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Show 16 LIFE OF GEN. JACKSON. CHAP. and deeper design-who would demolish a fabric ceIl I. mented by the blood of our fathers, and endeared to us ...,..,..._,by all the happiness we enjoy. So far as my exertions can contribute, the purposes, both of the savage and his instigator, shall be defeated ; and so far as yours can, I hope-I know, they will be employed. I have said enough.-! want men, and want them immediately." Anxious to prosecute the campaign as soon as possible, that by employing his troops actively, he might dispel from their minds those discontents so frequently manifested, he wrote to general Cocke, desiring him Pecci)). 6· to unite with him, immediately, at the Ten Islands, with fifteen hundred men. He assured him that the mounted men, who had returned to the settlements for subsistence, and to recruit their horses, would arrive by the 12th of the month. He wished to commence his operations directly, " knowing they would be prepared for it, and well knowing they would require it." "I am astonished," he continued, "to hear that your supplies continue deficient. In the name of God, what is M'Gee doing, and what has he been about? Every letter I receive from governor Blount, assures me I am to receive plentiful supplies from him, and seems to take for granted, notwithstanding all I have said to the ~,:ontrary, tl1at they have been hitherto regularly furnished. Considering the generous loan he obtained for tl1is purpose, and the facility of procuring bread stuffs in East Tennessee, and transporting th~m by water to Fort Deposit, it is to me wholly unaccountable that not a pound has ever arrived at that place. This evil must continue no longer-it must be remQ-LIFE OF GEN. JACKSON. i7 died. I eX'pect, therefore; and tl1rough you must re- CHAP. quire, that M •Gee, in twenty days, furnish at Deposit III. every necessary supply."* ~ Whilst these measures were taking, the volunteers, through several of their officers, were pressing on the ~~~,01~nd con>ideration of the general, the subject of their term demands of serv1. ce, an elc lm'm'm g to b e d1.sc1 1 arged on the l0tl1 otrfotohpse. instant. From colonel Martin, who commanded the second regiment, he received a letter, dated tl1e 4th, in which was attempted to be detailed their. whole ground of complaint. He began by stating, that, much as it pained him, he felt himself bound to disclose a very unpleasant trutl1; that, on the lOtlJ, the service would be deprived of the regiment he commanded. He seemed to deplore, with great sensibility, the scene that would be exhibited on that day, should opposition "*Independent of J;~.n advantage()us contract made with the go· veruwent, the state of Tennessee had extended to this contracto~ a fiberal loan, that immediate supplies might be forward ed. Unfortunately, however, and it is a misfortune that will always continue, so long as the prt!sent mode is persisted in, the contract was disregarded; nor did complaints on the subject cease, even to the close of the war. Great as was the evil, no adequate remedy was at hand: nor was it confined to any particular section; but in all directions, where our armies moved, were complaints heard, and their operations frustrated, through the misconduct of contractors. An advancing army, already having within its rea.ch decided advantages, is made to halt, and to rdrograde, or starve. The remedy is to sue the contra~ tor; and, after twelve or eighteen months of Jaw, a jury decu.les how far he has or has not broken his covenant. 1 n the mean time, the government has lost the most decided advantages- advantages which, had they l>een secured, might have SQ.ved millions of treasure, and thousands of lives. |
