political routine, or by tricky
political praxis. Such men are now needed at the helm to carry this
noble people throughout the most terrible tempest. So in these days
one hears so much about constitutional formulas as safeguards of
liberty. True liberty is not to be virtually secured by any framework
of rules and limitations, devisable only by statecraft. The perennial
existence of liberty depends not on the action of any definite and
ascertainable machinery, but on continual accessions of fresh and
vital influences. But perhaps such influences are among the noblest,
and therefore among the rarest, attributes of man.

Abroad and here, traitors and some pedants on formulas make a noise
concerning the violation of formulas. Of course it were better if such
violations had been left undone. But all this is transient, and evoked
by the direst necessity. The Constitution was made for a healthy,
normal condition of the nation; the present condition is abnormal.
Regular functions are suspended. When the human body is ruined or
devoured by a violent disease, often very tonic remedies are
used--remedies which would destroy the organism if administered when
in a healthy, normal condition. A strong organism recovers from
disease, and from its treatment. Human societies and institutions pass
through a similar ordeal, and when they are unhinged, extraordinary
and abnormal ways are required to maintain the endangered society and
restore its equipoise.

Examining day after day the map of Virginia, it strikes one that a
movement with half of the army could be made down from Mount Vernon by
the two turnpike roads, and by water to Occoquan, and from there to
Brentsville. The country there seems to be flat, and not much wooded.
Manassas would be taken in the rear, and surrounded, provided the
other half of the army would push on by the direct way from here to
Manassas, and seriously attack the enemy, who thus would be broken,
could not escape. This, or any plan, the map of Virginia ought to
suggest to the staff of McClellan, were it a staff in the true
meaning. Dybitsch and Toll, young colonels in the staff of Alexander
I., 1813-'14, originated the march on Paris, so destructive to
Napoleon. History bristles with evidences how with staffs originated
many plans of battles and of campaigns; history explains the paramount
influence of staffs on the conduct of a war. Of course Napoleon wanted
not a suggestive, but only an executive staff;