Republican army

“ It has been a spectacle displaying to the highest advantage the value of republican government, to behold the most and the least wealthy of our citizens standing in the same ranks as private soldiers, pre-eminently distinguished by being the army of the constitution—undeterred by a march of three hundred miles over rugged mountains, by the approach of an inclement season, or by any other discouragement. ”

“ The view of a Radical, who had a remarkable way of putting things, will give us an idea of the criticism Lincoln had to undergo. “The result of the elections was a most serious and severe reproof to the administration,” wrote Carl Schurz from the army to the President, and the administration is to blame. “It placed the Army, now a great power in this Republic, into the hands of its enemies.... What Republican general has ever had a fair chance in this war? Did not McClellan, Buell, Halleck and their creatures and favorites claim, obtain and absorb everything?” The system should be changed. ”

“ Not the less true is it that Republicanism was yet the general creed of the Army, and that, could a universal vote have been taken through the regiments in England, Scotland, and Ireland, it would have kept out Charles Stuart. Nay, so engrained was the Republican feeling in the ranks of the soldiery, and so gloomily were they watching Monk, that, could any suitable proportion of them have been brought together, and could any fit leader have been present to hold up his sword for the Commonwealth, they would have rallied round him with acclamations. ”

“ They will form a powerful check upon the regular troops, and will generally be sufficient to over-awe them—for our detached situation will seldom give occasion to raise an army, though a few scattered companies may often be necessary. But whenever, even on the most obvious reasons, an army shall be raised, the several states will be called, by the nature of things, to attend to the condition of the militia. Republican jealousy, the guardian angel of these states, will watch the motions of our military citizens, even though they will be the soldiers of a free people. ”

“ Why does our army differ from the army of the Revolution? Because in one case the army is bound to defend Washington, in the other Washington was bound to defend the army.
Why is the Republican Party like a celebrated English ruler of the seventeenth century, "Oliver Cromwell, the Blacksmith"? Because it breaks asunder the chains of despotism and adds a link on (A. Lincoln) to history.
Why is an owl in the daylight like the President of the United States? Because he is a-blinkin' (Abe Lincoln) .
Why is one of the new Treasury notes like a young lady's love letter? ”

“ An army of spoils-hunters clings to him as the power that can open to them rich opportunities for preying upon the people. This is a formidable combination of forces. Those who combat it strive not only to protect the State and its municipalities against maladministration, corruption, and robbery, but to restore to the people that republican government which, according to the Federal Constitution, “the United States shall guarantee to very State in the Union.” ”

“ Our republican programme further includes a new system of national defence, in which every citizen capable of bearing arms shall be enrolled. No standing army. It shall be neither a standing army nor a militia, nor yet a reduction of the one nor an increase of the other. It must be a new creation, which in its process of development, will do away with the necessity of a standing army as well as a militia. ”

“ Then Maximilian will cut through with the cavalry. The infantry will follow, if it can. And after them, the artillery. You Republicans may not even know it until too late, because meantime you will be fighting the townspeople, thinking you are fighting the whole army.”
Driscoll roused himself suddenly. “The townspeople?”
“Si señor, they are to be a decoy. Some volunteered, the rest were drafted. They have been armed, but they are only to be killed, they are only to draw the Republican strength, while the Emperor and the army escape.” ”

“ In enumerating the causes of the general success of the Republican arms, we must not forget the moral motive—the interest which the troops took in the cause of the war. The army, in fact, derived an instant and most flattering advantage from the Revolution, which could scarce be said of any other class of men in France, excepting the peasant. ”

“ This, then, is another improvement, which has lately been introduced into our political system; our old patriots considered standing armies, as the most powerful engines of arbitrary power, and the most dangerous enemies to republican governments; but, out modern patriots have discovered, that this was an error, and that a large standing army is a necessary ingredient in a good republican government; altho' they sometimes inform us, also, that France has, within five years, lost her liberty by means of one, and that she is now governed by a military despotism. ”

“ There is neither army nor navy available, and the ministers have no machinery of rewards, and means of intrigue, or modes of gaining adherents known to European administrations. The democrats behold with silent satisfaction the troubles into which the republican triumph has plunged the country, and are not at all disposed to extricate them. The most notable way of impeding their efforts is to knock them down with the “Constitution” every time they rise to the surface and begin to swim out. ”

“ I dismiss this transaction as another instance of Presidential pretension, which, in the interest of Republican Government, should be arrested.
UNREPUBLICAN SUBORDINATION OF THE WAR DEPARTMENT TO THE GENERAL-IN-CHIEF.
From the Executive Mansion pass now to the War Department, and there we witness the same Presidential pretensions by which law, usage, and correct principle are lost in the will of One Man. The supremacy of the civil power over the military is typified in the Secretary of War, a civilian, from whom Army officers receive orders. ”

“ I go, then, to the head of the Mexican army—an army the off-spring of a free people—and joined with it, I will fulfil my utmost duty in opposing the enemies of my country. I will die fighting, or lead the valiant Mexicans to the enjoyment of a triumph to which they are alike entitled by justice, by their warlike character, and by the dignity and enthusiasm which they have preserved, of a free nation. The war is a necessity of immediate importance; every day's delay is an age of infamy ”

“ How arrogant it is for the Republican leaders to tender the military power of their States! Who gave them or their States authority to raise armies? For national purposes the whole militia of the Union is subject to Congress. Congress alone has power to declare war and to call out the militia, and Congress can only call upon the militia to suppress insurrection or repel invasion. ”

