The Daily Dispatch: February 10, 1865., [Electronic resource]

No man who is afraid of responsibility, or afraid of loss of popularity, has any business in the councils of the country at this time. There is no sacrifice that the people are not willing to make for deliverance from subjugation. That involves the involuntary sacrifice of everything that we possess and of all that makes life worth having. It would be better to clothe the most competent military leader in the Confederacy with the unlimited power of Dictator than to permit the heel of a foreign tyrant to trample on our necks. And not to only is independent action necessary, but promptness. In one of Napoleon's campaigns in Italy, a splendid flank movement was attempted by the enemy, which would have been crowned with brilliant success but for the delay in its execution. The result was that the whole division that undertook the enterprise was captured. Napoleon made this brief comment on the circumstance: "These Germans do not understand the value of minutes."-- We commend the observation to the Confederate Congress.

What is now wanted, above all things, is unity and decision of action. When the ship is within sound of the breakers, it is no time to hold long debates in the cabin. We want all the crew on deck and a single, powerful hand at the helm.