In Virginia, during the last war, young men, merchants, lawyers, and doctors, went out to battle, stayed two or three weeks, took sick, and went home. As long as every door was open, the hand of every man giving them friendship, and caressed by every woman, they stood their ground; but when dependence was placed on them for service, they were off. I recollect a circumstance of some new militia just come into camp on the eve of a battle. The time of battle soon came; these men were placed in front; but no sooner did the redcoats, as they called the English, come within one hundred yards, than they threw down their arms and ran as though their lives depended altogether on their heels for preservation. When they were asked, where are you going, boys? Did you ever see the like, said they, we cannot stand them. When the redcoats come now it will be just the same. Substitutes towards the close of a war become good soldiers. I know that substitutes are objected to by some gentlemen, they wish every man to stand in his own place, all to stand on the same footing. In my humble opinion this would be bad policy, because all men have not the same gifts. Some cannot fight, from religious principles—others cannot fight for the want of nerve. The bill has made provision for such, if they cannot fight let them furnish a substitute. We know all men are not gifted alike: the strength of some lies in one way, and in others another; Samson’s lay in his hair. Now on this floor, some gentlemen of strong minds, who think a great deal, never talk; while some who talk incessantly, appear never to think at all. It certainly would be a great economizing of public time and money, for some to think more and talk less. I am not in the habit of public speaking, not being mechanically bred to it; I nevertheless offer my mite in support of the proposed system. It is a great project; and although not fluent of speech, yet I am willing to be tested by my votes and actions, from the year 1776, the time I commenced my political career, to the present day; and I defy any man to say that I ever gave other than a republican vote, or did any other than a republican act, while acting as a public man. I know the word republican is with some a hackneyed word; but I mean the true electric principles of Republican Government. I went young into the army myself, I was never out of it, after I entered it, until the conclusion of the war. I have been thirty-two years in public life. I mention this to show that I am entitled to claim a knowledge of mankind.
You may exercise your militia from the age of eighteen, till they arrive at forty-five, and after the whole twenty-seven years mustering they will not know the manual. My object is not to call out any man until he is wanted; and when they are wanted, to call them out, and in one fortnight they will be ready for service, and in a month may take the field, already soldiers—comparatively speaking. There will attend this system no expense in time of peace. I have seen a number of projects for taking legions into camp for six months at a time. The project will not do. When you take your men to the field, let them think of nothing else but fighting—not even of women. These half-way soldiers, half regulars and half militia, would be of no account. They would be a heterogeneous mass, fit for neither the one thing nor the other.[56]
Wednesday, January 20.
General Wilkinson.
The President’s Answer to the House Resolutions.
The Message from the President of the United States was then read, as follows:
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
Some days previous to your resolutions of the thirteenth instant, a Court of Inquiry had been instituted at the request of General Wilkinson, charged to make the inquiry into his conduct which the first resolution desires, and had commenced their proceedings. To the Judge Advocate of that court, the papers and information on that subject, transmitted to me by the House of Representatives, have been delivered, to be used according to the rules and powers of that court.
The request of a communication of any information which may have been received at any time since the establishment of the present Government, touching combinations with foreign agents for dismembering the Union, or the corrupt receipt of money by any officer of the United States from the agents of foreign governments, can be complied with but in a partial degree.
It is well understood that, in the first or second year of the Presidency of General Washington, information was given to him relating to certain combinations with the agents of a foreign Government for the dismemberment of the Union; which combinations had taken place before the establishment of the present Federal Government. This information, however, is believed never to have been deposited in any public office, or left in that of the President’s Secretary; these having been duly examined; but to have been considered as personally confidential, and therefore retained among his private papers. A communication from the Governor of Virginia to President Washington, is found in the office of the President’s Secretary, which, although not strictly within the terms of the request of the House of Representatives, is communicated, inasmuch as it may throw some light on the subjects of the correspondence of that time, between certain foreign agents and citizens of the United States.