p.

Here then is a cause for clamor.
"Lee has escaped" at least from Md.
How [underline]far[/underline] he may succeed in going
now, the future must show.

Is there reason to say of Meade, that
he is inefficient, because Lee is not
"bagged?" or to say Lee has done that
which our Army would never dare
to do? Let me look at this last clause!
Three times within the last eight
months our Army has, other things be-
ing equal, made more successful &
less disastrous crossings into rebel ter-
ritory and this, not by going to some dis-
tant and [underline]unguarded[/underlne] point, but direct-
ly in the face of the [Flower?] of the rebel
Army, massed behind Fortifications
and in entrenchments, almost im-
pregnable. At each of these several
times we have been compelled to retire
but never with that disaster which
[charachrizes?] Lee's return from Md.
Now if reports are true, [underline]we[/underline] have ob-
tained an advantage over him by gain-
ing the shorter rout to his former &
if I am not mistaken, his intended
future base of operations on the river.