The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1840-09-11
WHOLE NO. 3ss.

/ -
must have done so by the 3lst July, the date Of
his letter. Yet, instead of giving direct mega
tive or affirmative, he flew of to the plans Of
Knox and Jefferson, and Harrison and Jackson,
and having his correspondents through two CO.
lums OF the Enquirer, he leaves them TO collect
his opinion from the beginning, or the middle, or
the end, or from their own imaginations He
has said enough, however, to show that he neither
disapproves OF, or means TO abandon the mea-
sure. We have not space to enter upon an an
alysls OF this part OF his letter, but we beg such
1 OF you peruse our address, 10 collate il with
the facts which we adduce. We return TO his
statements with regard to the mis-called Mr.
Poinsetts plan
| To enable you to understand and apply the
language Of Mr.. Poinsett, in his letter TO Mr..
Richie, and that Of the President in his letter
under review, il is necessary that you should
bear in mind that there are three documents in
relation TO this subject First, the Report of the
Secretary of War, dated Both November 1889,
and addressed to the President of the United
! States-(not TO Congress, nor TO either House,
nor to any committee Of Congress; prepared by
the Secretary of War; strictly in his relation as
the head of Department, to his Executive
chief;) appended by the President to his annual
Message of the Cd December last, and so trans
mitted by him, the President, direct to Congress
Secondly, the details of the plan, of which the
Report contains the heads, and which the Re.
| port informs were matured and ready 10 be
submitted TO the President on the 30th Novem-
Der, 1889. And, thirdly, ''the plan reported TO
Congress" by the Secretary, in obedience TO the
resolution of the House of Representatives of
9th March, 1910. The critical reader will re-
mark that, by grammatical construction. The Ian
guage of both the Secretary and the President
refers to the latter plan only; and il is only by
combining it to that plan that the President es-
cape from having uttered plain and palpable
untruth. He says that the plan of which he
speaks, 'not only never had been submitted to
me, but was not even matured until more than
than three months after the message had been
sent TO Congress" Now, if plan which was
drawn out in detail, and prepared to be submit
ted to him, was matured when il was so drawn
out and prepared then the plan which he re-
| commended to the consideration OF Congress
was matured as early as goth November, 1899.
1t would be most extraordinary if it were other
wise. The Secretary had been laboring upon it
I from early in March 10 the last of November
had he accomplished nothing but sketch Of the
outlined His Report contains the heads, a table
of contents, an abridgment, an index. Did ever
man abridge a book before it was written? Is
the table of contents, or the chapter, the book,
! or the index, first composed2 A man may
sketch an outline for his own use, and, In filling
up, he will find occasion to enlarge, retrench,
and obiterate; but who ever gave mere outline
as the result of his labors, when called on TO per-
form such task that imposed upon the Sec
rotary by the resolution of the Senate, and the
request of the Chairman of the Committee OF
the House, in March, 1892 Mr. Bemton's re
solution required Reports on the military and
naval detences OF the country, shelving, First,
the Notifications, or other permanent detences
commenced, completed, projected or deemed
necessary" and proceeds with the same minute
ness OF specification throughout; and concludes
H.,
''any other information or suggestions which the
President may deem necessary to be communca-
ted TO Congress, in order to exhibit full view OF
what is necessary to be done, and the probable
cost thereof, to place the United States in pro-
per state of defence, by land and water, and on
each of the four great lines of defence which her
frontiers present" Mr.. Poinset says, in his
letter to Mr.. Richie, that Immediately after the
passage of the act which placed ten millions of
money at the disposal of the President, to enable
him to meet and repel any hostile movements
on the Northeastern frontier, with militid--an
act which, he says, ''defned Chat as) the des-
cription of force TO which the defence of the
country was to be trusted in the event of war
the Committee on the Militia, of the House of
Representatives required me to prepare plan
for the better organization of the militia of the
United States" And did he, in the perform
ance of this duty, furnish nothing but the
sketch Of an outline2 II was possible that the
Secretary might not be able to accomplish more
but, had that been the case, he would have SAID
so, and either acknowledged his inability to per-
form his allotted task, or asked for more time
| How did he perform similar task imposed up
on him by Senator Inns resolution of October
18th, 1897 BY reporting mdtared plan, with
all its details. 1t is for the very purpose of fur
nishing maured plan, and drawing up details,
that these references are made to the heads Of
departments. They bear the same relations to
the committees which call on them, as the com
mttees do to the House; and when was il that
a committee reported the outline OF bill, leav-
ing all the details to be supplied by the House?
Why, then, it may be asked, did he not furnish
the details in his report of November, 1887
Simply because it was no part of his plan that
they should be submitted to Congress. He re-
served them for the President But it is not at
unnecessary to go into this reasoning, nor would
we have detained you with it if we were oppo-
sed to a less formidable adversary, The Secre-
iary himself furnishes direct and positive proof
that the whole plan, details, and all, were matu-
red on the 3Oth day of November, 1885, and
gives the reason why the details were kept back.
| After going through the heads, he says: 'But
the details had better be left to regulation,
plan OF which am prepared to submit TO you.
/ The difference between this language and that
used in reference to the call from the Senate, is
very striking After giving account of the
condition of our defences, (and woful account IT
isl and furnishing in part the information
CURED by the resolution Of the Senate, he says:
"In report preparing, in reply to resolution
of the Senate calling for information on this sub
ject, ] shall enter into all the details connected
with it," He was not prepared TO submit
plan of those details No they were preparing
mot vet n,atured-but he lras prepared to
submit plan of the details "for organizing the
militia" that plan ,oas mdtured.
| Now, the President may take his choice he
may say that the plan which he AYERS was not
maturcd until more than three months after this