I04 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS
prominent and they were allowed to breed a counter- spirit of animosity quite as discreditable as the presi- dent's. The subordinate said very harsh things of his superior. He speaks of the Government's policy in com- parison with his own as "the passive defensive of an intellect timid of risk and not at home in war, and the active defensive reaching for success through enterprise and boldness." ^^ He assumes, rightly or wrongly, a bitter jealousy on the part of the president and all con- nected with him. *' Kemper quickly obtained for me some two hundred good wagons, to which number I had limited him so as not to arouse again the jealousy of the President's staff." ^^ He does not hesitate to say, through his biographer, that the president's neglect of the general's advice had fatal consequence : " The Presi- dent of the Confederacy, by thus persisting in these three lamentable errors, lost the South her independ- ence." 20 And one little phrase, addressed to the gen- eral by a favorite staff officer, is perhaps most significant of all : " As soon as you feel rested I hope you will report for duty and orders to the War Department. I hope that you will be able to do so soon, and thus force your arch- enemy to show his hand decisively at an early day if he dare do it." 21 Arch-enemy! It would have been better if Grant or Lincoln had been the arch enemy and not the head of the country all were trying to save.
If Beauregard's hurt vanity had set him at odds with Davis only, there would have been less to complain of.
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