CONGRESS, TJ. S. 



293 



we wanted, and no more. My friend from 

 Massachusetts said we should have a bill soon 

 where I could put on my amendment. I have 

 not seen his hill yet ; as soon as he hrings it 

 along so that I can put on my amendment I 

 will, and I hope it will he forthcoming very 

 soon. I understand, however, that the Depart- 

 ment has absolutely stopped enlistments; hut 

 whether that be so or not, it is best to reduce it 

 to shape and have a law on the subject. The 

 country is ready to raise, I am ready for my 

 constituents to say and we will all say that they 

 will raise, whatever number of men may be 

 needed, and put them in the field, and set them 

 to doing the work we want done ; but why 

 should we saddle the country with a quarter 

 of a million of men more than are needed, and 

 simply for no other reason than because A, B, 

 C, D, E, and F, and so on through the alphabet, 

 are continually pressing for authority to raise 

 men who are not needed? I for one thank my 

 friend from Iowa for introducing this resolution, 

 for if it has no other effect it gives an opportuni- 

 ty for those of us who desire to do so, to express 

 to the country our anxious wish to stop this 

 wanton waste." 



Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts, replied: "The 

 Senator from Maine the other day proposed to 

 reduce the number of men authorized by law 

 down to five hundred thousand. I agree with 

 him in that. Still we have not been able to do 

 it. It was suggested also that we ought to stop 

 recruiting. I agree to that ; I have over and 

 over again been to the War Office and urged 

 upon the Department to stop recruiting in 

 every part of the country. We have had the 

 promise that it should be done ; yet every 

 day in different parts of the country we have 

 accounts of men being raised and brought forth 

 to fill up the ranks of regiments. The papers 

 tell us that iu Tennessee and other parts of the 

 country where our armies move, we are filling 

 up the ranks of the army. I believe we have 

 to-day one hundred and fifty thousand more 

 men under the pay of the Government than 

 we need or can well use. I have not a doubt 

 of it ; and I think it ought to be checked. I 

 think the War Department ought to issue 

 peremptory orders forbidding the enlistment 

 of another soldier into the volunteer force of 

 the United States until the time shall come 

 when we need them. We can obtain them 

 any time when we need them. 



' Then, sir, there is another thing that ought 

 to be done ; and I have pressed that on the 

 War Office for weeks; and I suppose they 

 are trying to do it ; for I want it to be under- 

 stood I make no complaint of the manner in 

 which business is done in that office. They 

 have a great deal to do, and a great deal must 

 necessarily escape their attention. It is this: 

 we have thousands of men in the volunteer 

 force of the country unfit for duty. I know 

 regiments that have moved down the river that 

 have left forty and fifty men behind them about 

 Washington who want to be discharged and 



who ought to be discharged, and who would be 

 discharged if the medical men would attend 

 promptly and vigorously to their business. 

 We have in this army, with a great deal of 

 energy and vigor, a great deal of this how not 

 to do a thing. I think we have a great deal of 

 that in that portion of the army. We have thou- 

 sands of men who ought to be discharged from 

 the Army of the United States, for they are 

 physically unfit to bear the burdens of a cam- 

 paign, and most of these men desire to be dis- 

 charged. 



' Xow, sir, the Senator from Iowa thinks it 

 will be difficult for us to get rid of these gen- 

 erals. We make them easily. I do not think, 

 as a general rule, any difficulty will grow out 

 of making them, more than other officers. I 

 think we shall get rid of them just as easily as 

 we make them." 



The motion to discharge the committee was 

 not agreed to. 



In the Senate, on the 18th, Mr. Sumner, of 

 Massachusetts, offered the following resolution: 



Resohfd, That the Committee on Military Affairs 

 and the Militia be directed to consider the expediency 

 of providing by additional legislation that our national 

 armies shall not be employed in the surrender of fugi- 

 tive slaves. 



He said : u Sir, besides my general interest 

 in this question, besides my interest in the 

 honor of the national army, I have a special 

 interest at this moment because Brigadier Gen- 

 eral Stone has seen fit to impose this vile 

 and unconstitutional duty upon Massachusetts 

 troops. The Governor of my State has charged 

 me with a communication to the Secretary of 

 War on this subject, complaining of this out- 

 rage, treating it as an indignity to the men, and 

 as an act unworthy of our national flag. I 

 agree with the Governor of Massachusetts; 

 and when I call attention to this abuse now, I 

 make myself his representative, as also the rep- 

 resentative of my own opinions. 



" But there are others besides the Governor 

 of Massachusetts who complain. There are 

 two German companies in one of the Massa- 

 chusetts regiments who, when they enlisted, 

 entered into the public service with the positive 

 understanding that they should not be put to 

 any such discreditable and unconstitutional ser- 

 vice. Sir, they complain, and with them their 

 own immediate fellow-citizens at home, the 

 German population generally throughout the 

 country. I am glad to know that my friend 

 and colleague, the chairman of the Committee 

 on Military Affairs, promises us at once a bill 

 to meet this grievance. It ought to be intro- 

 duced promptly, and to be passed at once. 

 Our troops ought to be saved from this shame." 

 Mr. Cowan, of Pennsylvania, followed. He 

 regarded the cause of the mischief complained 

 of as arising from the injudicious proclamations 

 of various Generals, but apprehended that there 

 need not be any difficulty upon the question. 

 Alluding to the views of the people of Penn- 

 sylvania, he said : u There is a tendency on the 



