Selections: The Army And Navy

WASHINGTON L.ITY, Satnrday Evening, Feb. 15,1845. L The House were employed most of Ihe day on the bilí fo reduce the poy of Üie anny, n very important and beneficial measure, which pas sed tlie House last session, nnd was killed in the Senato, as ] presume t wil! be again this year. The army, I rnean the qfficers of ihearmv, is a privileged order, anti-republicBn and dangerous to 'the punty of the governmen'. We have beo deceived in supposing that we hadcvaded the dangers of a standing army ín time of ppace, by ma kir. g curarmy a akeleton, composed of a great number of offi; cér? and a few soldier?. The army is Blready beyond the control of Cougress - not now in lts military prowess; for a long peace has nfused a spirit into our army that will never m:ike war upon the libcrties of the country so long as the industry of the country keeps il.e treasury full- it is in ts power of plunder that Congress is defied by the army. rI he iegislation w'uich the army cannot make subt-ervient to plunder, it is nlways able to prevent, orrepeal. I ara told lliat a mojority of thesenatojs now in office liave a son, a brother, or a nephew, and some two or three or half a dozen, holding office in thr army or navy, and of coursè directly iiiteresled in tliip plunder sysiem. Henee, a real retrenchrnent bilí must f;iil,ai)d wül continue to fuil, untilthe people look into the matter. The ston of this privileged order, is the West Point Academy, iinder" the rule, ulmost as irrevocable as ihat of the Modes, that no man can become aij officer vvho has not been regularly traincd in that school, and that other rule, tliat when once cornmissioned, his promotion even to the highest rank, shall take place in the regular order of succes? ion, by seniority, without reference to qualificaUons or churacter. We are o'ten humbugged witli the story that the large majority of these persons are the chi'dren of the poor. How far the latter of this may be true, I knuw not; but I venture to assert that in a vast mijority of cases, of those v:ho recove connniss'rons, if thoy nre pnor themselves, they are the poor relations of the rich and influen- üa! pf))i(icinns, and these politicinns are llius, in turn, brought to the support of the army - ihc solé use of which is to stand by and keep guard 'vhile the planters flog and fcjI their sla ves. The truth of the matter leaked out yesterdav, when Gren. M'Kay oí" North Carolina, moved to reduce Ihe pay of the cadets, (who re paid for condescending to sfet an educalion nt the public expense,) from S24 to Íi28 a month. Sucli an indecorous interference with the rights oí' the gentlemen on land, was very insolen!, and was well rebuked by Mr. Thomasson of Kentucky, who eaid, c'He rhoujrht the cadets ought to be supported, as a general rnie, in a manner cqual to their stijle of living at home." Is it so, indeed, in j this happy country, that the sons o the poor i have such a 4ístyle of living at home," ihat il order to make them contenfed while getfing an educution at the public expense, an allowanceof í?4 a month is not eufficient for clotliing and pocket money? This shows wbat sort of 'poor men's sons" are supposed to ger, these ppointments. The House rcduced Uie pay to $24,. notwithstanding; but look and see if it is not restored to$28 in the Senate; and tlien see if the House do not recode . The navy is in the same conditinn. Mr. Wisè said, 'W(j must have gentlemen for officers' aud tlierefore he would nol consent ihat apprentices in the navy should be ollowed to receivë the nppointment of midshipmen. Let the history of tho navy and its officers for the last tive ycars teil. of ihe bles.sing of having smc "gentlemen" for officers. 1 have had put uto tny hands a table compilcd from a doemnent whicli was fuinished to the House ost jenr, on motion of Mr. Hale, but which ihe House rrfusid to have print cd. TABLE Showing Ihe service perfonned by ncting officars of the navy, in live years preceding the Gth of April, 1S4L, the whole number in service, and the n vera ged time they have been on duty and off duly in five yearx. Ar, l'mc on daf'f. Ar. iiccoff duty. Grade. Wkolc JSTo. y. nip, d. y. mo. d. Captnin... Gd 'i (i 17 '2 T JÜ CuiiiniandtT. 97 2 8 11 '2 6 '25 Lieutcnnnts, 33) 3 C 25 1 5 Jó ííurgeuns bí) 3 5 JO J ö t,-5 .Fnssed Ass't'Snr. O 3 6 10 15 2tj Assisinnt Stug. (51 '2 7 3Í) (I 7 J6 Pui-sers, o5 2 5 JO 1 i 1U This document, tis I have observcd, tie Home refused to print, and it is sf.owed avvay in Ihe lumher rooms of the capitol - becavse of the revela Iion8 it malees. Here we see ilüii the f!8 captains in commission, the average service was but two days over half the time. Many of the individuals were not on duty a single d;iy in the whole five years! Yet they are all the while drawing pay from ihe government, not Juli pay, i:ideed, huta handtcime allowance of $2,500 to S,.'00 firdoing nothing m the service of the Ünited States. Tliere were 11 captains intïiis posilion on the 30th day of June, f844. Tie commanders average a little more service for the navy; and the lieutennnts a stilt Jarger propon ion - the non-combatants giving mnch liie Inrgest proportioi) of their time. It is to be borne in imml ihnt tcveral commanders re domg the duty of captains, and draidng the nirj, (mark that,)1 while this large number of captains are unemployed. Also, many lieutenants do the duly nnd draw tlie pny of coiiHiianders, and inmiy passcJ midsiiipmen do the duty and draw the pay of lieutenants. One would the honor of this sorl of brevetíion niigbt answor for nay. Oí' t lie GC ciptoins, L2, or íiSi per cent., jf I lie 9G ccmiinml í.tf, 70, or 7rJ per cent., nnd of '.he íi7 beti'énants, 9í, or 08 per ceñí., have received ihnr horiors l'roin Jolin Tyler; who has also mnde 127 passed miclhipmon, and 1G0 midsbipmen. Of these' 1G0, one-fuurth