V. 
 
 REMARKS 
 
 J 
 
 or 
 
 JOHN Pi HALE, OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, 
 
 ON 
 
 THE INCREASE OF THE ARMY. 
 
 In the United States Senate, January 26 and 28, and February 2, 1858. 
 
 January 26, 1858, Mr. HALE addressed the 
 Senate as follows ; 
 
 Mr. President, I beg to make a single 
 inquiry of the chairman of the Committee 
 on Finance. I have not the papers be- 
 fore me, and I desire to inquire from him 
 how much the Department asks for arrears 
 in the military service of the last year in 
 the deficiency bill. 
 
 Mr. HUNTER. No estimate has come 
 to me as yet. It has gone to the other 
 House ; and I am unable to inform him 
 precisely what is the estimate for defi- 
 ciencies. 
 
 Mr. HALE. I am told, but not officially, 
 and that was the reason why I put the 
 question to the honorable chairman of the 
 Committee on Finance, that it is very 
 nearly seven millions of dollars. The de- 
 ficiency which the Administration asks 
 for the War Department, for the military 
 service, is, I understand, $6,700,000. 
 We actually spent $19,426,000, and they 
 want about seven millions more, making 
 $26,000,000 for military service last year. 
 I have a little book here, and I find that 
 during the most expensive year of the 
 war with Great Britain, our military ex- 
 penditures never got up to $21,000,000, 
 and in the highest year of the Mexican 
 war, when we had, I think, nearly fifty 
 thousand men in the field, they never 
 reached to $36,000,000; but now, in a 
 time of profound peace, they amount to 
 $26,000,000. 
 
 The honorable Senator from Georgia is 
 a little mistaken in one respect. He 
 says that in these extravagant times tha 
 army will cost about a thousand dollars to 
 
 a man. They cost that when I first came 
 to Congress, fourteen or fifteen years ago. 
 I took occasion then to look at the total 
 military expenditures of the country, in- 
 cluding fortifications, &c., under the mil- 
 itary head, and they averaged one thou- 
 sand dollars a man. Now, we have got 
 up to about fifteen thousand men, and the 
 expenditures are about twenty-six million 
 dollars, making over fifteen hundred dol- 
 lars for every man in the service. Tiiis 
 bill proposes to raise about seven thou- 
 sand additional men, which will saddle 
 upon this Government a permanent annual 
 increase of expenditure of about twelve 
 million dollars. 
 
 The idea that the army will ever go 
 back, and grow smaller, as long as we have 
 money or credit to maintain it, is too ab 
 surd to be introduced by a sensible man 
 on this floor. There are no backward 
 tracks, when our Government begins to 
 expend money. You may have a war; it 
 makes no difference how expensive it is; 
 and you may have peace, and your ex- 
 penditures will go on increasing. We 
 •actually spent more money last year, ex- 
 clusive of any paytnent for the public debt, 
 than we ever spent in any year from the 
 beginning of the Government up to the 
 last yiar, by a very considerable amount. 
 The highest expenditures, exclusive of 
 payments of the public debt, during the 
 most expensive year of the war with Mex- 
 ico, did not come up to $54,000,000, but 
 last year we spent $72,000,000. Pass 
 this bill, and next year your expenses, in- 
 cluding what you pay, and what you get 
 trusted for, will be over a hundred million 
 

 dollars. I represent a people who are in 
 the habit of working hard for what little 
 money they get, and they are not willing 
 to vote away money unless there is an 
 absolute necessity for it. 
 
