30 



AKMY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



quest for the transfer of the Indian Bureau seemed 

 to be based particularly upon the assumption, very 

 industriously circulated, that the Indian civil service 

 was responsible for all the wars. It was saxd that 

 the Indian agent steals the Indian supplies ; that the 

 Indians at last grew desperate, and there were wars. 

 That was not the fact at all. There was scarcely a 

 single instance where it was the fact. The real cause 

 of almost all of our Indian wars was the breaking 

 of treaties and encroachments upon the lands and 

 rights of the Indian by the white man. Then, also, 

 it must be considered that the Indians themselves 

 were not angels, and that they had in some instances 

 been guilty of outrages which had provoked the re- 

 sentment of the whites. 



The report of the commission will not be 

 made until after the commencement of 1879. 



At the same time that this joint committee 

 was ordered, another was directed by Con- 

 gress to examine and report on the reorganiza- 

 tion of the army. (See CONGEESS, U. S.) This 

 work was completed before the opening of the 

 session of 1878-'79. After making very ex- 

 tensive investigations, the committee report a 

 codification of all laws relating to the army 

 into one act. The main features kept in view 

 in the plan of reorganization are the disposi- 

 tion and use of the army in time of peace as 

 a frontier and Indian police, and, second, its 

 disposition as a nucleus of offensive and de- 

 fensive force for foreign, war. The number of 

 the rank and file is limited to 20,000 men, ex- 

 clusive of the signal corps. The system of 

 organization of the artillery branch of the 

 service is changed from regimental formation 

 to batteries or companies. The artillery arm 

 is consolidated with the ordnance corps. The 

 Quartermaster-General's and Commissary-Gen- 

 eral's staffs are consolidated under the control 

 of the Quartermaster's Department, and the 

 staff corps as a distinctive branch of the ser- 

 vice is abolished. The engineer and medical 

 corps retain their present distinctive organiza- 

 tion. The Adjutant-General's, Quartermaster- 

 General's, Inspector-General's, and Paymaster- 

 General's staffs are done away with, and the 

 system of interchangeability of line and staff 

 officers substituted, similar to the European 

 system of organization, the object being to 

 give all the officers of the army an opportunity 

 of perfecting themselves in a practical knowl- 

 edge of the several branches of service in the 

 army. In order to reduce the number of offi- 

 cers, it is provided that there shall be no more 

 promotions or appointments until the number 

 of general and line officers is reduced to a cer- 

 tain number. The offices of general and lieu- 

 tenant-general will cease with the decease of 

 the present incumbents. The number of major- 

 generals and brigadier-generals is to be re- 

 duced to the lowest point. No change is made 

 in the West Point Military Academy, and the 

 general provisions of the bill look to the elim- 

 ination eventually of all officers of the army 

 who have not received a thorough military 

 education. The work of surveys and triangu- 

 lations is to be exclusively under the control 

 of the army. The army regulations, which 



have not been revised since 1863, are to be 

 thoroughly examined, and a new series adopt- 

 ed, to become a part of the eventual work of 

 reorganization. The important feature of the 

 bill is the abolishment of a staff as a distinc- 

 tive corps of the array, and the interchangea- 

 bility of the line and staff for the offices in the 

 several departments, excepting the engineer 

 corps. Better provision is to be made for the 

 education of the cavalry branch of the ser- 

 vice, giving it equality in this respect with the 

 ordnance and artillery branch, and additional 

 means will be secured for training officers in 

 the higher branches of their profession. 



The action of Congress on this report will 

 take place before the close of the session, on 

 March 4, 1879. 



By reference to the proceedings of Congress, 

 the animated debate of that body on the amend- 

 ment to the army bill forbidding the use of 

 the army as a posse comitatus will be found. 

 The measure was deemed worthy of notice by 

 the Secretary of War, who describes its prac- 

 tical operation : 



The fifteenth section of the act of Congress of 

 June 18, 1878, provides that 



From and after the passage of this act it shall not be law- 

 ful to employ any part of the army of the United States as 

 a posse comitatus or otherwise, for the purpose of executing 

 the laws, except in euch cases and under such circumstances 

 as such employment of said force may be expressly authorized 

 by the Constitution or by act of Congress. 



In my judgment it is important either that this 

 provision be repealed or that the number of cases in 

 which the use of the army shall be " expressly au- 

 thorized" be very much enlarged. In many por- 

 tions of our Western Territories, and even in some 

 portions of the newer States, a resolute desperado, 

 with a few followers, can defy the officers of the law 

 and any local posse that can be organized. During 

 the year numerous attacks have been made upon the 

 mail-coaches in New Mexico and Arizona for pur- 

 poses of robbery and plunder; and while I have 

 been of the opinion that the mails of the United 

 States may be defended by the use of troops, I have 

 been obliged to give instructions that they can not, 

 without disregarding the act of Congress, be em- 

 ployed to aid the officers of the law in capturing the 

 robbers after they have committed the crime. In 

 doing so, they would act as a posse comitatus, and 

 this is nowhere by law " expressly authorized." In 

 the new and sparsely populated regions of the West, 

 to say to robbers and thieves that they shall not be 

 taken on any writ unless the sheriff' and his local 

 posse are able to capture them without aid from the 

 soldiers, is almost to grant them immunity from 

 arrest. In those new regions the army is the power 

 chiefly relied upon by the law-abiding people for 

 protection, and chiefly feared by the lawless classes. 

 Numerous instances might be cited, but the recent 

 occurrences in Lincoln County, New Mexico, consti- 

 tute a striking example. The inability of the officer 

 in command of the troops in that vicinity to aid the 

 officers of the law in making arrests was one of the 

 principal causes which led to the most disgraceful 

 scenes of riot and murder, amounting in fact to an- 

 archy. This state of things continued until a case 

 could be made for declaring the district in insurrec- 

 tion, after which a proclamation of warning was is- 

 sued by the President, when the troops were called 

 into action and at once restored quiet. I am clearly 

 of the opinion that the President should be left free 

 to employ the national forces in aid of the process 

 of the Federal courts whenever he shall deem it 

 necessary ; but if such use is to be limited to cases 



