The Congressional Globe: Containing the Debates and Proceedings of the Third Session Fortieth Congress; Together with an Appendix, Comprising the Laws Passed at that Session Page: 1,526
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THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE.
February
are made ? What does the word "allowances''
mean ? Doesitmean compensation for imagin-
ary servants who are not employed ?
1 Mr. WARNER. Will the Senator from
Penilsylvaniapermitme to answer his question ?
Mr. BUCKALEW. Certainly; I am in the
pursuit of information.
Mr. WARNER. The Senator will under-
stand that the pay of an Army officer is the
pay proper—that is, so much per month-—and
allowances, which consist of rations and allow-
ances for servants' hire and for pay of ser-
vants, clothing of servants, and other matters
of that iind. The officer is authorized to draw
his rations and allowances in kind, or to com-
mute them at their money value according to
a fixed standard. The word "allowances"
refers to those matters. They are fixed by law.
Mr: BUCKALEW. That is what I sup-
posed. But an officer sent to a college, and
occupying a moderate-sized room along with
another person, I suppose, will not need the
services of a servant; he will not need to clothe
a servant; he will not need a great many other
things which an officer in the Army on duty,
or even in quarters, may require and is just-
ified in having or in incurring. We have a
bill thrown in here and we do not know the
practical effect of it.
Mr. WILSON. If the Senator will allow
me a single moment I think 1 can explain to
him what the practical effect of it is. We
passed a law in 18G6 which at the time of its
passage had the very strong support of the
triends of education in the country, especially
of military education to the young men of the
country, authorizing-the Secretary of War to
detail a certain number of officers when called
upon for the purpose of teaching in these
institutions. By a construction given in the
Department to that law these officers when so
detailed are allowed only their pay proper.
The pay of an officer depends entirely on his
rank. If he is a captain it is one thing, if lie
is a lieutenant, another. It depends entirely
upon his grade. Then the allowances are ail
set forth. Rations, servants, fuel, and quar-
ters, everything is set forth precisely according
to their rank. If he is an officer of high rank
those allowances amount to quite a sum. Now,
the construction is that these officers are enti-
tled to nothing except their pay proper. If an
officer is detailed from the field, where he can
live cheaper than he can anywhere else, and is
sent to a college, in the city of New York for |
instance, his expenses are increased and he is
cut off from everything but his pay proper; he
has no rations, no servants, no fuel or quarters,
no allowances of that kind.
But I do not wish to consume the whole
evening in considering this bill, and if Sena-
tors are opposed to it I would rather let it go,
although a great number of petitions have been
sent to lis asking for this change, because I
have some other bills that I am very desirous
of getting through to-night,. If gentlemen are
determined to oppose this bill I shall abandon
it for the present.
Mr. CONKLING. I hope the Senator will
not abandon this bill.
Mr. WARNER. I hope not, too.
Mr. CONKLING. Mr. President, I should
like to read the section, if it be the only sec-
tion, as I believe it is, in consequence of which
this bill is reported. It is section twenty six
of the act of July 28, 1866:
And be it further enacted, That for the purpose of
promoting knowledge of military science among the
young men of the United States the President may,
upon the application of an established college or
university within the United Stages, with sufficient
capacity to educate at one time not less than one
hundred and fifty male students, detail an officer of
the Avcpy to act as president, superintendent, or
prolessor of such college or university; that the num-
ber of officers so detailed shall not exceed twenty at
any time, and shall be apportioned through the
United States, as nearly as practicable, according to
population, and shall be governed by general rules,
to be prescribed from time to time by the President.
The proposition is, in a time of peace, at
the conclusion of a war which, at least, does
not presage another, to leave the President
of the United States, the Commander-in-Chief
of the Army, invested with the power to detail
officers not exceeding twenty in' number for
the whole United States to colleges or schools
capable of educating at one time one hundred
and fifty male students. If I had not heard
Senators object to this provision I certainly
should not expect any objection to a provision
of this sort. Assuming that the President is
provident and discreet in his detail—and I
mean thereby that he does not take an officer
of use somewhere else, as, of course, he would
not, and detail him—I should like to know to
what miuistration, to what mission of any sort,
officers not exceeding twenty in number below
a certain rank could be more properly devoted
than to such a purpose as that here intended?
I have heard during my service in Congress
oftentimes a crusade preached against West
Point. I do not sympathize with that. But I
have never heard the most ardent partisan of
West Point deny the propriety of disseminat-
ing in other colleges some rudimental knowl-
edge of the manual of the soldier. Here is the
provision, appropriate and adapted to the
cheap, indeed the inexpensive, dissemination
of that knowledge. Why do I say " inexpens-
ive ?" Because .^ese officers are not to be
mustered out of service in lieu of being thus
detailed. So that the question is whether they
shall be somewhere, they not being required
in the Army—because if they are required of
course a request from a college will not be
complied wiih—or whether their time shall be
devoted to affording instruction in military
drill and the rudiments of military science.
