Southern sentinel. [volume] (Plaquemine, Parish of Iberville [La.]) 1848-1858, 1852-09-18
MILITARY Talent.
A recent British historian, (itoebuck) in re-
ference to Wellington, has said:

recent British historian, (Roebuck) in re-
ference to Wellington, has said:
No man can be great soldier unless he
possesses greater administrative talent, and
this talent is more likely to be brought forth
and fostered by the business of war than by the
management of cases at nisi prius; yet, be-
cause of the habit Of speaking. the lawyer is
deemed capable Of governing, while the soldier,
whose life is spent in action and not in talk, is
considered unveFsed in what is called the af-
fairs Of State.
The same thought is developed and power
fully enforced in speech (on the floor of the
House of Representatives. by the late John
Randolph, in the session of l827-'2s, in sup
port of Gen. Jackson then candidate for the
Presidency: ...
Ideny, sir, (said Mr., R. that there is any in
stance in history of man not having military
capacity being at the head Of any government
credit to himself. There is a great mistake on
bic man to write books and make speeches,
that qualify him to preside over a government.
And then, after referring to the Hilder-
brands, &c, he continued:
These men, (said the orator. were brought
up in the cloister, perhaps, but they were en-
dowed with that highest of all gifts of Heaven,
the capacity to lead men, whether in the Senate
or the field Sir, it is one and the same faculty,
and its successful display has always received,
and always will receive, the highest honors that
man can bestoW; and his will be the case, do
what you will, cant what you may, about mill
tary chieftains and military domination. So
long as man is man, the victorious defender of
his country will, and ought to receive that coun-
trys suffrage for all that the forms of her gov
ernment allow her to give. A friend said to
me, not long since, "Why Gen. Jackson can't
write" Admitted. x = 4 Sir, the Duke of
Marlborough, the greatest captain and naviga-
tor of his age, (Which was the age of Louis the
Fourteenth and who may rank with the great
est men of any age whose irresistible manners
aud address triumphed over every obstacle in
the council, as his military prowess and conduct
did in the field, this great man could not spell.
To Judge men by their books or speeches is
what is called learning not to be disqualified
ton for a Commanderin Chief in civil or mill
tary life, but do consider the possession of too
sequence to such a character, who is to draw
from the cabinet of his own sagacious mind, and
to make the learning Of Others, or whatever
qualities they may possess, subject to his own
enlarged and vigorous views. Such man was
Cromwell, such man was Washington, not
learned, but wise.
A man may be capable Of making an able or
ingenious argument on any subject within the
sphere of his knowledge. But
the talent which enables man to write book
or make speech has no more relation to the
leading of an army or Senate than it has to
the dressing of dinner. The talent which fits
man for either Office is the talent for the gop-
ernnaeM Of men, &c.
Mr.. Randolph's leading ideas, in that effec-
tive speech, fall within the views of Plutarch in
his "Demosthenes and Cicero Compared"
Demosthenes (says the great biographer.)
when he touches upon his praise, does it with
an inofensive delicacy. He never. in fact, does
ii at ALL but when he has some great point in
view, and upon all other occasions he is ex.
tremely modest. But Cicero, in his orations,
speaks in such high terms of himself, that it is
plain he had a most Incorporate vanity. Thus
he cries out:
"Let arms revere the robe, the wreathed brow
Yield to the tongue.o
At length he came to commend not only his
own actions and operations in the Common
wealth, but likewise his orations, as well those
which he had only prnounced as those which
he had committed to writing as if in juvenile
vanity, he were yying with the rhetorician Iso-
crates and Anaximenses, instead of being in
spired with the lofty ambition of guiding the
Roman people.
@t aFierce in the field and dreadful to the foeo
After remarkiDg that sit is mean and ilIiberal
to rely on such qualification, OF to hunt after
praise in that quarter" Plutarch proceeds:
In this respect Demosthenes behaved with
more dignity, with superior elevation of soul.
He said, '".his ability to explain himself was
mere acquisition, and not so perfect but that it
required great candor and indulgence on the
part Of theaudienee." He thought it mustbe,
as indeed it is, only low and little mind that
can value itself upon such attainments. Ma
Iuelligencer.
DThe Foz del Pueblo Cubano, the revolu-
tionary print, the publication of which was the
primary cause of all the late commotion in
H,yono y,as ,,nblsboJ in tbo o,n.+,l l., ~,