CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER. No. 14] TWELFTH CONGRESS.... FIRST SESSION. [Debates in Congress---Continued.]' [1811-12. IN SENATE, DECEMBER 17, 1811. In support of his motion to reduce the number of regiments proposed in the bill to raise an additional military force, and in reply to Mr. Giles MR. ANDERSON faid, he was rot a little furprised to hear the gentleman from Virginia. (Mr. Gile) fay that he was unprepared to oppofe a very unexpected motion, when he (Mr. A.) had two days before, whilft the bill was under confideration, fuggefted his intention, in his place, to make the motion he had now made; upon which the honorable member expreffed a wifh to poftpone the confideration of the queftion, and immediately moved the poftponement of the bill which was not oppofed, and of courfe prevailed. Mr. A. faid, that the motion was not, therefore, made without due notice, and, he would add, without due confideration. He had confulted with a number of the members of this honorable body, for whofe judgement and opinions he had great refpect, and with whofe approbation, and he might indeed add, at whofe inftance, the motion had been made. He was, however, himself ready and willing to meet all the refponfibility that might attach to it; notwithstanding the furprife of the honorable member as to the quarter from which it had come. Mr. A. faid, he fhould not pretend to reply to all the various obfervations the gentleman had thought proper to make, very many of which he confidered altogether irrelevant to the queftion under confideration, but which might, perhaps, answer fome other purpose which the honorable member might have in view. Mr. Anderfon said, he was as strongly impressed with the neceffity of a fufficient force, for the invafion of Canada, as the gentleman from Virginia could poffibly be, and not a fingle expreffion had efcaped him to induce a belief that he fhould be unwilling to vote a proper and ample force for that fervice; but he differed greatly with the gentleman as to the kind of force we ought immediately to employ. The honorable member appeared to place his fole dependence upon regular troops; and yet, if he understood his argument, he was decidedly in favor of making a defcent upon Canada early in the fpring. As to the time, Mr. A. agreed with him; but as to the means, he certainly diff red very greatly from him. The number of regulars contemplated by the gentleman could not poffibly be raised within the time; he was therefore of opinion, that a lefs number ought to be inf rted in the bill. It fhould be recollected that we had very recently authorifed the regiments inthe peace establishment to be filled; they would require at least 6,000 men; add thereto 25,000 No. 14. more, the number propofed by the honorable member; and he would ask him to answer candidly, whether he really believed that fo great a number of regular troops could be enlifted within the time required for the fervice to be performed. Mr. A. faid, impreffid, as he was, with a firm belief that not more than half the number propofed by the honorable member could be enlifted within the time they must take the field in order to act efficiently against Canada, he could not fee the propriety of retaining the whole number contemplated by the bill. Mr. A. faid, it must be well known to every gentleman, that the invafion of Canada muft neceffarily take place before the breaking up of the ice in the river St. Lawrence; otherwife, twice 25,000 would be required becaufe large reinforcements, as foon as an opportunity prefented, would moft certainly be thrown into that country. Mr. A. faid, upon a fair view of the whole fubject, as it prefented itflf to him, he was decidedly of opinion that the number of regular troops to be raifed by that bill, ought not to exceed 16,. 000, and he had no hesitation in faying, that in his opinion, as efficient a force would be raised under fuch a provifion within the time limited for taking the field, as would be raifed were the pref ent number in the bill retained-and in the former cafe, we fhould prove to our enemies, that we were able to raife fuch number of regular troops as might be wanted upon a fudden emergency; but in the latter, we fhould not be able to make the fame exhibit. What then would be the confequence? You would give a moft mortifying proof that your means were not commenfurate to your ends; that your plan had been badly digefted, and worfe executed. And furely the gentleman can have no defiro prefent fuch a state of things, at the very moment when all the energies of the nation feem to be required. Mr. A. faid, to avoid this extraordinary exhibit, was alfo one of his objects; and this, in his opinion, could be done by taking the courfe he had contemplated; reduce the number of regulars and fupply the deficiency by volunteers. This, he firmly believ ed, was in our power. Combine the two corps; take nearly an equal number of each; and the object intended could be effected. Mr. A. faid he was convinced that it was the mode the Profident had contemplated; and he entirely approved it; and if the honorable member had attended to another part of the Prefident's meffage where it fpeaks of volunteers, he muft himself have been convinced, that the Prefident did not mean to make the defcent upon Canada with the 10,000 regulars only; which had been underfood, as the gentleman had ftated, to be the auxiliary force referred to in the meffage itfelf. He fays-"I recommend accordingly, that adequate provifion be made for filling the ranks and prolonging the enliftment of the regular troops; for an auxiliary force to be engaged for a more limited time; for the acceptance of volunteer corps, whose patriotic ardor may court a participation in urgent services." The manner in which the Prefident f fpeaks of the volunteers, can leave no doubt upon the mind of any one as to the service in which they were to be employedthey are evidently intended to be united with the regular troops to perform the urgent services, according to