Litchfield enquirer., 1840-08-20
sTANpINo ARMr IN rflfr OF PrAcr.

STANDING ARMY IN TIME OF PEACE. We have never made much allusion to the project of the Secretary of War, sanctioned by the President, for recognizing the mili- tia, because we have not been fully aware of it's dangerous tendency. We supposed that it was what it professcd to be, project for placing the militia on Q footing which should elevate its responsibility and increase it's usefulness, and we'll aware that something of that kind was needed, we were disposed to consider favorably what might tend to SO desirable result. We detest the plan of making political capital as it is termed, out of any thing which is not fair subject of it, and of indiscriminately applauding ev- cry thing that comes from the other.
 For these reasons we did not, at first, con- demn the plan which MT. Van Buren so strongly recommended to Congress for the reorganization ot the militia. But upon a farther examination of the subject, we are fully convinced that the project deserves all the 'odium that has been cast upon it !; and we are no longer surprised at the immense effect which it eXerted in the Virginia elec- tiOn. ..f.
 It is no less than plan for STANDING AR- MY IN TIME OF PEAcE-an army of an hum dred thousand men. the ranks always to be kept full, the whole of them liable to be call ed out at any time, and the whole placed not under their own officers, or the officers ap- pointed by their own Legislatures, but under the officers of the regular army, appointed by the President, and liable to be removed by him at a moments warning. This is the fair sum and substance of the whole matter.
 According to this plan, every able bodied citizen, between the ages of twenty and for ty-five, is to be enrolled, and to prouide him. seLf, AT HIS OWN EXPENSE, with arms and ac. coutrements.
 Light companies are to be formed, who arc to arm and equip themselves, Gt their o,on er- pense.
 100000 men are to be detailed as the ac- tive class. The officers above the rank of Major are to be taken from the regular ar- my, and of course selected by the President, who is commander-in-chief, so that if any one of them displeases the President in the slightest degree, more pliant tool may su- persede him.
 The annual deficit in this class is to be supplied by DRAFT, in case volunteers do not come forward. These men are to be drilled for thirty days in the year; they may be called from their families and their business, at any season, and kept an hundred miles from home for a whole month, and all that tune under MARTIAL LAW. They can be or- dered to any part of the district for instance the militia of Rhode Island might be ordered to Springfield, Mass, or to any part of Con- necticnt, and kept there the whole of July or any other month, upon camp duty. liable to court martial for any offence, and subject ed to the same regulations which govern the regular army in time of war. One of the army regulations forbids any soldier to speak disrespectfully of the President of the United States; and for doing this, or for say ing what-a locofoco court martial might call speaking disrespectfully, citizen of Rhode Island might be imprisoned or otherwise punished.
 The militia of Rhode Island might be or- dered to Springfield in the month that Gn election 'cas held, and the officers, appointed by the President. might let some of them who would vote as he wished, go home, and keep those who would vote otherwise in the camp. All this he could do. without transcending the powers which that plan gives him and if the President wished that done, he could appoint an officer who would do it.
 An hundred thousand votes might thus be controlled at Presidential election. In case man is too poor to pay the fines im- posed upon him, he is to be IMPRISONED until the fines are discharged. In fact it is plan for standing army of an hundred thousand men, in time of peace, at the command ofthe President. Our elections will be nnere mat ters of form, and our Congress but the pliant os ACCOluuiS GACCuuNC Wus. Such is the plan which the Secretary of War has drawn up; such is the plan which the President in his message has rccommen- ded such is the plan which, if Martin Van Buren should be reelected, would go into operation. Journal.
 Gen. HarrisOn.-A correspondent of the Portsmouth Journal, at Concord. N. II. says:
 "The Rev. Dr. Beecher, of Cincinnati, Ohio, passed through town on Friday last, on his way to Hanover, to attend and take part in commencement exercises. am told that he expressed high opinion of his neighbor and fellow.citizen, Gen. Harrison, both as it regards mental and moral charac- | ter. He stated to some one in the stage, that the physical capability of the old hero might be we'll enough judged of by the fact that he to Fort Meigs GAO miles) on horseback, and CT man. young or old, would like to ride over the ground" .'.,. .,.'...
 This much respected clergyman, who is hardly surpassed by any man in power to estimate character correctly, repeatedly ex- pressed the same opinions of Gen. Harrison, when questioned on the subject, in this city. But it would be an endless labor to under. take to refute all the islanders which are ut tered against the private and public charac- ter Of Gen. Harrison--a useless labor too for none believes them. sh d ........ ....-
 Ertensire Fire at Cleueland-During the night of Friday last, the Exchange, situated on the corner of Superior Lane and Merwin street, took fire and was totally consumed, 1 fOOnfhnr with SovornI a1s0insnU hu;ljtnmo