Thursday, January 3.
Mr. William Smith, from the committee appointed, presented a bill to regulate the claims to Invalid Pensions: which was received, and read twice, and committed.
The House again resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole on the bill to make compensation to the widows and orphans of certain persons who were killed by Indians, under the sanction of flags of truce; and, after some time spent therein, the Chairman reported that the committee had again had the said bill under consideration, and made several amendments thereto.
Ordered, That the said bill, with the amendments, do lie on the table.
The Speaker laid before the House a letter from the Secretary of War, enclosing a list of the persons employed in the several offices of his Department, with the salary allowed to each, pursuant to the resolution of this House, of the 31st ultimo; which were read, and ordered to lie on the table.
Military Establishment.
The order of the day being called for, the House went into Committee of the Whole, (Mr. White in the chair,) on Mr. Steele's motion for reducing part of the present military establishment of the United States.
In reply to the speech made yesterday by Mr. Wadsworth, and which had been expressed in such strong language, Mr. Steele thought it necessary to make a few observations, as a preliminary, before the House went further into the debate.
The gentleman from Connecticut had disputed the calculations which he, Mr. S., had produced. Perhaps the gentleman's calculations may be right, and perhaps both of our statements may be so; but with respect to those which I produced, if the acts of Congress are false, if the reports and estimates of the Heads of Departments on your table, Mr. Speaker, are false, then my statements are wrong, or "untrue" as the gentleman expressed it, and for which, I hope, on more cool reflection, he will not adhere to. Mr. S. then read the acts of Congress of the 29th of September, 1789, 26th of March, 1790, and 12th of August, same year; the 11th of February, 1791, and 23d December, 1792, &c., from which he clearly proved that every item of his calculations was exactly quoted. He knew of no surplusage unexpended at the War Department, but $140,000 as reported by the Secretary of the Treasury; if any gentlemen in the House knew of any other, he hoped they would mention them. For his part, he thought the estimate for 1793 showed very little savings any where from the grants of the preceding year, but it contained demands for new grants much larger than for any former year. This, however, was a subject he did not at present mean to say much on, until he should hear the sentiments of other members. He therefore sat down with a reservation, that he would take the liberty of replying to such arguments as might be adduced against his proposition.
Mr. Wadsworth disavowed any intention of being indelicate in his expressions yesterday, toward the gentleman from North Carolina; and if he had, in the warmth of debate, said any thing to which that gentleman could take offence, it was not meant so, and he was ready to retract it. He could not, however, avoid taking notice, that the gentleman's arguments appeared to him to convey a strong censure on the Executive, and to spread abroad improper impressions. The principal error which he dwelt on, was that of quoting the difference between the appropriations of 1789 and 1790, to be so great as appeared from that gentleman's statement. But the fact is, that the gentleman had overlooked the laws, and instead of quoting the amount of the two appropriations made in 1789, he had only mentioned the amount of one, consequently this was giving an improper impression of the real comparative appropriations of those two years; for, when they are taken in the whole, the difference is not so great, nor the increase so much as Mr. Steele exhibited it, by $27,080. In like manner, the comparative increases of the other years, 1791, 1792, and 1793, have been misstated, and the truth is, that the total increases are not less, but more than the gentleman represented them by the sum of $567,530.72.
Mr. Clark hoped the gentleman last up did not suppose that the House was going to war with the Secretary of War. He sincerely wished that some means should be adopted of conveying the sense of the House to the President, who would thereby be considerably relieved from the delicate situation in which he now stands with regard to the discretionary powers vested in him. Before Mr. C. sat down, he suggested the idea of filling up the blank in Mr. Steele's motion with the word three, so as to limit the military to three regiments.
