Page images
PDF
EPUB

War, who convenes a board of officers for like purpose.

It is not lawful to employ any part of the Army of the United States as а posse comitatus or otherwise, for the purpose of executing the laws, except in such cases and under such circumstances as such employment of said force may be expressly authorised by the Constitution, or by Act of Congress; and no money appropriated shall be used to pay any of the expenses incurred in the employment of any troops in violation of this provision. Any person wilfully violating this provision is deemed guilty of a misdemeanour, and, on conviction, is punished by fine not exceeding $10,000, or imprisonment not exceeding two years, or by both.

The armies of the United States are governed by certain rules and

Articles of War, which every officer subscribes before entering upon the duties of his office; and which are read to every enlisted man at the time of, or within six days after, his enlistment, and he thereupon takes, before any commissioned officer of the Army, an oath or affirmation in the following form: "I, A. B., do solemnly swear (or affirm) that

will bear true faith and allegiance to the United States of America; that I will serve them honestly and faithfully against all their enemies whomsoever; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States, and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to the rules and Articles of War."

In his 1886 annual report, the Secretary of War stated the expenditures during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1886, to be ::

Salaries, contingent expenses, stationery, rent, and postage Military establishment: army and military academy, including the sum of $410,684.07 credited to the Pacific Railroad for transportation services rendered the War Department during the fiscal year 1886 and prior years Public works, including river and harbour improvements Miscellaneous objects

Total

The sum of $1,208,016.46 pertaining to War Department appropriations was carried to the surplus fund, June 30, 1886. The appropriations for 1887 show a total of $46,027,559.85, the real increase being in public works, for which

Generals.

General staff

Ten regiments of cavalry

Five regiments of artillery

Twenty-five regiments of infantry
Indian scouts

Detachments, recruiting parties, &c.

$1,992,469.95

24,297,500.58

6,294,305.43

4,406,627.92

$36,990,903.88

$16,723,446.69 is allowed. The estimates for 1888 make a total of $48,268,835.81.

The present strength of the army was reported by the lieutenant-general as follows::

[merged small][ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

The Secretary of War concurred | commending that all officers found with the lieutenant - general in re- to be permanently incapacitated for

active service be transferred to the retired list as soon as possible, and continued-"It would seem therefore that no objection can reasonably be urged against an examination as a condition of promotion, the same to be conducted by officers of higher grade. This should not be a competitive examination, but simply such an examination as would demonstrate the fitness of a candidate for promotion properly to perform the duties of the grade to which he aspires. It should be a professional examination, having reference to the mental, moral, and physical fitness of the candidate. Its object is plain-the advancement and elevation of the service. Surely there can be no reasonable objection to this test on the part of those who will be subjected to it." And farther on he continued: "We have a single problem to solve in defending our cities-how best to resist and silence the armoured ships and the steel guns and mortars of modern construction. It can only be accomplished by guns of equal force to those which any enemy can bring against us, and by torpedoes or submarine mines laid in the navigable channels, both so guarded and protected that they can do efficient ser

vice when required. We have no gun now which can stop the progress of, or do any material injury to, a well-armoured ship. The manufacture of a gun is a work of time, and of a long time, and cannot be extemporised when wanted. Torpedoes may be more quickly created, but still time and money are needed for their construction. It has been said by a well-informed writer on the subject that it is a matter of doubt if we have on hand enough cables and cases to control with torpedoes the channels past Sandy Hook alone."

[ocr errors]

In his 1886 annual message, the President, referring to examinations, said he saw "no objection, but many advantages, in adopting this feature, which has operated so beneficially in our Navy Department, as well as in some branches of the Army. He also said that "the subject of coast defences and fortifications had been fully and carefully treated by the Board of Fortifications, whose report was submitted at the last session of Congress; but no construction work of the kind recommended by the Board has been possible during the last year, from the lack of appropriations for such purpose."

SIGNAL SERVICE.

