JUNE 10, 1836.]

Increase of the Army.

[SENATE.

proceed in any direction that danger threatened. This body was now upon the southwestern frontier, called to Natchitoches by the events in Texas; and the West and Northwest were almost destitute. Mr. B. looked upon it as the sacred duty of the States which had transferred their dangers and burdens to the West, to transfer suc cor there also, and confidently appealed to the Senators from those States to vote the increase of troops which the War Department recommended, and which the committee had reported. To other Senators he appealed in the name of that constitution which had for its first ob. ject the common defence of the whole Union; and to every friend of the West he presented the picture of fire and blood, of burnt houses, devastated fields, slaughtered inhabitants, unburied dead, food for beasts and vultures, which now disfigure the soil of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, and demanded if they were willing to see these horrors repeated and multiplied upon the borders of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, the Des Moines, Wisconsin, and Michigan?

the amount and nature of the force proposed to be added, Mr. B. proceeded to state the reasons why it should be agreed to. The regular troops in time of peace, he said, were wanted for four different purposes: 1st. To guard the frontiers from Indians; 2d. To garrison the fortifications; 3d. To guard the arsenals; 4th. To give security and tranquillity to some points in the South. The circuit of country thus requiring to be guarded, is equal in extent to the largest empires, and embraces a population of fifteen millions. This population includes a portion not homogeneous, and is in contact with another race, which, in three hundred years, has seldom been at peace with the whites. The western and northwestern frontier alone, from the Sabine to Lake Superior, requires an active, efficient force of six thousand men, and these consisting of four different arms--infantry, light infantry, rifle, and dragoons. The vast accumulation of Indians now upon that frontier, and the seventy-two thousand yet to be removed to it, render any number less than six thousand for active service a mere mockery of defence to the people; a show to lull them into security, without being able to arrest incursions when they come. Of those tribes now on the western frontiers, many are warlike and numerous, and have never yet felt the power of our arms. The Camanches, the Pawnees, Blackfeet, and Sioux, are of this description. They have been killing and plundering our traders and hunters for years; and, from the impunity they have enjoyed thus far, are emboldened to more daring enterprises. Of the Indians removed, many are finely equip-left a military peace establishment of 5,438 men and offiped with arms, horses, and ammunition, obtained from the United States as the inducement to their removal. Of those yet to be removed, seventy-two thousand souls in number, yielding a roll of twelve thousand warriors, seven thousand are the Seminoles, now engaged in the Florida war, and twenty-five thousand are the Creeks, now engaged in the Alabama and Georgia war. origin of these wars is in the refusal of these Indians to remove according to the treaties which they have made. When the wars are over, removal will ensue. Removal is the end of war; and thus, after resistance is subdued by killing a part of the warriors, the removal of the remainder commences.

The

A mass of thirty thousand Indians, now in arms, are to be removed to the West the moment they agree to go; and go they will, their hands well supplied with arms, munitions, and horses, by the United States, and their bosoms well filled with hostile feelings from the memory of their losses, and what they consider to be their wrongs. Indians had gone to the West from New York, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois; from Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi; and were yet to go from all those States, and from North Carolina and Tennessee. To relieve the old States from a useless and dangerous population, and to provide better homes for themselves, these Indians were removed to the West; but it was a mere transfer, not an extinction of danger; on the contrary, the danger became greater from the removal, for it was a concentration of the savages upon a weak frontier, and in contiguity with numerous warlike indigenous tribes which had never yet felt the power of the white man. Western members had agreed to this removal, for the benefit of the older States; but they had done so under the belief and conviction that they were to have a competent military force to guard against this transferred and accumulated danger. Up to this moment they had never had such a force. There never has been a force on the West and Northwest, since the removals began, competent to guard it. So far from it, the few - troops which could be spared for that frontier were scattered at wide intervals upon a line of immense extent, and the largest body was stationed midway between the head and the mouth of the Mississippi, to be ready to

