No. 10. 1844. ANNUAL REPORT of the Adjutant General. ADJUTANT GENERAL'S DEPARTMENT, Detroit, December, 1843. To His Excellency JOHN S. BARRY, Governor and Commander-in Chief. SIR-I have the honor to submit the annual report of the condition and affairs of this department for the year 1843. The return of the numerical strength of the militia of the state for the year 1842, elicited a statement from the United States Ordnance Department exhibiting a credit covering an assumed indebtedness for arms, charged as overdrawn under the law of the United States of 1808, making provision for "arming the militia," and leaving a balance due the state equal to 500 muskets. This statement induced your Excellency to cause an investigation to be made as to the merits of the account, by which it appeared that during the Indian disturbance of 1832, known as the Black Hawk war, the then acting Governor of the territory of Michigan, influenced by a great excitement among the people, caused by the defeat of the militia on the Fox River, determined to put a sufficient portion of the militia into motion to protect the frontier settlements, and for this purpose had called upon the officer in charge of the U. S. Ordnance depot, in the city of Detroit, for arms, ammunition and other military stores, and under the exigency entered into an engagement by which the amount should be charged to the territory under the law referred to. The amount of arms and equipments thus drawn and receipted by acting Gov. Mason and Gov. Porter was equal to 1053 muskets. Under this representation of facts, the department at Washington persisting in the propriety of the charges, and in deducting the amount from the quota of arms becoming due to the state, it was deemed expedient to pursue the investigation by an examination into the several bureaus of the War Department to obtain satisfactory evidence of the disposition made of this property. For this purpose the Adjutant General visited the seat of Government, and by researches there was enabled to convince the department that the militia were mustered into the service of the United States with these arms in their hands, and with the exception of those who died of cholera and deserted from fear of this dreadful scourge, were mustered out and paid by the United States, and consequently that the loss of arms or of public stores could not be equitably charged to the account of this state, it being the duty of United States officers to preserve and account for the public property thus placed in the hands of those mustered into the general service. Satisfied of the injustice of these charges, or rather of the equity of the matter, the Secretary of War directed the whole amount to be placed to our credit, which together with the balance hereinbefore accredited as our due on the returns of the last year, amounting in all to upwards of $20,000 in value, have been drawn in arms and equippage such as your Excellency considered as best adapted to the use of the militia and most beneficial to the interests of the state. From this resource twenty companies of infantry, artillery and cavalry, have been furnished with arms and equippage, and nearly all of these are now as handsomely uniformed and equipped, and at the recent general and brigade camps of instruction made as imposing a display and acquitted themselves with as much credit to their respective corps and honor to the state, as the same class of troops of several of the older states whose evolutions the Adjutant General was privileged to witness during the past season: which, together with the formidable appearance of a park of the splendid and effective new pattern six pounder brass cannon, with carriage, harness and equippages complete, has had a tendency to give assurance of the means of defence and to awaken that for sometime dormant military spirit for which the fathers of the revolution and the framers of the American constitution were so conspicuous, and on which they evidently depended for the support and defence of the latter. And in the several sections of the state where these companies and arms are located, instead of affecting ridicule or contempt of the militia or of a militia system, as was recently the fact, public opinion appears to have undergone a healthy change, and from a total indifference of, or an open hostility to the dictates of the constitution and laws, a spirit of rivalry has sprung up as to whose shall be the first and most distinguished volunteer corps, and a praiseworthy ambition is obvious in the struggle for appointment to hitherto dispised rank and place. Such is not only now the prevailing spirit in this state, but in all the middle and eastern states, and in every section of the Union where the admirable system of camp instruction has been introduced, and where liberal legislative provisions have been made for the efficient discipline of officers, and the organization and discipline of volunteer companies, which is the case in most of the middle and eastern states, and which it is to be hoped will no longer be denied or withheld in Michigan. From the continued returns of the numerical strength of our militia the state may annually arm ten or twelve additional volunteer uniformed companies, and by a judicious militia law perfect the sytem of camp instruction to an extent which will not only insure us, in a few years, efficient officers, but thousands of well drilled and well armed citizen soldiery to meet any exigency, and fearlessly encounter an enemy of whatever magnitude. But to do this the present defective system, which would dishearten almost any other people and prove an insurmountable barrier to progress and improvement, should be immediately revised. Like other states we should study the most simple and economical plans to build up and strengthen this arm of national defence, but like them we should have our arsenal and our magazine, and our liberal facilities in the transportation of arms and troops and in defraying necessary camp expenses; and, by all means the power to enforce the enrolment and returns of the entire body of the militia in order to secure to us our quota of the $200,000 in arms which is annually distributed to the States in proportion to their numbers properly returned. Under the impression that the legislature of the state would act upon the subject at the session of 1843, a bill was prepared by a highly respectable convention of intelligent officers of the militia, and through the appropriate committee introduced into the House of Representatives, but it failed meeting with the approval of a majority, and principally on account of the supposed severity of the penalties it imposed for neglect of duties, an allowance on highway taxes to |