ico are operating in an enemy's country of vast extent. They are overrunning provinces, reducing cities and towns, and providing for the security of the subjugated territories under the rules of international law, and according to the usages of civilized States. These are high prerogatives, the incidents of war, having their authority in conventional rules beyond the civil constitution and municipal laws of our own country. It is very desirable that the depositary of these high and extraordinary powers should not only carry with him the requisite military talents, but that he should also possess the experience and the civil qualifications indispensable to enable him to meet his responsibilities intelligently and discreetly. Not only his own government, but all civilized nations have an interest in the maintenance of rules designed to mitigate the asperities of warfare by applying to the conduct of war the principles of humanity and justice. Errors in the application of these rules may involve his own government in embarrassment and reproach. These considerations, I am aware, apply rather to the qualifications of the man than to the rank he may happen to hold. I advert to them only for the purpose of indicating the importance of the position occupied by the commander of our armies in Mexico, and the propriety of extending to the President the broadest field for selection.

In the message of the President, it is recommended that authority be given to appoint a commanding general for our military forces in Mexico, without specifying any rank. The committee, in reporting the bill, propose to confer on him the rank of lieutenant-general, the grade in other services next above that of major-general, which is the highest in ours. The grade was created in 1798, during our dissensions with the French republic, by an act authorizing the President to raise a provisional army. The office was conferred, by the unanimous vote of the Senate, on General Washington, and was accepted by him, but with

the express stipulation that he should not be called into service until the exigency for which the office was created -an invasion of the United States by France - should actually occur. He did not believe it would occur; he was not deceived in this belief; and he never entered on the discharge of his duties, excepting so far as to give advice with regard to the organization of the army. About a year

after this grade was created, and a few months before he died, another act was passed, authorizing the appointment of a commander of the army, with the title of “general of the armies of the United States," and thereupon abolishing the office of lieutenant-general. I have not been able to find that the appointment was ever made; and by a return from the War Department, in 1800, General Washington was reported as lieutenant-general, dead. According to the analogies of other services, the rank of general is higher than that of lieutenant-general. I have not thought it material to inquire into the object of the second act; but it may have been designed to confer on him a rank as nearly approaching that which he bore in the revolutionary war (that of general and commander-in-chief) as was consistent with the Constitution of the United States, which declares the President to be commander-in-chief of the armies of the United States.

In other services, the rank of lieutenant-general is, I believe, a part, and an essential part, of the military organization. In France, it was formerly conferred on the chiefs of provinces, and the individuals holding it were invested with civil as well as military functions. In modern times, I believe, it has become purely a military title, and it confers a rank intermediate between that of major-general, which is below, and general, which is above it. As the grade next to that of major-general, it seems the proper title, if a higher grade is to be created. On the other hand, though the office of commander of the military forces in Mexico will be purely military, nevertheless, in providing

for exigencies which may arise in the occupation of an enemy's territory, and, let me add, with as little disturbance as possible to the local authorities and the ordinary administration of justice, - his station becomes one of the highest delicacy and importance. If a new grade is to be created, I repeat, the title of lieutenant-general will be admitted to be proper in a strictly military sense, and it is descriptive of the relation in which the commander of the armies in Mexico will stand to the President as commander-in-chief of the armies of the United States under the Constitution. He cannot be in Mexico in person, and he must, therefore, command there by his lieutenant or deputy, by whatever name the latter may be called.

The proposed creation of a new grade in the army, higher than any now known to the service, does not contemplate the creation or delegation of any new authority to the officer who may be appointed to it. He will possess no other powers than those now possessed by our military commanders. The act creating the office limits its duration to the war with Mexico. It is proposed to be created for the extraordinary emergency in which the country is placed, and will cease with it.