I speak in this behalf in one instance for the
Cornell University of the State of New York,
the pride of which university resides in the fact
that it is founded in the munificence of a single
citizen, but stiil more in the fact that it prom-
ises to be a school at which any man may
become proficient in any branch of knowledge
taught in any educational seminary in the
world. It professes to do that, and men
skilled as judges in its coming excellence, not
only in this country but abroad, believe in the
assurance that it will do that.
Take this single college to illustrate. It
wants, as it seeks now, a military officer hold-
ing no rank higher than that of major to come
and reside in the locality of the college, to
teach the young men there, some of whom are
able to pay for their tuition and some of whom
receive tuition without payment in money for
it, the rudiments of military science. If a
war were in progress, and these officers were
needed elsewhere, of course I should not advo-
cate their presence in such places ; but the
whole theory of this statute is permissory. The
President in his discretion is simply author-
ized, upon a request of this sort, to spare from
the active service officers not exceeding twenty
in number for the whole United States; and
the request cannot legally proceed from any
college less in size and capacity than that which
enables it at one time to educate at least one
hundred and fifty male students.
Now, Mr. President, I do most earnestly
expostulate with my honorable friend from
Indiana and the honorable Senator from Penn-
sylvania against their attempting to act upon
the impatience of the honorable Senator from
Massachusetts to dispose qf the business of his
committee at this late hour of the day and of
the session, or in any other way to give this
bill a death blow. I hope most earnestly it
will be allowed to pass, and that these lieu-
tenants and majors, during the months that
they may be detailed to give this instruction,
will not thereby be diminished in their pay
below the point which will enable them to live;
and that is all that is contained in this propo-
sition.
I have but one other remark to make, and
then I will give way for other Senators. Some
Senator inquired whether this bill gave pay
upon the idea of brevet rank. Certainly not,
as is shown by the facts and shown by the lan-
guage of the bill. It is simply that while they
are absent performing this duty they shall not
thereby forfeit any part of their pay? but it is
to be the same as if they were in active ser-
vice. Now, sir, when you consider that it ia
committed to the discretion of the President,
and that no President exercising a sound dis-
cretion will withdraw any man frotn the ser-
vice who is needed elsewhere, I respectfully
submit that the bill is absolutely without any
objection.
Mr. BUCKALEW. J will not detain the
Senator from Massachusetts with his other bills
by speaking at length on this ; but I must add
a word or two to what I said before. I would
have no particular objection t.o furnishing a
major for the Cornell University of the State
of New York, an institution of great merit and
of much promise, as far as I am informed ; but
here is a question of more than twenty univer-
sities or literary institutions in different parts of
the country, for each of which the Government
of the United States is to furnish a professor.
If we are to send a man with the rank of briga-
dier, and these details have become so common
that I suppose you might make up the whole
twenty from the list of brigadiers, you will fur-
nish a professor drawing six or seven thousand
dollars a year. I suppose professors ordinarily
in colleges do not draw more than one half that
amount. These professors, then—for they
would be such—endowed by the United States,
would get about twice the pay that would be
obtained by those employed by the institutions
themselves.
Now, sir, I have great doubts about the pro-
priety of our entering upon this system of fur-
nishing professors for literary colleges at the
expense of the Treasury of the United States.
It may have been well enough at the close of
the war when we had a great superfluity of offi-
cers and did not know exactly what to do with
them, and the idea of retrenchment and cutting
down the Government expenses in regard to
the Army had not taken root in the public
mind, had not made its entrance, at all events,
into the two Houses of Congress; but, gir, the
idea has come to be entertained that we are to
reduce the Army. Bills with that object were
introduced at the last session of Congress, and
have been at the present session. Whether we
are to have an effective measure or not before
the adjournment I do not know: but it is to
be expected that within a reasonable time our
Army will be largely reduced; and although
the officers tnay not be reduced in the same ■
proportion in which we reduce the rank and
file, I suppose there will be a large curtailment
of them. At all events, as resignations take
place and as deaths happen, the vacancies need
not be filled and we can reduce our efficient
force very largely.
What object has the Government of the
United States in furnishing professors to these
literary institutions? The officer is sentthere,
it is said, to instruct the young gentlemen, not
less than one hundred and fifty in number in
any one institution, in the art and mystery of
war. What does that mean ? I suppose he is
to instruct them in engineering and in sundry
other branches of mathematical and other
sciences, as well as in military tactics. If he
is a competent man he will be a very efficient
professor in the institution. His service# may
give it popularity and credit and character in
the community, and may insure its prosperity.
But what next? Is it expected that these
young men who are instructed in these institu-
tions will enter the Army? No, sir. You have
provision already made for the educatiou of
young men with that object at West Point.
They are to pass out into all the ordinary occu-
pations of civil life from these institutions_ ;
and the main result and the practical result is
that you have a literary institution provided
with a professor by the Government of the
United States, and we have paid him.
Now, we are informed thatthe ordinary, that
is the fixed, pay of these officers in the way of
salary is not sufficient; that we nmst vote to
them all the liberal and, by the way, the indefi-
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United States. Congress. The Congressional Globe: Containing the Debates and Proceedings of the Third Session Fortieth Congress; Together with an Appendix, Comprising the Laws Passed at that Session, book, 1869; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc30881/m1/26/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.