In actual service the system of exclusive seniority cannot exist; it would deaden and paralyze all our energies.
Taking advantage of this, politicians will drive us to the opposite extreme, unless the executive authority be limited by wholesome laws, based on the just principles of _merit_ and _service_.
[Footnote 51: Even at the present moment, in ordering troops to Texas, where immediate and active service is anticipated, it is found necessary to break up regiments and send only the young and efficient officers into the field, leaving most of the higher officers behind with mere nominal commands.

Very many of the officers now in Texas are acting in capacities far above their nominal grades, but without receiving the rank, pay, and emoluments due to their services.] But the importance of maintaining in our military organization a suitable system of military instruction is not confined to the exigencies of our actual condition.

It mainly rests upon the absolute necessity of having in the country a body of men who shall devote themselves to the cultivation of military science, so as to be able to compete with the military science of the transatlantic powers.

It is not to be expected that our citizen soldiery, however intelligent, patriotic, and brave they may be, can make any very great progress in military studies.

They have neither the time nor opportunities for such pursuits, and if they can acquire a practical acquaintance with elementary tactics--the mere alphabet of the military art--it is as much as can reasonably be expected of them.