H. OF R. Volunteer Corps. JANUARY, 1812 Mr. RODMAN moved to amend the bill, by add-posed by the bill, I take to be intended to aid the ing the word militia, so as to read volunteer mili- more permanent army, or to supply the want of tia force. it for internal defence, or offensive operations, as the case may require. Their voluntary engagement distinguishes them from the militia, but does not divest them of their patriotism. Mr. FINDLEY.-Mr. Speaker: I am opposed to the motion of my colleague, (Mr. RODMAN.) to insert the term militia into this bill. It is not used in either the bill or in the title by the Com- Mr. WILSON observed, that it is the duty of mittee of Foreign Relations, nor ought it to be the President to communicate, from time to time, introduced. The militia, under different names to Congress, such measures as he shall judge nein different countries, are such inhabitants as are cessary and expedient; and at the opening of the always obliged, for the general protection, to obey present session, he had recommended to Congress the call of the Government made according to to put the nation into a warlike attitude; to fill law, or to be punished for not doing so.. They do up the present militia establishment; to raise ten not serve as volunteers, but are under an indispen- thousand additional troops. Congress has not sable obligation. This principle arises from the only filled up the old establishment, but raised law of nature, under which it is every man's duty twenty-five thousand additional men. He beto protect himself; on entering into political so-lieved the bill before the House necessary, as it ciety, he has a right to the protection of the society. To contribute to this protection, every member of the society is under a moral obligation to do it in the manner prescribed by law. This law constitutes what in this country and in Britain is called a militia, in France a conscription, and in other nations by other names; but in all nations, it is totally distinct from volunteers. All men who enlist of their own free will into a regular army, are volunteers in doing so. In Britain, it is volunteers that are by the recruiting officers invited at the drum-head to enlist. The only difference between the regular army directed to be raised, and the volunteers proposed in the bill, is the difference in the terms on, and time for, which they engage; but when they are called into service agreeable to their voluntary engagements, they are both qualified for every purpose of war, and they are equally distinct from militia. Mr. Speaker, I had made up my mind to vote for the bill, though I would have preferred that which has been laid aside as the simple and best suited to the object proposed. Presuming that the choice of their own officers is a characteristic difference between the volunteers and the enlisted regiments, the signing of commissions is little more than matter of form, but a necessary form; if it even answered no other purpose, it is necessary to procure suitable treatment and exchange to such officers as may have the misfortune to be taken; and even for this purpose, their being signed by the President would be most convenient; but, whether the officers be commissioned by the President or the States, as soon as the volunteers bring themselves under the engagements proposed in the bill, they are no longer a militia, but are as much qualified for the service so much spoken of, as the regular troops. It is with this view that I will vote for the bill. So many doubts have been started on the floor of the power of Congress to employ the militia out of the Territories of the United States, that it may be improper to attempt it. Admitting as an amendment the term "militia," could not make the volunteers, when engaged, to be such. The militia, as defined by the militia law, still remain liable to the call of the United States, or of the individual States, either in classes or in mass, as occasion may require. The volunteers pro will be a means of bringing forward men from the militia who can most conveniently leave their homes; no doubt they will be considered as volunteers for the internal defence of the country, under the provision of the Constitution. He should be alarmed at the idea of raising a regular force of eighty-five thousand men, when the Executive had only asked for ten thousand. The House was told the spirit of the nation was up. He believed the people wished the country to be put in a posture of defence-in a situation prepared for war. He should have been willing to vote for raising ten thousand additional troops, though he voted against twenty-five thousand; and he certainly should not now think of adding fifty thousand more to those already granted; and if the appointment of the officers were to be placed in the President, these volunteers would be nothing different from regulars, except as to the term of service; and if the bill were to be passed in this form, the volunteers would not be got; the men would be willing to engage to execute the