Mr. JEFFERSON DAVIS
said he did not intend to enter into a wide discussion with reference to the
tariff, to Oregon, to Texas, or to the improvement of the rivers and harbors of
the country. The House had under consideration a proposition to raise two
regiments of riflemen. The only questions to be determined were: first, the
necessity of the increase; and, second, the mode in which it should be made.
There were two great propositions imbodying different modes: one to increase
the army by increasing the number of regiments; the other, to add to the rank
and file of the existing regiments. Our organization under a peace
establishment is designed only to be the skeleton of an army; we organize our
regiments not so much with a view to their present efficiency as on the arising
of an emergency which shall require them to enable us to fill them up and
render us the greatest service. We who were literally the rifle people of the
world, who were emphatically skilled in the use of the rifle, were now falling
behind France, England, and other nations, who were paying attention to it, and
now actually had no rifle regiment. For this reason, if there were no other, he
would vote to raise a rifle regiment to perfect our organization, and add the
wanting bone to the skeleton of our army.
Another reason in
behalf of this bill was, that it was recommended by the President of the United
States. [Mr. D. read that part of the Message recommending the establishment of
stockade forts on the route to Oregon, &c.] It did not depend upon the
notice, upon future emigration, but was necessary to protect the emigration now
passing to Oregon. He pointed out the dangers from the attacks of nomadic
hostile Indians, to which the traveller across the prairies is exposed, the
necessity of mounted riflemen for their protection, and the superiority in very
many respects of mounted to unmounted riflemen for this service. He agreed with
the gentleman from Kentucky, [Mr. BOYD,] who, in his amendment, proposed to
make it discretionary with the President whenever, in his opinion, the public
interests shall require, to mount such portions of these regiments as he may
deem necessary. He (Mr. D.) hoped that at least half of them would be mounted;
for it was perfectly idle to send infantry to guard emigrants against Indians
who live on horseback, who rob all companies not sufficiently strong to resist
them, and fly with their booty as on the wings of the wind.
He denied the
correctness of the position of Mr. RATHBUN, that this bill was intended for
raising troops to transport our men, women, and children to a territory over
which we dared not assert our rights; and said that the President had
recommended mounted riflemen to protect the emigration which is now going on;
we needed it before emigration commenced, and emigration has only increased its
necessity. He urged the importance of this measure, and the advantages and
facilities which would be extended to emigrants to Oregon, by the erection of a
line of stockade forts on their route. In further reply to Mr. R., he
vindicated the qualifications of western men for this particular kind of service,
acknowledging that they would be loth to submit to military punishment, but
assigning their habitual subordination to the laws of the country, and their
patriotic and gallant devotion to its interests, as the means by which they
would avoid subjecting themselves to it. In the course of his remarks, he
adverted to the necessity of the Military Academy in reference to the attacks
from time to time made upon it, maintaining the unquestionable necessity of a
military education to prepare a man for command in the army; which education,
he said, was only to be obtained at a military academy, or piece by piece to be
picked up, at the hazard of loss of property and life, by the officer, after he
was commissioned and under heavy pay. Mr. D. also touched briefly upon one or
two other points.
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