Mr. Milledge liked the spirit of the motion, in regard to the prevention of standing armies; but he was against its being put in practice at the present time. He differed from the gentleman from New Jersey, and as his motion had not a second he would proceed. He wished the question under consideration to go to a Committee of the Whole, that a fair and open discussion of every point of the important subject might be brought into view. The situation of the State he had the honor to represent, had been mentioned in the course of debate; he therefore felt himself called on to deliver his sentiments; that he was persuaded there was not a member in the House who more ardently wished for peace than himself, or who would go further to promote so desirable an object, as putting an end to a savage war, and an enormous public expense; but he was of opinion that the reduction of the military establishment would not answer either of those purposes; that it well became members to take into consideration such parts of the Union as lay exposed, and then judge the propriety of the intended measure; that it was well known that Georgia was a frontier State, bordered on one side by a nation with whom a just understanding and intercourse still remains to be settled by treaty, and on the other by a warlike tribe of Indians, the most numerous of any on the continent, ten thousand warriors, besides the Cherokee nation of three thousand and five hundred—a State, in proportion to its wealth, and in proportion to what it contributes to the General Government, of the fewest inhabitants, an extent of frontier from the river St. Mary to the northernmost line, full three hundred miles—a country hardly at any period enjoying perfect safety, since the commencement of the Revolution. My constituents said he, adopted the Federal system, from a hope that we should be protected: some of them at this moment, have never been able to return to their habitations, which they left at the commencement of the war; and I am warranted in saying that a part of my constituents are now throughout the State under arms. Let members for a moment place their constituents in the situation of mine, and let me ask them if they would not demand the protecting arm of Government? As yet we have experienced little more than the enforcing a treaty, that has not been complied with on the part of the British, which has reduced some of our first citizens to a state of dependence on those who not long ago were their avowed and open enemies, and a deprivation of our territorial right, for the yielding of which a permanent peace and permanent line were to be established. Of the peace we have experienced no great share, and as for the permanent line, it still remains to be run, and, from well-grounded information, the half-way conduct of the Creeks the other day with Mr. Seagrove, gives very little reason to expect it. Such was the situation of his State. But to the point: he was of opinion that we set out wrong in warring with the Indians at any rate. Unfortunately for us, the event has not answered the design, and we are now reduced to that state that hardly any change can mend. The unaccountable success of the Indians has so elated them with their prowess,—and which likewise has presented views to the English and Spanish they never dreamed of; and the federated situation of the different tribes occasioned him not to hesitate in pronouncing that the several frontier States would be more or less exposed to the cruel ravages of a savage warfare. If the customs of savage tribes did not direct them towards us, they were incessantly excited by the British and Spaniards to amuse us with false pretences of peace, while they were engrossing the advantages of their trade. The aged Indians kept to their hunting, and the young men were gratified in the military exploits with the blood of our fellow-citizens. In this situation the frontier of the United States, a distance of not less than fifteen hundred miles, must be garrisoned. He left it to gentlemen to calculate what force would be required for that purpose, if troops should be employed in no other way. Militia, he said, were for sudden invasion; they were scattered when they returned, and must be protected while at home. The jealousy of the English, and their augmenting their force, surely ought not to occasion the reduction of any part of ours; if any thing, it ought to have a contrary effect. He likewise said that it would be necessary to view the early history of our country, and find what had been the conduct of Spaniards and Indians about the commencement of the present century. The Spaniards, at the same spot where they now are, by their treachery, when they were at peace with the English, at a time when the Carolinians little suspected, when they imagined they were in perfect alliance with the Indians, the Yamasses, Creeks, and Cherokees, those Indians, by their instigation, massacred one hundred and thirty of their inhabitants, and drove the rest into Charleston. The inhabitants of the capital of Georgia are as much exposed as the Carolinians then were; a distance of twenty miles from Savannah, places them in an open, uninhabited country, to the Creek nation, and within that twenty miles, thinly inhabited on account of the nature of their cultivation. What had happened, he said, might happen again: the Spaniards had not changed their policy. If, therefore, we are forewarned, ought we not to be forearmed? That, from their dangerous situation, even on a peace establishment, there ought to be at least five hundred troops on that frontier.
If public officers have misapplied the public money, the constitution pointed out a mode to punish them. The Government belongs to the people, the officers are their servants, we are their Representatives, and we ought to do them justice. He conceived it was praiseworthy in any member to afford any aid or information in his power to bring these things to light; that he felt it his duty to make strict inquiry into the expenditure of public money; that he was sent by his constituents to protect their property, and in doing that should vote against the present proposition.
Mr. Findlay observed that a difference of opinion existed in respect to the motion for reducing the army. The mover was for filling up the blank with two regiments; but Mr. Clark had proposed three, and was against discharging any of those already enlisted. The principle of the motion was what he wished to speak to. Passing by the comparative view, so much alluded to in the course of the debate, of militia and regulars, he struck at once into the heart of the question. The redemption of the public debt, from the savings to be made by the reduction of the army, seemed to be a principal object with some members, but in his opinion, it was no more than a secondary one: the defence of the frontier is of superior concern.
The origin of the war goes much farther back than that of the present Government; it arose out of the war with Britain; and it has been ever since changing for the worse, until it has at length assumed a very alarming complexion; for it has united a greater number of tribes than has ever been known, and it has exposed a much greater extent of our frontier. With regard to the mismanagement or abuses, if any there were, it was no place to discuss such subjects by desultory debating in this House, whilst there were other modes open. He did not, however, believe that any material abuses had taken place indeed. This war is not one of the faults chargeable to the Executive, for it might with more justice, perhaps, be said to have had its origin in the ineffectual measures of the Legislature. The first Congress assembled under the present Government found the Union in a state of war; and although one regiment was stationed at Pittsburg, yet the militia were not relieved from actual service. But the lately raised troops may perhaps be found more effectual, as it is said there is an excellent system of discipline established amongst them.
With regard to the argument that the Union cannot support so heavy an expense by new taxes, he was of opinion that every consideration ought to give way to the safety and protection of the country.
