And, therefore, as soon as our hands are at liberty,
we will fight you." I have known school-boys to argue in that way,
and the arguments have been intelligible; but I cannot understand
that any government should admit such an argument.
Nor will the American government willingly admit it. According to
existing theories of government the armies of nations are but the
tools of the governing powers. If at the close of the present civil
war the American government - the old civil government consisting of
the President with such checks as Congress constitutionally has over
him - shall really hold the power to which it pretends, I do not fear
that there will be any war. No President, and I think no Congress,
will desire such a war. Nor will the people clamor for it, even
should the idea of such a war be popular. The people of America are
not clamorous against their government. If there be such a war it
will be because the army shall have then become more powerful than
the government. If the President can hold his own, the people will
support him in his desire for peace. But if the President do not
hold his own - if some general, with two or three hundred thousand
men at his back, shall then have the upper hand in the nation - it is
too probable that the people may back him. The old game will be
played again that has so often been played in the history of
nations, and some wretched military aspirant will go forth to flood
Canada with blood, in order that the feathers of his cap may flaunt
in men's eyes and that he may be talked of for some years to come as
one of the great curses let loose by the Almighty on mankind.
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