The Congressional Globe, Volume 13, Part 2: Twenty-Eighth Congress, First Session Page: 21
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A ug. 1842.
APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE.
2t
27th Cong "2d Sess.
Army Appropriation Bill—Mr. J. C. Edwards.
H. of Reps.
their means of living comfortably, and acquiring
wealth and happiness, and the means of enjoying
liberty—the things which men should fight for. In
short, give a people those things worth fighting for,
and that people will defend their rights; but oppress
them, and then no matter into whose hands they
may fall, or what name their Government may bear,
they will be alike indifferent to its support. Oppress
them, and they will fight against their Government—
against the very army and navy created for the osten-
sible purpose of defending them.
The proposition before us is not to dispense with,
but to reduce, the army; and in proportion as we re-
duce, so in the same proportion shall we be reliev-
ed of the burdens of the army and the navy. If we
reduce one half, then our relief will be (say) ten mil-
lions annually. But instead of reducing, we are
constantly increasing. When we were young, and
weak, and in danger, we had but a small army and
a small navy; but now that we are older and strong-
er, and farther removed from danger, and better
able to defend ourselves, we are constantly increas-
ing our army and navy, and multiplying our ex-
penses. We have a manufactory of officers, kept
constantly in operation, and at public expense, turn-
ing out her hundreds annually to be fastened upon
the treasury of the nation.
"In peace we should prepare for war." This is
a sound maxim, and I give it my constant and ihost
hearty support. But men may well differ as to the
best mode of preparing for war in time of peace.
Marching and countermarching a regular army, at a
vast expense to the people in time of peace, renders
us no service, and is not the mode of preparing for
war. After this work is done, the country looks
just as it did before, and has received not one
particle of improvement or benefit. Ploughing
up the ocean backwards and forwards with our
navy, at vast expense to the people, in time of
peace, renders no service whatever to the country.
After all this work is done, the ocean looks just as
did before—not a furrow remains; our interests
abroad stand just as they were before the work be-
gan; and the condition of the tax-paying people is
neither improved nor benefited a particle. In time
of peace we should not spend, but accumulate—
husband our resources—lay up provisions for war—
we should prepare arms and ammunitions of war—
construct forts and arsenals—improve our country—
open the channels for concentrating forces at the
points of probable attack—we should supply our
navy-yards with materials for building ships;—all
these preparations for war we should make in time
of peace. Men to fight for our country, when the
country calls for their services, will spring up all
over the land, and everywhere from the ocean. And
in the event of war, it will be found that the farmers
and the mechanics must do most of the fighting by
land, and those engaged in the commerce of the
country most of the fighting by sea. Our regular
army and our regular navy will be of little service
then. Men long accustomed to idleness generally
become unfit for service of any kmd. Such will be
the case with our army and our navy.
But, in order to be prepared for war, we are now
pressing ourselves to death with taxes in time of
peace. An average of thirty millions of dollars
does not defray the expenses of the army and navy
and civil branch of this Government. The expense
of collecting this thirty millions of dollars is a tax
upon the people at large, of at least thirty millions
more. Not counting the cost of collecting the rev-
enue, the expenses of the Federal Government are
eight or ten times greater than the expenses of all
the twenty-six State Governments together. This
■enormous tax is grinding the people to death, and
disqualifying and unfitting them for giving their
country a proper defence in time of war; and by
impoverishing the people, this enormous tax is im-
poverishing the State Governments too, and dis-
qualifying them, and unfitting tliem for improving
their territories and opening such channels of com-
munication between the interior and exterior of our
country, as might be needful for the purpose of
commerce in time of peace, and useful for concen-
trating troops and military stores in time of war.
Let us grow and flourish, and improve in time of
peace. This is the way to prepare for war.
We are exhausting all our resources for no pur-
pose. Last year we expended (say) seven millions
on our army, and eight millions on our navy.
What have we reaped from those expenditures?