A particular plan is set into operation for accomplishing a peace, and it ought not to be arrested without a trial being made. The ill-defined law authorizing the President to call out the militia, and the levies under General Harmar, did not answer the end intended, for the time of their enlistment had nearly expired ere they had reached their destination; but if General Harmar had carried out two regiments of permanent troops, he could, without the assistance of the militia, have destroyed all the Indian towns and villages that stood in his way, and he would have completed the object of erecting a line of posts which would secure a lasting peace; but from the weakness of the force and the inefficacy of the law, the purpose was arrested at a critical moment, and the vengeance of the Indians roused to the utmost pitch; instead of their fears being alarmed, the next step of raising another regiment was of a piece with the former weak policy; for the encouragement was insufficient, and the miserable two-dollar men who were raised for a six months' service—their fate is too well known, and will be long remembered. They arrived at the wilderness with clothing that lasted only to the time they reached the scene of action, and those who were not cut off by the enemy were left to starve with cold in the most inclement season.
The fatal catastrophe of this campaign has only served to elate the Indians, and render them insolent, as appears from their treatment of our messengers under flags of truce. The parsimony on those occasions has been the cause of a double expense.
In opposition to this it may be said that those parsimonious plans were recommended by the Executive, and only enacted into laws by the Legislature. This, however, if it were the fact, is no apology for the Legislature, for they have no right to cast their Legislative responsibility upon the Executive Department; nor can they do it without a breach of trust towards their constituents. The members knew that the encouragement of pay and time of enlistments would never answer any good purpose; the want of resources could have been no reason for that parsimony toward the defence of the frontiers, because it is known that we found revenue enough not only to pay the interest of the public debt, and to support the Government, but even to pay the debts of the individual States. The conviction of these mistakes induced Congress at last to make adequate provision, and now an attempt is made to withdraw the means before the end is accomplished. The other branch of the Legislature has prevented us from giving higher wages to encourage the recruiting service; but notwithstanding all this, it appears to go on with considerable success.
Here he mentioned something of the confidential communications which he was not now at liberty to explain. The gentleman who says that two regiments are sufficient to garrison the forts, ought to consider that garrisoning those is not the only object in contemplation. If we expect to exist as a nation we must protect the whole frontier, and make it the interest of the Indians to be at peace with us.
But do gentlemen consider the consequences of throwing all internal defence and distant expeditions upon the militia? Is it not enough that they already stand as a picket guard to their brethren who live at ease; that they eat their bread in the fear of their lives, and are frequently embittered with the view of mournful incidents; but that we must lay a deliberate plan for increasing the number of their fatherless children and childless parents?
To say that those States who have frontiers, ought to be left to protect themselves, is a very anti-Federal sentiment, which he was sorry to hear advanced in that House. Neither is it generous to say we will pay the expense, and let them fight for us. Do gentlemen contemplate to what issue these principles would lead? Do they not observe that the fate of the Government is deeply involved in the decision? Perhaps I may be asked, Did not the States depend chiefly upon their own exertion for the defence of the frontiers under the old Congress? Yes, they did, and were better protected than since that period. But let it be recollected that at the time the States had the command of their own resources, and the laying and executing their own plans, that the Indians were not so formidably combined. But that since the States had not the power of retaliating, nor the means of gratifying with presents; since the Indians have been solemnly told to look away from the little fires of the States, to the great fire of the Union, they have looked upon us as a more formidable and dangerous foe, and made their arrangements accordingly; and European nations, and emissaries among them, have improved upon the circumstance, and excited and aided them in their union and exertions.
He made some further remarks on the impolicy of oppressing the militia at Marietta, &c., and asked if it were possible that those unfortunate few could be able to protect the whole frontier against the united force of the Indians?
He agreed with those who said that the sense of the people of America was in favor of peace; but the question is come to this. It is not to begin a war that we have raised this army, but to procure a peace, and so soon as this end is attained, the army will be discharged. It is raised to protect, not to oppress, or to aid in governing our citizens. I know, said he, that standing armies have always been sources of oppression and aids of tyranny. Our people may long be governed without such aids; their situation will not admit of abuses from standing armies, nor would the citizens submit to them.
He was confident that the army would be discharged by the next Legislature, as soon as a prospect of our affairs will admit it. The present prospects were not of a very flattering nature, and therefore it was good policy to keep up the force at the present crisis; and it would be dangerous to repeal the law under the circumstances.
The present Indian war is essentially different from any former one. When Britain and France divided North America betwixt them, if the emissaries of both excited the Indians to war, the power of both afforded protection. When Britain became possessed of the Western posts, and many tribes of Indians commenced a war, the British Government conducted the war, carried it into the Indian country, and by the dread of their arms procured peace; but the Indians were not then supported by other powers. In the present war, the Indians, who at that time knew nothing of us, have combined to make it a common cause; and no superior powers interest themselves in our favor. No: they conceive our interest to be inimical to theirs. But if they did not receive encouragement, protection, and supplies from our superior neighbors, a peace would soon be procured. The gentlemen who support this resolution know well how that matter stands, and they know explanations here are not convenient. He concluded by declaring that he could not vote for the motion.
The committee now rose, and had leave to sit again.