 What does the President want with this 
 army? Let me read a note that gives 
 definite and official information in regard 
 Id some matters about which some re- 
 murks have been made. I read from the 
 hist Army Register, on the forty-second 
 page : 
 
 " By the act of the iTth of June, 1850, ' to in- 
 crease the rank and file of the army,' &c., section 
 gevond, the President is authorized, whenever 
 the exigencies of the service require it, to in- 
 crease to seventy-four the number of privates in 
 any company ' serving at the several military 
 po3t8 on the Western frontier, and at remote and 
 distant stations.' In the table, the minimum or 
 lixed organization is given, viz : fifty privates to 
 H company of dragoons, sixty-four to a company 
 of light artillery and riflemen, and forty-two to 
 the artillery and infantry. Under the authority 
 vested in him, the President has directed that the 
 number of privates be carried up to seventy-four 
 in the several companies serving in the penin- 
 sula of Florida, and on the islands adjacent to 
 it ; in Kansas, Nebraska, Utah, Texas, New Mex- 
 ico, California, Oregon, and Washington Terri- 
 tories ; as well as in those stationed at Forts 
 Snelling and Ripley, on the upper Mississippi ; 
 Fort Ridgely, on the Minnesota river ; and Fort 
 Arbuckle, on Wild Horse creek. There being 
 one ktindred and eighty-three companies serving at, 
 (11- ill route to, these distant stations, the author- 
 ized increase in the number of privates is five 
 thousand two hundred and twenty-eight, ma- 
 king the ' total enlisted ' (as the troops are now 
 posted, or in route) seventeen thousand and 
 Bixty-six, and the ' aggregate,' eighteen thousand 
 one hundred and fifty-one. If all the companies 
 belonging to ' regiments ' (one hundred and 
 ninety-eight) were serving at the distant stations 
 described, the additional number of privates al- 
 lowed would then be five thousand six hundred 
 Hud siity-four ; thus increasing the ' total enlist- 
 ed' to seventeen thousand five hundred and two, 
 stud I he 'aggregate' to eighteen thousand five 
 hundred and eighty-seven." 
 
 So, sir, according to this statement, we 
 have now actually an army of eighteen 
 thousand men, or laws in ibrce by which 
 it may be raised to that number. I have 
 been a little laughed at once in the Senate, 
 and I am willing to be laughed at again, 
 for repeating, as the solemn conviction of 
 my understanding, a lesson of wisdom 
 which the fathers of my native State in- 
 scribed on the first Constitution they ever 
 wrote, and which, I hope in God, will 
 ramaia as long as we have a Constitu- 
 
 tion — that standing armies are dangerous 
 to liberty. I tell you, sir, that an army of 
 eighteen thousand men, or twenty-five 
 thousand men, as this bill proposes to 
 make it, with the means of transportation 
 with the rapidity of lightning, by means 
 of railroads, from one end of the country 
 to the other, is a force equal to what it 
 would have been in olden times, if we had 
 one or two hundred thousand men. The 
 President can, if he pleases, concentrate 
 them at any point, at any moment, and for 
 any purpose. I do not know how it is, but 
 the law has been so construed that these 
 armies are called, I believe, a posse, and 
 under the name of a posse he can trans- 
 port them to any place, for any purpose 
 he chooses. It is a significant fact to my 
 mind, that he has undertaken to use this 
 army at elections. Not long ago, there 
 was a call made to have a portion of his 
 posse go to Baltimore, and see that the 
 elections were regularly carried on there. 
 I believe, however, it was not thought 
 prudent for them to go, and they did no 
 go ; but he did have a posse in the city of 
 Washington, to carry on an election ; and 
 no small portion of this force — ih'x'a posse — 
 has been employed and is now being em- 
 ployed to illustrate "perfect freedom " and 
 " popular sovereignly" in Kansas. 
 
 I have an official table before me, by 
 which I find that in the first quarter of 
 1855, three hundred and twenty-one men 
 were considered sufficient to carry out 
 popular sovereignty in Kansas. The next 
 quarter, they went up to nine hundred and 
 twelve ; and the first quarter of 1856, we 
 had got up to one thousand and eighty- 
 six men to carry out popular sovereignty 
 in Kansas, and leave the people thereof 
 " perfectly free." Then we come to the 
 first quarter of 1857, and at that time 
 "perfect freedom" required a force of one 
 thousand three hundred and forty-two men 
 in Kansas. They so continued until the 
 commencement of the fourth quarter of 
 1857, which I suppose was about the 1st 
 of October last. About that time, there 
 was an election in Kansas ; and the peo- 
 ple of Kansas manifested what their ideas 
 were of popular sovereignty and perfect 
 freedom, by putting the President's forces 
 into a very small minority, and electing a 
 Free State Legislature, and a Free State 
 Delegate to Congress, by an overwhelming 
 majority ! and immediately upon that, the 
 
