Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/314

 306 FRANCES PACKARD YOUNG The expense of a standing army was attacked first and a resolution passed by the House in April, CALHOUN'S 1818, asking the Secretary of War if ARGUMENT military appropriations could not be re- AGAINST duced. 18 Calhoun replied at the next REDUCTION session of Congress. 20 In this report he OF THE ARMY considered the army under four heads, number, organization, pay and emolu- ments. In 1818 the army was no larger than it was in 1802, considering the increase in population and territory between those years, and at the earlier date it was considered as small as public safety allowed. These facts made it impossible to reduce the number of soldiers. The officers' staff must not be made smaller, because, if war were declared, the lack of executive authority would cause great confusion. The great extent of territory over which the army was scattered had necessarily advanced the cost of transportation of men and supplies. Calhoun did not wish to decrease the pay of the men and officers, for the cost of living was much higher in 1818 than it had been in previous years. The only way to economize, which he suggested in this report, was to prevent waste in the handling of public property. In this connection Calhoun advised that public bids be made for supplying army rations, instead of having them bought through private con- tract, as had been done in the past. Notwithstanding Calhoun's protest against decreasing the number of soldiers, Mr. Williams of ARGUMENT North Carolina, introduced a resolution IN FAVOR OF in February, 1819, to reduce the standing REDUCTION army to six thousand. 21 In support of this resolution he asserted that an in- crease of territory and population did not necessitate a cor- responding increase in the army, that large towns and cities did not need the protection of arms or forts, and that it was extravagance to support a large staff of officers. 23 Register, XIV, 145. Annals of Congress, ith Cong, ist Sess., II, 1766. ao Niles' Register, XV, Supplement, 39. si Annals of Congress, III, 1155, and Sess., isth Cong. 22 Ibid, 1156-7. ,