when experience has proved the mischiefs resulting from the reduction, surely the sound arguments in the report ought to have their full weight in re-establishing the military force at what it then was. Mr. B. said that he had not read this report for the purpose of showing inconsistency in the Senator from South Carolina; that would be a small business for him to engage in, and a business which he had never followed. He had read it for the sound arguments which it contained, and in answer to the unsound arguments, as he conceived them to be, which the author of the report, in his present capacity of Senator, had used against the bill now depending, to raise the strength of the army to what it then was. He had read it for the argument; and if a show of inconsistency resulted, it was an incident, and not an object, of the reading. He repeated, he had read it for the argument; and must be permitted to insist that what was a good argument against reducing the army below 12,656 in 1818, was a far better argument in favor of raising it to about 12,000 now. The reasons were far stronger

[SENATE.

who could do them no wrong. In the fifth place, Mr. B. said the country was twice as populous and twice as wealthy now as it was in 1818, and therefore required a larger military establishment now than then. For these reasons, Mr. B. insisted that the report from which he had read was far stronger in favor of raising the military establishment to about 12,000 now, than it was against reducing it below that number at the time it was made. Add to this the pertinent remark, so often made by the then Secretary of War in the report of 1818, that 12,000 men was less-the increase of territory, wealth, and population, considered-than the peace establishment of Mr. Jefferson was in 1802. An establishment now, in proportion to that, would exceed 20,000 men.

Mr. B. having shown how cogently the report of 1818 applied in favor of raising the strength of the army to the number proposed in the bill, would also show that it was equally cogent in favor of raising the general staff. He remarked that the reduction of 1821 fell upon two branches of the establishment-upon the rank and file and on the general staff. Begging the Senate to recollect and well to consider all that was said in the report of 1818 in favor of keeping up a numerous and efficient staff, and the opinion so fully and elaborately given that the staff of that period was as small in number as the public service would permit, Mr. B. would first state, in general, and then show in detail, that the general staff, as proposed to be increased in this bill, was still considerably below that of 1818; and, consequently, that the objections to reduction, made at that time, applied with infinitely more force in favor of augmentation now. The general staff was reduced almost to nothing in 1821; it was almost abolished; and the consequence has been an immense injury to the public service. now proposed to raise it, but not to raise it so high as it was before the reduction; and to this augmentation the Senator from South Carolina [Mr. CALHOUN] vehemently objects. Without reading over again that part of his report of 1818 which applied to this branch of the reduction, Mr. B. would show that the augmentation now proposed was far below that which he then so elaborate

It is

in favor of that number now than then. In the first place, the extent of our frontier line is greatly increased since that time. Fiorida has been since acquired, and has given a great extent of frontier; for, being a penin sula in one part, and stretching along the Gulf and Atlantic coast on two sides, it is all frontier, and suscepti ble only of a thin population, and requires more defence than any other of equal extent, either in our own country or any country upon the globe. With Florida came the islands Key West, the Dry Tortugas, and others, all requiring forts and garrisons. In the next place, the number of our fortifications and military posts has greatly increased since 1818, and requires an increased force to man them. In the third place, the whole Indian population of the United States are now accumulated on the weakest frontier of the Union-the Western, and Southwestern, and Northwestern frontier-and they are not only accumulated there, but sent there smarting with the lash of recent chastisement, burning with revenge for recent defeats, completely armed by the United States, and placed in communication with the wild Indians of the West, the numerous and fierce tribes towards Mexico, the Rocky Mountains, and the Northly eulogized, so completely demonstrated to be necessawest, who have never felt our arms, and who will be ry, and so triumphantly rescued from reduction or dimiready to join in any inroad upon our frontiers. In the nution. fourth place, experience has shown that the present army is too small-that the then Secretary at War was right in 1818, in saying that it could not be reduced with safety to the country. The Secretary of 1818 was right in this opinion. The country has suffered vastly from it; it has suffered in lives, property, and money. The Black Hawk war, which cost three millions of money, many lives, and the breaking up of the Illinois frontier, took place because the force on the upper Missis sippi was too small to command the respect of the Indi ans. The Florida war, which has cost seven millions of money, occasioned the loss of so many lives, and the devastation of four counties, would never have taken place if an adequate force had been in that quarter. The massacre of families, and the devastation of farms and plantations, which took place in Georgia and Alabama last summer, were the fruit of our small military estab lishment. Mr. B. did not undertake to say that the In-plated additions. In the ordnance department, Mr. B. dians, in all these instances, did not believe that they had some grievances to complain of, and for which they were entitled to redress; but what he did mean to say was this: that if we had possessed a military force to have been respected by them, they would have left the redress of these grievances to the Government of the United States, as they ought to have done, instead of taking vengeance into their own hands, and executing it, not upon those of whom they complained, but against innocent persons-against the women and children even,