3 
 
 Federal army is raised from one thousand 
 six hundred and seventy-three to two thou- 
 sand five hundred and sixteen men in 
 Kansas. That is what the President needs 
 this army for — to carry out " popular sov- 
 ereignty"' and "perfect freedom!" I 
 think a force of eighteen thousand men is 
 quite enough to do that; and I think that 
 $26,000,000, in a time of profound peace, 
 is enough to spend upon an army in this 
 country, particularly as long as we have 
 to borrow the money to do it with. Bor- 
 lowing money in order to raise men for 
 such a purpose, I am utterly opposed to. 
 I believe that if there is a difficulty in 
 Utah, the army is three times large enough 
 to attend to it. 
 
 I am sorry to disagree with a man who 
 is so perfectly competent to express an 
 opinion on these matters as the honorable 
 Senator from Mississippi is, but I differ 
 from him entirely in the view which he 
 presents, that our difficulties are owing to 
 the fact that we have so few soldiers amonof 
 the Indians. I believe the difficulty is, 
 that we have had any troops among them. 
 I think it has been provoked by the mili- 
 tary display which has been made among 
 them, and the conduct of some of the 
 men, either among the volunteers or the 
 regulars, that have been stationed among 
 the Indians. I do not speak without the 
 book, on this subject. Anybody who will 
 read the history of the Oregon and Wash- 
 ington Indian war, given by General Wool, 
 (though I believe, as a matter of private 
 history, the honorable Senator from Mis- 
 sissippi would not regard that as the high- 
 est authority,) will see what it is that pro- 
 vokes Indian hostilities on our frontiers. 
 You will see there, according to the ac- 
 count of General Wool, that an Indian 
 chief who came into the American camp 
 with a flag of truce, offering, if any injury 
 had been committed by his people, to make 
 compensation and reparation in cattle or 
 in money, was told that he had better go 
 home and fight. They finally provoked 
 hostilities, and took this chief who came 
 in with a flag of truce, murdered him in 
 the American camp, cut him into pieces, 
 and sent the pieces around to different 
 quarters of the Territory. That is a state- 
 ment under the hand of General Wool. 
 
 Now, sir, I believe that the experiment 
 which was made in olden times with the: 
 Indians, by the Quaker Penn, has been ! 
 
 the best and wisest Indian policy which 
 has ever been adopted. If the Indiana 
 are treated like men, I will not say with 
 kindness, but with justice, you will be 
 troubled with no Indian war. I am sorry 
 that I do not see in his seat the veteran 
 and honorable and gallant Senator from 
 Texas, [Mr. Houston,] who knows so 
 much in regard to the Indian, and who 
 has so often, in his place on the floor of 
 the Senate, expressed sentiments similar 
 to those which I have here expressed. 
 He has said, in regard to Indian hostili- 
 ties, that whenever the blame is traced to 
 its foundation and its source, it has been 
 found to be with the whites, and not with 
 the Indians. If we return to a policy of 
 peace and justice to the Indians, that is 
 all that is wanted. 
 
 I do not profess to know much about 
 this Mormon war. I will say in the out- 
 set, however, that I do not believe in it, 
 nor in the necessity for the tremendous 
 expenditure that is being made. I believe 
 that if commissioners had been sent to 
 precede the army, they would have super- 
 seded the necessity for sending the army. 
 
 Again, the honorable Senator from 
 Georgia says we have not declared war 
 against the Mormons. Has he forgotten 
 our modern history? He is well versed 
 in ancient history ; but has he forgotten 
 our modern history? Did we ever de- 
 clare war against Mexico? No, sir; but 
 I will tell you what we did declare. We 
 declared ^that war existed by the act of 
 Mexico. We may declare by and by that 
 war exists by the act of Brigham Young ; 
 and if it be repeated as many times in a 
 Presidential message as the other state- 
 ment was, that war was commenced by 
 the act of Mexico, it will get to be a part 
 of our history; and a man who shall doubt 
 that war was commenced by Brigham 
 Young will be no better than an alien and 
 a heathen. 
 
