prove himself prompt and reliable in taking it, or sending it to headquarters, is indispensable to the success of any movement.
The spy, however, occupies a different position from that held by any other attaché of an army. According to all military law he is an outlaw, and is liable to be hung if detected—the death of a soldier even being denied him. Nothing has been left undone to render the labors of the spy not only perilous in the extreme, but infamous ; and yet the spy is nothing more nor less than a detective officer, and there cannot be any good and sufficient reason assigned for the discredit which attaches to his occupation. It is simply one of the prejudices which, having no substantial foundation, have been carefully fostered by military men for their own purposes, and it is high time that it should be given up by sensible people.
Spies and their Labors.
During the war a vast deal of the most important kind of work was performed by spies on both sides, and these secret emissaries, men and women, labored with a diligence, a zeal, and an intelligence in the execution of tasks of enormous peril, that was rarely equalled, and never surpassed, by those who had the actual work of fighting to do. The fate of more than one battle was decided, not so much by the valor of the soldier, as by the movements which the generals were able to make through information furnished them by spies; and more than one commanding officer has testified, in hearty terms of approbation, to the efficiency and fidelity of the secret service agents who have aided him.
The spy must, of necessity, perform his work amid the most perilous environments. Self-preservation is the first law of nature and of armies; and it is the duty of a general to make it an exceedingly dangerous business for the secret emissaries of the enemy to penetrate his lines for the purpose of picking up useful bits of knowledge. There is no reason, however, why, in this civilized age, when, as every one knows, spies are freely employed by all commanders, and their services are appreciated at the highest value, this class of agents should not have their status fixed in a more satisfactory manner than it is. The agent of a secret service bureau ought to have the same immunity that any other combatant has. We shoot guerrillas, or unauthorized combatants, and so, perhaps, we might continue to hang unauthorized spies; but a regular
