Armies will obey
him on his personal account. There is no other way of securing
military obedience in this state of things. But the moment in which
that event shall happen, the person who really commands the army is
your master- the master (that is little) of your king, the master of
your Assembly, the master of your whole republic.
How came the Assembly by their present power over the army?
Chiefly, to be sure, by debauching the soldiers from their officers.
They have begun by a most terrible operation. They have touched the
central point about which the particles that compose armies are at
repose. They have destroyed the principle of obedience in the great,
essential, critical link between the officer and the soldier, just
where the chain of military subordination commences and on which the
whole of that system depends. The soldier is told he is a citizen
and has the rights of man and citizen. The right of a man, he is told,
is to be his own governor and to be ruled only by those to whom he
delegates that self-government. It is very natural he should think
that he ought most of all to have his choice where he is to yield
the greatest degree of obedience. He will therefore, in all
probability, systematically do what he does at present occasionally;
that is, he will exercise at least a negative in the choice of his
officers. At present the officers are known at best to be only
permissive, and on their good behavior.
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