The Madisonian

FOR THE MADISONIAN

GEN. VAN BUREN.

Is it not astonishing that the people, in their enthusiasm for Gen. Harrison, should have altogether overlooked the military career of Gen. Van Buren—"fair play is a jewel." Have they not seen the last Message, and noticed the great military skill displayed by Gen. Van Buren in the disposition of the American forces in the late campaign. To do justice to a General, you should understand the enemy he has to meet and the difficulties he has to encounter. It will be recollected that at the opening of the campaign, our General had two powerful and indefatigable enemies already in the field to encounter the Seminoles in the South, and the insurgents, headed by Gen. Tallmadge in the North—the one overrunning the beautiful Territory of Florida, and murdering its citizens in cold blood—the other, overrunning the plains of Dutchess, and threatening Kinderhook itself. Gen. Van Buren, with a perception as quick as thought, and a generalship that would do credit to the greatest military man living—indeed it is questionable whether, since the days of Hannibal, more military skill has been displayed—at once despatched the veteran McComb with a proclamation to attack the Seminoles; and that nothing might be left undone, conferred on the General the power to call into the service as many blood-hounds as might be necessary to track up the Indians and bring them in to hear the General read his proclamation to them—while the President took the field, concentrated the main body of the army on the heights of Trenton—reconnoitered, in person, the camp of the insurgents under Gen. Tallmadge—reviewed his army at Trenton, as he informed us in his message, (most perilous enterprise) and communicated all the facts to Congress by many an eulogy on the veteran troops under his immediate command, who had sustained the fatigues of the campaign, notwithstanding the heat of the season, the thermometer standing frequently as high as 90 in the shade. Both expeditions, it is true, signally failed: the war in Florida still continues in all its horrors, by about one hundred and fifty Seminoles, against the South wing of the army. Gen. Tallmadge having defeated the main body, commanded by the President in person, pursued General Van Buren to the capitol, and has actually entered the city in triumph. Still, let justice be done:—Hannibal was defeated—Bonaparte was defeated—but who ever doubted their military skill?

I hope no one will be so ingenuous as to draw a disparaging distinction between Gen. Harrison and Gen. Van Buren, merely because "Gen. Harrison has fought more battles than any other man living, and never was defeated." and because Gen. Van Buren was unsuccessful in the late campaign. Let