WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1847
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take thirty days more to collect them at the place of embarcation; and other thirty days would elapse before they could be placed in a position to render effective service in the field. Thus the months of February, March and April, would be consumed before they could be in the position where they were required: and by that time the sickly season would have commenced. These were some of the reasons which ha:i governed him in submitting his motion. But the main objection to the bill as it stood, rested on his opposition to a regular army, both on the ground of national policy and the expenditure inseparable from it. Volunteers constituted a cheaper des·cription of force. There were no bounties for inlistment; no officers to be kept in pay while inlistment was going on. Let the process go on as rapidly as it may, many months must be occupied in this service, and during that whole period, the recruiting officers must be kept in pay. The volunteers required no clothing of a more costly kind, con- sumed no larger rations, made no charge for quarters before they were imbodied, and were always ready for ~ervice. They were also willing to engage for the same time of service, even to the end of the war. One of the objections which had been urged against the volunteers was that they entered the service for too short a term; that they engaged for only three months, a period barely sufficient to enable them to reach their destination, and that they could scarcely reach the camp, and have a few days repose, before their time expired, when the whole camp was thrown into confusion, and the army appeared more like a mob than a well-disciplined and efficient body. In the war of 1812, the greatest reliance in the fir.st instance was on volunteers. It was then found that the limitation of their term of service operated injuriously, and the act under which they were called into service, was repealed, and twenty regiments of regulars were substituted for them. The act of the 6th February, 1812, authorized the President to accept of the services of fifty thousand volunteers for the term of twelve months. The number required by the act could not be mustered, therefore the system was abandoned, because it was thought that it would not produce the desired effect. The act of 29th January, 1813, authorized the raising of twenty regiments of regulars, each regiment to be composed of nine hundred men, for the term of twelve monthg, As well as he could recollect, these regiments were not filled; the Government
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