laws, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions, but not in a foreign conquest. Respecting the right of the General Government to send these volunteers out of the United States, under the bill as it now stands, the question had been so fully discussed that it was unnecessary to add another word to what had been said. It was, to him, a perfectly new idea that Congress had any such power; and it was an idea which he could not believe had the least foundation in the Constitution. Mr. RODMAN's amendment was negatived. Mr. BACON moved that the word "fifty" be struck out of the bill, and "twenty" inserted in its place. He was of opinion with those gentlemen who consider this force as a militia force, and competent for domestic purposes only, such as are mentioned in the Constitution. He thought twenty thousand men of this description would be sufficient for acting on the seaboard, manning fortifications, or repelling any incursions which may be made into the country. Should this motion be agreed to, and the bill become a law, he would bring in another bill for raising a volunteer force of a description calculated for the object which all wished to be effected. If the present amendment was agreed to, he would propose another in the third section, providing that this force shall not be marched out of the jurisdiction of the United States. H. of R. I see, too, said he, a disposition to diminish the true defensive force of the States-to cut it down, to whittle it away, so soon as it is discovered that Mr. SMILIE hoped the amendment would not it cannot be used for purposes of aggrandizement prevail. He wished the bill might pass without and ambition. Gentlemen are willing to diminamendment. He thought the regular force al-ish as much as you please the national force, ready voted was larger than could be raised. He hoped the House would not add any more to them. Mr. NELSON hoped the motion of the gentleman from Massachusetts would not he agreed to. If any man will turn his eyes to the map of the United States, and observe the extensiveness of our frontier, he will be satisfied that twenty thousand men would be an inadequate force for the purpose of guarding it. Instead of reducing the number of volunteers, he had rather the number should be one hundred thousand than fifty thousand. The amendment proposed to the third section of the bill would be objectionable, on the ground of its interfering with a power belonging to the Executive, as Commander-in-Chief, of directing the employment of these volunteers as he shall deem proper. Mr. GRUNDY thought it better to reduce the number of men to be raised by this bill to that which would be sufficient for internal purposes. He was of opinion with those who considered the militia as the shield of the several States; and the army as the instrument with which to carry on war. If, said he, more men are appropriated to internal defence than are necessary, it will be taking so many from the effective force intended to be raised by another bill to go against Canada. He was clearly in favor of volunteers for both these objects. The gentleman from Pennsylvania says, he will rely on the fifty thousand volunteers proposed to be raised by the bill as it now stands. If he could show that these men, or any part of them, could be sent to Canada, he would rely upon them too; but if this could not be shown, he could not rely upon them. He was, therefore, for raising two descriptions of volunteers, one for internal defence, and the other for going against the British provinces. He was not afraid of this regular force; they were to be engaged for a short period only, and when that expired, they would return home. Mr. G. read some extracts from the speech of Colonel George Nicholas, in the Virginia Convention, in support of what he had advanced. Mr. RANDOLPH wished to say a few words. He trusted the very few observations which he had to make, and which would not have been made but for some remarks which had fallen from the gentleman from Tennessee, would not subject him to any charge of wishing to obstruct the public business. After having debated five days on the proposition of the Committee of Foreign Relations, he had thought, when the vote was taken yesterday, that the ground of debate was settled; but he saw, to his great surprise, without any object or foundation, the debate still going on to-day in the same round. while embodied as militia, to give nourishment to the standing army; to diminish as much as possible the defence of the States, in order to make their attack on the British provinces; but we are to rely upon twenty thousand militia only, scattered over our vast frontier, for protection at home. Shall we be told, that whilst this House is ready to vote one hundred thousand men to go against a foreign province, they will be satisfied with twenty thousand men for our defence? He would not even so much as insinuate that the local situation of the gentleman from Tennessee, far removed as he is from the seacoast, had any influence upon his opinion