Mr. B. then proceeded to show, in detail, that the general staff was greater in 1818 than it was proposed to be made by the pending bill. Beginning with the adjutant general's and inspector general's departments, he said that they consisted of thirteen officers in 1818, of three now, and that this proposed to add eight, making eleven. The quartermaster general's department consisted of nineteen officers in 1818, of five now, and the bill proposed to add twelve, making in the whole seventeen. The engineers proper, and the topographical engineers, Mr. B. said, were nominally increased, but in reality not; for the act of 1824, which allowed the President to employ an unlimited number of civil engineers, and under which a great number were constantly employed, was to be repealed by a section of this bill, so that the discontinuance of those now employed under that act would be equal, or superior, to the contem

said there were forty-four officers in 1818, but fourteen now, and only twenty-two were proposed to be added, making in the whole thirty-six, and being eight less than in 1818. Mr. B. had gone over this comparative state of numbers, both in the line and in the general staff, for the purpose of showing to the Senator from South Carolina [Mr. CALHOUN] that the aggregate of the army would be no greater under this bill than it was in 1818, when he so nobly and efficiently defended it, and that the general staff would still be less than it was at that time, and

SENATE.]

Increase of the Army.

[FEB. 16, 1837.

one, and fatal to the militia of the upper country. How it is to be defended, military and naval men will best judge; but I believe that steam frigates ought, at least, to constitute a part of the means; the expense of which, however great, the people ought, and would cheerfully bear."

when he so well argued, as subsequent events had proved, that it could not be reduced without inflicting injury upon the public service. This, he thought, ought to be a sufficient answer to that Senator's present objections. If they were not, and if the Secretary at War under Mr. Monroe's administration was not able to contend successfully with the present Senator from South Carolina, he would introduce into this debate another gentleman, and claim the right of his opinions in aid of the quondam Secretary; it was a gentleman who was a Representative in Congress from the State of South Carolina during the late war, and for a year or two after it; and who, at the close of the war, was in favor of the military peace establishment of twenty thousand men recommended by Mr. Monroe, and of the fifteen thousand voted by the Senate, and who then repelled, rebuked, and scouted in terms of indignation, such doctrines as the Senator from South Carolina has this day held. This is an extract from one of the speeches on this subject which that gen-dent Jackson, which was now doing, in despite of the tleman then made:

Mr. B. commended this paragraph from the speech of the South Carolina Representative in 1816, in favor of fortifications, even at the expense of taxes, to the favorable attention of the Senator from South Carolina, who now opposes a bill for fortifications, even in the Chesspeake bay, while the Treasury is stuffed, crammed, gorged, and distended, with money, for which we can find no constitutional object of expenditure. It was a pity the present Senator from South Carolina was not on more intimate terms at present with the quondam Secretary at War and Representative. It would certainly put him on better terms with the administration of Presi

opposition of the present Senator, the things which the former Secretary and Representative most nobly advocated, and for the possible omission of which the execra tions of the country were imprecated in advance!