Mr. B. said there had been three different periods, under republican administrations, when the military peace establishment of the United States had been fixed by law, and on each occasion had been fixed at a larger number, the relative condition of the country considered, than the present bill proposed. The first of those periods was in the year 1802, the first of Mr. Jefferson's administration, and when the larger part of the troops raised in Mr. Adams's time was disbanded. Mr. Adams

cers; Mr. Jefferson reduced it to 3,323. This was done in the year 1802; and this establishment of Mr. Jefferson was greater, in proportion to the state of the country, than 12,000 would be now. Louisiana and Florida were not then acquired; our territorial limit has doubled since that time; our population is trebled; our revenues quadrupled. The frontier line of posts actually occupied by our troops then was in Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio; it is now in the Gulf of Mexico at Key West, at Pensacola, Mobile, New Orleans, the Sabine, Natchitoches, Red river, the Arkansas, the Kansas, Des Moines, Prairie du Chien, the Falls of St. Anthony, Lake Winnebago, and the outlet of Lake Superior, with occasional expeditions to the foot of the Rocky mountains, and to the confines of Mexico. Thus, allowing for the increase of territory, for the extension of the line occupied, and for the increase of wealth and population, an establishment of 12,000 men now would be less in proportion than the reduced establishment of Mr. Jefferson was in 1802.

The next period of comparison to which Mr. B. referred, was that of the year 1808-the last year of Mr. Jefferson's administration, when the military establishment, under a slight stimulus from "specks of war on the horizon," no way comparable to the black clouds which now hang over the South, was augmented to an aggregate of 9,996. Thus, Mr. Jefferson left a military establishment about 4,000 stronger than the one which now exists, and within 2,000 of being as strong as the one now proposed. The establishment which he left when he went out of office was four men less than 10,000, and we have but 6,000 to-day. An augmentation of the army, at this time, upon the basis of that which he left twenty-eight years ago, would give a force of 24,000

men.

The third period of comparison to which Mr. B. referred, was that of 1815, at the conclusion of the war with Great Britain, and when the war establishment was reduced and adapted to the state of universal peace which then prevailed. A peace establishment of 20,000 men was then the policy of Mr. Madison's administration; 15,000 was voted by the Senate; 10,000 rank and file was finally agreed upon in conference between the

two Houses of Congress, with additions in ordnance, en-
gineers, officers, &c., which presented an aggregate of
12,656. This was twenty-one years ago, and before the
acquisition of Florida; and a relative increase upon that
basis at the present time would give an establishment of
about 20,000 men. But the bill now before the Senate
does not propose to take the establishment of 1815 for
a basis to be built upon, but as a limit to be governed
by. It proposes, in fact, the same numerical strength
which was then retained; and dispenses with part of
the general staff and with some parts of the organi- |

zation.

Mr. B. said that the establishment of 1815 was confirmed in 1818; for at that time a proposition was made in Congress to reduce the army, but failed under the cogent reasons which were given for keeping it up to that number. A call was made from the House of Representatives in April, of that year, upon the Secretary of War, to report to the next session of Congress upon the military establishment, and whether "any reduction could be made with safety to the public service." The then Secretary (Mr. Calhoun) reported on the 11th of December following; and that report, which was against reduction then, furnishes such strong reasons for augmentation now, that I must be permitted to avail myself of a portion of its reasoning. The Secretary says:

men.

[JUNE 10, 1836.