in this case. He had thought from the argument of the gentleman from Tennessee, who agreed with him that these volunteers will be a militia force, that he would have been for increasing, rather than diminishing its amount. He had no doubt any number of men would be found ready to defend their native soil, though not disposed to go on a windmill quixotic expedition to Quebec. Mr. R. would tell the gentleman from Tennessee, that before he gets his volunteers ready to march to Canada-for God knows they have had warning enough-Great Britain may have sent out a fleet with 5,000 men to Halifax, who may, in five days, reach some of the most vulnerable parts of our country, at the mouth of the Hudson, Delaware, or Chesapeake, and do us incalculable mischief. Mr. R. said the President would not dare, because it would violate his duty to the nation over which he presides, to send out a militia force to invade Canada. " What! send out an army to invade a barren, frozen wilderness-a country-so help me God! (exclaimed Mr. R.,) which, if the British Minister would make me a present of, I would not accept. He knew that through the influence of the public prints, and all those arts by which the public mind is wrought upon, an effervescence had been produced throughout the country in favor of war measures, and which was ready to fix an odium on all those who are unwilling that the good people of these United States should be involved in a war for the purpose of getting pos session of a wretched territory, filled with tories and refugees, who would prove a curse to the Union, by bringing new forces and allies to that party which is known by the name of the Esser Junto. There may be a few persons, said Mr. R., who, from the madness of the times, may be willing to embark in this business; but he trusted when the virtue and good sense of the people came to reflect upon the subject, that this war-fever would subside. He would venture to predict that in six months the whole would vanish. Mr. R. was surprised at the process which this bill had gone through. When he heard of so many references to the Constitution and other authorities, it had the appearance of an attempt to find a flaw in an indictment, or, for a high fee, of a set of lawyers endeavoring to pick a hole in some honest man's will. He had hoped we should have had other expositions of national law than such as had gone forth. He concurred in opinion with those gentlemen who consider the militia as the true defence of the respective States and the people, not only against foreign invasions, but against the usurpations of the General Government. That the militia could be sent out of the limits of the United States, to make war, never entered into the minds of George Mason, Patrick Henry, James Madison, nor into the mind of any other eminent friend or enemy of the Constitution. If the doctrine of the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. CHEVES) were to be acted upon, and the best part of the militia were to be carried out of the United States, those that were left might not be able to stand against any aspiring chief who might arise out of a standing army; and our Government, which has in it a constant tendency towards hereditary monarchy, or rather absolute despotism, might thus be crushed and overturned. This, said Mr. R., proves the natural death of every Government. Ambition may be kept down for a while by the throne being occupied by a King Log or a King Stork; but make a military despot, and you have no countervailing force. You slumber on the calm of despotism. Create a Government how you will, a wise man has said, some artful men will uniformly obtain the direction of it, and perpetuate it to themselves and their families. And there exists in this Government, as there existed in the Consular Government of Rome, and the popular Government of Athens, a predisposition to change its nature; and it is only by a saluatary check that liberty can be perpetuated. What is this check? Is it paper? No; it is power; the only thing which can qualify it. You may cover whole skins of parchment with limitations, but power alone can limit power. Mr. R. said, that the great and good man on whom the destinies of this country depended more than upon any other, never thought of this power of sending the militia out of the country. This question was never started in his time. And he desired gentlemen to look again through the volume which had been introduced, of the Debates in the Virginia Convention on the Constitution, and they would find nothing said of this nondescript tertium quid kind of force of volunteers officered by the President of the United States. The Constitution knows only two kinds of force an army and a militia. We know what armies are. We know that this volunteer corps, which is wished by the gentleman from Tennessee to be sent out of the United States, cannot be considered in the light of a regular army. Public jealousy would not be excited in the same degree, in respect to it. It JANUARY, 1812. would remain among