The Daily Dispatch: October 9, 1862., [Electronic resource]

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Federal reputation in Europe.

The loss of military reputation in Europe ought not to be half as mortifying to the enemy as the degradation of national character. So far as courage is concerned, it is conceded that they fight well, though unsuccessfully; but this is a misfortune which other nations have suffered, and to which all parties in war are exposed. But a bad moral character in a different thing, and in this respect the Federalists have got a name that the Turks would not covet. No one on the face of the earth would believe a word that they say. If they should win a great victory, it would not be believed in Europe, till they had heard from the South whether it was so or not. In the intercourse of private individuals, when a man tells a whopper the bystanders, from civility, do not contradict him but, in the intercourse of nations, there is no such rale of courtesy, and consequently, when Jonathan spins one of his yarns, the whole world exclaims, ‘"what a lie!"’ The Yankees may thank Lincoln, Seward, McClellan, Pope, Halleck, and their officers generally, for this profound national degradation. They ought at once to insist that their public men should sometimes tell the truth, no matter how painful it may be; for it is bad enough to be beats, without being disgraced and degraded.