hich is the
very breath of freedom, and civilian interference, which means
the death of all efficiency, can be quite simply illustrated by
supposing the proverbial Ship of State to be a fighting man-of-war.
The People are the owners, with all an owner's rights; while their
chosen Government is their agent, with all an agent's delegated
power. The fighting Services, as the word itself so properly implies,
are simply the People's servants, though they take their orders
from the Government. So far, so good, within the limits of civil
control, under which, and which alone, any national resources--in
men, money, or material--can lawfully be turned to warlike ends.
But when the ship is fitting out, still more when she is out at sea,
and most of all when she is fighting, then she should be handled only
by her expert captain with his expert crew. Civilian interference
begins the moment any inexpert outsider takes the captain's place;
and this interference is no less disastrous when the outsider remains
at home than when he is on the actual spot.

Lincoln and Stanton were out of their element in the strategic
fight with Lee and Stonewall Jackson, as the next chapter abundantly
proves. But they will bear, and more than bear, comparison with
Davis and Benjamin, their own special "opposite numbers." Benjamin,
when Confederate Secretary of War in '62, nearly drove Jackson
out of the service by ordering him to follow the advice of some
disgruntled subordinates who objected to being moved about for
strategic reasons which they could not understand. To make matters
worse, Benjamin sent this precious order direct to Jackson without
even informing his immediate superior, "Joe" Johnston, or even Lee
himself. Thus discipline, the very soul of armies, was attacked
from above and beneath by the man who should have been its chief
upholder. Luckily for the South things were smoothed over, and
Benjamin learnt something he should have known at first.

Davis had none of Lincoln's diffidence about his own capacity for
directing the strategy of armies. He had passed through West Point
and commanded a battalion in Mexico without finding out that his
fitness stopped there. He interfered with Lee and Jackson, sometimes
to almost a disabling extent. He forced his enmity on "Joe" Johnston
and superseded him at the very worst time in the final campaign. He
interfered more than ever just when Lee most required a free hand.
And when he did make Lee a re