us without any distrust, like so many spies upon the whole country, until the Presidential fiat should call them forth like the men of Cadmus. The bill provides that the service of these volunteers may be accepted in companies and brig ades, so that some of the States may be deprived of their natural defence. He would name the State of Delaware, for instance. No State would be more exposed to be depredated upon, than the gallant little State of Delaware. Suppose this State should make a tender of ten, or twenty thousand men; and whilst they are marching in search of foreign conquest, their own houses should be burnt over the heads of their wives and children! Would this be borne? But, perhaps, it will be said that the President of the United States would have the prudence not to accept of the service of so many men from one State-that he will make a judicious selection. It is here that the cloven foot of this monstrous, this anomalous, nondescript force, begins to show itself. It gives to the President of the United States the power to rally around his person an effective disciplined force, commanded by officers particularly attached to his person, to the amount of thirty thousand men, drawn from different parts of the Union. Could a project be devised better calculated to enable an aspiring, ambitious President, to overturn the Constitution of this country? Is it not the same kind of force that Aaron Burr (he asked pardon for mentioning his name, for misfortune is entitled to respect) employed-mercenaries, who hired themselves for a few dollars or noggins of gin, to execute the orders of their chief! If he were, however, to have a master, it mattered little to him who he was. Figure to yourselves, said Mr, R., in place of the present Chief Magistrate, an ardent, aspiring, ambitious character in the Presidential chair, with a Swartwout or a Bollman for his military chief; he asked whether the liberties of the country, in such a situation, would be safe? They certainly would not. He would sooner give the Government twenty-five thousand more regulars, than the nondescript force proposed. We held up our hands against the principle of raising armies in former times. We had not then construed the Constitution to our own purpose. This force is precisely of that kind of which a President of the description which he had mentioned would wish to be possessed; and if it be thought impossible that such a character should ever get to the chair, we must have given up all our views of human nature. Such a man, with such a force, would find no difficulty of turning you out of this Hall and fixing his heel upon your neck. And the Commander-in-Chief of such an army, must be a greater bungler than any man ought to be, less versed in political and military tactics than can well be supposed, if he does not conclude his Canadian campaign by stepping into yonder house. [Pointing to the residence of the President.] Mr. R. said he had examined, with some attention, the opinions expressed by gentlemen on both JANUARY, 1812. Volunteer Corps. H. of R. sides of the question in the Virginia Convention. nation in armor; and therefore he wished to give He found not only no trace of the power lately the Government an adequate force. He was unattempted to be set up in this House, but he found willing to call this force a militia, because he consimilar fears expressed to those which he enter-sidered the militia to be a force which cannot be tained of a standing force and a military chief. sent without the United States; it can be em[Mr. R. quoted the sentiments of Mr. George Ma- ployed only for the purpose prescribed in the Conson and others, delivered in the Virginia Conven- stitution. He was one of those who deemed the tion, on the Constitution, in confirmation of what militia to be the bulwark of the States, and he he had advanced; and concluded, with a hope should never be willing to surrender what he conthat the amendment of the gentleman from Mas-sidered as a State right. He considered the militia sachusetts would not prevail.] as intended to maintain the sovereignty of the States, not only against the encroachments of any foreign Power, but, if such should ever unhappily arise, against the usurpation of the General Government. It was unnecessary to enter into arguments in support of this opinion, as it had already been made sufficiently clear. He would add only one reason to those already stated. Mr. BACON proposed to vary his motion from twenty to twenty-five thousand men. As it was only three days since the House had passed a law for raising twenty-five thousand regular troops, he hoped they should not so soon have been engaged in any plan for putting them down. When we shall have no further occasion for them, a vote of Congress can put them down, in the same way that they were raised. He wished the present force, to aid the army in the internal defence of the country. Mr. WIDGERY was opposed to this amendment. It was with reluctance that he at any time disagreed with his colleague; but there is no