Resuming his remarks, Mr. B. said it would be remembered by the Senate that this report, from which he had read, was made in the year 1818; that it referred to the peace establishment of 1815; that this establishment presented an aggregate of 12,656; and that it was now proposed by the bill before the Senate to raise the future peace establishment to 12,000; in other words, it was proposed to re-establish in 1836, the peace establishment of 1815; that is to say, of twenty-one years prior date. In these twenty-one years the population and wealth of the country had nearly doubled; Florida had been acquired, the military posts and fortifications had increased, and in the Gulf of Mexico had been extended; the Indians had heen accumulated upon the weakest frontier of the Union; any and every reason for a military peace establishment was greater now than it was then. He (Mr. B.) claimed, then, and appropriated to the present occasion, every word of the report of 1818, in favor of augmenting the army now, which was used against reducing it then; and he claimed for every one of these words double as much force now as it had then, the wealth and population of the country being so much greater. They would justify an establishment of 20,000 men at this time. The effect of this report upon Congress was the next point which Mr. B. would bring to the notice of the Senate; and he did so with pride and satisfaction. The effect was decisive upon that Our military establishment is limited by the act of body. It stopped the movement to reduce the army! It 1815, passed at the termination of the late war, at 10,000 left the establishment of 1815 as it was! It left the esThe corps of engineers and ordnance, by that tablishment of 12,656 troops, with their two major and a subsequent act, were retained as they then exist- generals, four brigadiers, and the whole general staff, ed; and the President was directed to constitute the esprecisely as it was! The whole scheme of reducing the tablishment of such portions of artillery, infantry, and army failed at that time; and this, let it be well rememriflemen, as he might judge proper. The general or- bered, was before the acquisition of Florida; that acders of the 17th of May, 1815, fix the artillery at 3,200; quisition which has given us the double line of coast of the light artillery at 660; the infantry at 5,440; and the that peninsula to guard, with the important stations of rifle at 660. Document A exhibits a statement of the Key West, Tampa bay, St. Mark's, and Pensacola. This military establishment, including the general staff, as at important territorial acquisition, and where an obstinate present organized, and B exhibits a similar view of those war is now waged, would justify the increase of a thouof 1802 and 1808; by a reference to which it will appear sand men upon the establishment of 1815, without taking that our military establishments at the respective peri- into view the increase of wealth and population. Mr. ods, taken in the order of their dates, present an aggre- B. wished it to be particularly noted that, while the bill gate of 3,323, of 9,996, and of 12,656. It is obvious before the Senate only proposed to revive the military that the establishment of 1808, compared with the then peace establishment of 1815, yet there were three diswealth and population of the country, the number and tinct reasons why a larger establishment than that might extent of military posts, is larger in proportion than the now be asked for, namely: 1. The acquisition of Florida, present; but the unsettled state of our relations with which took place in 1819. 2. The accumulation of InFrance and England at that period, renders the compar- dians on the western frontier. 3. The increased wealth ison not entirely just. Passing, then, that of 1808, let and population of the country. These reasons all apus compare the establishment of 1802 with the present. plied in favor of a permanent peace establishment, To form a correct comparison, it will be necessary to while the wars with the Creeks and Seminoles required compare the capacity and necessities of the country then additional regular troops. General Scott had earnestly with the present time. Since that period, our popula-applied for them, had earnestly called for filling up the tion has nearly doubled, and our wealth more than doubled. We have added Louisiana to our possessions, and with it a great extent of frontier, both maritime and inland. With the extension of our frontier, and the increase of our commercial cities, our military posts and fortifications have greatly multiplied. If, then, the military establishment of 1802 be assumed to be as small as was then consistent with the safety of the country, our present establishment, when we take into the comparison the prodigious increase of wealth, population, extent of territory, number and distance of military posts, cannot be pronounced extravagant; but, on the contrary, after a fair and full comparison, that of the former period must, in proportion to the necessities and capacities of the country, be admitted to be quite as large as the present; and on the assumption that the establishment of 1802 was as small as the public safety would then admit, a reduction of the expense of our present establishment cannot be made with safety to the service by reducing the army."

ranks early, so as to have the recruits trained for service by the commencement of the winter campaign in Florida.

Mr. B. said that, besides the augmentation of the army, a diversity of arms was proposed, by reviving a light infantry and a rifle regiment. The open order and quick evolutions of the light infantry made that species of force peculiarly proper on the frontier, and against Indians; and as for the rifle, it was the natural weapon whose fame was identified with the American name in all its wars, civilized and savage, from the first settlement of the country down to the most glorious battle of the San Jacinto. That weapon should be preserved and cherished in the American army.

