Alexandria daily gazette, commercial & political. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1808-1812, 1811-10-26
From the NORFOLK LEDGER.

TIE AAmy.-The National Intelligenccr
of Thursday contains a long article on the sub
iect of a military establishment, without dec!d-
ing any thing. Among other matters We sfe
told ,Lt every soldier of the United States
costs two hundred dollars in time OF peace.
This expense in time of war will be CONSIDER
ably increased, and the number requisite for
a war establishment is estimated at fifty thou
sand.
The conquest of Canada is favoritc plan
with many. Suppose, as the Boston Ci'roni /
Gle says, we were to count the expense. Less
than 10000 men are not contemplated Tor the
reduction Of Canada, which, in foreign service,
may be put down at 400 dollars per man, m
Guiding every thing, and two years from the
period of enlistment is not too short time Tor
the object; making sixteen millions OF dollars,
the remaining thirty thousand, being In our
own country, may be put down at $50 dollars
per man, making fifteen millions in two years !:
thus we should incur In two years debt OF
thirty millions-Now, if commerce is to be a
bandoned, where is the revenue to come from!
direct taxes never, while democrats love
their posts.
The Virginia Argus gives his brother de-
mocrats neat dressing III that paper CT
Thursday, speaking of the call OF Congress
and its measures:
There are, however, some of our pubic
writer's, who, approving of the call OF Con-
gress, and acquiescing in the period OF Its
meeting, insist that the President must array
his first message in flames, and speak the Ian
guage Of fury. This is what they call ener-
gy; and they proclaim that the nation will be
cvcrlastingly ruined, unless the dawn OF the
session is indicative Of blood and thunder -
Brave ideas ! Bold, valiant Thoughts And
noble, warlke breathing But, in the first
instance, we would enquire Of these Juriosos,
whether they conceive that good conduct in
war and peace is at all connected with turbu-
lence? Whether Congress may not, Will
calmness, do as much service to the country,
as by wild uploar, and sort OF legislative a
narchy We ask them if they have calculat-
ed how many good soldiers 1t will require to
garrison our cities and protect our sca-6oaId
How much treasure it will be necessary to
furnish for the pay and subsistence OF these
men! We fancy, after the human magma
ton has run through all its circuities, that it
will be- found that war, like love and matrimo
ny, must be, in essentials, carried on In the
old fashion that no n,ummery OF words Cali
change tie eternal nature of things; and that
all the inCantations of all the scrlbblers In the
union will not suffice to subdue regiment OF
invaders, or to capture ship OF war This
being the Case, would it not be as well to suf
fer Congress, before making war, if war be
IL IF i,o of
war; That is to say, would it be amiss for
that Body, in the first instance, to ascertain
the real number of men that can be brought
into the field, the condition of their arms, their
actual discipline, the precise state of cur for
tilications, whether new ones are not necessa-
ry, the number of troops requisite to gaIri-
son particular posts to establish magazines,
to look to the commissary department; to
examine what proper abilities can be embo-
died in a General Staff: and to hunt up the
remnant of our old revolutionary officers, with
whom is all the military e.rferience of the
f? There surely Can be no harm in all
this, if war must be resorted to. 1t is idle for
men to discourse of war in the lump, when,
perhaps they do not know what it would cost
to maintain an army Of ten Thousand men for
a single month and it would indeed be ex-
ceedingly ludicrous to see the pubhc mind
led astray by their nonsense. Those who, in |
general, are for making war without delibera-
ton, are sufficiently apt to deliberate for peace,
which, if war be not successful, is, in general,
slow enough in returning.-And let us look |
a little further forward: Say, that war must
be made is it not worthy of consideration,
whether we shall make it de- ensiveiy or o6en- |,
sively ?"
From the Baltimore Whig.