man who does not sometimes get wrong. If the gentleman had considered that we have a seacoast of nearly two thousand miles, he would scarcely have wished to reduce the number of these volunteers; and why should they be reduced? They will be no expense until they are embodied for service, and it may be necessary, if we go to war, to repel invasion at points which we do not now think of. But the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. RANDOLPH) is afraid our small army should overturn the Government; the gentleman surely does not recollect that we have a militia of between seven and eight thousand men, or he would lay aside his fears on this head. It was idle to talk in this way. If the argument of the gentleman from South Carolina were correct, that the power to raise and employ armies, carries with it all the necessary powers to carry that general power into effect, it would indeed be of vast magnitude. Let us look into the sovereign power in other countries. In Great Britain, all the rights of the people are ceded from the Crown. It will be recollected that the Barons obtained from King John the great Magna Charta, and afterwards the Bill of Rights. The people of that country, then, have no rights but such as are yielded to them. Not so with us. All the power which our Governments possess is derived from the people, who are the fountain of power. The people here make the Government, and not the Government the people. They made both the General and State Governments, and gave to each such power as they judged proper. Mr. N. thought a plain line of demarkation in respect to the powers of Congress, was to be found in the 8th section of the 1st article of the Constitution: "Congress is to raise and support armies." Mr. NELSON said, if we proceeded in this way, He acknowledged this to be a sovereign power'; endeavoring to raise spectres from the vasty deep, but if there had been no limitation in respect to there would be no end to the present discussion. this power in the Constitution, he should have It was his wish to put the nation in armor; and contended that Congress under this grant could he was sorry that, after having been ten weeks in not have exercised the same power over the milisession, a motion should now be made to reduce tia that is here given them over the army; as all the number of volunteers proposed to be raised by power must be expressly given, otherwise it is rethis bill, from fifty thousand to twenty-five thou-tained by the States, or the people. But the matter sand. Another provision was intended to locate is put beyond doubt, by the clause which limits the employment of this force. Mr. N. was op- the use of the militia to "executing the laws of posed to giving this bill the form of a militia bill. the Union, suppressing insurrections, and repelHe wished to put the nation in a posture of de-ling invasions." fence-to put on strong armor. He did not wish to prescribe the manner in which these troops shall be used; because the Constitution has placed this power in other hands. It is the province of the Commander-in-Chief to employ this force as he thinks proper, under his Constitutional responsibility. When the question of war shall come before the House, it would be necessary to determine upon the particular measures to be pursued; but, until that question was before him, he should pledge himself to no particular course. He would look the demon in the face before he came to grapple with him.. He had said, that it was his object to put the Congress is thus controlled in the exercise of the power given them to raise and support armies; and the limitation of that power implied a substantive grant of power in respect to the militia, without limitation. Mr. N. said he had been branded as lukewarm in this business of putting the nation in a warlike attitude; but without cause, for he was decidedly in favor of taking every necessary step for this purpose. He considered the fifty thousand volunteers proposed to be raised by this bill as an effective force; and the more so, as it will doubtless be carried almost unanimously. It was to be regretted that it had gone abroad that we are a divided people-that there are citizens among us hostile to the Government. He did not believe this to be correct. The opinion was fostered by those who wished it to be true; but the report had no foundation in fact. He wished it dissipated. Mr. N. disliked standing armies as much as any one; and wished to avoid any measures which might in any way jeopardize our liberties. If the course which the nation is now about to assume, had been taken years ago, our present calamities might have been avoided. He did not believe that the regular force proposed to be raised, would be got in time. He believed the volunteers contemplated in this bill would come forward not only as militiamen, but as regulars, and he considered them as less dangerous in this character than the standing troops. They will consist of the yeomanry, or the sons of the yeomanry of the country, whose rights and