stantly into the hands of England. With the exception of our public armed vessels, there would be scarcely a flag of ours afloat on the ocean. We grew rich by being neutral while England was belligerent. It was that which so suddenly built up the mighty fabric of our prosperity and greatness. Reverse the position-let England be neutral while we are belligerent, and the sources of our wealth and prosperity would be speedily exhausted.

In a just and necessary war, said Mr. C., all these consequences ought to be fearlessly met. Though a friend to peace, when a proper occasion occurs, I would be among the last to dread the consequences of war. I think the wealth and blood of a country are well poured out in maintaining a just, honorable, and necessary war; but, in such a war as that with which the country is now threatened-a mere war of etiquette-a war turning on a question so trivial as whether an explanation shall or shall not be given-no, whether it has or has not been given (for that is the real point on which the controversy turns), to put in jeopardy the lives and property of our citizens, and the liberty and institutions of our country, is worse than folly-is madness. I say the liberty and institutions of the country. I hold them to be in imminent danger. Such has been the grasp of Executive power, that we have not been able to resist its usurpations, even in a period of peace; and how much less shall we be able, with the vast increase of power and patronage which a war must confer on that department? In a sound condition of the country, with our institutions in their full vigor, and every department confined to its proper sphere, we would have nothing to fear from a war with France, or any other power; but our system is deeply diseased, and we may fear the worst in being involved in a war at such a juncture.

I have, said Mr. C., in conclusion, no objection to the message and documents going to the Committee on Foreign

Relations. I have great confidence in the committee, and have no doubt that they will discharge their duty to the Senate and to the country with prudence and wisdom, at the present trying juncture. But let me suggest a caution against the hasty adoption of the recommendations of the message. To adopt them, would be to change for the worse the position which we now occupy in this unfortunate controversy, and lead, I fear, directly to war. We are told that a French fleet has been sent to the West Indies, which has been considered as a menace, with the intention of frightening us into hasty measures. The French Government itself has said, in its official journal, that it acts on the defensive, and that there is no legitimate cause of war between the two countries. We would not be justified, with these declarations, connected with the circumstances of the case, were we to regard the sending the fleet as a menace. We must not forget that we, in this controversy, are, as my colleague said the other day in debate, the plaintiffs, and France the defendant. If there must be war, it must come from us, not France. She has neither motive nor cause to make war. As we, then, must declare the war, it is not strange that France, after what has passed, should prepare for the worst; and such preparation ought fairly to be considered, not as a menace, but as a precautionary measure resulting from our own acts. But should we in turn commence arming, it must be followed on the part of France with increased preparation, and again on ours with a corresponding increase, till, at length, the pride and passions of both parties would be so wrought up as to burst out into open violence.

I have, said Mr. Calhoun, thus freely expressed my opinion upon this important subject, feeling a deep conviction that neither justice, honor, nor necessity, impel to arms; and that a war with France, at all times, and more especially at the present, would be among the greatest calamities that could befall the country.

REMARKS

On the proposed Increase of the Army, made in the Senate, February 16, 1837.

[THE Bill to increase the military establishment of the United States being at its third reading, and the question being on its passage, Mr. Southard demanded the yeas and nays; and they were ordered by the Senate.]

MR. CALHOUN addressed the Senate at length in opposition to the bill;not, however, as he said, with the least hope of preventing its passage. There was money in the treasury, and it must be spent, and this he knew would prove, with many gentlemen, a reason why the bill must pass. Yet, bearing a certain relation to this branch of our establishment, he felt called upon to say a few words, and they should be very few. He could not assent to the bill. The object it proposed was useless, and a good deal more than useless. The bill proposed to increase our existing military establishment, as a peace establishment too,-by the addition of 5,500 men, making the aggregate amount of the army over 12,000 men, and augmenting the expense of its maintenance by a million and a half or two millions of dollars. Was this necessary? He contended that it was not, and that there never was a time when there was so little necessity for a measure of this character. Abroad, we were at peace with all the world; and as to Mexico, he believed no gentleman seriously contemplated that we were to go to war with her. Never had there been a time when so little force was necessary to put our Indian relations upon the safest footing. Our Indian frontier had, within a few years, been contracted to one-half its former dimensions. It had formerly reached from Detroit all the way round to the mouth of the St. Mary's, in Georgia;

whereas, at present, its utmost extent was from St. Peter's to the Red River. To guard this frontier, the Government had nine regiments of artillery, seven of infantry, and two of dragoons. He would submit to every one to say whether such a line could not be amply defended by such a force. Supposing one regiment to be stationed at St. Louis, and another at Baton Rouge, there still remained seven regiments to be extended from St. Peter's to Red River Supposing one of them to be stationed at St. Peter's, one upon the Missouri, one in Arkansas, and one upon the Red River, there were still three left at the disposal of the Government. He contended that this force was not only sufficient but ample. He should be told that there was a very large Indian force upon this frontier. That was very true. But the larger that force was, the more secure did it render our position; provided the Government appointed among them faithful Indian agents, who enjoyed their confidence, and who would be sustained by the Government in measures for their benefit. Of what did this vast Indian force consist? In the first place, there were the Choctaws, who had removed beyond the Mississippi with their own consent; a people always friendly to this Government, and whose boast it was that they had never shed, in a hostile manner, one drop of the white man's blood. Their friendship was moreover secured by heavy annuities, which must at once be forfeited by any hostile movement. Whenever this was the case, the Government possessed complete control by the strong consideration of interest. Next came the friendly Creeks, who had all gone voluntarily to the west bank of the river. Then came the friendly Cherokees, who had done the same thing; and next the Chickasaws, whom we also held by heavy annuities. All this vast body of Indians were friendly towards the United States, save a little branch of the Creeks; and it would be easy for any prudent administration, by selecting proper agents, and sustaining them in wise measures, to keep the whole of these

people peaceable and in friendship with this Government; and they would prove an effectual barrier against the incursions of the wild Indians in the prairies beyond. But to increase largely our military force, would be the most certain means of provoking a war; especially if improper agents were sent among them-political partisans and selfish land-speculators. Men of this cast would be the more bold in their measures, the more troops were ready to sustain them; every body knew that an Indian force, when fairly opposed to whites in the field, was as nothing. Where there were no swamps and fastnesses, and they had to contend in the open field, they were not more formidable than buffalo. Now they were congregated in a high, dry, prairie country; and in a country of that description, opposed to horse or artillery, they could do nothing.

Mr. C. then proceeded to denounce the bill as a measure of extravagance, designed chiefly to expend the money in the treasury for objects not only unnecessary but pernicious. He went into some general observations on the corrupting tendency of the present course of policy, and then observed that every change that had been made in the army had gone to destroy its morale. He had not the least confidence that the proper materiel would be selected in the bestowment of the many prizes which this bill proposed to create. All must remember what had been the history of the regiment of dragoons in this respect. Who had been appointed to command in that corps? In many instances cadets who had been discharged for misconduct in the Military Academy. Persons of this cast had been set over those who had gone through the whole course in that institution in a manner most highly creditable. The effect had been demoralizing, and he feared that the results of this bill would prove still more so. Mr. C. then proceeded in a course of general objection to all measures calculated to increase the powers of the General Government; dwelt on the central tendency of