Excerpt from Candid: Quarterly Review of Public Affairs, Political, Scientific, Social and Literary

In regard to the Present, what chiefly concerns the public welfare is that our Fleets and our Armies should be con tinuously supported by a supply of numbers, of equipment, of everything that may comfort or encourage them in their efi'orts. Sympathy and admiration they already command to the full, and all of us intend that they shall be left to want nothing that either wealth or forethought can provide. That is the first consideration, and to that everything will be subordinate. But when that is secured we must give a little heed to our conditions at home. Nothing could be more wrong than that any information should be made public which can in any way assist our enemies, and there fore every one must be content to remain in ignorance about a multitude of things he would like to know for reasons very remote from idle curiosity. Even the free expression of opinion may in some instances be properly restrained, where it tends to retard the due execution of our task. Such, for example, may be the contemptible efforts at discouragement of recruiting which have been truly or falsely reported from a very few localities. Yet, subject always to these limits, it is surely desirable that as much information should be given as may be possible, and that honest criticism should be facilitated. There is not the very slightest fear that the people of this country will be alarmed or lose their heads. They are quite cool and self-possessed. Why should they not be told beforehand what they are to do if any part of the coast is invaded? Telling them what to do in that - it is to be trusted - improbable contingency might avert a great deal of confusion and make effective resistance more easy.

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