 I shall vote for this amendment, and I 
 shall go for any other amendment that is 
 proposed, which will limit or restrict the 
 number. I shall support the amendment 
 which I understand my honorable friend 
 [Mr. Seward] proposes to oflfier, that 
 these troops shall be limited to the special 
 necessity which calls for them ; and when 
 that ceases, they shall cease to exist. I 
 shall go for every amendment that will cut 
 the array down to what the honorable 
 
Senator from Mississippi calls it — a skel-i Document No. 56 of the Senate, of the 
 eton. I shall want to reduce it to a skel- Thirty-fourth Congress, third session, in 
 eton, ?nd I shall go against the skeleton which there is a recapitulation of the ap- 
 after'that. I shall go°against the whole propriations made last year; and in that 
 
 recapitulation I find this item: "Army, 
 fortihcalions, and Military Academy, 
 $19,426,190.41 ; " the precise sum which 
 I stated the other day, omitting the frac- 
 tions of dollars and cents. I hold in my 
 hand another document, of which I pro- 
 pose to read a page, and then leave the 
 subject. I now read from Miscellaneous 
 Document No. 22 of the House of Rep- 
 resentatives of the present session, enti- 
 tled, "Deficiencies in Quartermaster's 
 Department : " 
 
 Quartermaster General's Office, 
 
 Washington, January 6, 1858. 
 
 Sir : As I bad occasion to state in my report, 
 
 dated 21st of November, tbat large appropriations 
 
 would be required for deficiencies in the present 
 
 year, on account of transportation and other army 
 
 bill. 
 
 The accuracy of the foregoing statement of the I 
 military expenses of the last year having been ; 
 questioned in a city newspaper of the following 
 day, on the 28th of January Mr. HALE again 
 spoke as follows : 
 
 Mr. President, with the consent of the 
 Senator from Georgia, who is entitled to 
 the floor, I rise to a statement which I 
 wish to correct. The day before yester- 
 day I stated, in my place, some facts with 
 reference to the expenditures of the army, 
 and the appropriations asked for in the 
 deficiency bill, in these words, as they are 
 reported ; and I believe they are reported 
 accurately : 
 
 ' The deficiency which the Administration asks 
 
 for the War Department, for the military service, expenditures, made by the laws and regulations 
 
 is, I understand, $6,700,000. We actually spent through the Quartermaster's department, I have 
 
 $19,426,000, and they want about seven million made a thorough investigation of all the busi- 
 
 dollars more, making $26,000,000 for military negj as well as military operations of the depart- 
 
 Fervice last year." ment, and have found that, from the vast extent 
 
 That is the statement which is quoted of those operations, the deficiency to be supplied 
 
 . ^\^ir.A ;„ iK;^. n\fi, ,>q11o/) is greater than I had believed it would be at the 
 in a newspaper prmted in this city, called ^^ 
 
 the Washington Union, which, I believe, is 
 the organ of the Administration, of the 
 Supreme Court, and of the Lecompton 
 Convention. I do not often notice at- 
 tacks from such quarters, when they relate 
 to myself personally ; but as this relates to 
 a matter connected with the public ser- 
 vice, and the accuracy of my statement is 
 questioned, I beg leave to lay two docu- 
 ments before the Senate. The writer goes 
 on to say : 
 
 " It is surprising that a member of the august 
 Senate of the United States should consent to 
 commit himself to statements like these — state- 
 ments disclosing either inexcusable ignorance of 
 the subject in hand, or else a most callous indif- 
 ference to fact and truth." 
 
 Then he follows with about a column 
 of twaddle, which, I suppose, he meant 
 for wit ; but I think he will have to explain 
 it to anybody, to get it understood as such. 
 Then he comes to this statement: 
 
 " The Senator, therefore, has made the slight 
 mistake of $5,000,000 in his statement of the 
 aggregate expenses of the army for the year. In- 
 stead of $26,000,000, the charge is $21,000,000; 
 and of this charge, nearly seven millions are 
 asked to meet the extraordinary exigency of the 
 Utah rebellion." 
 