But it will be said the army was actually reduced; that it was reduced to six thousand men. This (Mr. B. said) was true; but it was not reduced in 1818, nor at any period that the Treasury was in the condition that it was at the time of that report, or at the present time. was reduced in 1821, when the public Treasury, from a

It

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[SENATE.

cers, who, as a body, are high-minded and honorable men, attached to the principles of freedom by education and reflection, what well-founded apprehension can there be from an establishment so small, distributed on so extended a frontier, with many thousand miles between the extreme points occupied? But the danger, it may be said, is not so much from its numbers, as by a spirit hostile to liberty, by which, it is supposed, all regular armies are actuated. This observation is probably true when applied to standing armies, collected into large and powerful masses; but, dispersed as ours is, over so vast a surface, the danger, I conceive, is of an opposite character-that both officers and soldiers will lose their military habits and feelings, by gliding gradually into those purely civil."

dream of inexhaustible surplus, was suddenly awakened to the reality of a deficit! and when every branch of the public expenditure, on which curtailment could be made to fall, was brought to the test of retrenchment, and placed under the edge of the pruning knife. The army, of course, was a subject for the operation, and underwent the largest amputation; the navy, the fortifications, and other branches, were also largely cut down. Mr. B. said that he here touched a point in our history which was pregnant with instruction, and very fit for reflection and meditation, now when we had reached another point of similar character, and to be followed by similar consequences. History was said to be philosophy teaching by example. If it was so, philosophy must have lost her capacity to teach at least to teach the Congress of 1836-if the lesson of 1817, 1818, 1819, 1820, and 1821, can be lost upon us. Our financial condition was, in the beginning of that period, what it now is a full and overflowing Treasury; it was, at the end of that period, what it will probably be in two or three years again, drained to the bottom, and entirely empty! Thus, in June, 1817, we had in the Bank of the United States, besides many millions in the name of public officers, the sum of $15,935,050 standing to the credit of the Treasurer of the United States; in June of the next year, that sum was reduced to $6,686,387; in June, 1819, it was reduced to $1,500,035; in June, 1820, it was $946,115; in December of that year, it was $388,210; and in the first quarter of 1821, the public money in the bank was exhausted, and the sum of $1,044,539 was overdrawn! In less than four years, the vision of an inexhaustible surplus had ended in the reality of a deficit of a million! and this without having had recourse to any schemes of distribution, by gift or loans, to get rid of it, and in defiance of retrenchment, curtailment, and economy, exerted to the uttermost in 1819, 1820, and 1821, to prevent a recurrence to taxes or loans. The navy appropriation for the gradual in crease was cut down from a million to a half million; fortifications were reduced from about eight hundred thousand dollars per annum to about three hundred thousand dollars; and in 1821 the army was reduced to six thousand men. This is the brief history of the sur plus of 1817, and the deficit of 1821. The same cause made the surplus then which makes it now: multiplication of banks, profuse issues of bank notes, loans to every body, great importations of goods, and large sales of public lands; all growing out of the wild spirit of speculation engendered by the paper system, and the universal receivability of bank notes by the General Government for lands, duties, and post office charges; the same cause made the deficit which will soon make it again-the contraction and revulsion of the paper sys-knowledge of their use, we have become an armed pop

tem!

Mr. B. said the question of augmenting the army had been incidentally discussed in the course of the debate on the fortification bill, and the old and popular objection-the danger of standing armies in time of peacewas pressed into service, and made to do hard duty in a case in which the objection could have no application at all. Vain was the fear, idle the alarm of danger, of fifteen millions of people from twelve thousand of their countrymen, enrolled upon a military peace establishment, and scattered on a circuit of nine thousand miles! But the answer which the same objection received in 1818 from the Secretary at War, [Mr. Calhoun,] from whose report he had just read, was so just and striking, so true in reference both to the military and to the people, that he would dispense with his own remarks, and adopt those of that Secretary. They are:

"To consider the present army as dangerous to our liberty partakes, it is conceived, more of timidity than of wisdom. Not to insist on the character of the offi