duties cannot be separated from those of their fellow-citizens; they leave their homes at the call of their country; they do not take up the profession of soldiers for a subsistence, and do not remain long enough in the ranks to forget their wives and children; and when their services expire they will return to their own firesides with the same principles and feelings with which they leave them, ready to defend their respective States, with the arms which they have obtained in the service. Mr. N. considered volunteer militia as another object. If the President were to call out these volunteers, it would put it out of the power of the State to interfere with them. He had formed an opinion that the bill which originally came from the Committee of Foreign Relations would be most effectual; the force would be less dangerous than an army, and more effective than militia. This is the kind of armor with which he wished to clothe the nation. He had made these remarks, to the end that the House might reject the proposed amendment, with a view of afterwards making these volunteers the effective force so much to be desired. Mr. PORTER said the proposed amendment of the gentleman from Massachusetts put the subject in a new point of view. In order to enable gentlemen to act in concert, and to afford an opportunity to such gentlemen as might still wish to deliver their sentiments on the occasion, he moved an adjournment. The motion was negatived, 86 to 11. After a few observations from Mr. BIGELOW, in favor of retaining the militia principle in the bill, he again moved that the House adjourn. The motion was again lost 44 to 38. The question on Mr. BACON's amendment was then put and negatived-yeas 11, nays 85, as follows: YEAS-Ezekiel Bacon, William W. Bibb, William Findley, James Fisk, Thomas Gholson, Felix Grundy, William R. King, Joseph Lewis, jun., Israel Pickens, Peter B. Porter, and William Strong. NAYS-Willis Alston, junior, William Anderson, Stevenson Archer, John Baker, David Bard, Josiah Bartlett, Burwell Bassett, Abijah Bigelow, William JANUARY, 1812. Blackledge, Harmanus Bleecker, Thomas Blount, Adam Boyd, James Breckenridge, Robert Brown, Wm. A. Burwell, William Butler, John C. Calhoun, Matthew Clay, James Cochran, John Clopton, Lewis Condit, William Crawford, John Dawson, Joseph Desha, Samuel Dinsmoor, Elias Earle, Meshack Franklin, Isaiah L. Green, Bolling Hall, Obed Hall, John A. Harper, Aylett Hawes, Jacob Hufty, John M. Hyneman, Richard M. Johnson, Joseph Kent, Philip B. William Lowndes, Aaron Lyle, Nathaniel Macon, Key, Abner Lacock, Joseph Lefever, Peter Little, George C. Maxwell, Thomas Moore, Archibald McBryde, William McCoy, Alexander McKim, Arunah Metcalf, Samuel L. Mitchill, James Morgan, Jeremiah Morrow, Hugh Nelson, Anthony New, Thomas Newton, Stephen Ormsby, William Piper, Benjamin Pond, John Randolph, William Reed, Samuel Ringgold, Jno. Rhea, John Roane, Jonathan Roberts, William Rodman, Ebenezer Sage, Thomas Sammons, Ebenezer Seaver, John Sevier, Adam Seybert, Samuel Shaw, John Smilie, Geo. Smith, John Smith, Richard Stanford, John Taliaferro, Uri Tracy, Charles Turner, jr., Laban Wheaton, Leonard White, Robert Whitehill, David R. Williams, William Widgery, Thomas Wilson, and Robert Wright. The question was then taken on concurring with the Committee of the Whole on the amendments reported, which was carried by a large majority. It being late, the House adjourned without taking a question on the bill's being engrossed for a third reading. WEDNESDAY, January 15. Mr. Lewis, from the Committee for the District of Columbia, presented a bill to amend the laws within the District of Columbia; which was read twice and committed to a Committee of the whole House on Monday next. IMPRESSMENT OF AMERICAN SEAMEN. Mr. CONDIT understood a gentleman as saying, in the course of the debate which had lately taken place, when speaking of the impressment of our seamen by the British vessels of war, that had not our Government asked too much they might have obtained redress. He therefore moved the fol lowing resolution, in order to get some informa tion on the subject: "Resolved, That the President of the United States be requested to furnish this House with copies of the instructions heretofore given to our Minister at London, on the subject of the impressment of American seamen into the naval service of Great Britain, excepting so much as it may be improper to disclose, on account of any pending negotiation." Mr. NEWTON saw no necessity for this resolu tion, as he believed all the information which the Executive possessed on this subject, had been laid before Congress and printed. He would mention one circumstance to show that the pretence which Great Britain makes for the impressment of our seamen is without foundation. Our right to naturalize foreigners is established by our Constitution; and if a late publication of that country, "Abbott on Shipping," be referred to, it will appear, that any foreigner who shall remain in the British navy three years, or marry a wife in Eng |