The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-09-20
wASn4NGToN AND THE ARMY.

The force of which Washington took
 Lcommand at Cambridge in 1775 num-
 lbered 20,242 officers and men, of whom
 l17115 were present for duty. Three
 jfourths of them were from Massachu- geetts and the rest from Connecticut, IsNeW Hampshire and Rhode Island. They were deficient in discipline, in in- 5struction, in equipment, in arms and Ammunition, in every military essential aE was inevitable in view of the man. ner in which they had been brought together and the short time which had elapsed since their organization. They were enlisted to serve until the end of the year only, their company officers had been elected by the men, the field officers by the company officers and the < general officers had been appointed by Acongress. The essential thing was to
 raise men, and whoever could get to-
 Eether fifty men became a captain, and
 800 men colonel, regardless of qualifi-
 |cations for command. A few of the of-
 .flcers and men had served in the
 French and Indian wars, but the num-
 jber of these was small, and outside of
 them military training and experience did not exist.
 From such materials Washington Ecreated an army, and in spite of almost annual congratulations due to short sssterms of enlistment, kept it together for lover seven years. It suffered many de- feats, but it gained many victories, and lf1nAlly, with the all-important aid of straihed French soldiers, it accomplish led its task of gaining our independence. T Tt1 vii ofy O ho1 I,n Washington established the military system which we have ever since fol-
 lowed, viz, that of relying upon un-
 trained volunteers; and curiously
 enough he established it in spite of
 himself and in the face of his own let sters and opinions expressed to congress $incessantly during the Revolution, and
 afterward on every suitable occasion
 during the last twenty five years of his life. In September, 1776, he wrote: The
 Jealousy of a standing army and of the
 evils to be apprehended from one are
 remote. and in my judgment, situated
 and circumstanced as we are not at all
 70 be dreaded; but the consequence of wanting one, according to my ideas from the present view of things, is cer- tain and inevitable ruin"
 On other occa sons he spoke most contemptuously of the militia, as, for
 instance, when he wrote to his brother John from Harlem under date of Sep tember 22, 1776:
 s'The independence which congress have placed upon the militia has al- ready greatly injured, and, I fear, will totally ruin, our cause. Being subject to no control themselves, they intro duce disorder among the troops, whom we have attempted to discipline, when the change in living brings on sickness; this causes an impatience to get home, which spreads universally, and intro- duces abominable assertions" Ana In the same month to the presi- dent of congress:
 ITO place any dependence upon the militia is assuredly resting upon broken staff. Men just dragged from the tender scenes of domestic life, un- accustomed to the din of arms totally unacquainted with every kind of mili- tary skill, are timid and ready to fly | from their own shadows. Again, | men accustomed to unbounded freedom and no control cannot brook the re- straint which is indispensably neces- sarX to the good order and government 1 of an army; without which hcentious- ness of every kind of disorder trium- phantly reign!"-Scribner'A sI