23. Chapter XXIII: Which Is The Most Warlike And Most Revolutionary
Class In Democratic Armies?
It is a part of the essence of a democratic army to be very
numerous in proportion to the people to which it belongs, as I
shall hereafter show. On the other hand, men living in
democratic times seldom choose a military life. Democratic
nations are therefore soon led to give up the system of voluntary
recruiting for that of compulsory enlistment. The necessity of
their social condition compels them to resort to the latter
means, and it may easily be foreseen that they will all
eventually adopt it. When military service is compulsory, the
burden is indiscriminately and equally borne by the whole
community. This is another necessary consequence of the social
condition of these nations, and of their notions. The government
may do almost whatever it pleases, provided it appeals to the
whole community at once: it is the unequal distribution of the
weight, not the weight itself, which commonly occasions
resistance. But as military service is common to all the
citizens, the evident consequence is that each of them remains
but for a few years on active duty. Thus it is in the nature of
things that the soldier in democracies only passes through the
army, whilst among most aristocratic nations the military
profession is one which the soldier adopts, or which is imposed
upon him, for life.
This has important consequences. Amongst the soldiers of a
democratic army, some acquire a taste for military life, but the
majority, being enlisted against their will, and ever ready to go
back to their homes, do not consider themselves as seriously
engaged in the military profession, and are always thinking of
quitting it. Such men do not contract the wants, and only half
partake in the passions, which that mode of life engenders. They
adapt themselves to their military duties, but their minds are
still attached to the interests and the duties which engaged them
in civil life. They do not therefore imbibe the spirit of the
army -or rather, they infuse the spirit of the community at
large into the army, and retain it there. Amongst democratic
nations the private soldiers remain most like civilians: upon
them the habits of the nation have the firmest hold, and public
opinion most influence. It is by the instrumentality of the
private soldiers especially that it may be possible to infuse
into a democratic army the love of freedom and the respect of
rights, if these principles have once been successfully
inculcated on the people at large. The reverse happens amongst
aristocratic nations, where the soldiery have eventually nothing
in common with their fellow-citizens, and where they live amongst
them as strangers, and often as enemies. In aristocratic armies
the officers are the conservative element, because the officers
alone have retained a strict connection with civil society, and
never forego their purpose of resuming their place in it sooner
or later: in democratic armies the private soldiers stand in this
position, and from the same cause.
It often happens, on the contrary, that in these same democratic
armies the officers contract tastes and wants wholly distinct from those
of the nation -a fact which may be thus accounted for. Amongst
democratic nations, the man who becomes an officer severs all the ties
which bound him to civil life; he leaves it forever; he has no interest
to resume it. His true country is the army, since he owes all he has to
the rank he has attained in it; he therefore follows the fortunes of the
army, rises or sinks with it, and henceforward directs all his hopes to
that quarter only. As the wants of an officer are distinct from those
of the country, he may perhaps ardently desire war, or labor to bring
about a revolution at the very moment when the nation is most desirous
of stability and peace. There are, nevertheless, some causes which
allay this restless and warlike spirit. Though ambition is universal
and continual amongst democratic nations, we have seen that it is seldom
great. A man who, being born in the lower classes of the community, has
risen from the ranks to be an officer, has already taken a prodigious
step. He has gained a footing in a sphere above that which he filled in
civil life, and he has acquired rights which most democratic nations
will ever consider as inalienable. [13]
He is willing to pause after so great an effort, and to enjoy what he
has won. The fear of risking what he has already obtained damps the
desire of acquiring what he has not got. Having conquered the first and
greatest impediment which opposed his advancement, he resigns himself
with less impatience to the slowness of his progress. His ambition will
be more and more cooled in proportion as the increasing distinction of
his rank teaches him that he has more to put in jeopardy. If I am not
mistaken, the least warlike, and also the least revolutionary part, of a
democratic army, will always be its chief commanders.
But the remarks I have just made on officers and soldiers
are not applicable to a numerous class which in all armies fills
the intermediate space between them -I mean the class of non-commissioned officers. This class of non-commissioned officers
which have never acted a part in history until the present
century, is henceforward destined, I think, to play one of some
importance. Like the officers, non-commissioned officers have
broken, in their minds, all the ties which bound them to civil
life; like the former, they devote themselves permanently to the
service, and perhaps make it even more exclusively the object of
all their desires: but non-commissioned officers are men who have
not yet reached a firm and lofty post at which they may pause and
breathe more freely, ere they can attain further promotion. By
the very nature of his duties, which is invariable, a
non-commissioned officer is doomed to lead an obscure, confined,
comfortless, and precarious existence; as yet he sees nothing of
military life but its dangers; he knows nothing but its
privations and its discipline -more difficult to support than
dangers: he suffers the more from his present miseries, from
knowing that the constitution of society and of the army allow
him to rise above them; he may, indeed, at any time obtain his
commission, and enter at once upon command, honors, independence,
rights, and enjoyments. Not only does this object of his hopes
appear to him of immense importance, but he is never sure of
reaching it till it is actually his own; the grade he fills is by
no means irrevocable; he is always entirely abandoned to the
arbitrary pleasure of his commanding officer, for this is
imperiously required by the necessity of discipline: a slight
fault, a whim, may always deprive him in an instant of the fruits
of many years of toil and endeavor; until he has reached the
grade to which he aspires he has accomplished nothing; not till
he reaches that grade does his career seem to begin. A desperate
ambition cannot fail to be kindled in a man thus incessantly
goaded on by his youth, his wants, his passions, the spirit of
his age, his hopes, and his age, his hopes, and his fears.
Non-commissioned officers are therefore bent on war -on war
always, and at any cost; but if war be denied them, then they
desire revolutions to suspend the authority of established
regulations, and to enable them, aided by the general confusion
and the political passions of the time, to get rid of their
superior officers and to take their places. Nor is it impossible
for them to bring about such a crisis, because their common
origin and habits give them much influence over the soldiers,
however different may be their passions and their desires.
It would be an error to suppose that these various
characteristics of officers, non-commissioned officers, and men,
belong to any particular time or country; they will always occur
at all times, and amongst all democratic nations. In every
democratic army the non-commissioned officers will be the worst
representatives of the pacific and orderly spirit of the country,
and the private soldiers will be the best. The latter will carry
with them into military life the strength or weakness of the
manners of the nation; they will display a faithful reflection of
the community: if that community is ignorant and weak, they will
allow themselves to be drawn by their leaders into disturbances,
either unconsciously or against their will; if it is enlightened
and energetic, the community will itself keep them within the
bounds of order.
[13]
The position of officers is indeed much more secure
amongst democratic nations than elsewhere; the lower the personal
standing of the man, the greater is the comparative importance of
his military grade, and the more just and necessary is it that
the enjoyment of that rank should be secured by the laws.