Mr. B., having finished the argumentum ad hominem, would next have recourse to the argumentum ad judi cium-the argument to the judgment--and hoped to convince the Senate that all the provisions in the bill were necessary and proper in themselves, and deserved to be passed into law. He said it had been already ob served that the great reduction of the military establishment in 1821 fell upon two branches of the army, namely, the rank and file and the general staff. No diminu tion in the number of the regiments or in the number of the officers of the line had been made; but, by stripping the regiments of men, and nearly abolishing the general staff, a skeleton establishment had been pro

"As a proof, said Mr. CALHOUN, that the situation of the country naturally inclines us to too much feebleness rather than to too much violence, I refer to the fact that there are on this floor men who are entirely opposed to armies, to navies, to every means of defence. Sir, if their politics prevail, the country will be disarmed, at the mercy of any foreign Power. On the other side, sir, there is no excess of military fervor, no party inclining to military despotism; for though a charge of such a disposition has been made by a gentleman in debate, it is without the shadow of foundation. What is the fact in regard to the army? Does it bear out his assertion? Is it even proportionally larger now than it was in 1801-'2, the period which the gentleman considers the standard of political perfection? It was then about 4,000 men; it was larger in proportion than an army of 10,000 would now be. The charge of a disposition to make this a mili-duced, extorted by the exhausted state of our finances tary Government exists only in the imaginations of gentlemen; it cannot be supported by facts; it is contrary to proof and to evidence."

To complete this branch of his argument, (this argumentum ad hominem, as the logicians called it,) the argument to the man, and in which he (Mr. B.) never indulged unless extorted from him, he would cite another passage from the speech of the Representative from South Carolina in the House of Representatives in 1816, in which that Representative went for national defence generally, and for fortifications especially, and carried his patriotic zeal so far as to pronounce any future administration, which should neglect these defences, entitled to the "execration of the country!" Hear him:

"There was another point of preparation which (Mr. CALHOUN sa'd) ought not to be overlooked: the defence of our coast by means other than the navy, on which we ought to rely mainly, but not entirely. The coast is our weak part, which ought to be rendered strong, if it be in our power to make it so. There are two points on our coast particularly weak-the mouth of the Mississippi and the Chesapeake bay--which ought to be cautiously attended to; not, however, neglecting others. The administration which leaves these two points in another war without fortification ought to receive the execration of the country. Look at the facility afforded by the Chesapeake bay to maritime Powers in attacking If we estimate with it the margin of rivers navigable for vessels of war, it adds fourteen hundred miles at least to the line of our seacoast, and that of the worst character; for when an enemy is there, it is without the fear of being driven from it; he has, besides, the power of assaulting two shores at the same time, and must be expected on both. Under such circumstances, no degree of expense would be too great for its defence. The whole margin of the bay is, besides, an extremely sickly

US.

in 1821, and ready to be filled up when the finances
were restored, and the public service required. Both
these contingencies have now happened. The finances
are restored, and the public service imperiously requires
the skeleton regiments to be filled up, and the abolished
staff to be recreated. The present strength of the
army was wholly inadequate to the guarding and man-
ning of the posts and forts stretched along & circumfer-
ence of nine thousand miles of frontier; much less to re-
pel incursions or to suppress the hostilities of the In-
dians. At every alarm, heavy drafts, at great expense,
were made upon the militia and volunteers of the States;
at every breaking out of hostilities, large bodies of these
troops were called into the field. During the past
year, not less than twenty-six thousand militia and volun-
teers, mostly mounted men, had been mustered into ser
vice. A regiment of Arkansas volunteers are now doing
garrison duty on the frontiers of that State. If this bill
is not passed, annual and perpetual calls must be made
on the militia and volunteers, to supply the defect of the
regular troops. The expense of a full establishment, and
far more than that expense, would be incurred.
proper
sense of economy alone would require the regiments to
be filed up.
Mr. B. said it was in vain, and looked a
little like the use of the argumentum ad ignorantiam-
an argument founded on the supposed ignorance of the
hearers-for the Senator from South Carolina, [Mr. CAL
HOUN,] who bad once presided over the Military Depart
ment, to undertake to frighten the Senate with an array
of 12,000 men. Every person slightly acquainted with
the nature of an army will know that 12,000 men on
paper is not more than 8,000 or 9,000 in the field; that from
the rapid succession of casualties-deaths, desertions,
sickness, accidents, expirations of enlistments-the act
ual force is always one third or one fourth less than the
authorized force; and that, to obtain the services of

Increase of the Army.

