tary committee, prohibiting the separation of officers from troops except for military service proper, be carried out, the injurious effects on the discipline, efficiency, and comfort of the troops, which have so long been complained of in the service, will soon be abated. In further compliance with your request touching the history and former usage of the service with respect to the staff of the army, it may be stated, that of the eight adjutants general and eight inspectors general of division, being colonels by brevet, all except three, at the close of the late war in 1815, were taken from, and held rank in, their respective regiments; and the thirty-two assistant adjutants general and assistant inspectors general, with the brevet rank of major, were by law required to hold their commissions in the line, as were the assistant topographical engineers. Doubts, if not objections, having been expressed as to the mode of appointing the assistant adjutants general, recommended by the Secretary of War and adopted in the new army bill, being in accordance with the former usage under the act of April 24th, 1816, "for organizing the general staff," and as first enjoined by the act of March 3d, 1813, I feel justified in respectfully reasserting the opinion in favor of this salutary practice, as communicated in my letter to the Secretary of War, November 26th, 1836. If appointments in staff departments of inferior organization, and in which the chances of promotion are necessarily but few, be only conferred at the price of the regimental commission, (i. e. to be separated "from the line,") it ought not to be expected that the most competent and active officers will quit their regiments, which opens to them, unrestricted, all the multiplied chances of rising to the highest rank in the army. A recurrence, therefore, to the former usage, which originated prior to the late war, was observed during its continuance, and subsequently, until very recently, as seen by the acts of 1813 and 1816, above cited, it is believed will not only best subserve the public interest, in every military point of view, but, in widening the field for selection by guarantying promotion in the line, always enable the Executive to make the best appointment in the staff, since the whole army would then be open to him. It will be readily conceded that the greatest harmony and union of interests should prevail between the officers of the line and the staff; and no one can deny that, as the tie which binds together and identifies the two branches of the service is most strengthened, so will the great end in view, the public good, be more certainly attained. How, then, can this military consanguinity (so to speak) be best nurtured? Certainly not by any policy of the Government which would tend to foster separate and distinct interests in the army.* The law and former usage have varied as regards the Quartermaster General's department. By the act of March 3d, 1813, the eight deputy and thirty-two assistant deputy quartermasters, like the eight quartermasters general, were taken from the line, or not, as the President should deem expedient; but the act of March 30th, 1814, prohibited the taking quartermasters of any grade from the line of the army. After the close of the war, however, the officers of this department, like other staff officers with rank, were taken from the line, or not, pursuant to the provisions of the act of April 24th, 1816. * The annual cost of the eight assistant adjutants general, as reported in the bill, will be only But if these ap$7,524, being the difference of pay between the grades of the line and the staff. pointments were not to be taken from officers of the line, then the sum would amount to $15,000. Before closing this letter, permit me, sir, respectfully to repeat what! have more than once thought myself justified in mentioning to you and other honorable members of Congress, in behalf of the reasonable preten sions of the commissioned officers of the artillery and infantry regiments I refer to the exception seen in their exclusion from any participation in the proposed increased rates of pay, &c. which the army bills, recently reported, provide for other officers of the existing establishment. All the reasoning which can now be urged in favor of an advance of pay to the officers of the Engineer and Ordnance departments, admitted to be just and cogent in consequence of the enhanced expenses of living since the pres ent rates were established, apply at least with equal force to those of the artillery and infantry. The small increase proposed for the one class, but denied to the other, in a pecuniary point of view, may, perhaps, be less regarded by those most concerned, than felt as a measure of unequal bearing, tending to manifest (doubtless unintentionally) inferior pretensions. The excluded class consists of the officers of the army whose more active arms of service, employed for the most part on the frontiers, at isolated stations, and in the field, subject them generally to greater hardships and privations, being habitually most exposed to the vicissitudes of climate, and often to the perils of Indian warfare. In support of the correctness of the remark, we may appeal to the testimonials of the living and the dead-to the graves of the twenty-three commissioned officers of the artillery and infantry who have fallen in the Florida service, and the eleven wounded and disabled in battle.* *Statement of the number of commissioned officers of the regular army killed and wounded in Florida, and who died of disease incident to the climate, and from exposure while engaged in the Seminole campaigns, from 1835 to December, 1837. Non-commissioned officers and soldiers of the regular army killed avi I shall be pardoned, I trust, for this digression. In venturing, respectfully, to refer to the just claims of the artillery and infantry officers, I feel assured the motive will be, in any result, rightfully judged by you. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. J. J. MCKAY, Chairman of Com. on Mil. Affairs, H. R. R. JONES, Adjutant General, |