Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 10.
Frank Moore, Ed.

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“ [7] into volunteer forces.” Mr. Hale, of New-Hampshire, had always been “opposed to an increase of the army and in favor of the diminution of it,” but he thought, “it would be most unwise to engraft such an amendment as this on the bill at this time.” Mr. Grimes did not believe we required a large standing army. “I believe,” he said, “with my ancestors, that standing armies are hostile in their tendency and effect on republican governments; that they are provocative of wars; and I am not willing to say to the people of my section of the country that they are hereafter to support a larger standing army than that which is now authorized by law. It is not for us to dampen the ardor of the people at home whom we represent, by telling them that hereafter, if they support this war, and support the administration, they are to have fastened upon them a large standing army of forty-three thousand men.” Mr. Wilson said: “The country understands its own interests, and when this contest is closed, the public burdens will be such, the taxation will be such, that the people will seek all proper ways to reduce their expenditures; and if there is a man in the army more than they want, they will strike that man's name from the rolls. Believing that the people then will know what they want, what their own interests require, and that they will be just as competent to decide this question as we are to-day, I choose to leave the question with them.” Mr. Howe, of Wisconsin, moved to amend Mr. King's amendment, by striking out the words, “shall be reduced to the number, grade, rank, and pay authorized by law on the first of May, 1861,” and insert, “may be reduced in such manner as Congress may direct.” Mr. Howe believed the country required an addition to the standing army to protect the additional miles of frontier, the new routes of communication, and the relations with the Indian tribes within the borders. Mr. Howe's amendment to Mr. King's amendment was agreed to. The question recurring on Mr. King's amendment as amended, it was rejected. Mr. King remarked that his second amendment was only a part of the first, and with the failure of the first, it, of course, falls, and the amendment was rejected.

Mr. Johnson, of Tennessee, demanded the yeas and nays on the question of increasing the standing army. Mr. Grimes moved a reconsideration of the vote rejecting Mr. King's amendments, as he wanted to record his name against the permanent increase of the standing army. Mr. King hoped they would be unanimously reconsidered, and they were so reconsidered. The question recurring on the amendments as amended, Mr. Grimes demanded the yeas and nays, and they were ordered. The question, being taken by yeas and nays, resulted — yeas, twenty-three; nays, eighteen. Mr. King suggested that the second amendment ought not to be adopted, and it was rejected. The bill as amended has been passed without a division.

In the House of Representatives, on the fifteenth of July, Mr. Blair reported from the Military Committee a bill to increase the efficiency of the volunteer forces of the United States. On the sixteenth, the House, in Committee of the Whole, proceeded to its consideration. This bill was in substance the Senate bill to increase the military establishment, introduced on the sixth of July, by Mr. Wilson, and which passed the Senate on the fifteenth. It converted the eleven regiments into a volunteer force. It provided that the enlistments for these regiments should be under the charge of the officers appointed from civil life, and that the officers appointed from the army should be detailed for service in the volunteer regiments in the field. Mr. Blair stated that the Military Committee of the House unanimously dissented from the recommendation of the Secretary of War; they did not consider that there was any occasion to increase the military establishment; but as something had been done to organize the new regiments, the Committee had stripped the organization of that feature which alone made it repugnant to a free people — that of establishing a large standing army. Mr. Burnett, of Kentucky, declared that “the President has exercised powers that would have deprived any despot in Europe of his crown, if he had dared to do it.” As one of the representatives of Kentucky, he protested against that State being called upon to furnish one man or one dollar of money to carry on the war. Mr. Holman, of Indiana, declared that Mr. Burnett, and especially Mr. Vallandigham, misapprehended the spirit of the country. “There never was a day or hour when the people intended to submit to the overthrow of the Union. Their moderation and forbearance became the great occasion; and in it I see the evidence of an unwavering purpose, the anchor of enduring hope. If in this emergency the administration had hesitated, the storm of indignation, irresistible as the sand-storm on the Lybian desert, would have swept it away. If questionable powers have been assumed, it was at the demand of public opinion. The overwhelming necessity, the safety of the capital, the safety of the public honor, the safety of the Union, and more than all, the safety of the public liberty, may be urged at least in extenuation. For it is an ancient maxim, older than the Constitution, that ‘the safety of the people is the supreme law.’ ” Several slight amendments were agreed to in the Committee of the Whole, and concurred in by the House, and the bill was then passed without a decision. On the eighteenth, Mr. Blair, from the Committee on Military Affairs, reported the Senate bill to increase the regular army, with an amendment as a substitute — the amendment being the House bill converting the regiments from regulars into volunteers. The substitute was adopted.

On the twenty-second, the Senate proceeded to the consideration of the House amendment. Mr. Wilson declared that the amendment effectually destroyed the measure, and if it was sustained by the Senate, the bill had better be at once abandoned. Mr. King supported the House