Having shown the reasons in favor of this augmentation of the regular army, and answered the objections to it—having shown that the reduction in 1821 resulted entirely from the deficit in the Treasury, an objection which could no longer prevail, as the Treasury was now distressingly, and, to some gentlemen, alarmingly full--he would repeat that this augmentation was a western measure, called for by western voices, and due to the state and condition of that section of the Union. To provide for the common defence was the first object of the confederacy of these States; and it was by troops that the West was to receive her portion of this common defence. Forts and navies belonged to the seacoastarmed men to the inland frontier. The Secretary of War, (Governor Cass,) in laying down a general plan of national defence, has indicated, with a masterly hand, the wants and remedies of the West. A military road in the rear of the States and Territories, from the Sabine to the Wisconsin--a chain of posts at intervals along the whole route--an increased force of different arms to traverse the country, and to make occasional expeditions to distant points-such is his recommendation; and it now only awaits the sanction of Congress to carry it into effect, and to give to the great West the protec tion which her position demands, what the constitution guaranties, and what the accumulation of Indians upon her border converts into a debt of justice, and an obliga tion of high and sacred duty.

Mr. NICHOLAS moved to recommit the bill, with instructions to report an organization precisely similar to that which was adopted for the peace establishment in 1815.

After a few words from Mr. BENTON, in opposition to the motion,

Mr. PRESTON took a view of the altered condition of the country within a few years. In consequence of the progress made in the manufacture of arms, and in the

The

ulation. The extraordinary concentration of Indian forces on our frontier has, indeed, rendered it necessary that the Government of the United States should adopt a system of preparation corresponding with this aspect of things. But our Indian frontier is not now as exposed and as difficult of defence as it was fifty years ago. increase of a population abounding in arms and provisions, and having all the facilities which can be obtained from the application of steam to our roads and rivers, and also the additions made to our military strength, have placed all our western frontier in a state of comparative security. He went on to speak of the degeneracy of the Indian character, and the numerical diminution of the tribes; but at the same time admitted that the provident care of the Government ought to be exhibited in extending to the frontier a proper degree of protection. He inferred, from a general survey of the facts, that an increase of the army is necessary, and the only difficulty was as to the extent of such increase. At present, we have thirteen regiments in service, amounting to

SENATE.]

Increase of the Army.

about 6,000 men. There are 40 or 50 in each company. The present bill increases the number of the company to between 80 and 90. It was his opinion that the companies ought to be so increased as to make an aggregate of about 9,000. The object had been to increase the efficiency of the army, without disturbing its organization. There had been found to be a great deficiency in the staff, which was totally inadequate to the performance of the duties required of it. Much had been done to make the staff more efficient, and more was in progress. The staff of the Inspector's and the ! Quatermaster's departments demand an increase. He was willing that there should be a general recommitment of the bill, so as to obtain the sense of the Senate as to an increase of the army.

Mr. CALHOUN called for a division of the question, so as to take the question first on the recommitment generally, and afterwards on the instructions. He had thought that there ought to be an increase of the army by filling up the companies; but he was opposed to a new organization of the army. There was nothing in the character of our foreign relations to shake the belief that it would depend on our own prudence only to remain at peace with all nations. It was only in reference to our Indian relations that any additional force was necessary. He would be willing to give as much increase as would place us in a situation of defence, but not a man more than was necessary for that purpose.

