The right Man in the right place.
History abounds with proof of the vital importance to a cause of having the right man in the right place. It makes just as great a difference in every department of national affairs as it does in those of an individual what kind of head is upon its shoulders. No matter what the resources, what the courage of a people, all must prove unavailing unless, in the control of its finances and its armies, the right man is in the right place.This truth was strikingly exemplified in France not long before, and during, the French Revolution. When the great financier. Neckar, assumed the control of the finances of France, the Government was most severely pressed by the money derangement; all was confusion, discord, darkness, mystery. The influence of a master mind produced the most extraordinary change. It was like the rising of the sun dissipating the shades of night. In five years, Neckar changed a deficit of thirty-five millions of francs into a surplus of ten millions without imposing a single new tax of any kind, and under all the burdensome expenses which had been added to those of the former peace establishment. But he was unfettered by any other department, and was clothed with full power to do whatever his own judgment dictated. His resignation of office was a signal for the return of all the confusion and is order which had preceded his administration, and which finally led to the Revolution. When he was again called to the direction of affairs, it was, in his own mournful words, "too late."
Carnot is another memorable example. When he undertook the military administration of the Republic the crisis was truly appalling. The remnant of Dumourier's army was flying from a foe who would have laughed at Thomas's five miles a day; a rebellion in La Verdee menaced the capital of the province with forty thousand armed peasants; three Spanish armies were advancing from different points; town after town after town had fallen; Marseilles and Lyons had separated themselves from the Government, and an English fleet was in the harbor of Toulon. The Republic seemed ready to drop an unresisting prey into the hands of a hostile world. But behold what the genius and energy of one man, in the right place, can accomplish! In a brief space of time the whole scene was changed; the invading armies driven back at all points, and the anticipated victim of Europe became its terrible conqueror. In a year and a half of Carnot's military administration, twenty-seven victories, eight of them in pitched battles, were gained; one hundred and twenty successful actions; one hundred and sixteen regular fortresses or great towns taken, and two hundred and thirty lesser forts carried; eighty thousand of the enemy slain, ninety-one thousand made prisoners, three thousand eight hundred cannon and seventy thousand muskets captured. But Carnot was not only the right man in the right place; he possessed that indispensable quality of a great mind, the capacity of selecting the right men for the right places. He discovered the merits of the illustrious Hoche when Hoche was only a sergeant. He placed Bonaparte at the head of the Army of Italy when he was a young officer of twenty-five, and was wholly unknown to the world except by the dispositions he had made in Paris for fighting the Battle of the Sections and his conduct at the siege of Toulon. The destinies of nations and of men depend upon the right man being in the right place. A country may be on the verge of ruin, and yet be redeemed by the adoption of this principle in every department of its government. Without it, the most powerful country is constantly exposed to ruin.
