but an English force, in possession of Detroit, could be approached by the Americans on the side of the land only by overcoming the obstacles of a broad belt of difficult wilderness.  This was done the succeeding year, it is true, but time is always necessary to bring out Jonathan’s latent military energies.  When aroused, they are not trifling, as all his enemies have been made to feel; but a good deal of miscalculation, pretending ignorance, and useless talking must be expended, before the really efficient are allowed to set about serving the country in their own way.

In this respect, thanks to West Point, a well-organized staff, and well-educated officers, matters are a little improving.  Congress has not been able to destroy the army, in the present war, though it did its best to attain that end; and all because the nucleus was too powerful to be totally eclipsed by the gas of the usual legislative tail of the Great National Comet, of which neither the materials nor the orbit can any man say he knows.  One day, it declares war with a hurrah; the next, it denies the legislation necessary to carry it on, as if it distrusted its own acts, and already repented of its patriotism.  And this is the body, soulless, the very school of faction, as a whole of very questionable quality in the outset, that, according to certain expounders of the constitution, is to perform all the functions of a government; which is not only to pass laws, but is to interpret them; which is to command the army, aye, even to wheeling its platoons; which reads the constitution as an abbe mumbles his aves and paters, or looking at everything but his texts; and which is never to have its acts vetoed, unless in cases where the Supreme Court would spare the Executive that trouble.  We never yet could see either the elements or the fruits of this great sanctity in the National Council.  In our eyes it is scarcely ever in its proper place on the railway of the Union, has degenerated into a mere electioneering machine, performing the little it really does convulsively, by sudden impulses, equally without deliberation or a sense of responsibility.  In a word, we deem it the power of all others in the state that needs the closest watching, and were we what is termed in this country “politicians,” we should go for the executive who is the most ready to apply the curb to these vagaries of faction and interested partisans!  Vetoes.  Would to Heaven we could see the days of Good Queen Bess revived for one session of Congress at least, and find that more laws were sent back for the second thoughts of their framers than were approved!  Then, indeed, might the country be brought back to a knowledge of the very material constitutional facts that the legislature is not commander-in-chief, does not negotiate or make treaties, and has no right to do that which it has done so often—­appoint to office by act of Congress.