“ At peace with mankind and fortified by nature, she is forced to maintain an army either to protect her from herself or to bribe the innumerable remnants of her military politicians into peace. Endowed with a constitution and enjoying the name of a republic, she beholds that constitution violated or overthrown by her army without even demanding the consent of the people. ”

“ Santa Anna, the selfish, arrogant military chieftain,—a man of unquestionable genius and talent for command,—had passed his life in spreading his sails to catch the popular breeze, and by his alliances with the two most powerful elements of Mexican society,—the army and the church,—had always contrived to sustain his eminent political position, or recover it when it was temporarily lost. ”

“ Parties in our Government have no better idea than to think the republic stands all the firmer upon opposition; but I say that it is not so. A republican Government consists in letting the people rule by their united voice, without a dissension,—in learning what is for the best, and unitedly doing it. That is true republicanism. ”

“ Oh, one party of the Liberals want democracy—pure unadulterated Republicanism. A second party desire military rule, which would be nothing more or less than despotism, supported by a standing army under the thumbs of a few martinets in power. ”

“ Was it to be imagined that men who had always been controled, could learn immediately to control themselves? Was it to be believed that the military personages, whose ambition is as proverbial as it is natural, would voluntarily surrender the power they possessed over the masses, and retire to the obscurity and poverty of private life when they could enjoy the wealth and influence of political control, so long as they maintained their rank in the army? ”

“ If he expects that, by depriving the general government of the power of calling them into more frequent use, they will be rendered more useful and expert, he is greatly deceived. We ought to part with the power to use the militia to somebody. To whom? Ought we not to part with it for the general defence? If you give it not to Congress, it may be denied by the states. If you withhold it, you render a standing army absolutely necessary; for if they have not the militia, they must have such a body of troops as will be necessary for the general defence of the Union. ”

“ With the end of the Civil War the United States, with an efficient army in the field, was ready to enforce its diplomatic demands with military acts. The Republican administration promptly read the international riot act to Louis Napoleon, practically ordering him to withdraw his army from Mexico. He tried to temporize, offering to remove his troops if the United States would recognize Maximilian as Emperor of Mexico. ”

“ I was far from my native land when intelligence of this renewed confidence, and of these new obligations imposed upon me by my country was brought to me, and I saw that the imminent dangers which surrounded her on all sides, formed the chief motive for calling me to the head of the army. I now see a terrible contest with a perfidious and daring enemy impending over her, in which the Mexican republic must reconquer the insignia of her glory and a fortunate issue, if victorious, or disappear from the face of the earth, if so unfortunate as to be defeated. ”

“ This spirit of independent judgment is by no means confined to the rank and file. The evidence before the War Committee shows how seldom a General-in-Chief can depend on the hearty co-operation of his Division leaders, and how unreservedly dissent was often expressed by those whose lips discipline ought to have sealed.
The fact is, that a spirit of party impregnates all the military organization of the North: a Federal army is a vast political machine. ”

“ But of course they and you in common reserve to yourselves to decide what are constitutional means; and, unlike the Albany meeting, you omit to state or intimate that in your opinion an army is a constitutional means of saving the Union against a rebellion, or even to intimate that you are conscious of an existing rebellion being in progress with the avowed object of destroying that very Union. At the same time your nominee for governor, in whose behalf you appeal, is known to you and to the world to declare against the use of an army to suppress the rebellion. ”

“ If you would refuse to giv Congress power to raise troops, to guard our frontiers, and garrison forts, or in short, to enlist men for any purpose, then we understand you; you tie the hands of your rulers, so that they cannot defend you against any invasion. This is protection, indeed! But if Congress can raise a body of troops for a year, they can raise them for a hundred years, and your declaration against standing armies can have no other effect, than to prevent Congress from denominating their troops, a standing army. ”

“ But nothing appears more evident to me, than that we run much greater risk of having a weak and disunited federal government, than one which will be able to usurp upon the rights of the people. Already some of the lines of the army would obey their States in opposition to Congress, notwithstanding the pains we have taken to preserve the unity of the army. ”

“ June 26th.—The President revised one of my articles for the press to-day, suggesting some slight modifications, which, perhaps, improved it. It was not a political article; but designed exclusively to advance the cause by inciting the people of Virginia and elsewhere to volunteer for the war. Such volunteers are accepted, and ordered into active service at once; whereas six and twelve months’ men, unless they furnish their own arms, are not accepted.
It is certain the United States intend to raise a grand army, to serve for three years or the war. ”

“ The Confederation gives the States, individually, too much influence in the affairs of the army. They should have nothing to do with it. The entire formation and disposal of our military forces, ought to belong to Congress. It is an essential cement of the union: and it ought to be the policy of Congress, to destroy all ideas of State attachments in the army, and make it look up wholly to them. For this purpose, all appointments, promotions, and provisions, whatsoever, ought to be made by them. ”

“ By what must seem to us a mistake in the Republican system—a mistake which we have seen made more than once in the late American war—high political offices were necessarily combined with military command. ”

“ Yes, sir; for a time so completely had the Republicans been imbued with the principles which they professed whilst in a minority, that, after becoming the majority, the Federalists pressed on their old adversaries power and patronage, to which they absolutely opposed themselves, repelling, for a season, every project of the kind. Is it necessary for me to allude to the reduction of the Army—to say by whom it was made? Sir, the proposition for it was originally made by the personage now addressing you; it came from what was then considered the Governmental side of the House. ”