 I hold in ray hand, sir, Miscellaneous 
 
 date of my report. 
 
 It is ascertained that a deficiency existed at 
 the close of last year, which has been a charge 
 upon the present year, of about $1,000,000; in 
 addition to which, the extensive operations against 
 the Cheyennes and other Indian tribes, and the 
 extensive arrangements for the operations in 
 Utah, have exhausted the appropriations for the 
 present year so far, that there is not a sufficient 
 balance'in the Treasury to fill the estimates now 
 on my table, for December ; and the whole bal- 
 ance in the hands of disbursing officers will not 
 be sufficient for the service for one half of the 
 present month. Appropriations will therefore be 
 required to carry the service through the year, 
 and to make the large outfit for the operations 
 in Utah for the following objects, viz : 
 For regular supplies, including fuel, forage, straw, 
 
 and stationery 
 Mounts and remounts 
 Incidental expenses - 
 Barracks and quarters 
 Army transportation - 
 
 Making 
 
 $778,000 
 
 - 252,000 
 
 - 190,000 
 80,000 
 
 - 5,400,000 
 
 - 6,700,000 
 
 deficiencies, and for the service in Utah, taking 
 the army as it is, and limiting the expenditures 
 to operations already determined on, as they 
 have been communicated to me. 
 
 Should operations be carried on from the Pa- 
 cific, or should a larger force be sent from this 
 side, an increase in the appropriation in propor- 
 tion to the increased force will be required. 
 
 I will have all the details ready to submit to 
 you, 60 soon as they can be fairly copied, which 
 
5 
 
 make the several aggregate amounts above stated 
 to be necessary. 
 
 I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, 
 your obedient servant, TIL S. JESUP, 
 
 Quartermaster General. 
 Hon. John B. Floyd, . 
 
 Secretary of War, Washington, D. C. 
 
 Having the figures with me, I leave the 
 wit to the editor. 
 
 On the 2d of February following, Mr. Skwaud 
 having expressed his purpose to vole for the bill, 
 Mr. HALE again addressed the Senate, as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 Mr. President, it is with great reluc- 
 tance that I throw myselfon the indulgence 
 of the Senate for a iew moments; for I 
 had hoped not again to feel the necessity 
 of trespassing on the patience of the Sen- 
 ate; but I am impelled by a sense of duty 
 to say a word or two, after the remarks 
 which have fallen from the Senator from 
 New York. He will not deem me unkind, 
 if I say that I have listened with extreme 
 pain and di-appointmentand mortification 
 to the speech which he has made — a pain 
 scarcely less than that with which I heard 
 the great statesman of Now England, 
 Daniel Webster, some eight years ago, 
 with the ripe honors of nearly three score 
 and ten years, bring himself and his fame 
 and his reputation, and lay them down as 
 an offering at the footstool of the slave 
 power, to find himself used and spurned 
 afterwards. This is no question of detail, 
 no matter of unimportant legislation ; but 
 it is a deep, vital, fundamental question, 
 that must divide the people of this coun- 
 try, and must rally the friends of free, in- 
 dependent, and liberal Government on the 
 one side, and the supporters of power on 
 the other. 
 
 Sir, the (juestion of increasing the mil- 
 itary power has been a question which has 
 divided the friends and the opponents of 
 free government in all times; and the ex- 
 perience of forty centuries speaks to us, 
 in characters of blood, lessons of warning 
 upon this great question. Let me say that 
 the army which this bill proposes is no 
 small, no insignificant, no unimportant 
 force. It will, if completed according to 
 the terms of the bill, be equal to twenty- 
 five thousand men. Give me a President 
 disposed to use that military force, in or- 
 der to coerce the people of these States to 
 his purposes, and with the command of 
 the Federal Treasury, and with the means 
 
 of concentration which our multiplied sys^ 
 tern of railroads and steamboats furnishesf 
 and he can come like the lightning o 
 heaven at any moment, with this concen- 
 trated and tremendous power, upon any 
 State, or upon any portion of the people 
 that he chooses. 
 