the exprefs language of the mefflage. Mr. A. would afk the honorable member, what was the urgent service meant by the Prefident? Most certainly a defcent upon Canada, in which the regulars and volunteers were equally to participate. Why then the hon. member had taken fo much pains to prove that the 10,000 regulars were the only military force with which the Prefident had in ended to perform the urgent service referred to in his mesfage, Mr. A. was at a lofs to comprehend; for he understood the meffage and the object of it very differently; and he fhould have expected that the candor of the honorable member would have induced him to have given the meffage a fair interpretation. That he had not done fo, must be supposed to proceed from his recent but very strong attachment to a regular military force. However anti-republican this doctrine had formerly been, it feemed now to be viewed through a different medium by the honorable member from Virginia. Mr. A. faid, that having, as he thought, proved, by a fair interpretation of the Prefident's meffage, that he intended to unite the volunteers, (that might be thought requifit) with the regular troops, to perform the urgent fervices of which he speaks, he would endeavor to prefent a fair and impartial view of the courfe recommended by the President, and compare it with the courfe which had been taken and fo ftrenuously fupported by the honorable member from Virginia. The Profident had recommended the raifing of volunteers; and it was incidentally made known, that the auxiliary force fpoken of, was 10.000 regular troops If then provifion had been immediately made by law for raifing ten thoufand regular troops, and alfo for raifing volunteers, thofe troops now would be in a ftate of preparation; a confiderable number of the regular troops would ere now have been enlifted, and the chance of getting the whole number greatly increased. If tie had been afforded, as it ought to have been, the law paffed within two or three weeks after Congrels met, which might have been done, a fufficient regular force would, in all probability, have been in a state of readi nefs in all the month of April; and the number of volunteers, which might have been required to make up the neceffary force, would no doubt long fince have offered their fervices, and the whole have been in a state of preparation to take the field in a time to have performed the arduous fervice contemplated by the Prefident. But inftead of that courfe having been purfued, what has been done? Your firft military bill, reported only a few days ago, is now under confideration: the feffion now almost half expired, and at this late period, the honorable member, to whom, as chairman of the committee, &c the whole management of the military business was referred, infifts upon raising 25,000 regular troops, whofe duty it thall be to make a defcent upon Canada, in all the month of May. Can the gentleman be serious? Does he believe it practicable? If he does, Mr. A. faid, he fhould be obliged to believe, that the honorable member was in earnest fome days ago, when he affured the Senate, that he knew very little of military affairs. Mr. A. faid, from the proofs we have re. peatedly had, of the difficulty of obtaining men by enlistment for fo long a time as five years, and the want in our country of thofe kinds of materials of which regular troops are made, he did not believe that one half the number propofed to be raised by the bill could be enlifted within the time required. Mr. A. faid, altho❜ he was not as much in the habit of prophefying as the honorable member, he would, under all circumftances, adventure to predict, that the scheme of now raifing twenty-five thoufand regular troops, to perform the arduous service contemplated in the Prefident's meffage, would entirely fail, and that the course pointed out by the Prefident muft at laft be adopted; that is, to unite volunteers with regular troops. Mr. A. faid he trusted that the honorable member and himself had in view the fame object, but differed as to the means of carrying it into effect. The means propofed by the honorable member were regular troops only. If then the bill fhould pass to raife 25,000. entire de pendance would, in all probability, be placed on the regular troops, ordered to be raised; the confequence, as he had before faid, would be, that the whole object must fail. He was therefore for taking the regular troops that could be raifed in time, and fupplying the additional number of men, which might be wanted, by volunteers-15 or 20,000 of whom could, he had no doubt, be brought into the field, before 10,000 of the regular troops, contemplated by the bill, could be enlifted. By this mode (notwithstanding fo much time had been loft) an efficient army might be yet provided in time to carry into effect the objects of the government, which, Mr. A. faid, he did not be. lieve, could or would be done, if dependance were placed upon the regular troops. Notwithstanding the little confidence which the honorable member feems difpofed to place in the volunteers, Mr. A. faid, he had no hefitation in giving it, as his moft decided opinion, that at least as much dependance might be placed upon the volunteers, as upon the newly raised regular troops. The volunteers would have the fame chance of difcipline that the new regulars would have. A fufficient number of those who offered their fervices might be called into the field, as early as the feafon would admit, and placed under ftrict difcipline; to which for their own honor they would readily fubmit-nay, require, if left to their own choice; for the first object they would have in view would be to acquire military fkill; and they would not only be very foon prepared to perform field duty, but might entirely be depended upon for any other fervice. Witnefs the prowess of the volunteers at the battle of the Wabash, nnd these had not been difciplined at all. Mr. A. faid, he expected the honorable mem- In about two weeks after, the enemy advanced in greater force- |