The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1870-03-18


American army in 1857 consisted Of
$50 officers, and in 1869 of 663 officers.
In 1860 these officers were mostly
Lieutenants and Captains; now they
were all Majors, Lieutenant COlOnels,
| Colonels and Brigadier Generals. The
nroportion of officers to men in the
American army was one commission
ed officer to every ten'men, and one
non-commissionedO officer to every six
men. In the French, English, Prus-
sian and other European armies, the
! lowest rate was twenty men to each
commissioned officer. The Russians,
with an army of 100000 men, had q
staff corps of only 36O officers. Prussia,
with SOD, 900, staff corps of only 100.
Austria, with 500, 600, a staff corps of
I65. Italy the same, and France $50
staff officers; and vi If anybody un-
dertOok TO prune this large staff corps
he was denounced all over the cOun-
try as making war upon the men who
won victories for the country. He
ridiculed the idea Of putting Major
Generals and Bngadier Generals at
| the head of Quartermasters' and conn
missary Departments, where their du-
ties were to be judges of boots and shoes
and hats and bean soup. Laughter. ]
The Pay Department was entlrly too
large, if not unnecessary. In EurOp-
can armies the COmmisSary and Pay
DEPARTMENTS were consolidated, and
the men paid by Sergeants or civilians,
who drew pay as clerks. He then eX-
plained and enforced the prOpriety of
the third, fourth and fifth sections,
which provide that the officers Of
General and Lieutenant General shall
continue until a vacancy shall occur,
and no longer; and that there shall be
only three Major Generals and six
Brigadier Generals, after the first OF
September, 1870, to be selected by the
President without regard to seniority,
the others to be mustered out of the
service. He cursOrily explained the
succeeding sections.
The sixth section provides that the
Quartermaster General, General of
Subsistence, Chief of Ordnance, Chief
of Engineers, Paymaster General
Surgeon General and Judge Advocate
General shall have the rank and pay
of Colonel, but that the present in
cumbents may continue in offices at
that rank.
The seventh section gives one years
paw and allowances to all officers
| mustered out under the bill.
The eighth section rePeals the six
teenth section of the act of August 3,
1861, which limits the number of Of
ficers on the retired list of the army
to seven per cent. of the whole num-
Der of the existing officers, the num-
ber to be retired within the discretion
of the President, except that the
i whole number retired shall not eX-
ceed 80.
The 9th section abolishes the brevet
rank, and forbids the assumption OF
the title or wearing of the uniform OF
a higher rank than that actually held.
The IIth section fOrbids army Of
fieers to hold civil office, whether by
election or appointment. He referred
/ in that connection to the case OF Gen.
Butterfield, dismissed from the civil
service for his connection with the
gold operation in New York as he
said, but still holding the rank of Col
onel in the army, and not court mar
ftialed. Hence the two things were in
compatible.
The 10Th section repealed the 2d
section of the act of the Both of June,
1865, which makes the General of the
army superior to the President. He
j knew why that law had been passed,
/ hut he regarded it as both uncOnstitu-
tional and improper. If Gen. Sher-
man were to perpetrate the highest
crime, he could not be arrested, or re-
lieved, or court martialed by the Pres
ident.
The 18th section provided for trans
ferring. the control of the Indian af-
fairs to the War Department, but aftel
he had read the account of the Piegan
massacre his blood ran cold, and he
asked the committee to strike out that
section and let the Indian bureau re-
main where it is, and the committee
so agreed.
The 14th section regulates the Pay
of officers. In explaining the neces
sity for it, Logan made a statemepi
as to the effect of the present system
of making allowances for forage, ra'
tions, quarters, &c. The pay proper
of a General of the army was 81, 500
but he actually received from the
Government, for pay and allowances
SI9, ,278. The mode of figuring up theSt
allowances he never could make out
The pay proper kOf a Lieut.. General
was s., ,240, but the amount actually
drawn was $I4,11S. The pay proper
of Major General was $500; the
amount drawn by General Hallech
was s., ,662; by General Meade, So, ,342
by General Thomas, 50, ,524; by Glen
eral Hancock, 50, ,735, and by Genera
SehofieId, s., ,432. He did not under
stand why these differences were, bu1
the reason assigned in General SchO
fields case, was, that he had not beer
reported as drawing any commuta
ton. The pay proper of Brigadiel
General was 81, ASS. The COMMITTEES
proposed to fix the pay of Officer
definitely, as follows: In lieu of pay
proper and all sorts of communications
.iIGeneral, $4,000. The House would
reccollect that the Chief Justice of the
United States received only $500 8
wear; Associate Judges, $1,000; the
Speaker of the House 5000, and tht
Vice President $4,000. 1t might b'
said this salary would be too small Il
permit Of receptions and entertain
ments, but he did not think the peo
ple were willing TO be taxed for any
such purpose. Lieutenant General
1 $1,000. 1t seemed to him that was ;
very good salary for a young mai
without family. Laughter Mao
Generals, 81 500; Brigadier Generals
1 $1,000; COlonels, s., 500; Lieutenan
Colonels, 5000; Majors, 3, 500; Cap
tains, mounted, 5000; not mounted
81 500; Adjutants, 1000; Regimen
ial Quartermasters, 81 coo; First Lieu
tenants, mounted, 81 900; not mount
!, ed, s, 500; Second Lieutenants, mount
ed, 81 500; not mounted, 81 400
Chaplains, 81 800; Aid-de-Camps t.
Major Generals, 500 additional; Aid
l de-Camps to Brigadier Generals, SIS
additional; Acting Assistant Commits
sary 500 additional. Fuel ant
forage in kind to be issued by tn,
iQuartermaster's Department as nov
( allowed by law and regulations. OF
ficers when travelling under orders
: and not furnished transportation, Z
be allowed 10 cents a mile Retire,
officers TO receive 75 per cent. of tn
pay of the rank OH which they retired
In conclusion Mr.. Logan asserte,
there would be saved by the bill il
, the pay of officers alone over one an
: one-half millions, and as to the savin
!, ! in communication it was impossible t
hcaiculate it His own estimate wa
: the saving to be effected by the bi
2 would approximate to SS,0O0,O0.
The bill was then considered by SEE
tions for amendment.
Z At the close of the speech of Ger
a Logan several amendments wer
,. adopted. 1t was moved to amend tn
! . first section by providing that the r'
: ports of the board shall set forth il
stances of inexpericnee, inefficienc!