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Show If the argument applie~a s well to the Interior as tothe War Depart,. ' ment, let it be so ; it8 force is not abated by the admission. 2. IPhe " trwfer)), in my judgment, will create a nece8si4yfor rnaintain- " ing a large standing army in the field. 1 yield to none inadmiration andlove of the gallant officers and soldiers of our army. They are the hope of the nation in times of public dan-ger, when the honor, integrity,, or the existence of the republic is threatened by foreign or domestic foes. But "there is a time for all things," and I submit that a time of peace is not the time for a large standing army. In time of war, the army is our wall of defence. In peace, large armies exhaust the national resouTces without advantage to the country. The safety of the country in peace is not to be sought iu a magnificent may of bayonets ; but id the virtue, intelligence, indns-try, and patriotism of the citizens. With the restoration of all the States to their peaceful relations to the federal government, and the return of their population to industrial avocations and prosperity, if pea& is niaiutaiued, as at the present, with all foreignpowcrs, our mili-tary establishment should soon be reduced to a peace footing, its mate-rial returned to industrial aud producing employments, and the people, to the extent of many millions of dollars, annually relieved of taxes now expended in the support and pay of the army. Surely Congress is not prepared to transfer the Indian Bureau to the War Department merely to create a necessity to keep up the amy, and with it the taxes, 3. Our truepolicy towards the Indian Erihes b peace, and the proposed trmnqfii is tantamount, in my judgment, to pqeCual war. Everybody knows that the presence of troops, wjth the avowed par-pose of regulating att'airs by force, arouses feelmgs of hostility and beget,^ sentiments of resistance and war even in the most civilized and peaceful communities. How much more intense and bitter are the feel-ings of hostility engendered in the bosoms of barbarians and semi-civilized Indians by the presence of soldiers, wlio they know are sent to force them into suljection and. keep them so. To their ears the sounds of the camp a.nd the boom of the morning and evening gun are the infallible signs of oppression and war ; and the very sight of armed and uniformed soldiers in their haunts and hunting grounds provokes and inflames the profoundest feelings of hostility and hate. If a chronic war, with additional annual expenses of $50,000,000 to $150,000,000 annudly on account of Inaian affairs, is desired, the trans-fer, it seems to me, is a logical way to the result. More than half the period in which this bureau was under the control of the War Office was spent in the prosecutior~o f costly andunprofitable as well asunjnst warsagainst theSeminoles and the Sacs and Poxes, and in vexatious and expensive troubles wit11 the Creeks and Cherokees., It should not be forgotten, in this connection, that almost all the Indian wars which have depleted the treasury and desolated our frontiers ever shoe the .bureau was given to the Interior Department, had their origin in the precipitate and ill-considered action of the m~litarys tationed in the 1ndian.country. As examples, I respectfiilly refer to the Sioux war of 1852-4, which, as I am informed, originated in this wise : An immigrant Mormon:train abandoned aeow. A lieiite~~anant d squad went to the camp of ,the Indians wlio had found and eater1 her, and demanded the 'man who had killed her. The Indiaus refused to surrender the man, but offered to pay for the cow. The lieutenant and his squad fired upon them,'kiUing and wounding a number, when they were surrounded and massacred. The Bioux war ensued, costing us $20,0u0,000 to $40,000,000 and several hundred lives, besides much private and public property. |