We shall expend next year (say) five millions
an our army, and ten millions on our navy.
liVTiat benefit ijshaU we reap from these ex-
penditures? Our army has nothing to do. What
service can our navy render us ? Will they
catch a pirate? If they do, that will surely be
something done for ten millions of dollars expend-
ed. But I doubt whether or not they will catch
even one pirate. Will our navy enable us to sell
another hogshead of tobacco? We sell our tobacco
at home, or to those abroad, who buy without
force. Will our navy open to us a market for
another bale of cotton? We sell our cotton already,
wherever it is wanting. Will our navy show us
where we call sell another barrel of pork, or beef, or
flour, or rice, or another ton of hemp? Surely not.
But the officers of the army and navy use an argu-
ment here, which they consider of some force.
They tell us "that the people do not lose by sup-
porting and increasing the army and navy; that the
army and navy give us an additional market for our
surplus^productions; and that all the money which
we give to the army and navy they give back to us
again, for the products of our labor." As there
may be something in this, let us inquire into the
operation. Nothing makes a matter clearer than to
trace it from its root upwards.
In the first place, then, we work to make meal,
flour, pork and beef, hemp, cotton, and tobacco.
These things we sell for money. This money ire
give for merchandise, on which forty per cent,
tariff has been collected. In buying our merchan-
dise, then, we pay sixty per cent, cost, and forty
per cent. tax. We get, in merchandise, then, six-
tenths only of the value of our money; and four-
tenths go for revenue. We get six yards of cloth,
instead of ten. Four-tenths of our money goes into
the treasury of the United States. The treasury
pays this money to the officers of the army and na-
ny, not for the meal, flour, pork and beef, hemp,
cotton and tobacco, which they have made by "the
sweat of their brows;" but, according to the argu-
ment used by them, "for being a market to buy
our surplus products." We worked for the money.
The officers of the army and navy get it without
work. In this our conditions differ. But they urge
"that they give the money back to us." In what
manner? By what process does it get back? If the
money ever gets back to the people, it is only by
a reproduction and a resale of their meal, flour, pork
and beef, hemp, cotton and tobacco. They must
work for it a second time, before it gets back to
them. Even then they get but little, if any of it,
from the officers of the army and navy. They do
not buy our meal, flour, pork or beef, hemp, cotton
or tobacco. Not at all. The Government supplies
them with the necessaries of life; and she does this
by a further drain upon our pockets, in the shape
of her forty-per-cent. tariff. We are taxed to pay
our officers; and instead of paying their salaries
back to us for provisions, as urged by them, we are
further taxed to pay for their provisions also. Be-
sides paying then* salaries, we are taxed to pay for
their rations. What becomes of the money poured
out to the army and navy, it is not our business to
inquire. After we have bestowed it on them, they
have a right to expend it as they please. That to
the navy may be expended mostly m foreign ports.
One thing is certain: it does not return from
the officers to the people for their meal, flour,
pork and beef, or their hemp, cotton and to-
bacco. But our navy opens to us no other mar-
kets of any value. If other nations want our
products, they will buy them without the presence
of a navy to cram them down their throats. If they
do not want them, we have no right to force them
to take them. And if we had, we are paying more
for our navy than any markets they can open to us
will be worth, clear of expenses. And if a navy
should be useful in forcing markets for us, we do
not want one costing ten millions annually in time
of peace. A navy costing five millions would an-
swer all our purposes. I would be content with
one costing only half the latter t>um.
But our aimy and navy arc too large for a peace
establishment; and they are costing us too much;
and much of the money expended on them might be
much better applied, even for the purpose of defend-
ing ourselves. The army of the United States is
costing the people from five to eight millions of dol-
lais annually, not counting the expense of collect-
ing the revenue. At but five millions of dollars an-
nually, in twenty years, our army will cost us one
hundrod millions of dollars. For what good11 What
shall we get in return for this one hundred millions
of dollars? We have every prospect of peace, but
no prospect of war during that time. Then could
not to 0116 hundred millions of dollars, or, if we
11 disband, say but one half of the army; then could
not one half of this immense sum be much better ap-
plied, even for the purpose of defending the country,
than by expending it on an army employed in idle-
ness? We should not leave our country defenceless;
but keeping up an army, and paying officers and
soldiers to live and die in peace, is no way of de-
fending a country. It is a sure mode of ruining a
country.