aro natives of Virginia, one-eighth naiives of'Maryland, and 17 natives of the District of Coiuinbia; in e]! wanting bnl two of one half of the appoinlments in the Inst Tour yeara born in these two States nnd the District - purely because "we must have gentlemen for ofh'cen' i in the nnvy. I riuist be confeFsed, tliere i preciou3 little hope in complaining on this subject; fór when ever a moiion is tnadetowards reforming these abuses, some infhential mernber,und most likely one who is ordinnrily vociferous against expense, risef wíth n high-wronglii eulogiurn on the navy,and the wooden nalls, and lie cap ture of the Guerriere. Now, rnark that man, and see if he hus not a eon o.' a brother who is an officer of the navy. I tel! you, t lie army and navy are too slronj for Congres?) nnd cartnot be kept frorn the public che.t. The abuse?, I expect, w i II po on, growing more and more exorbitant, nntil the people resolve on n cure, by íiirninsr ont the vvhole set, lo go to work like other fojks, and niake np on army and navy for servies, out of nevv maleriuls. A subsequent number of the Emancipator has the following remarks by Mr. Adams: The .question being on the passage of the bilí to reduce the pay of the army. Mr. Adams seized the opportuniíy when the managers liad inadvertently left lhe bars down, by omiüing tocall theprevious question on this. qusstion. and made a speech, explaining the reasons why he haa voted fot1 a similar bilí last year, and should vote for the present bilí. It was not because he was anxions to obtain that sort of popularity which Was to be liad by declaiming against lhe ofRcers of the army cr their compensaüon, and especially against the present head of the army; nor was it because he had lhe slightest expectation that this bill or nny other having a similar object, would become a law. He gave' a history of the course of legislation on this subject during the four years thatretrenchment has been the fashion, and how the House had ahvays receded in submission to the - Fie narrated the effort at retrenchmeni in the last Congres?, to disband the regiment of dragoons, raised expressly for the Florida War, and which resulted inerely in a bilí to dismount thetn and make it a regiment of riflemen. Weíí, they were dismounted, and the horses were sold; of course at a great sacrifice; and the first thing this Congress did was to pass ft bill to remount that regiment, and new horses were purchased again at enormous cost. He said hls reason for voting for this bill was because he foresawa systematic efFort to enlarge the army, very greatly, [ and tomako it a permanent iristitutiun of the country to last as long as the Union itself. Ue alluded (othe bill reportedby the chairman of the military committec. (Gen. Clinch.) to establish military hospitals, to lYininfain the invalids and the old soldiers at the public expense. He alludfid lo the vast sums expended by England up'ön Greenwich hospital, and said this sclicme will cali for millions f rom your treasury. He would meet these projects by reducingthe pay of the army. He had heard it whispered that. , befo re thissessïon closes, a bil] is to be brought in for adding to the army five cnt i re regiments. The House had heard nothing about it, but he had no doubt such a schemc was on loot. He expntiaied on the tendency of the Texas and Oregön bilis to produce war. He spoke of the increasing infiuenee and power of the army. And by this he meant the officers of the army. The soldiers. he said, were mere obeying machines, with arms in thcir hands - not very favorable perhaps to public liberty. But the officers held their powers by a liíb tenure, which you are all the while enhancing. In five years, inslead of a major general at ihe head of the army, you will have a field marshal. He dwelt on the jealousy with which many regarded the life estáte of the judges, but no body seems alarmed about the danger of having mnjor generáis for ]Ce. Me said the question was liable -o come up, and very sure if we take Texas, with regard to the possession of Cuba, which it is well kno-wn Great Britain had longfixed her eye upon. And if we resist, it will be solely on account ofslavery - because, as we are lold by the secretary af state, the necessities of slavery require a check be interposed in the rt'ay of Great Britairr towards univer.siii 3inancipation-. This will require, what ivas urged npon this House by a late secretary of the navy, a navy half as large 153 that of Great Britain, at a eost of at east iifly millions a year. lic brought jp Mr. Wise's famous project, now ten , ,-ears old, of attaining six degrees of j tude from í'fexico, across the continent: tJ retrioving our bouhdary i'rom 42 deg. to -)ö dog. nortli latitude; and all, it was isaid, for the sole purpose of attainin-g a j good hnrbör on tlie Pacilc ocean, the harj bor of San Francisco, for the us!e of thé whale ships of New England. He said the great questio.n of SLAVERY, unI welcome as it is in this House, must agítate this government. He ihen referred' to the compromiso, as it is called, in the Texas bil I-, introdyced by the gentleman from Illinois [Douglass,].prohibiting slavery north of 3G deg. 30 min. A strange comjjromise, when he said the line of 36 deg. 30 min. istvvo degrees, at least, further north than Texas ever owned a foot of land. A cnll made on the executive for information as to íhe boundai'ies of Texas, but it Imd brought no return - the execulive doubtlcss has no information on this subject; it has negotiated for a ountry of whose bounds it: has' no infonwiíion. íf the bounds wcre ta-ken of the as pessessed by Texas, governed by its laws, a,s represeiltëd m ifs legishtuce, its bounds would fall much' more than tvo degrees short of the line established between liberty andslavery by tbe compro??iise of the gentleman from1 Illinois.