164 THE TIM F.UXKER PAPERS. 



raised, there can t be any backing down. There is no 

 trouble about getting troops, and money enough to sup 

 port them. They all want to go. You see, a man might 

 as well emigrate at once, as to have the women agin him. 



But I have been thinking that we are in danger of leav 

 ing an enemy in the rear, that we have not been calculat 

 ing upon. I have always noticed that excited people are 

 not the best judges of expediency. Many a brave general 

 has been conquered by an enemy in the rear. In going to 

 war, you see, quite as much depends upon having the 

 inner man fortified, as upon having breastworks between 

 us and the enemy. You see, a soldier is a sort of engine, 

 that won t go without fire any more than a locomotive. 

 And you have to supply the fire, wood, and water, three 

 times a day pretty regular, or your army of soldiers is no 

 better than a flock of sheep. Men can t fight on an empty 

 stomach. You see, this fighting is a good deal like mow 

 ing, or rather like pitching on a load of hay when a thun 

 der shower is coming up, and you have only twenty min 

 utes to get the load on, and to get it into the barn. There 

 is nothing like a well-fed stomach to do sharp work on ; 

 even a good conscience and a good cause don t amount to 

 much without it. 



Now, you see, the enemy we are like to leave in the 

 rear*, is short crops. There may be no danger of famine 

 in this country, where land is so cheap, and where so large 

 a part of the people are farmers. But there is danger of 

 short crops, and a very high price for all kinds of provi 

 sions and breadstuffs, which occasions a great deal of suf 

 fering among the poor in the cities and villages, and throws 

 everything into confusion. And it seems to me that this 

 is the enemy that farmers are particularly called upon to 

 guard against. 



We have got material enough for soldiers in our cities 

 and villages, merchants and mechanics who are thrown out 

 of employment, or whose profits are very much reduced by 