The Signal Service consists of a chief signal officer with the rank of a brigadier-general, who has charge, under the direction of the Secretary of War, of all signal duty, and of all books, papers, and apparatus connected therewith. The Secretary of War may detail from the corps of engineers a certain number of officers, and from the battalion of engineers any number of non-commissioned officers and men for the performance of signal duty; but no officer or enlisted man is so detailed until he has

[blocks in formation]

$155,000 for subsistence; $58,638.40 for regular supplies; $1954 for incidental expenses, interments, apprehension of deserters; $35,505 for transportation; $84,108 for barracks and quarters; $2873.89 for clothing and camp and garrison equipage; $7100 for the medical department; $100 for materials for preservation and care of ordnance and ordnance stores at post of Fort Myer, Virginia.

Signal service men do not receive
extra-duty pay, unless it is specially
directed by the Secretary of War.
The appropriations for 1886-87, to be
expended by the Secretary of War
for expenses of the meteorological
observation and report by telegraph,
signal, or otherwise, announcing the
probable approach and force of storms,
for the benefit of commerce and agri-
culture of the United States, included
$10,000 for instruments; $120,000
for telegraphing reports, &c.; $10,000
for signals; $26,350 for connections
with life-saving stations or light-
houses, a new submarine cable con-
necting Block Island, Rhode Island,
and the mainland of Rhode Island,
if such connections, in the opinion of
the Superintendent of the Life-Sav-
ing Service and the Lighthouse Board,
should be deemed necessary; $20,000
for a submarine cable from Cape
Charles to Cape Henry; $35,000 for
contingent expenses outside of Wash-
ington, District of Columbia; $9000
for river and flood observations, &c. ;
$25,000 for hire of civilian printers
and engravers, stationery printing
supplies, maps, bulletins, maintain-
ing a printing-office in Washington,
District of Columbia; $7000 for ob-
servations, &c., announcing the prob-
able approach and severity of frosts
or rains in the cotton region; $24,000
for maintenance and repair of mili-
tary telegraph lines; $247,301.51
for pay of officers and enlisted men,
mileage, commutation of quarters, &c.; | Congress."

This appropriation Act provides "that the joint-committee, consisting of three senators and three representatives, to consider the present organisations of the Signal Service, Geological Survey, Coast and Geodetic Survey, and the Hydrographic Office of the Navy Department, provided for in the Act entitled 'An Act making appropriations for sundry civil expenses of the Government,' and so forth, approved 7th July 1884, be and the same is hereby continued, with power to sit during the recess of Congress in the city of Washington; and the said Commission shall report to their respective Houses on or before the third Monday in December 1885, or as soon thereafter as may be, by bill or otherwise; and the present President pro tempore of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives shall appoint respectively a senator and representative to take the places on said Commission of the senator and representative whose terms of office expire with the present

THE UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY.

The United States Military Academy at West Point, in the State of New York, is constituted thus: 1 superintendent, 1 commandant of cadets, 8 professors, 8 assistant professors, 1 instructor of practical military engineering, 1 instructor of ordnance and science of gunnery, 3 in

structors of cavalry, artillery, and infantry tactics, and 4 assistant instructors of these tactics, adjutant, treasurer, quartermaster, and commissary of cadets, 1 master of the sword, 1 military band, consisting of 1 teacher of music, who is leader of the band, and may be a

66

civilian, and 24 enlisted musicians. The pay of the music-teacher is $1080 per annum, and $9240 were appropriated in 1886 for the pay of the 'Military Academy Band.” The departments of the academy are natural and experimental philosophy; modern languages; chemistry, mineralogy, and geology; history, geography, and ethics; instruction in mathematics; artillery, cavalry, and infantry tactics; law; civil and military engineering; ordnance and gunnery; practical military engineering; drawing. There is a library, and the sum of $1500 was in 1886 appropriated for periodicals, binding new books, and scientific, historical, biographical, and general literature. The superintendent, commandant of cadets, and professors are appointed by the President; the assistant professors and adjutant are officers of the Army detailed and assigned to such duties by the Secretary of War, or cadets assigned by the superintendent under the direction of the Secretary of War. The academic staff as such are not entitled to any command in the Army separate from the academy.