SENATE.]

Increase of the Army.

of that body. I refer to these documents for the details of those plans and for an estimate of the expense, which, according to the statement then made, would be, for the increase above proposed, about $850,000 per annum. Such an addition to the heavy expenses of our present establishment should undoubtedly be well weigh ed before it is incurred; but, if we may judge from the experience of the last few years, the measure is as plainly called for on the score of economy as it is by other and more impressive considerations. The expenses occasioned by the hostile aggressions of the Sac and Fox Indians in 1832, amounted to more than $3,000,000; and the several appropriations for suppressing Indian hostilities, made by Congress at the last session, and amounting to five millions of dollars, have already been drawn from the Treasury; and, though a considerable amount is yet in the hands of disbursing officers, the whole will be required to meet expenses already incurred.

"If it be one of the first objects of legislation to guard against the evils of war, then must it be admitted that the prevention of Indian hostilities, so far as human foresight is competent to that end, should be the great care of the Congress of the United States. For, whilst our exposure to such hostilities is imminent, the evils which attend them are so peculiar and unmitigated as to bring on those public agents who may neglect to guard against them the most fearful responsibility. The presence of an adequate military force at or near each of the points where the Indians are numerous is the most effectual, if not the only effectual means of security and defence. In my judgment, such a force cannot be furnished by our present establishment; and, as neither militia nor volunteers can be employed for permanent garrisons, the object can only be effected by the increase of the regular army. I trust it will be provided for without delay."

Mr. B. further referred to the report of the Secretary at War ad interim, to show the deficiency of the general staff, the injury to the public service from that deficiency, and the necessity of increasing it. He referred to the following passages from his report:

"4. General Staff.--The reports of the chiefs of the different staff departments exhibit a perspicuous view of their operations during the past year.

"I beg leave to call your attention to the communication of the adjutant general, setting forth the difficulties which have been, and are yet, experienced in various branches of the public service, for the want of additional staff officers.

"The fiscal operations of the quartermaster's and subsistence departments have been unusually heavy, in consequence of the hostilities in which the army has been employed. It is due to these two important arms of the service that I should state that, from the time when adequate means were placed at their disposal by Congress, nothing has been omitted, on their part, to provide the necessary supplies for the troops in the field."

"The report of the acting quartermaster general states the progress made, or rather the inability to make progress, in the construction of the roads and other works with which the department is charged. It also exposes, in a lucid and convincing manner, the utter insufficiency of this branch of the service, as now organized by law, to the execution of the duties committed to it.

"The complaints made in the accompanying papers, As to the want of sufficient strength in the staff departments, appear to me to be well founded.

"The present system seems to have been framed upon the principle of concentrating the business of those departments at the seat of Government, and of employ, ing therein a very small number of officers commissioned in the staff, the deficiencies being supplied by selections from the lines. This arrangement is very well adapted

[FEB. 16, 1837.

