Harris Dickson

“ It can do things — do them right now.
We Americans are mighty proud of the fact that our Declaration of Independence, and our Constitution have become a pattern for nearly all the world — all that part of the world which is not controlled by the Prussian Idea. New republics, springing up in every quarter of the globe, have followed our lead. We stand for that Big Idea, and we have to stand by it — that common folks have some rights, which even emperors must respect. ”

“ That’s why our impotent Congress passed the buck to George, appointing George Military Dictator. It is not strength, but weakness, which creates dictators over a republic. Here was Washington, preaching the equal rights of all men, yet by his solitary power raising armies and paying them, ruling millions of free men who struggled to attain an ideal of constitutional liberty. ”

“ Whatever now goes wrong with our scheme of national defense is directly chargeable to the United States Congress—and to your Uncle Samuel. But, my son, remember this and never forget, that neither Congress nor Uncle Sam can turn a wheel unless we are backed up by public sentiment. It’s the public sentiment of the country which makes Congress act. That’s why I am so anxious to have all the country folks and all the city folks know exactly where we stand. There’s no forty-seven different ways about what we’ve got to do. ”

“ Thus a few rioting recruits forced the flight of Congress. These were mere recruits, soldiers of a day who had not borne the heat and burden of the war. As against their behavior contrast the veteran Continentals. All honor to them, sturdy and steadfast, who patiently endured hunger, danger and cold; who suffered and bled without a murmur; who in perfect good order retired to their homes without a settlement of their accounts or a farthing of money in their pockets. ”

“ I don’t care what any American thinks, if he will only think at all. I’ve got a pig-headed faith that Americans are going to think right before they get done thinking.
Our tradition of the invincible militia and the victorious Minutemen had its birth at Bunker Hill. Frenzied orators, fiery poets and solemn school books have repeatedly assured us that a few dozen stalwart plowboys routed the redcoat army with a loss of about 1,054 men. ”

“ The truth is that Uncle Sam has abandoned the precarious system of volunteer militia, which was born with this republic, and adopted the essentially democratic principle that national defense is the paramount duty of every citizen. Defense of the republic—like taxes and jury duty—constitutes an obligation that cannot be laid upon the backs of a few willing horses who would be ridden to death. All must serve their turn ”

“ Washington had about 8,000 militia of this kind to oppose Lord Howe on Long Island. The British outnumbered him two to one. Washington was beaten. A repulse does not necessarily destroy an army of trained soldiers. A good drubbing may only make a bunch of veterans grit their teeth and stand firmer. It riles ’em. But if you defeat the militia and start ’em to turning tail, they take the route to scatteration. It is mighty pitiful to hear the old General telling about how his troops behaved on this humiliating day. Washington heard the first shots of the battle and galloped to the front. ”

“ There is still another reason, growing out of the foresight of George Washington in establishing the military academy at West Point. General Scott himself has forcibly stated this reason, "I give it as my fixed opinion that but for our graduated cadets the war between the United States and Mexico might, and probably would, have lasted some four or five years, with, in its first half, more defeats than victories falling to our share. Whereas, in less than two campaigns, we conquered a great country and a peace without the loss of a single battle or skirmish." ”

“ The only difference between them lay in their training. Let me say it again, we Americans pride ourselves upon our individualism. We love to do just as we darn please, and hate anybody to give us orders. This brand of inefficiency is part of the price we pay for democracy.
Someway or other, by the help of Providence and the French, in some kind of fashion, by main strength and awkwardness, we managed to stumble through the Revolution to a successful if not a triumphant conclusion. It was the French, however, who finally achieved our independence, and we can never repay them. ”

“ Bear in mind, that one group of men may be the lowest of cutthroats and plunderers—yet be soldiers. Another group, inspired by lofty purposes and highest ideals, may be no more than a mob. It is not patriotism—nor courage, but discipline and training, that marks the distinction which Washington so wisely recognized.
On account of short enlistments and the irresistible homeward tendency of recruits, Revolutionary leaders were repeatedly forced to give battle under adverse circumstances—before the terms of their men expired and left them minus an army. ”

“ The Continental government acted without foresight in creating a system of volunteer militia, and the new Federal government displayed no hindsight by continuing it. Looking backward, and with complete power to remedy evils, it disbanded our regular army—except 80 men—and raised 700 men to serve for one year. Revolutionary failures had taught nothing to the Congress which refused to be weaned away from its militia delusion. ”

“ The average American is eager and anxious to know, so he can do something, and do it well.
Our Uncle Sam, being a plain-spoken and practical person, admits that he generally makes a muss of soldiering, and has set his head to find out why. Uncle Sam has been lying awake at nights ruminating over the salty facts. Having learned better, he does better. He is doing much better now, and means to get ahead of the best before he plows this furrow to the end. Uncle Sam can accomplish whatever he tries, and, believe me, he is trying. ”

“ And, mind you, I say this in the most profound conviction, we are bound to win that war on the soil of Europe, or we may expect to lose it on the soil of America. There's no way of sidestepping. We've got to roll up our sleeves and make the world so free that a couple of emperors can't whisper to each other and touch the button for a war that has already slaughtered forty-five millions of human beings — folks like you and me and wives and babies. ”

