Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1862-05-23

but being unable to ship them all directly.
he sent a portion to England, where the
proclamation to which have just referred
being soon after issued) he was prevented
from transporting or using the arms in any
manner. In this extremity, of the large ar
my of soldiers in and about Washington,
not two hundred thousand of them were
armed. Upon the letter | have just read
was the endorsement of the President in
his own hand writing in these words:
I approve the carrying this through
carefully, cautiously. and elpeditiously =
Arotd conflicts and Interference
4. LINCOLN"
the literal meaning of the endorsement
was that the world should not know of our
military deficiency and weakness until the
evil had been remedied and that care and
caution were to be used as heretofore in
keeping inviolate the secret of our detects
Fully colncidiug with his, the President,
and in obedience with his order, prompt
ly directed this contract to be closed
and I assure you gentlemen, without the
arms it produced we should not have been
able to achieve the late glorious victories
in the West.
may add, in proof of the great anxiety
Of all to obtain arms, that but very few
days before left the War Department,
the Cabinet agreed to adopt conditional
contract made by Mr.. Schuyler, fer 1OO,-
900 guns in Belgium, whish successfully
opposed on the ground that we had guns
enough contracted for, and with the en-
couragement which had bcen afforded to
| our own manufactures, the supply would
probably be sufficient for our future wants.
By this means 81, SO0,00 have been re-
tanned in the country to be expended in
those localities from which our soldiers
have volunteered, and this occurred after
all those contracts had been completed,
Of which 80 much complaint is now made.
The investigating committe of Congress
have said that the muszets made at the
Springfield armory cost only S12 apiece,
That assertion, like many others that have
been made in connection with supplies
for the army, is not the fact, Without
taking into consideration the expense of
uperintendence, the cost of buildings,
machinery or capital invested, the net cost
of the gun for labor and material, when
| there. is n competition in time of peace, has
amounted to Sl2 so. But had those guns
purchased on my order proved to be twice
more expensive than they actually were,
then, In view Of the fact that the army
was practically useless without them, ]
would have done exactly as l did with the
beef contract, to which other gentlemen
have seen fit to refer. When we expected
large arrivals Of soldiers from Pennsylva-
MA and other States, and there was moth
ng to feed them with, the Acting C5m-
imissary General came to me and said
1" can now buy two thousand beeves if
! pay two or three cents pound more than
they should be worth"
WE'LL" I replied, "pay it." Tap
plause. Pay dollar per pound rather
than soldier should suffer. but be guard
ed that your contract ceases when a sup.
ply can be had at the customary prices y
which was done. He made a contract
for two thousand beeves and the whole
world rung with the announcement that
the Secretary of War had cheated the
Government in order to enrich some favor
lite, and yet the contract was made with
my personal enemies. So, again, was
eeDsured at the time of the bat Ie of Bull S
Run, for not having sufficient cavalry in
the field. Yet could not speak in my
own defense, for the safety of the Govern
ment compelled ne to secresy. Plenty
of horse.nen offered their services but
had no pistols, swords or carbines to give
them and did not want the world to
Z know that such was our condition. Nv
function was to raise an army of the larg-
est kind in the shortest possible time, and
to supply them with whatever needful ma
terial | could first lay hands upon. As
soon as | could obtain pistols, carbines,
swords and holsters, I had cavalry enough.
But then the cry was he has got too
many" Of course. then again I was
cheating the Government, by giving my
friends all the horse contracts. Laugh
ter. Well, Mr.. Mayor, the horses have
been in the service and the country has
been saved. Those who then cried ." no
more horses, to-day can see advertise
mcnts for the purchase of an increased
number; and to-day I saw also an adver-
tisement asking for proposals 10 furnish
more muskets.
/ Had the material resources of the Gov
ernment been, in any manner, commensu-
rate with the emergency, the war would
have been terminated ere this. So far as
! concerns myself, | would rather have had
a million Of guns too many rather, than a