Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1871.djvu/604

 568 UNITED STATES.

devoted ' to the purchase or payment of 1 per cent, of the entire debt of the United States, to be made within each fiscal year after July 1, 1862, which is to be set apart as a sinking fund, and the in- terest of which shall in like manner be applied to the purchase or payment of the public debt, as the Secretary of the Treasury shall from time to time direct.'

By the terms of a ' Funding Bill,' which passed Congress July 13, 1870, the payment of the debt of the United States is fixed within certain terms. The Bill orders the issue of several new classes of bonds, namely, 5 per cent, bonds to the amount of 200,000,000 dollars, payable at the pleasure of the United States after ten years ; 4^ per cent, bonds to the amount of 300,000,000 dollars, payable alter 15 years; and 4 per cent, bonds to the amount of 1,000,000 dollars, payable after 30 years. These bonds are payable, principal and interest, in gold, and are exempt from all taxation. The Bill does not force any holders of the old issues to take the new ones in ex- change ; but the Secretary of the Treasury is authorised to redeem such of the old issues as he sees fit, after giving notice, at par in coin, to be procured by the sale of the new bonds.

Army and Navy. 1. Army.

By the eighth section of the first article of the constitution of the United States, Congress is empowered in general ' to raise and sup- port armies;' and by the second section of the second article, the president is appointed commander-in-chief of the army and navy, and of the militia when called into the service of the United States. On August 7, 1789, Congress established a Department of War as the instrument of the president in carrying out the provisions of the constitution for military affairs. A number of ' Original Rules and Articles of War' were enacted by the Congress of 1776, and continued in force under the constitution, with several modifications. These rules were the basis of the actual Articles of War which were enacted in 1806, and have been but slightly altered since that time. They form the military code which governs all troops when mustered into the service.

In 1790, the rank and file of the army, as fixed by act of Congress, amounted to 1,216 men; to which force, in the next year, one regiment 900 strong was added. In 1792, an act of Congress pro- vided for a uniform militia throughout the United States, and the system then arranged has received but slight alterations until the