we must do to make the discharge
of it of the greatest service to the nation; that we shall learn the
lessons of wisdom which the present struggle enforces on us, and see to
it, that in the future, by better military organization and instruction,
the able-bodied men of the country are rendered more capable of
effective military service at a moment's call.

Oar military system, and the enrolment of the people under it, goes
indeed upon this principle of the obligation of military service by
every able-bodied citizen--and so is a constant testimony to it; but in
point of fact it has done comparatively little toward cherishing the
military spirit, cultivating the military virtues, and securing an
effective military force, ready at any moment for active service in the
field. Dreading nothing from foreign nations on this side of the ocean,
counting on the obvious policy of the nations of the old world to keep
the peace with us, and never dreaming of such a rebellion as has broken
out in our midst--we have not only neglected but discountenanced the
cultivation of the military spirit. Our men of education and high social
position, instead of contributing to make the militia system respectable
by the personal performance of military duty, and by using all their
influence to give a high tone to the service, have evaded its
requirements on themselves, and done all they could to sink it into
disregard and contempt: a dereliction of duty as unwise as wrong.

It is a miserable thing for a country to have to get ready for war when
war is forced upon it. This was the case when the rebellion broke out.
We were not ready for it. There was indeed no lack of men. Hundreds of
thousands responded to their country's call; and the great body of the
people were carried away with the delusion that men with arms in their
hands are soldiers, and that massing them in great numbers makes them a
great army. Wise men--men of military judgment and experience--knew
better. But the popular clamor for onward offensive operations
prevailed; with disastrous result in the first instance. Not on the
whole perhaps to be regretted. It did what nothing else could have
done--it dispelled the popular delusion. It did something toward
teaching the nation a lesson indispensably necessary to be learned--that
a million men with arms in their hands without discipline, are nothing
but an armed mob, and that the discipline which alone makes an effective
army, implies