to a time of profound peace, when officers can be spared from the line without injury to the service; when the positions of the troops are chiefly permanent; and when the changes which occur are made with so much delib. eration as to afford ample time for preparing adequate means of transportation and supply. But when large bodies of troops, whose numbers and movements may be varied by unforeseen contingencies, are to be supplied in the field, and at a great distance from the seat of Government, the system is worse than insufficient--it is the parent of expense, confusion, and delay. During the time necessarily occupied in the transmission of despatches to and of instructions from the War Department, the state of things may be so entirely changed as to render the instructions inapplicable; and, even if it remain unaltered, the loss of time in military operations is always a great evil, and sometimes a fatal one. To prevent inconveniences of this sort, it is evidently necessary that staff officers of experience and rank should be associated with the commander, and, to supply such associates, the staff departments must be enlarged. On the other hand, to make the line of the army truly effective, officers should not be taken for staff service, or other detached duties, in large numbers, nor for long periods, from their companies. And when, to relieve the weakness of the staff on a pressing contingency, officers are selected from the line, the difficulty, instead of being remedied, is only exchanged for a new and possibly a greater one. The embarrassments occasioned by these causes, during the operations of the year, have been of constant recur. rence, and of the most serious character.

"Of the works authorized by acts passed at the last session of Congress, and belonging to the ordnance department, all have been greatly delayed, and some entirely suspended, by the want of the necessary officers to conduct them. The interests of the service, as well as the just claims of contractors, whose payments are frequently delayed from inability to make the proper inspections, call loudly for an increase of this corps."

Mr. B. also referred to the reports of the different officers at the head of different branches of the staff, and of the engineers, topographical engineers, and ordnance, to show the necessity of the augmentation proposed.

From Adjutant General Jones's report he read: "It cannot be doubted that the public service has suf fered, and continues to suffer, for want of an adequate staff for service in the field, and habitual duty with the troops. This has been demonstrated in our recent mili tary operations; and the lamentable deficiency, both in number and of the proper description of staff officers, at every point where troops, whether regular or militia, have been concentrated or been put in motion, is too palpable, and ought not to be doubted by any whose du. ty it may be to know the wants and understand the true condition of the army. The military operations under Generals Gaines, Scott, Jesup, Clinch, Eustis, &c., and various official reports, show the destitute state of the service, as to the inadequacy of the adjutant general's, inspector's and quartermaster's departments of the staff in the field."

From the report of Major Cross he read as follows: "Charged as I am but temporarily with the direction of the quartermaster's department, I feel restrained from making many suggestions in relation to it which would come with more propriety from its chief, now absent on a high and important command; but there are some that I cannot omit, consistently with a faithful discharge of the trust confided to me. The necessity for an improv ed organization of the department is one of them. This has been represented heretofore to your predecessor, and was, by him, brought before Congress at the last session. It is now my duty to repeat the suggestion, and to urge it with earnestness.

FEB. 16, 1837.]

Increase of the Army.

[SENATE.

"It will be seen, by the foregoing report of operations, that in many instances no provision could be made for applying certain appropriations to the objects intended, while, in others, the arrangements, though the best within the control of the department, were not such as could have been wished.

"There is, perhaps, no country, considering the relative force, where the duties of the quartermaster's department are so arduous as they are in our own, especially in conducting our Indian wars. It necessarily results from difference of circumstances. In highly im proved and thickly settled countries, where the facilities of transportation are great, and the means of supply "The desire to fulfil the wishes of Congress led me to abundant, there cannot be much difficulty in moving and impose upon the officers of the department more duty supporting armies; and even in our own country, on the than they can properly execute, and more, I am aware, Atlantic border, and on the great lines of communication than the interests of the separate works would authorize. in the West, where those advantages exist, the difficulty However frequently and earnestly I have represented is comparatively small. But these are not the scenes of the impolicy of this course, I cannot refrain from bringour Indian wars. They lie beyond the frontier, in the ing before you the propriety of adopting some measures, swamps and fastnesses of the wilderness, far removed either to reduce the duties now devolved upon the de. from the sources of supply; and the heavy task of mov-partment, or to enlarge its powers of action commensu ing and sustaining our armies under these circumstances rate with the wants of the service. The reasons for belongs to the quartermaster's department. such a step, drawn and substantiated by the annual his tory of operations, have been so often given that they need not now be repeated; and I will only add that, under the present organization of the corps of engineers, the wishes of Congress, so far as they depend upon this branch of the service, cannot be complied with, the public interest cannot be attended to, nor the defence of the country keep pace with the number of appropriations. Under these circumstances, I must again recommend that the number of clerks in the office be increased to seven, with salaries equal to those in the civil departments, and that the corps of engineers be doubled in its numbers."

