but useless and extravagant scheme, of sending an army to the Yellow Stone River, fifteen hundred miles up the Missouri. They determined to check the recruiting service, which he was urging with as much ardour, as if a powerful enemy had invaded our shores, and was marching to Washington. And what was still more offensive, they adopted measures for reducing the army to six thousand men.

For these and similar offences, they have been stigmatized as Radicals, and denounced as enemies to the administration. The Secretary has made war upon them by every means in his power. A paper has been established at Washington, under his immediate patronage to write them down. He has pursued them into the remot est parts of the Union; and South Carolina is not the first nor the last state, in which his vindictive hand has been seen and felt.

At the commencement of the year 1817, the army in the aggregate, amounted to

There were recruited in that year 3,939

10,024.

This number added to the 12,481 amounts to 13,817 men lost to the army in three years. Of these probably about 3000 were discharged on the expiration of their terms of service; the remainder were lost by desertion and other casualties.

Mr. Calhoun required for the recruiting service of the year 1820 the sum of $183,925

Viz-for 5,000 recruits

Bounties at 12 Dollars each $60,000

Premiums at 2 Dollars each 10,000

For quarters, fuel, bunks, citizen sur

geons for examining the recruits and

attending the sick, fees for magistrates for qualifying recruits until organized for joining Regiments or Corps, at 22 78 1-2 per man

113,925183,925! These estimates appear from a letter, from the Adjutant and Inspector General to the Secretary of War, and by him communicated to the Senate of the United States on the 20th of March 1820.

The House of Representatives paid but little attention to the Secretary's estimates and instructions. They voted to appropriate for the whole recruiting service of that year, no more than 855,125, not one third part of what the Secretary required. This appears from the first section of the bill making appropriations for the military service for 1820, and which passed into a law on the 14th of April of that year. So much of the section as respects this appropriation is in these words, "For bounties and! premiums for fifteen hundred recruits, twenty-one thousand dollars. For fuel, straw, and all other expenses for recruits, until organized to join regiments and corps, thirty four thousand, one hundred and twenty five dollars."

On the 22nd of March, after this bill had passed the House of Representatives, and was depending before the Senate, the following letter from the Adjutant and Inspector General, was communicated to the Senate by the Secretary of War:

"Adjutant & Inspector General's Office,

March 11th, 1820.

SIR-It appears by the newspapers, that the House of Representatives voted only 21,000 Dollars for bounties and premiums, on account of the recruiting service of the year. This sum will only inlist 1500 men; less than the number actually lost by desertion during the last year. In the three last years more than 12,000 men have been enlisted; and still the aggregate of the army at the close of the last year did not exceed 9,000 men.

It is true, only 300 men are entitled to a discharge by the expiration of their term; still if the desertions and other casualties, should be as great as in former years, the army will not exceed 8,000 men at the close of the year, including the recruits which may be obtained, with 21,000 Dollars voted for that purpose.

I have the honor to be, Sir, your obedient servant,

"The SECRETARY OF WAR-"

"D. PARKER, Adj't. & Insp'r. Gen❜l."

This letter which the Secretary makes his own, by communicating it to the Senate, was evidently meant as

a severe reprimand upon the House of Representatives, for neglecting their duty; and an admonition to the Senate to attend to theirs, and amend the bill, so as to correspond with the wishes and instructions of the War Department. It shews too, that the Secretary perfectly understood that the House of Representatives had determined to authorize the recruiting of 1500 men and no more for the year 1820.

The Senate on this point were as refractory as the House of Representatives, and notwithstanding the instructions and admonitions of the Secretary and the utmost exertions of his friends, they passed the bill as it was sent to them. Congress had refused an appropriation for moving our troops from Council Bluffs to Yellow Stone, and were adopting measures for reducing our peace establishment. This was pressing very far upon the forbearance of the Secretary. But to limit the recruiting service, after the warning he had given, particularly to the Senate, was an evidence of marked disrespect, calculated to call forth all the energies of his character. Were his magnificent schemes to be defeated, his brilliant prospects to be obscured from the paltry consideration of saving a few thousand, or hundred thousand Dollars?