 I do not desire to go to the Departments ; 
 I do not wish to go to the Secretary of 
 War, or to the President, or to anybody 
 else, to tell me what he wants M'ilh this 
 army. Here I will do all credit to the dis- 
 tiniTuished gentleman who has charfje of 
 the bill, the chairman of the Committee 
 on Military Affairs, [Mr. Davis.] He tells 
 us it is not for Utah ; it i.s for no pressing 
 emergency ; it is for nothing of to-day ; it 
 is not to be used to meet the dangers 
 which now environ us, and then to be laid 
 aside ; but he wants it for a permanent in- 
 crease of the standing army of this coun- 
 try. The use to which this standing army 
 is to be put is exemplified by the use which 
 is now made of it in the Territory of Kan- 
 sas. Two thousand five hundred troops 
 are kept there ; and the honorable Sena- 
 tor from New York says he would not vote 
 for an increase, if he thought they would 
 be sent there. Sir, if I may be indulged 
 in quoting a remark of a very illustrious 
 and very distinguished patriot and orator 
 of the Revolution, I would say that I have 
 no light to guide my path except that of 
 experience ; and the experience of the 
 past year, the experience of the present 
 moment, tells me to what uses the army is 
 to be put. 
 
 Here let me say, that while that most 
 dangerous, that most fallacious, that most 
 monstrous doctrine, which has lately been 
 broached and practiced upon upon by the 
 Executive of this country, that, under the 
 general power to see the laws faithfully 
 executed, he has a right to call out at his 
 will the army and the navy, under the name 
 of a posse ; while that doctrine is pro- 
 claimed and acted upon, it is not a time 
 for me, however it may be for others, to 
 strengthen the hands of a man who is dis- 
 posed to use the power conferred for such 
 purposes and on such authority. 1 deny 
 here, utterly and totally and forever, that 
 he has any such right ; and I say that it is 
 a usurpation, a dangerous, an alarming, a 
 fatal one — one that, if it be tolerated by 
 this Government, will bury our liberties 
 beyond the reach of resurrection. No, 
 
sir; we cannot stand it. There is not a 
 crowned head in Europe that would desire 
 a greater pow(;r over the standing army ot 
 his realm than to make him the guardian 
 to see that the laws are faithfully executed, 
 and under that grant to have power to call 
 in the army to do it. Sir, is it a time for 
 me, is it a time for my friends, is it a time 
 for the distinguished Senator from New 
 York, upon whom the eyes and the hearts 
 of the friends of Liberty have centered and 
 clustered, when such dangerous and fatal 
 and damnable doctrines are proclaimed 
 and practiced upon by the Executive of 
 the United States, to vote seven thousand 
 extra men to him? No, sir; it is not for 
 me, however it may be for others. 
 
 The honorable Senator refers to the ex- 
 perience of two years ago, when the Gov- 
 ernment was brought to a dead lock, and 
 when, he says we were not so strong as 
 we are now. We were not then so strong 
 on this floor as we are now ; but we are 
 not so strong now but that our strength 
 is weakness; for we are but a third of 
 this body, with a majority of two thirds 
 against us; and we were stronger then in 
 the House of Representatives than we are 
 to-day, by a very considerable number. 
 What was the result of that dead lock? 
 Why, the President said it was his duty to 
 see that the laws were faithfully executed, 
 and he issued his proclamation immedi- 
 ately, called Congress together, and kept 
 them until they became subservient to his 
 purposes. That is the history of that dead 
 lock, and I do not doubt the President 
 would like such another, with the same 
 result. 
 
