VIII.

L'Esprit de Corps-Eloquence in the Army.

FOND as are Americans of public speaking, and natural orators as most of them are, it has seemed to me very strange that we should have seen so little of it in our armies.

Appeals to the patriotism and the valor of soldiers, by their leaders, have, in all ages and with all people, been among the most potent agencies invoked for inspiring courage and inflaming enthusiasm. All the great generals of antiquity made passionate and eloquent addresses to their armies on the eve of battle. Their example has been followed by military leaders in all countries and all times, from the chief of a petty tribe of savage warriors to the great captain of an innumerable host.

It was under the electric influence of patriotic eloquence that our countless battalions were gathered and marched to the field; and some of our most brilliant successes in this war have followed such appeals. Fired by the zeal thus awakened, nearly all victories against fearful odds have everywhere been won. The fiery words of Peter the Hermit set all Europe in a blaze, and launched a million Crusaders on the shores of Asia.

Who has forgotten the thrilling scene which Scott describes of the sermon of the youthful Scotch chaplain, Mackelbriar, when the small but determined band of Covenanters halted, with their dripping swords, to withstand the next shock of Claverhouse's cavalry! *

"The banner of the Reformation is spread abroad on the mountains in its first loveliness, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

Returned prisoners tell us that, before going into battle, the rebel officers address their men in strains of fiery invective against the Federal Government, charging it with every crime, and depicting scenes, attending their march, of butchery and brutality horrible enough to make a savage shudder.

The voice of the skilful and impetuous orator is often as powerful in a bad cause as in a good one. Nothing more imposing can be found in Milton-that most eloquent of all writers—than the addresses of Satan to his scathed, defiant secession host. They exceed in sublimity of diction even the eloquence of the orators of heaven.

The effect of eloquence is not to be measured by the strength of the argument or the justice of the cause. Logic is bad, but competent hands can easily dispose of truth. Rhetoric deals only with conclusions. Conviction is its sole object. This is as often won by foul as by fair means. This great lever of social power has been wielded with

"Well is he this day that shall barter his house for a helmet, and sell his garment for a sword, and cast in his lot with the children of the covenant, even to the fulfilling of the promise; and woe, woe unto him who for carnal ends and self-seeking shall withhold himself from the great work, for the curse shall abide with him, even the bitter curse of Meroz, because he came not to the help of the Lord against the mighty! Up, then, and be doing! The blood of martyrs, reeking upon scaffolds, is crying for vengeance! The bones of saints, which lie whitening in the highways, are pleading for retribution! The groans of innocent captives from desolate isles of the sea, and from the dungeons of the tyrant's high places, cry for deliverance! The prayers of persecuted Christians, sheltering themselves in dens and deserts from the sword of their persecutors, famished with hunger, starving with cold, lacking fire, food, shelter, and clothing, because they serve God rather than man, all are with you, pleading, watching, knocking, storming the gates of heaven in your behalf! Heaven itself shall fight for you, as the stars in their courses fought against Sisera! Then whoso will deserve immortal fame in this world, and eternal happiness in that which is to come, let them enter into God's service, and take arles at the hand of his servant,-a blessing, namely, upon him and his household and his children to the ninth generation, even the blessing of the promise, for ever and ever. Amen."-Old Mortality.

matchless ability and effect by Southern commanders. They did not rely only upon "general orders" read to the troops. Every officer threw a fresh firebrand into the centre of his regiment before the order "March!" was given. The influence thus exerted by stirring speakers over ignorant and deluded men acted like a spell of enchantment.

Union officers who were long detained as prisoners in the South have told me that to this cause, in great part, could the fanatical zeal of the Confederate army be attributed.

But

With us, nearly all this has been lacking; and we have paid very dear for it. It has been a costly sin of omission. In the beginning, this system was proposed by several of our best officers, and it seemed likely to be carried out. it is said that it met with great disfavor from certain quarters, especially from officers in the regular service. In this respect, as in some others, many of these officers were not so completely qualified for the business of a great war as they supposed. West Point had done for them all and perhaps more than could any other military school. But those who had seen active service had generally had but a few men in their commands; and those men were mostly foreigners, of the lowest rank in society.

