ity to the government
and entire people of the United States has vastly greater.

When it was proposed to me in Virginia, in 1867, that I become a
candidate for the United States Senate under the State government
which I was trying to "reconstruct," I replied that in my opinion
the highest qualification I possessed for that difficult duty I
was then required to perform resided in the fact that there was
"nothing in the gift of Virginia which I could afford to accept."
I believe now that the highest external incentive to honorable
conduct anywhere in the world is that of responsibility to the
government and the whole people of the United States. There need
be no apprehension that any American who has a national reputation
at stake will be guilty of any of the crimes which are said to
stain the administration of viceroys in some parts of the world.
The prejudice which still exists in this country in respect to
military government is due solely to the fact that the people do
not yet appreciate the legitimate influence which they themselves
exercise over their public servants, military no less than civil.
Indeed, there is perhaps no other class of citizens so sensitive
to public criticism as those in the military service, certainly
none who value more highly their reputation for faithful and
honorable conduct in the public service. I do not hesitate to give
it as my deliberate judgment, based upon the experience of half a
century, that the best and most satisfactory government any island
of the West Indies can have in the next hundred years will be a
military government under an officer of the United States army.

It is only an incident of despotic governments, past or present,
that soldiers have been employed to execute despotic orders. The
common inference that military government is essentially despotic
is absolutely false. On the contrary, military men are, as a rule,
the most humane. This has been most notably so in the history of
this country. Almost without exception, the soldiers of all grades
in the Union army desired to treat the conquered South with all
possible kindness and humanity, while the men who inflicted upon
the Southern people the worst form of cruelty were men who had
never fought a battle. There have been some cruel soldiers in the
world, many more cruel men who were not soldiers except perhaps in
name. Men of that character generally avoid danger. What mankind
has most to dread is the plac