dopted in its place.

Soon after I was assigned to the command of the army I submitted,
in writing, to President Cleveland my own mature views on the
subject. They received some favorable consideration, but no formal
action, in view of the near approach of the end of his first term.
From that time till near the present the paper was in the personal
custody of the Secretary of War. What consideration, if any, it
ever received, I was never informed. But it was the guide of my
own action, at least, while I was in command of the army. It is
now on file in the War Department. It is to be hoped that some
future military and administrative geniuses, superior to any of
the last hundred years, may be able to solve that difficult problem.
I can only say that my own plan worked well enough so long as I
helped to work it. How it may be with anybody else, either under
my plan or some other, only the future can determine. I so far
succeeded that the most intelligent staff officers used to say,
"For the first time the general actually does command the army."
They saw only the results, without exactly perceiving the nature
of the motive-power.

The way to success in rendering efficient public service does not
lie through any assumption of the authority which the nation may
have given to another, even if not most wisely, but rather in
zealous, faithful, and subordinate efforts to assist that other in
doing what the country has imposed upon him.

THE LAW FIXING RETIREMENT FOR AGE

A soldier may honorably crave, as the dearest object of his life,
recognition of his _past services_ by promotion to a higher grade.
That is his one reward for all he may have done. But the desire
for higher command, greater power, and more unrestrained authority
exhibits ambition inconsistent with due military subordination and
good citizenship. It is a dangerous ambition in a republic. The
highest examples of patriotism ever shown in this country have been
in the voluntary surrender of power into the hands of the people
or of their chosen representatives, not in efforts to increase or
prolong that power. Following those highest examples, in the year
1882 all the senior officers of the army, including Sherman,
Sheridan, and Hancock, united in advocating the measure then pending
in Congress, to fix a limit of age when every officer should
relinquish command and return to the ranks of private citizenship.