The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1895-02-07
THE STATE MILITIA.

doing away with the state militia, by
the present Legislature, Captain John W.
Lewis, recently of the land Office here,
and an old soldier who saw service both
during the late war and on the frontier,
and who is by reason thereof thoroughly |
competent to measure the value of |
state militia, has written letter in de- |
fense of the system as follows:
THE DALLEs, Or, Feb. 4, '95.
Hon. W. W. SteiaOer, State Senator, Salem.
DEAR SIR:-ObedIent to the demand |
of the people for retrenchment in the
expenses of the state government, I note
that several bills have been introduced
in the assembly touching the organiza- |
tion of the state militia.
True principles of economy demand
the same rigorous examination and dis
tinct approval of all measures involving
the appropriation of the public money,
as is required in matters of private
nature, but, in the laudable endeavor
to reduce expenditure, may not reduc-
ton be made in the wrong direction?
What is the militia? theoretically, it is
the organized power of the state. Prac-
tically, it is just what the voluntary
efforts of the officers and men composing
it, supplemented by judicious laws, are
able to make it. The militia have
always taken a prominent part in the
different wars, especially those of the
frontier in early times, that have afflicted
this country since its first settlement.
The men who, in the early days of New
England history, took their matchlocks
with them when they gathered together
on the Sabbath to worship God, were
militiamen, and Captain Church, who
was one of the bravest and most success
full fighters of his time, and did more
than any other one man to conquer
peace from the red men of those days,
was a militIaman, pure and simple.
John Smith was militiaman, and
George Washington was militia colonel
when, with his Virginia militia, he saved
the remnants of Braddock's regular
army from annihilatlon and brought off
all that was saved from that disastrous
field on Laurel hill, in 1855, after the
death of the brave, but too rash and
con6dant commander of his majesty g
regulars who disdained to take advice
from the militia colonel. The minute
men of the revolution were militiamen,
and Paul Revere was the ideal militia
man of his time, and when the lights in
the tower of the old church in Boston
town warned him that it was time to
ride, the tocsin sounded by him as he
dashed through the country side that
~ ;rl,k
to by the mihtiamen who gallantiy met
and defeated the Kings regulars on the
historical 18th of April, 1775.
The same spirit that animated the
breasts of Paul Revere and the militia Of
his time, pervaded the bosoms of the
militia of the next generation, and when
the country needed the men, the ssLex-
ington Old Infantry" a Kentucky mil
itia company, went as an organization tc
join st. Clair in his disastrous campaign
against the Indians and left their bones
on the banks of the river Raisin
When the first call was made in 1861
for 5000 men, one Massach 1setts regi
ment of militia resolved to go in body
and 1,400 of that organization offered
their services to the government The
famous Seventh regiment of the New
York National Guard-then as now the
''crack'' militia regiment of that state
went in body at the first call to arms
to the defence of the nations capital
and during the civil war its member!
won distinction in every battle for tn,
union from the first ''Bull Rum to Ap
pomattox. Some of the most able anC
efficient members of our own Nationa
Guard of Oregon were formerly mem
bers of that organization, and should oc
casion arise, our own guard would be a
prompt in response to lawful demand
and as faithful and efficient in discharg
of their duty, whether to repel foreigl
foe or to put down rebellion, as their an
cestors have been in former wars.
The freedom of our state from tn
troubles that obtained in other secti IN
of the union, Incident to the man
strikes of the labor organizations las
summer, was largely due to the eficien
organization, the drill and discipline c
the guard. and the prevalent feelin
among the people at large that the off
GERS and men composing it could be de