remain for some time mutinous and full of fac|tion, until some popular general, who understands the art of conciliating the soldiery, and who possesses the true spirit of command, shall draw the eyes of all men upon himself. Armies will obey him on his personal account. There is no other way of securing military obedience in this state of things. But the moment in which that event shall happen, the person who really commands the army is your master; the master (that is little) of your king, the master of your assembly, the master of your whole republic.
How came the assembly by their present power over the army? Chiefly, to be sure, by debauch|ing the soldiers from their officers. They have begun by a most terrible operation. They have touched the central point, about which the par|ticles that compose armies are at repose. They have destroyed the principle of obedience in the great essential critical link between the officer and the soldier, just where the chain of military subordina|tion commences, and on which the whole of that system depends. The soldier is told, he is a ci|tizen, and has the rights of man and citizen. The right of a man, he is told, is to be his own go|vernor, and to be ruled only by those to whom he delegates that self-government. It is very na|tural he should think, that he ought most of all to have his choice where he is to yield the greatest degree of obedience. He will therefore, in all pro|bability, systematically do, what he does at present occasionally; that is, he will exercise at least a nega|tive in the choice of his officers. At present the