It will be folly to flatter ourselves with the idea
that our army has the effect of keeping foreign na-
tions in awe and at peace with us. It is not the
handful of drones preying upon the great hive which
commands the awe and respect of foreign nations,
but the seventeen millions within that great hive,
busily engaged m labor and toil, with muscles
and sinews and nerves hardened and strengthened
by long and constant use. These command the
awe and the respect and the admiration of the
world; and the buzzing of these, should this great
hive be invaded, will be an earthquake in the ears
of the invader. The drones will be about as use-
less then as now.
Our army, at the cost of five millions annually,
costs one hundred millions in twenty years, count-
ing neither interest on the outlay, nor the cost of
collecting the revenue. A portion (at least one-
half of this vast sum) might be so applied as to
contribute infinitely more towards the defenee of our
country than by squandering it on idle officers and
soldiers. The construction of arms—the casting of
cannon—the building of forts, depots, and arsenals—
the distribution of arms among the militia,—all these
things would be permanent and laeting preparations
for the defence of the country; and all these things
can be done at a trifling cost compared with that of
supporting a regular army. They can be done for
a mere drop in the bucket, compared with the ocean
of money we are spending.
Our advance since the acquisition of Louisiana,
and particularly since the late war, furnishes an in-
stance which will illustrate one mode in which a por-
tion of this enormous expenditure might be better
applied, even for the purpose of defending the coun-
try, than by supporting an army in time of peace.
Wvhen the Territory of Louisiana was first acquired,
and for some years afterwards, the ordinary keels—
the boats then in use—required six months to make
a trip between New Orleans and St. Louis. At St.
Louis, on the arrival of a keel, half the city would
assemble on the wharf to welcome the return of the
daring voyagers. In 1813, troops from Kentucky
and Tennessee descended the Mississippi in flat
boats to defend the city of New Orleans against the
invasion of the British, and, with the advantage of
the current, their oars, and plenty of hands to work
them, they were able to make but four miles an
hour. If 1 am not mistaken, the first steamboat
which ever descended the Mississippi went from
Pittsburg the same year, with seven hundred stand
of arms, without flints, which were supplied at New
Orleans by the pirate Lafitte. This boat made but
seven miles an hour. In 1827, and perhaps earlier,
and for some years afterwards, the improvements in
the steam engine, the increased skill of the engineers
and pilots, and the improvements in the models of
the vessels themselves, enabled the steamboats to
make the trips between St. Louis and New Orleans
in from twelve to fifteen days. This was probably
the highest point to which skill could increase their
speed. After reaching this point, a very small
amount of money, compared with an army appro-
priation, was appropriated by Congress to improve
the navigation of the Mississippi river. Many of
the most dangerous snags were removed, the chan-
nel was considerably improved, and some cut-offs
were made; and now trips between St. Louis and
New Orleans—a distance of twelve hundred and
twenty-five miles—can be made in the incredibly
short period of less than five days. This is a vast
improvement on the trips of six months with the
keels, and thirty days with the flat boats. _ Troops
and munitions of war, from almost any point in the
great Valley of the Mississippi liver, can now be
concentrated for the defence of New Orleans at a
week's notice. And even this short time can be
shortened, by further improvements in our great
navigable rivers. One million of dollars, properly
applied, would sweep their channels of obstructions
from the highest navigable points now in use to
their mouth, and render their navigation safe, easy,
and expeditious for the transportation of troops and
munitions of war in case of invasion, or produce or
merchandise in time of peace. An expenditure of
one million of dollars to improve our great rivers
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United States. Congress. The Congressional Globe, Volume 13, Part 2: Twenty-Eighth Congress, First Session, book, 1844; Washington D.C.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth2368/m1/31/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.