The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1851-02-05

abundance of the best supplies the country around
| them improved, and they be afforded an agreeable
relaxation from the tedious ideness of camp life On
this subject, the Philadelphia Ledger says:
"But we think that this useful project might be
carried much farther. The army may be made the
| instrument of settling the wilderness with useful
citizens, owning farms in their own right. Let us
suppose that five hundred men are stationed at a
| fort in Oregon, and land enough to furnish farm
| of 160 acres to each, be located and surveyed
around the fort This will require 80, 900 acres, or
l25 square miles, enough for three townships of six
miles square, and seventeen square miles over, or
not quite half of another township and one third
being added for highways and public buildings,
the whole will be equal to about four townships.
The men being enlisted for five years, and the land
then divided among them, and cleared and cul-
tivated in the meantime, with view to such divi-
sion, the army will not only support itself, but be
made subservient TO settling the new regions with
q population ofindependent farmers. As each sol
der received a farm partly cleared and cultivated
at the end OF five years of service, and the ranks
| were continually recruited to supply the place oil
those thus discharged, these cearings around lori
| would continually extend, till it became necessary
| to remove the encampment to some other and con-
tguous locality, to undergo the same process mus
in each period of five years, 3OO troops VIII have
partially subdued four townships, and prepared
| Them not only for their own permanent residence
| but for acces sions of population in the mechanic
mercantile and other occupations essential to agri
culture the troops in the meantime nearly quite
| furnishing themselves and their animals with food
and serving all the military purposes for which
| they were enlisted.
al y this mode the wilderness could be rapidly
settled, and contiguous settlements be thoroughly
defended againstdhe Indians. And with the in.
ducement thus furnished to enlistment the army in
the new settlements could be kept continually full
And with this mode of supplying troops with pro-
visions, settling the wilderness and furnishing the
landess with farms from the public lands for val
liable consideration in their military services, the
most serious objection to the augmentation Of the
| army would disappear. Under such regulations
| the people would prefer an army of co. 900 men to
| one of 5000 The commissioned officers also, in
addition TO their pay, should be allowed TO locate
| and cultivate farms of l60 acres for service of
five years. 800 for ten years and with this
provision for officers, the graduates from West
Point would be much more eager TO enter actual
service and serve longer than at present. And this
provision, in addition to ordinary pay and clothing
would not only encourage the enlistment Of soldiers
but would settle the new regions with well drilled
| troops, knowing how to rally and defend theil
homes, or any neighborng region, on any emer.
| gency.
"1'hese military colonies are not without exam.
| pile in history. They were common among the an.
| cent Greeks and Romans. Alexander the Grea,
| established them on the frontiers of India. They
are also well known in modern Russia, and in Aus
tria on the Turkish frontier. These Austrian colo
MES were highly commended by Napoleon The
| Catholic Church in Mexico and South America
civilized the Indians by similar e.pedent, exclu
ding the military organization"