I desire it to be distinctly understood that the measure is proposed with a view to the vigorous prosecution of the war; and in this view only I support it. If we were to have a war of posts, or a long and moderate war, the office would be unnecessary, and I should not give it my support. On this point I desire to say a few words more. I concur fully in the sentiments expressed by the Senator from Kentucky1 at a late session of the Senate, with regard to a vigorous prosecution of the war. I see no alternative but to advance with a competent force, and continue our operations until Mexico shall consent to make peace. Least of all would I approve the policy which has been referred to on this floor, of maintaining our present

1 Mr. Crittenden.

line of possession, and waiting for peace to come to us. I see in such a policy no beneficial results. On the contrary, I see in it nothing but evil and mischief. I believe it would be a line of war, assassination, and rapine, which neither party would have the ability to put down. It is only a restoration of peace, resting upon the solemn sanctions of a treaty, that can engage either party to treat the perpetrators of outrage with the severity necessary to suppress it. Draw a line across the Mexican territory and place your soldiery there to guard it, and you will be exposed to the danger, so well described by the Senator from Kentucky, of having your own divided forces attacked by the combined forces of the enemy at any point which he may select. Besides, sir, take such a line, and let our present hostile relations to Mexico continue, and you give to individual acts of depredation, in some degree, the sanction of law. You convert a war of communities into a war of individuals, without responsibility, and without restraint, while the hostile feeling between the two countries will constantly grow more embittered by the repetition of acts of violence. Peace alone, uniting the sovereign power of both countries in the maintenance of order, can terminate a state of things disastrous to both, and at war with all the interests of humanity.

I have said that I see no hope but in a vigorous prosecution of the war. I believe that with proper energy it may be brought to a close. The opposition which has been made to us in Mexico has, I believe, come wholly from the army. There has been no uprising of the people, as there would be with us if our soil were to be invaded by a foreign power. There are two reasons why it is so. Our military operations have been carried on chiefly in a sparsely populated country, and the great body of the Mexicans are nearly disarmed. I have a paper before me, published in the city of Mexico, containing an article from Zacatecas, showing a most extraordinary fact. If Sena

tors will look at their maps, they will find the department of Zacatecas, southwest of New Leon, of which Monterey is the chief town, southeast of Durango, and northwest of San Luis Potosi,-lying, in a word, in the very centre of the territory of Mexico. And yet the frontiers of the department and those of Durango are subject to the constant incursions of bands of savages, from twenty, thirty, fifty, to two hundred in number. Let me read an extract from this article:

"ZACATECAS, October 25, 1846.

"In our last number we announced that, besides the one hundred men who had gone out in the direction of the northern frontier of the State, to free the inhabitants from the depredation of the savages, his Excellency the commanding general would go out in person on the first of the next month, with the rest of the force of the sixth regiment of permanent cavalry. But having received the day before yesterday news, which was communicated by extraordinary express from the political chiefs of Sombrerete and Nieves, that a party of savages, whose number they estimated at two hundred, had shown themselves in the neighborhood of Mateo Gomez, Santa Catarina, and other villages in that quarter, his Excellency the commanding general hastened his departure, and yesterday he marched with about two hundred men of the sixth regiment, a detachment of the active battalion, a company of the national guard, and a detachment of artillery of the same guard, with one piece of cannon. Besides, his Excellency has sent orders to the political chiefs of Nieves, Sombrerete, Fresnillo, and others in that quarter, to assemble the militia, as far as the excessive scarcity of arms would permit, and aid the operations of the commandant general. We believe, then, if the savages succeed in attacking the people of the frontier, they will be severely punished."

The same paper contains an account of a fight with the Indians, in Durango, on the 18th of October, in which eleven Mexicans were killed and twenty-four wounded. The scene of these Indian depredations is two hundred miles in advance of our army at Monterey, nearly midway between Saltillo, in Durango, and Santa Ana's head-quarters, at San Luis Potosi. It is an extraordinary fact, as indicating the defenceless condition of the great body of the Mexicans, and from "the excessive scarcity of arms," the militia could