"Experience has shown that the present organization, both as to number and grades, was barely sufficient to meet the demands of the service ten years ago, when the army was measurably inactive. It is altogether inadequate now to a proper discharge of the heavy and important duties which devolve upon the department under present circumstances, when not merely the regular army, but large masses of volunteers and militia, are called into active service. During the present year, there have been four separate armies in the field, mustering from two to ten thousand men each, and operating under circumstances involving great difficulties in regard to transportation and supplies; and, considering our extensive and complicated Indian relations, a similar state of things will, in all probability, too often recur. If it be supposed that the present organization of the department, whose executive officers consist of but four ma

jors, six captains, and fourteen lieutenants, drawn from the line, is equal to such an emergency, it is undoubtedly an error.

"Prior to the year 1818, there were division quartermaster generals, with the rank of colonel, who were executive officers, and attended the army in the field when Occasions required. In my humble judgment, there has not been a period since the war of 1812, when the necessity of such officers was half so urgent as it is at the present time. There is now no executive officer whose rank is sufficient to give him precedence in his own department in a campaign; and the case has twice occurred recently, where the quartermaster general of a Territory, by virtue of his superior rank as colonel, became entitled to the chief direction of the operations of that department of the staff by whose agency the army was to be moved and supported-a duty second only in im portance to the chief command. I submit whether it is right that the advantages of twenty years' experience in the details of the department should thus be measurably lost to the service for want of adequate rank to render it

available."

From the report of General Gratiot, of the engineers, he read as follows:

"Office of the Chief Engineer.-The business of the of fice has been steadily increasing for many years, and is constantly augmented by the reference of new objects provided for at each succeeding session of Congress. An idea of this increase may be gathered from the fact that, in 1833, the whole amount of funds referred for application was $520,150, and which has regularly augmented up to the present time to $3,643,271 76. The duties of the clerks have consequently so increased that a proper record of transactions cannot be kept up, and the salary allowed, while much below that in other departments whose business, whether in magnitude or responsibility, is believed to be no greater, is not sufficient to remunerate them for their services, or to command such as either the interest or despatch of the public business requires.

Among the numerous and important objects committed to the engineer department at the last session of Congress, and which could not be attended to for want of officers, Mr. B. particularized the appropriation of $75,000 for increasing the depth of water in the mouth of the Mississippi, an object in which a great city, a number of States, and an immense commerce, were concern. ed, and which had to be deferred for want of officers to make a topographical survey.

From the report of Lieutenant Colonel Abert, of the topographical engineers, he read as follows:

"In conclusion, allow me again to call your attention to the organization and increase of the corps of topographical engineers.

"The subject has been so frequently brought to the notice of the Department and of Congress, and explanations of its advantages and necessity are stated in so much detail, in communications from this bureau as well as in a report from the Military Committee of the House of Rep resentatives, that they leave nothing further to be said, or only in addition to refer to the facts detailed in this report, which prove the utter inability of the bureau to execute the duties assigned to it, under the various laws of Congress, without further aid. It may also be well to add, that the aid heretofore received from the army is now no longer to be obtained.

"The extreme inconvenience to which the army has been exposed from the system of military details for duties out of the line, not only during the Indian disturbances on our frontier, but for years before-a system, the parent of extravagance, confusion, and discontent, and which, even in its partial action, has (as events have proved) to be abandoned on every slight emergencyhas induced the President to check it by a positive limi tation of the number which can in any event be detailed for detached duty.

"Under the foregoing circumstances, it will be seen that there is no remedy but in a better organization of the corps.

"In relation to the organization, I will merely submit a copy of the bill which met the approbation of Congress in its last session, having passed the Senate twice, and having been three times reported to the House, and passed through a second reading there: once as a bill