Mr. PORTER concurred in the opinion of the gentleman from South Carolina, that there was sufficient cause for an increase of the army. The capacity of the country to bear the expenses of a standing army was now sufficiently established; and as to the dangers to be apprehended from a standing army to our liberties, there could be no ground for that apprehension while the army was kept to a minimum of thrice the amount of men now asked for. The general knowledge of the use of arms which pervades the country is the best security for the rights and liberties of the people which can be provided. He considered the United States boundary as more extensive than it has been at any former period. He admitted that the Indian tribes were incompetent to carry on any prolonged warfare with the United States; but they ought to be prepared to meet those sudden outbreaks, which always inflicted severe wounds on the country before the enemy could be found and repelled. The people do not ask that kind of protection which comes after their homes are destroyed, and their plantations devastated. The protection they ask is that which will prevent those evils. Burning with indignation, fired with a sense of their wrongs, the vast body of Indians now to be removed will go to their new homes with feelings excited to the desire of vengeance. only required a man of commanding genius to unite the Indians, and lead them on, to bring the entire race along our frontier into the field against the United States; and the powers and energies of the Camanches alone are sufficient to render that tribe a most formidable enemy. He should vote for the recommitment with instructions.

It

Mr. PRESTON repeated what he had before stated as to the extent of the Indian frontier, and went more minutely into detail, in order to show that he had underestimated the extent, rather than gone beyond it. It was necessary to give a fair defence to that frontier, not by drawing a line of river fortresses, but by giving a sufficient force. Two regiments of dragoons have been given to the gentlemen from the West. Do they want another regiment, let them take it. It was useless to carry on a war in the swamps, where the army might as well be sent to hunt a deer or a rackoon as an Indian. But, in the western prairies, it is different. The Camanches are mounted Tartars, and strike from a distance, and they must be encountered by dragoons. He

[JUNE 10, 1836.

would not oppose any measure to give the utmost defence to the frontier settlements; but it was not in the power of Government to give them full and perfect defence. He touched on the situation of our southwestern frontier, and expressed a hope that the day was not distant when, instead of calling Fort Towson our southwest post, we should have our forts on the Rio del Norte.

Mr. PORTER said a few words in explanation of his former remarks.

Mr. BENTON protested against the recommitment, which must be entirely useless without the instructions, so as to put the committee in possession of the sense of the Senate.

The bill was then ordered to be recommitted.

The question being then on the instructions to the committee,

Mr. CALHOUN moved to lay the subject on the table, in order to take up the special order. He withdrew his motion, and

Mr. PORTER expressed his hope that the question would be taken, as the bill was already committed, and it was important to take the question on the instructions.

Mr. BUCHANAN asked what was the strength of the army in 1815.

Mr. BENTON replied that the total of the army in 1815, was 12,656.

Mr. PRESTON said that, if the Senator from Louisiana would withdraw his instructions, he would move to fill up the rank and file of the companies to a specific amount, without touching the organization.

Mr. CALHOUN was against any instructions. Mr. PORTER called for the yeas and nays; which were ordered.

Mr. BENTON made some observations on the increased extent of our boundary, and ridiculed the idea of transporting by steamboats a sufficient force to protect that frontier. He adverted to the destruction of life and property which had been already perpetrated, and stated that the West must have the defence to which it was entitled. The attention of the Senate, he complained, could not be diverted from the subject of surplus revenue, to the situation of our citizens on the frontier. This bill was western in its object and its origin. The whole of the West were calling for it, and he was glad the yeas and nays were ordered.

Mr. LINN read an extract from the report of the Secretary of War, in which it was estimated that when the whole of the Indians intended to be removed shall be concentrated on the western shore of the Mississippi, they will amount to 250,000. He added a few words in favor of the concentration of a military force on the frontier, to protect it against the danger to be appre hended from this larger force.

Mr. CALHOUN took a view of the present force of the country, and indicated in what manner the regiments we now have might be stationed, in order to effect an efficient defence of our frontier. He was disposed to fill up the companies, so as to render the regiments more competent.

Mr. CLAY thought it unnecessary to go into a gene. ral discussion of the necessity of increasing the army. No Senator would hold himself committed by instructions, when the whole question of the policy of any increase shall come up for discussion. He smiled at the picture which had been drawn of our danger. One would have supposed that all at once a gallant nation of some millions had been suddenly precipitated on our frontier, instead of a few miserable Indians. He saw no necessity for any increase of the army.

The question was then taken on the instructions, and decided as follows:

Meeling of Congress--Sick and Disabled Seamen.