The corps of cadets consists of one from each congressional district, one from each territory, one from the District of Columbia, and ten from the United States at large. They are appointed by the President, and with the exception of the ten appointed at large, must be actual residents of the congressional or territorial districts, or District of Columbia, respectively, from which they purport to be appointed. They are appointed one year in advance of the time of admission to the academy, unless a vacancy sooner arises. No pay or allowance is given any appointee until he has been regularly admitted. Appointees must be between seventeen and twenty-two years of age, and are examined under regulations prescribed from time to time by the Secretary

[ocr errors]

of War before being admitted, and require to be well versed in reading, writing, and arithmetic, and to have a knowledge of the elements of English grammar, of descriptive geography, particularly that of the United States, and of the history of the United States. Before admission, each candidate must take and subscribe an oath to support the Constitution of the United States, and bear true allegiance to the national Government, to maintain and defend the sovereignty of the United States paramount to any and all allegiance, sovereignty, or fealty he may owe to any state, county, or country whatsoever, and at all times to obey the legal orders of his superior officers and the rules and articles governing the armies of the United States. He must also sign articles, with the consent of his parents or guardians, if he be a minor and have any, to serve eight years, unless sooner discharged. The appropriation for 1886-87 provides "for pay of cadets, $160,000; and no cadet shall receive more than at the rate of $540 a-year."

The corps is arranged into four companies, each commanded by an officer of the Army, for the purpose of military instruction, and to each company 4 musicians are added. The corps is taught and trained in all the duties of a private soldier, non-commissioned officer, and officer, and is encamped at least three months in each year, and taught and trained in all the duties incident to a regular camp. Cadets are subject at all times to do duty in such places and on such service as the President may direct. They are not required to pursue their studies on Sunday. The superintendent can convene general courts-martial for the trial of cadets, and execute the sentences, except those of suspension and dismission, as those of other courts-martial.

A board of visitors is appointed

every year to attend the annual examination of the academy, and consists of seven persons appointed by the President, and two senators and three members of the House of Representatives, designated as visitors by the presiding officers of the Senate and House of Representatives respectively, at the session of Congress next preceding such examination. This board's duty is to inquire into the actual state of the discipline, instruction, police administration, fiscal affairs, and other concerns of the academy. The visitors appointed by the President report thereon to the Secretary of War for the information of Congress at the commencement of the next following session, and the senators and representatives designated visitors report to Congress, within twenty days after the meeting of said next session, their action as such visitors, with their views and recommendations concerning the academy.

The

The supervision and charge of the academy are in the War Department, under such officers as the Secretary of War assigns to that duty. Secretary of the Senate furnishes annually to the library of the academy one copy of each document published during the preceding year by the Senate.

By chap. 362 of the laws of 1886, the nature of alcoholic drinks and narcotics, and special instruction as to their effects upon the human system in connection with the several divisions of the subject of physiology and hygiene, shall be included in the branches of study taught in the common or public schools, and in the

military and naval schools, and shall be studied and taught as thoroughly and in the same manner as other like required branches are in said schools, by the use of text-books in the hands of pupils, where other branches are thus studied in said schools, and by all pupils in all said schools throughout the territories, in the military and naval academies of the United States and in the District of Columbia, and in all Indian and coloured schools in the territories of the United States. This Act further provides that no certificate shall be granted to any person to teach in the public schools of the District of Columbia or territories after the 1st day of January 1888, who has not passed a satisfactory examination in physiology and hygiene, with special reference to the nature and the effects of alcoholic drinks and other narcotics upon the human system.

Chap. 338 of the laws of 1886 provides that when any cadet of the United States Military Academy has gone through all its classes, and received a regular diploma from the academic staff, he may be promoted and commissioned as a second lieutenant in any arm or corps of the Army in which there may be a vacancy, and the duties of which he may have been judged competent to perform; and in case there shall not at the time be a vacancy in such arm or corps, he may, at the discretion of the President, be promoted and commissioned in it as an additional second lieutenant, with the usual pay and allowances of a second lieutenant, until a vacancy shall happen.

THE UNITED STATES MILITIA.

The fundamental law concerning | since then. Every able-bodied male the United States militia is that of 8th May 1792, but a number of statutory enactments have been passed

citizen of the respective states, resident therein, who is of the age of eighteen years and under the age of

« PreviousContinue »