 In the history of my political life, I have 
 seen a time when I stood solitary and 
 alone, the representative of the views 
 which I entertain. I have looked with 
 joy, with gladness, with gratitude, to the 
 increasing hosts that have rallied around 
 our banner in the free States, until the 
 Democratic party has been stricken down 
 in the large majority of them. I have 
 seen these accretions made to our ranks 
 with gratitude, but I have seen, also, other 
 men coming to our ranks, who might 
 have relieved me from a position which I 
 occupied with reluctance, and that was 
 to be the representative of this party when 
 it was nothing but a sentiment, and when 
 political power was not even among its 
 dreams. But, sir, when a new star is 
 
 dawning; when light is beaming in upon 
 us; when one party has been shattered so 
 that its history may be written among the 
 things of the past, and when from its ruins 
 and Its wrecks we were building up a new 
 fortress to storm the battlements of the 
 heretofore impregnable Democracy — at 
 such a time as this, it does fill my heart 
 with pain, and my mind with fearful ap- 
 prehensions, when I see any one upon 
 whom I have looked with the hope that 
 he might lead great hosts to the consum- 
 mation of their hopes and their wishes, 
 halting upon a question which, in my hum- 
 ble apprehension, is fundamental, vital, and 
 characterizes the whole controversy. 
 
 We must come to an issue on this sub- 
 ject. The history of the Republics that 
 have lived and gone down is full of warn- 
 ing on this subject. We are apt to boast 
 of what we are, and of what we have 
 done, and to look back on our history 
 with exultation and pride. Why, sir, we 
 are not yet one hundred years old. The 
 Republic of Rome lived more than six 
 hundred years, strong, conquering the 
 world, and adding new kingdoms to her 
 territory; but she at last fell, and her lib- 
 erties perished under the insidious policy 
 which converted her into a great military 
 power; until, at last, the imperial crown 
 was set up at auction, and knocked off to 
 the highest bidder from the walls of the 
 Prajtorian camp. 
 
 I confess that upon this subject I have 
 very deep I'eelings ; for, if the party with 
 which are my hopes and my expectations 
 do not take ground against the increase 
 of the military power of this Go\ernment, 
 it will go down, and ought to ; and my 
 humble voice, and my humble services, 
 shall be found rallying the people to set 
 the seal of their condemnation upon a 
 party with great professions and high prin- 
 ciples, but, in my humble judgment, want- 
 ing in the carrying out of those measures 
 which their policy and their principles 
 should dictate. 
 
 If I had supposed that I should speak 
 on this subject to-day, I should have re- 
 ferred to an authority, and I should have 
 had the author by me. I was reading, 
 not long ago, an ancient history, in which, 
 speaking of the final destruction of the 
 Roman empire, the author said, that when- 
 ever the people began to get turbulent, 
 whenever there began to be danger of the 
 
agrarian law being carried, or any other 
 measure of popular liberty vindicated, it 
 was a favorite policy of the aristocracy lo 
 get up a foreign war ; " for," said the his- 
 torian, " in war the State is strong, and 
 factions weak." I believe that it is just 
 exactly that policy which dictated a for- 
 eign war whenever public liberty was in 
 danger of being vindicated in ancient 
 Rome, that dictates this Utah war now. 
 
 Let me ask, if I must go to that, where 
 is the evidence that the atfairs in Utah are 
 more threatening now than they were 
 when Brigham Young was Governor by 
 consent of President Pierce ? Are their 
 sentiments any more leprous, or their 
 practices any more abominable, now, than 
 they were then? Not that I know of. I 
 have seen no evidence that their depravity 
 or their principles have made progress 
 since that time, and I am utterly at a loss, if 
 this is an army lo go to Utah, to know of 
 any reason or any Jact which would justify 
 sending an army to Utah, when there is 
 not, so far as I am advised, any ditference 
 in the state of affairs now, from what there 
 was when they were basking in the sun- 
 shine of Executive favor. 
 
 The slate of affairs there, so far as I am 
 advised, is not different now from what it 
 was then. 
 
