. Seward,
and to be obliged to judge his whole policy in such, perhaps too
severe, a manner. What can I do, what can I do? No one, not even Gen.
Scott and Mr. Lincoln, since January, 1861, has exercised an influence
equal to Mr. Seward's on the affairs of the country, and _amicus
Plato, etc., sed magis amica veritas_.

Mr. Seward believes that July 4th will be celebrated by us in
Richmond. He and McClellan spread this hope; Doolittle believes it. We
could be in Richmond any day under any other general, not a Napoleon;
we may never be there if led on by McClellan, inspired by Mr. Seward's
policy.

The French amateu