The same thing holds true with the intellectual height of men. We may
put a man in each chair in the House of Representatives and in the
Senate, and the total height of the voting wisdom of the majority will
be only the average height of that majority, and it will be less than
that of one man who might be selected for his wisdom from their number.
Any one member of the General Board of the United States Navy is likely
to know much more about the needs of the Navy and what Congress should
do for the Navy than is known by all members of the House and Senate put
together.
Representative Gardner very possibly knows more about our naval and
military needs and what Congress ought to do for the Army and Navy than
is known by all the other members in Congress. In fact, he may likely
know more about the subject and be able to advise the country with
greater wisdom upon our needs for national defense than a line of
average Congressmen standing shoulder to shoulder in a string that would
girdle the earth.
Napoleon said, "He goes fast who goes alone." Always, the great national
issues that make history have been decided in each case by one man, and
all great national crises have depended upon the decisive action of one
man. In recognition of this principle, Rome, in times of great peril,
chose a dictator.
The Medo-Persian empire was the architecture of one man, Cyrus the
Great. The Persian empire was conquered and destroyed by the genius of
one man, Alexander the Great. Rome was brought to her knees by one man,
Hannibal. He ultimately failed, and Carthage was destroyed, because of
one man, an eloquent enemy of Hannibal, Hanno, at home in Carthage, who
was a peace-advocate. Rome was saved from destruction at the hands of
the Teutons and Cimbri solely by the military genius of Marius. Cæsar
walked alone through Gaul, solitary in his height above his whole army;
by comparison, all men of his age were pygmies. Charles Martel alone
saved Europe from the Moors. Peter the Great, the amazing architect of
Russia, was impatient of advice and brooked no interference with his
purpose. Cromwell alone was the governing brain of England. Frederick
the Great was great because he played the game of war lone-handed.
Napoleon Bonaparte was so intellectually tall that he towered over
Europe like a colossus, and he played kings like pawns in the game of
war. Bismarck played a lone hand in the creation of the German empire.
During the entire Civil War, Abraham Lincoln parried with wit the advice
of friends. To his enemies, he masked with mirth an inscrutable purpose,
while he sat solemn and solitary at the helm.
So, always and always, it has been. Great national games have been games
of solitaire.
We need a national leader who shall have such size and quality of brain,
and be possessed of such soul, courage, and wisdom as shall qualify him
to use the power of his high office to the full to help save this
country from the dire calamity that is impending.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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