that confidential
relation is far more important than in the case of any cabinet
officer, for the reason that it is brought into prominence in times
of great emergency, when questions of peace and war are involved,
and when the President is required to act upon momentous military
operations about which he cannot, in general, have much knowledge,
and hence must trust to the ability, judgment, discretion, and
scientific military knowledge of the general-in-chief. In such
cases the general becomes, as it were, the "keeper of the President's
conscience" in respect to the most momentous questions he can ever
have to decide.

THE PRESIDENT AND THE COMMANDER OF THE ARMY

It is necessarily extremely embarrassing to the President to be
compelled to place or retain in that close, confidential, and
important relation to himself an officer in whom he has not entire
confidence in all respects; or else, as the only alternative, by
selecting another, to cast a reflection upon the senior in rank,
whose soldierly character and services may have entitled him to
the highest distinction. The situation is no less embarrassing,
under the existing law and custom, to the officer who may at any
time happen to be the senior in commission. He may be compelled
to submit to the humiliation of being superseded by some junior in
rank, or else to occupy a confidential position of great importance
in the absence of that confidence which is necessary to make such
a position even tolerable to himself or to the army, which must
inevitably be deprived of his legitimate influence for good if he
does not enjoy the confidence of the President and the Secretary
of War. There can be no relief from this dilemma, so embarrassing
to both the President and the general, except by appropriate
legislation.

The most important military reform now required in this country is
a law authorizing the President, "by and with the advice and consent
of the Senate," to appoint, not a commander of the army, but a
"general-in-chief," or "chief of staff," to aid him (the commander-
in-chief) in the discharge of his military duties. The President
ought to have the power to retire such officer at any time, with
due regard for his rank and service, and to appoint another in the
same manner. The title "commanding general of the army" is
inappropriate and misleading. There never has been any such office
in this country, except that created es