He bethought himself of all the great things that had been said of him in the public papers; He recollected, although it had not been formally announced, that "South Carolina had given to the nation, the ablest man that ever filled the War Department." He considered that it would be thought disgraceful in the army, that the greatest of all possible ecretaries, should yield to a parcel of Radicals in the two Houses of Congress. He reflected, that should this contumacy, particularly on the part of the Senate, be countenanced by the War Department, it would soon grow up into a spirit of mutiny, that it might be difficult to check.

Besides, some calculations alarmed the Secretary. If the army at the close of the year 1820, would amount to no more than 8000 men, including the,500, to be recruited by the authority of Congress, when in 1817, 1818 and 1819, there had been recruited 12,481 men, in four

years there would be a loss of sixteen thousand, including those discharged on the expiration of their term of service. It followed from this, that should the recruiting service be checked, the army in two years more would be reduced to a regiment, which would afford no apology for keeping in pay, nearly 700 commissioned officers; and might induce Congress to reduce the number of officers, which the Father of the Army ought in no wise to permit. And should any considerable portion of the officers of the army be dismissed, it might endanger the election of the army candidate; a calamity at all hazards to be avoided. Under such circumstances the ecretary did not long hesitate. He determined to recruit 1500 men by: the authority of Congress, and 1711 by the authority of the War Department Accordingly 3211 men were recruited for the service of the year 1820...

Whether Congress is to have any control over the recruiting service, or whether it is to depend upon the will of the Secretary of War, seems a question not yet settled. By the 8th section of the first article of the Constitution of the United States, Congress shall have power "to raise and support armies," under which they have presumed to regulate the recruiting service, both as to the amount of the appropriation, and as the number of men necessary for that service.

In the case of 1820, they were more explicit than usual; they expressly designated the number of men to be recruited. The words of the act are" for bounties and premiums for fifteen hundred recruits." In the act of the 29th of April 1816. the appropriation for the recruiting service is in these words: "For bounties and premiums, fiftysix thousand Dollars." In the act of the 3d of March 1817, "for bounties and prémiums, thirty-two thousand dollars?? In the act of the 19th February, 1818, "for bounties and premiums, forty-four thousand dollars." In the act of the 15th of February 1819, " for bounties and premiums, sixty-two thousand five hundred Dollars," without designating in any of these cases the number to be recruited. The number, however, was easily ascertained by calculation.

The unusual form of appropriation in this particular for the year 1820, was evidently meant as a limitation to the discretion previously exercised by the Secretary. And this precaution was by no means unnecessary, for in the year 1817, there were recruited 3939 men, and in the year 1818, 4238; although Congress meant to provide for the recruiting of no more than 2500 in the former year, and 3000 in the latter. The Secretary authorized' this excess of recruiting over the appropriations, probably under some usage of the War Department, by which he ventures to exceed the appropriations for any particular year, and fill up the ranks of the army as established by law, provided he can find unexpended bal nces that may be transferred to that service. And, it is possible, that in the last case of 1820, he thought himself, under the same principle, justified in disregarding the will of Con gress, expressed in direct terms.

By the peace establishment of 1815, the army was fixed at 10,000 men; but whether the ranks were to be kept full at all times or not, depended on the will of Con gress as they believed, and not upon that of the Secretary of War. If he had the right to recruit 1711 men in 1820, beyond the number for which Congress had made the appropriation. he would have had an equal right to recruit that number, even if Congress had made no appropriation whatever, for the recruiting service of that year..

The safety of the country requires that Congress should have the power of controlling the recruiting seruiee. In this case it was peculiarly important, for they had determined to reduce the army, and it did reduce it in the year following.

If the Secretary of War could thus recruit men at his pleasure, against the will of Congress, and they were bound to appropriate for the pay, subsistence, and clothing of such recruits; and if he could make contracts to the amount of millions of Dollars, for fortifications and other objects connected with the defence of the country, and impose upon Congress the obligation, to make the appropriations necessary for carrying such contracts into effect,