 The honorable Senator from New 
 York — I know he will not misinterpret 
 what I am saying — says that if he errs, it 
 will be a sale error. I should like to 
 make a very small addition there, and let 
 it read " unsafe," and I shall theu agree 
 with Ijjim entirely. It is an unsafe error. 
 It is an error that I fear cannot be re- 
 trieved. For several years past we have 
 been marching in the path of increasing 
 our army ; and it is avowed here on this 
 floor, that this bill provides for a perma- 
 nent increase. I see no backward steps. 
 I am like the cautious animal which, when 
 he was reproached for not going into the 
 sick lion's den to pay his respects to the 
 monarch, said he would have gone in, 
 but, as he looked around to see the tracks, 
 he found that they were all going in, and 
 none coming out. So it is with the in- 
 creases of the army; all the measures are 
 for increasing and none for decreasing it; 
 they are all one way; and I feel called 
 upon to take my stand here, and say I 
 will not vole another man or another dol- 
 lar to increase the expenses of the army, 
 
 The honorable Senator suggests another 
 thing which, it seems to me, has an in- 
 firmiiy about it which does not often at- 
 tach to suggestions or arguments that 
 come from his lips. He says we will 
 give them this army, and then we shall 
 have the power over them, because we 
 will not pay them if we are not satisfied 
 with the uses to which they are put; or 
 we can refuse the ])ay. So we can ; but 
 we can refuse the men much easier. The 
 argument is a great deal stronger for re- 
 fusing the men, than it will be for refusing 
 the pay after you have granted the men. 
 If we are going to exercise that whole- 
 some control over the Executive, which 
 in theory belongs to this body and the 
 body at the other end of the Capitol, here 
 is the place and now is the time to stop. 
 
 If things were twice as threatening as 
 the honorable Senator thinks they are in 
 Utah, let me ask you if we have not an 
 army more than four times sufficient for 
 all the emergencies ? I have heard it said 
 by those who pretend to know, and who, 
 I think, do know, that five thousand men 
 will be as many as you can possibly use 
 in Utah, even if there shall be a necessity 
 for them, which is not conceded. We 
 have an army now capable of being filled 
 up to eighteen thousand men, and I am 
 told, practically, it is fifteen thousand at 
 this moment. I do not know the neces- 
 sity of increasing the force beyond that, 
 when they will not want one third of that 
 force to put down the troubles in Utah. 
 
 Nor am I disposed to make very great 
 drafts on my confidence in behalf of the 
 manner in which this affair has been man- 
 aged thus far, from the accounts which I 
 have read, and which purport to be official 
 accounts of the manner in which the force 
 that is now on its way to Utah has been 
 precipitated there. Utterly regardless, if 
 you are to believe the accounts which have 
 come to us, of any single suggestion, not 
 only of military foresight, but of common 
 prudence, you have sent your men there 
 to sufler their beasts to die, and expose 
 them to the inclemencies of the winter, 
 where they are locked up in the moun- 
 tains. I think half the animals sent out 
 with them died from mere starvation and 
 the effects of cold. If this was a bill to 
 furnish the Executive with prudence and 
 discretion, I would vote liberal appropria- 
 tions; but it being a bill to increase the 
 
8 
 
 military force at a time when 1 think the 
 friends of Liberty should be jealous of in- 
 creasing it; and it being at a time when, 
 if the accounts that we read be true, there 
 has not been such conduct displayed as 
 should entitle them to our confidence, I 
 shall vote against it. 
 
 For these and many other reasons, I am 
 utterly opposed to the bill. Opposed as I 
 am to it, I should not have said a word if 
 there was not danger, from the position 
 which the distinguished Senator from New 
 York occupies, and justly occupies, in the 
 public estimation, that the words which 
 fell from his oracular lips might be sup- 
 
 posed to compromit or compromise feebler 
 and humbler men who sit at his feet. But 
 for that, I should not have ventured thus 
 openly, before the Senate and the country, 
 to dissent from what he has said ; but look- 
 ing upon it as I do, as a very dangerous 
 error, and one which I am ill prepared to 
 have go out under the sanction of his name 
 unchallenged, I have deemed it my duty, 
 in all the kindness that I entertain for him, 
 and all the profound respect that I feel for 
 him, thus publicly to differ from him on a 
 question which I consider vital and funda- 
 mental to the dearest and best interests of 
 the country. 
 
 1 
 
 Lit a 
 
 JS ■ 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 BUELL. & BLANCHARD, PRINTERS. 
 
 1858. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 012 605 246 7