“ That’s an American joke and everybody can understand it. But what the British did to the recruits who were captured was no joke to Americans. General Brock added the stinging insult to Hull’s surrender by sending all United States regulars as prisoners to Montreal. The volunteers and militia he simply turned loose. Why shouldn’t he turn loose such harmless persons? Volunteers and militia were utterly useless to their own government, constituted no peril to the British, and were not worth feeding in captivity. This contempt subsequently reacted upon the British at New Orleans. ”

“ There is no sense in piling up instances. The War of 1812 bristled with calamities caused by our unmanageable, disorganized, and inefficient militia. Throughout that war the British regulars held Canada with probably 5,000 men. Against them we sent expedition after expedition, losing 5,614 in killed and wounded—614 more, possibly a thousand more—than the entire British force, and we never budged them. They continued to hold Canada. Undisciplined courage hurled itself in vain against their organized and immovable ranks. ”

“ It passes human belief that our muddle-headed mistakes should be repeated and made more glaring by a return to short-term enlistments so appalling in the Revolution. But that is exactly what Congress did, by reducing the term of enlistment from five years to 18 months. As a further and ghastlier joke the President was empowered to require the governors of the States to hold in readiness to march at a moment’s notice a detachment of militia not exceeding 80,000 officers and men. The trouble is that such militia marched backwards much more fluently than they ever advanced forward. ”

“ Nothing tickles our American vanity so much as being patted on the back for natural born warriors who can lick the world just for pastime. The perspiring 4th of July orator pumps us full of heroic hot air, which pleasingly distends our hides with manhood, and we elect the orator to Congress. He goes to Congress on that platform, and sticks by it—which is good politics. ”

“ Individualism again, and not team work. The Continental Congress had no power to carry on war, to enlist a soldier, to levy taxes, nor to enforce a requisition for money or for men. Instead of vesting the war power in a central government, which alone could insure its vigorous exercise, Congress was nothing more than a consulting body of diplomats with authority to entreat but not to compel. ”

“ The millionaire and the milkman perform the same duties. Wealth, power, political or social position — nothing can excuse the slacker. Each must serve his turn, each must do his bit. The very essence of democracy, yes; the prince comes to realize that the peasant lad is a pretty stalwart sort; while the milkman revises his prejudices concerning the millionaire, who endures every hardship and faces every peril without complaint. This democracy of ditch digging, this fraternalism of the firing line, has glorified the spirit of a rejuvenated France. ”

“ The real facts never leaked into their noggins, that the Revolution had been prolonged to eight disastrous years, when by the intelligent and compact use of our resources, it might have been ended by a single campaign. Of course a few men—mighty scarce and nobody listened—a few men sat down and figured out the reasons. Of course the Continental Congress was not to blame for the errors and left-handed inefficiencies of our military establishment. As I told you before, the Continental Congress had no power to raise a dollar or to enlist a man. ”

“ The shamefullest crime is against the boys themselves — putting them up to be shot down without a chance. Suppose you run over some day and see those youngsters drilling at Fort Myer. The eternal sunshine never lighted up a finer lot of faces, frank of soul, clean of heart and stout of limb. You can't chuck a brick bat in that crowd anywhere and hit a boy that you wouldn't trust. ”

“ A thousand individual heroes may easily make one collective regimental coward. Such is the incomprehensible psychology of the mob.
But the point to be emphasized is this: Nobody seemed to learn anything from these staggering stampedes. Even General William Henry Harrison, who had sense enough to become President of the United States some years later, tried his hand at the same game. He selected another army for the express, sworn, and heralded purpose of wiping out the stain of Hull’s surrender. Again it was militia—frontiersmen—from Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, Pennsylvania. ”

“ But the free soldiers of a Republic, fathers, brothers, sons of the people, created by the people and responsible to the people — such an army in a pure democracy must prove the bulwark, the safeguard, and not a menace to the state. ”

“ We resent the slightest encroachment upon our personal privilege to do as we please. If the notion strikes us to play at soldiering, very well, soldiers we will play—whenever we get ready and for just as long as it suits us. The average American having volunteered for a few months, frequently carries this idea with him and stops to ask questions, before he obeys an order. Individualism is his most petted possession. He argues that we have been victorious in five foreign wars on this basis of individual initiative, and sees no sense in quitting a good thing. ”

“ I have heard in such a way as to believe it, of your recent saying, that both the army and the Government needed a dictator. Of course it was not for this, but in spite of it, that I have given you the command. Only those generals who gain success can set up dictators. What I now ask of you is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship. The Government will support you to the utmost of its ability, which is neither more or less than it will do for all commanders. ”

“ One time I knew a justice of the peace to be elected on the platform that he could take a lightning bug, on the end of a corn cob, and bluff the machine-made armies of Europe into the Atlantic Ocean. Maybe he could. But machine-made armies won’t fight with corn cobs and lightning bugs. Rules have changed.
Plenty of grown men believe that still. It is part of public opinion, and helps to shape the policy of this nation. ”