A successful army requires discipline, but Confederate soldiers refused to concede authority to anyone they did not vote for, at least at first . Confederate soldiers were also prone to shirk tasks they considered menial, and some even left the army without discharge if they felt they had served long enough. At the highest level of the political chain of command, Jefferson Davis proved incapable of suppressing the media that opposed his decisions at almost every turn. Davis showed respect for the right to free speech, no matter how harmful it may be. Donald then uses these points to highlight the successes of the Union Army and the Lincoln administration. The North had the advantage of many immigrant conscripts accustomed to taking orders, so hierarchy was easily established from the start. In politics, Abraham Lincoln did not let constitutional rights stand in the way of his goals; Lincoln suspended habeas corpus and threw defamatory journalists in jail. The Union thus had the unity it needed to achieve victory against the Southern powers..