Tuesday, December 1.
Mr. Quincy offered the following resolution:
Resolved, That the Secretary of the Department of War be directed to lay before this House an account of the state of the fortifications of the respective ports and harbors of the United States, with a statement of the moneys appropriated for fortifications remaining unexpended; and an estimate of the sums necessary for completing such fortifications as may be deemed requisite for their defence.
Which being under consideration,
Mr. Q. said the House would perceive the object of this resolution was to obtain information; there was a document on their table which gave some information on the subject, but was not explicit. This resolution was exactly similar to one passed last session, by which the House obtained some important and interesting information; this being the case, he hoped no objection would be made to it.
The resolution was agreed to without a division.
Soldiers of the Revolution, &c.
Mr. Randolph rose and said, that as long as the subject of national defence was in possession of a respectable committee of the House, and as long as their report was pending before it, he had deemed it, if not improper, at least unavailing in him, to offer any thing upon that subject. But, that committee having reported, he saw, from the course which the debate had taken yesterday, a necessity so pressing that he could no longer dispense with it, for offering some propositions on this most important subject. These propositions grew out of the almost universal impression which seemed to exist that there was but one peculiar mode of defence to which the nation could turn itself in this perilous juncture of their affairs. When so great an appropriation was demanded for this favorite expedient, he feared, that if other plans of defence, which had at least as high claims to the public attention, were not now brought forward, they might hereafter find an empty Treasury, and be compelled to resort to the system of loans, recommended by the head of that department, as the only means, however precarious, of providing for them.
It had always been his opinion, that whether in war or in peace, there was one system of national defence which ought sedulously to be cherished, and concerning which there could not exist a contrariety of opinion between any two men in that House, or out of it; and he had hoped that the attention of the committee (for there were more than one) would have been directed towards it. Were they not told, and was it not self-evident, that if matters came to the last extremity we should not only have an extensive frontier exposed to the inroads of the enemy’s continental possessions, but that a vast line of country, from Detroit to Natchitoches, would have the native savages let loose upon their dispersed and almost defenceless population? Did there exist then no necessity for defence but of a few places on the coast, the depots of privileged wealth, when the whole line of back settlements were left at the mercy of the enemy and their savage adherents, without a force, even upon paper, to protect them? If it should be said that there existed no obligation on the Union gratuitously to bestow arms upon the individual States which had failed to furnish themselves, the same reason would apply yet more forcibly to the fortification of States which had neglected to provide that species of self-defence. In the one case the arms issued were still the general property, at all times disposable for the good of the whole; in the other, the fortifications were so much real estate, vested in the country where erected; fixtures to the freehold. It appeared to him that, whether they considered themselves in a state of profound peace, or on the eve of war, or (as he feared would prove to be the case) in actual war, it behooved them to arm the natural defence of their country; to rely, as had been said by a gentleman from New York, not upon delusive theory but established practice; upon that which, heretofore, had carried them triumphant through danger, and upon which, when they could no longer depend, there was an end of our existence as a nation.
There was another subject to which he hoped the committee would also have turned their attention, one on which, as on the first, no two men could differ; not like gunboats, perishable in its nature, and susceptible of dispute as to its utility, which remained to be tested by experience; a train of formidable artillery, that might not only oppose the enemy in a particular harbor, but calculated to change its position, to bear upon his armed vessels wheresoever they might lie, to compel him to quit our waters, and even, if he should effect a landing, confront him under any possible change of circumstances. He was the more inclined to hope that his opinion would prevail upon this subject, when he heard a gentleman whose influence was almost decisive in that House—he trusted that it was deserved—declare that terra firma was our natural element, that it was madness to dream of coping with the enemy on his own vantage ground: and yet all the provision which they had thought of making, was to fight him with his own weapons. He reminded the House with what striking effect his friend from Maryland, (Mr. R. Nelson,) whose military experience entitled him to a peculiar weight in this matter, had on a former occasion cautioned them, that erect what fortifications they might, the enemy were not obliged to lie before them; that ships of war were a movable force on the water, and to be resisted with effect must be opposed by a movable force on the land.
These were the two leading measures which were impressed on his mind as proper to be adopted. Muskets in the hands of our citizens, and cannon in our arsenals, were so much national wealth, even exclusive of the idea of present national danger. The uses to which they were to be applied under any possible emergency, were not susceptible of dispute. No man could arraign this as a visionary plan of defence, as had been done with respect to gunboats and fortifications. Upon them however he should say nothing at present, except that he thought his the preferable mode of defence, and one entitled to be provided for, before the Treasury should be drained for less worthy purposes.
But there was another and more important measure, which ought to precede any step which the House might take for defence. It was a measure of justice; which would not only entitle them to success, but was eminently calculated to insure it; a measure which would unite all hearts, and nerve every hand in the cause of their country. It would do away the stigma of suffering those who had fought and bled in their service, to starve in the streets. With what face could the Government call upon the youth of the nation to turn out in the public defence, when their eyes were every where assailed by the spectacle of their countrymen and kindred, veterans of the Revolution, who had raised the proud fabric of our independence, begging from door to door a morsel of bread? It was impossible to contemplate the condition of these gallant men, who, after giving to their country every thing, were consigned by it to beggary and want, without sensations of indignation and shame, as well as of commiseration. But it is a subject, said Mr. R., on which I will say no more; I cannot supply feelings to those who are destitute of them; and I should as soon undertake to raise the very dead as to excite those whom the subject itself is unable to move. He concluded by offering three resolutions, calculated to meet the objects he had in view, professing himself, at the same time willing to submit to any amendment which did not alter their substance.
Before he handed these resolutions to the Chair, Mr. R. said he would obviate an objection which might be made at the first; that they had already a law to provide for these persons. To the disgrace of the statute book, they had a pension law. What was the provision? That a man who had incurred disability by known wounds during the Revolutionary war, after being tied down to the most minute proofs, which in most cases, from the death or removal of his old companions in arms, he was unable to give, although the fact might be of general notoriety, was, if he could surmount all the difficulties thrown in his way, entitled to a miserable annuity, to take date, not from the time when the disability occurred, but; from the time when his claim should be established. So that the man whose keen sensibility had restrained him from applying to the public for relief, who had struggled on, in the hope of better days, till the last gasp, was put off with a pension, which so far from discharging the petty debts which he might have contracted previous to his application, would hardly keep soul and body together; when, if his pension were to take date from the time of the service being rendered, as in common justice it ought to do, he might be placed in comparatively easy circumstances.
Mr. R. then submitted to the House the following resolutions:
Resolved, That provision ought to be made, by law, for an adequate and comfortable support of such officers and soldiers of the late Revolutionary army as are still existing in a state of indigence, disgraceful to the country which owes its liberties to their valor.
Resolved, That provision ought to be made, by law, for arming and equipping the whole body of the militia of the United States.
Resolved, That provision ought to be made, by law, for procuring a formidable train of field artillery for the service of the United States.
The resolutions were referred to a Committee of the whole House to-morrow.