Daily American organ., 1856-08-22
THIRTY.FOURTH, C0NGR Ess.
IxTRA SESSION.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,.
THUKsDAY, August 81, 1865.
After our report closed
A message was received from the President Of
the United States through SIDEKY WEBSTER, Esq,
his private Secretary
The SPEAKER laid the same before the House,
when Ii was read, as follows:
WAsHINsroE, August 2l, 1855
FelloU-citizens of the Senate and
House Of Representatives:
In consequence of the failure of Congress at its
recent session to make provision for the support Of
the army, 1t became imperatively incumbent on me
to exercise the power which the Constitution con-
fsrs on the Executive for extraordinary occasions
and promptly to convene the two Houses in order
to afford them an opportunity of reconsidering
subject of such vital interest to the peace and vel
fare Of the Union.
With the exception ofa partial authority vested
by law in the Secretary of War to contract for the
supply of clothing and subsistence, the army is
wholly dependent on the appropriations annually
made by Congress. The omission of Congress TO
act, in this respect before the termination of the
fiscal year, had already caused endorsements to
the service, which were overcome only in enpec-
tation of appropriations before the close OF the
present month. If the requisite funds be not
speedily provided, the Executive will no longer be
able to furnish the transportation equipments, and
munitions which are essential to the effectiveness
of military force in the field. With no provision
for the pay of troops, the contracts of enlistment
would be broken, and the army must in effect be
disbanded, the consequences of which would be so
disastrous as to demand all possible effort to avert
the calamity.
Ii is not merely that the officers and enlisted
men of the army are to be thus deprived OF the
pay and emouments to which they are entitled by
1 - Al Al IL.
public armores, the repair and construction of ord
nance at the srsenals, and the manufacture of mil
itary clothing and camp equipage must be discon-
tnued and the persons connected with this branch
OF the public service thus be deprived suddenly of
the employment essential to their subsistence nor
| is it merely the waste consequent on the forced
abandonment OF the seaboard Notifications, and of
the interior military posts and other establishments
and the enormous expense of recruiting and reor-
ganiziug the army, and again distributing it over
the vast regions which it now occupies. These
are evils which may it is true, be repaired here
after by taxes imposed on the country; but other
evils are involved which no expenditures, however
lavish, could remedy, in comparison with which
local and personal injuries or interests sink into
insigni6cance.
A great part of the army is situated on the re-
mote frontier, or in the deserts and mountains of
the interior. To discharge large bodies of men in
such places, without the means of regaining their
homes, and where few, if any, could obtain subsist
ence by honest industry, would be to subject them
to suffering and temptation, with disregard of JUS
tice and right most derogatory to the government.
In the Territories of Washington and Oregon
numerous bands of Indians are in arms, and are
waging war of determination against the white
inhabitants; and although our troops are actively
carrying on the campaign, we have no intelligence
as yet of n successful result. On the Western
plains, notwithstanding the imposing display of
military force recently made there and the chas-
tsement inflicted on the rebellious tribes others
far from being dismayed, have manifested hostile
intentions and been guilty OF outrages which, If
not designed to provoke a conflict, serve to show
that the apprehension of it is insufficient wholly to
restrain their vicious propensites. strong force
in the State of Texas has produced the temporary
suspension of hostilities there but in New Mexico
incessant activity the part of the troops is re-
quired to keep in check the marauding tribes which
infest that Territory The hsstile Indians have not
been removed from the State of Florida and the
withdrawal of the troops thorefrom, leaving that
object tunaccomplishod, would be most injurious to
the inhabitants, and breach of the positive en- |
gagement Of the General Government.
To refuse supplies to the army, therefore, is to
compel the complete cessation of all its operations
and its practical dsbandment, and thus to invite
hordes of predatory savages from the Western
plains and the Rocky mountains to spread devast-
aticn along frontier of moro than four thousand
miles in extent aud to deliver up the sparse pop
ulation of a vast tract of country to rapine and
murder.
Such, in substance, would be the direct and i'm
mediate effects Of the refusal Of Congress- for the
first time in the history of the government, to
grant supplies for the maintenance OF the army
the inevitable waste of millions of public treasure
the nfiction of extreme wrong upon all persons
connected with the military establishment by SER
vice. employment, or contracts the recall of our
forces from the field; the fearful sacrifice of life
and ncaculable destruction Of property on the re-
mote frontiers the striking of our national flag on
the battements of the fortresses which defend our
maritime cities against foreign invasion; the vio-
ation of the public honor and good faith j; and the
discredit of the United States in the eyes of the
civilized world.
/ confidently trust that these considerations,
and others appertaining to the domestic peace of
the country which cannot fail to suggest them
selves to every patriotic mind, viii, on reflection,
be duly appreciated by both Houses of Congress,
and induce the enactment Of the requisite provis-
ions of law for the support of the army of the
United States. FRANKLIN PIERCE.
TAe message was then referred to the Commit
tee Of Ways and Means
The House then took a recess Of an hour
On re-assembling, Mr.. CAMPBELL, of Ohio,
reported the Army bill, and moved the insertion
of substitute for the original Kansas Proviso,
but it was ruled out of order.
The bill was then passed, as before-Yess 80,
Nays 85.
And the House adjourned.
SENATE.
Fanny Aup,Iat 90 Ishg