When the ARMY OF THE PEOPLE took the field, inferiority of breeding or social position found no place. The rank and file rose even above mediocrity; and many of the regiments counted privates who in all but military knowledge and experience were not a whit behind the commanders of the regular army.

It is worth inquiring how much may have been gained or lost by the spirit which regular officers have manifested

*People who know nothing about West Point are in the habit of speaking disparagingly of our national military academy. But no foreign officer of distinction has taken any such view of the case. Their united testimony-from Russia, Prussia, Austria, and France-places the system of military education at West Point on a par with, and some superior to, the best military schools in the world.

towards citizen soldiers. I know that all men educated as a special and privileged class feel a pride in their profession. If they did not, they would disgrace it. Nor is it difficult to imagine that an officer of regulars may feel something of a twinge when "ranked" by a volunteer who was brought up to wield the goose of a tailor, or mix liquors behind a bar in the Bowery. But the least intelligent regular must not forget that some of Napoleon's greatest marshals were stableboys and tapsters.

A noble attempt in the right direction was made by Colonel (now General) John Cochrane early in the war. At a review of his splendid regiment, the First United States Chasseurs, in the presence of the Secretary of War, he delivered an oration on the leading issues of the national contest worthy of his great reputation as a polished and powerful speaker. Short as was his address, he swept the whole field, and pressed his unanswerable argument home to the heart of each one of his thousand men. What had never before been thought of was brought up to full view; what had been obscure became clear; what had been doubtful was made certain; and the merits of the national cause, and the certainty of its final triumph, were the themes of the speaker's discourse and illumination. On one subject General Cochrane spoke with great boldness. His eye had pierced much further into the future than the policy of the administration or the popular vision had penetrated. He saw clearly then, what time has made so apparent, that either slavery or the Union must die.*

"Soldiers, to what means shall we resort for our existence? This war is devoted not merely to victory and its mighty honors, not merely to the triumph which moves in glorious procession along our streets. But it is a war which moves towards the protection of our homes, the safety of our families, the continuation of our domestic altars, and the protection of our firesides. In such a war we are justified, are bound to resort to every

The issue had been made. The insurrectionists had made it. It came; and it was made and met. A country was at

force within our power. Having opened the port of Beaufort, we shall be able to export millions of cotton-bales, and from these we may supply the sinews of war. Do you say that we should not seize the cotton? No: you are clear upon that point. Suppose the munitions of war are within our reach would we not be guilty of shameful neglect if we availed not ourselves of the opportunity to use them? Suppose the enemy's slaves were arrayed against you: would you, from any squeamishness, refrain from pointing against them the hostile gun and prostrating them in death? No: that is your object and purport; and if you would seize their property, open their ports, and even destroy their lives, I ask you whether you would not use their slaves? Whether you would not arm their slaves [great applause], and carry them in battalions against their masters? [Renewed and tumultuous applause.] If necessary to save this Government, I would plunge their whole country, black and white, into one indiscriminate sea of blood, so that we should in the end have a Government which would be the vicegerent of God. Let us have no more of this dilletante system, but let us work with a will and a purpose that cannot be mistaken. Let us not put aside from too great a delicacy of motives. Soldiers, you know no such reasoning as this. You have arms in your hands, and those arms are placed there for the purpose of exterminating an enemy unless he submits to law, order, and the Constitution. If he will not submit, explode every thing that comes in your way. Set fire to the cotton. Explode the cotton. Take property wherever you may find it. Take the slave, and bestow him upon the non-slaveholder, if you please. [Great applause.] Do to them as they would do to us. Raise up a party of interest against the absent slaveholder, distract their counsels; and, if this should not be sufficient, take the slave by the hand, place a musket in it, and in God's name bid him strike for the liberty of the human race. [Immense applause.]

"But, soldiers, to accomplish all this, not merely arms are necessary, not merely men to carry them, but that powerful and overwhelming spirit which constitutes and makes us men,-that spirit which lifts us above the creeping things of the earth, and brings us near the Deity, in accomplishing his work on earth. Oh, then, let us not think that the 'battle is to the strong;' let us not merely depend on discipline and order, but, with that fervidness of soul which inspired our fathers at Bunker Hill and Saratoga and Yorktown, come forward and give effect to all that is valuable in the name of patriotism and honor and religion.

"Never-no, never-will you succeed until that spirit is once more