Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 December 1880 — REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR. [ARTICLE]

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR.

The annual report of Secretary of War Ramsey gives a general review of the various subordinate reports, calls attention to their several recommendations, and details at length the operations of the department during the year. Upon the subject of expenditures, appropriations, and estimates, the Secretary says : “The expenditures for all affairs under the control of this department for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1880, were $39,924,773. Congress appropriated for the service the ‘ current fiscal year $41,993,630. The estimates for the service of the fiscal year ending Jnne 30, 1882, are $43,627,055. The estimates in detail were originally submitted to me for $62,429,770, but, on re-vision-of the same, omissions or reductions were made as follows: In the civil establishment, $13,685; military establishment, $250,000; publio works, $18,514,129; and in the miscellaneous class, $25,000, making the total of revisory reductions $18,802,714. The same increase in the amounts of estimates for the year 1882 over the amounts appropriated for the year 1881 appears in the civil establishment, the military establishment, and the miscellaneous. For the public work I have reduced the estimates to accord with what I understand to be tho amount required for the absolute, necessities of the service. In order to prevent a waste of property and damage to commercial interests beyond such necessities, it is submitted. The wisdom of Congress may perceive that, as valuable improvements surround the realty of the Government, and as the commerce of the country advances in growth and prosperity, so should appropriations to cover expenses be apportioned.

“ The Mississippi River Commission, operating in accordance with an act approved June 28, 1879, submitted a report which was duly transmitted to Congress last March, and was published by order of the House of Representatives. The report exhibited for the first time estimates of the appropriation required for works of improvement therein described, amounting to $5,113,000, and it awaited further consideration when the session closed. The commission has communicated to me its desire to reuew those estimates, and this communication will be transmitted to Congress as a matter of special importance, not included, however, in the annual estimates and expenditures for the service of the department.” In regard to the South pass of the Mississippi river, the Secretary says : “The permanency of this important work seems to be assured from the fact that there has been no failure whatever iu the maintenance of tho maximum channel during the six months ending August last. This improvement has opened through sands and shoals a broad, deep highway to the ocean, and is one upon the permanent success of which congratulations may be exchanged among people abroad and at home, and especially among the communities of the Mississippi valley, whose commercial exchanges float in an unobstructed channel safely to and from the sea.” Secretary Ramsey concurs in the recommeh dation of Gen. Sherman that Congress be asked to give 25,000 enlisted men specifically to the troops of the line of the army, and favors the abandonment of many small posts and tho concentration of larger forces at strategic points. The absence of a large number of officers from their regiments is alluded to, and action is recommended looking to the relief of the service in this respect. Secretary Ramsey indorses the recommendation of the Adjutant General in relation to placing uniformed State militia upon the same footing in respect to its rules and forms as the regular forces, and calls attention to the necessity of providing by legislation for the organization, arming and discipline of the militia. Tne affairs of the Leavenworth military prison, the Secretary says, have been capably administered during the year. He suggests, however, that, in order to be entirely successful and to carry out as far as possible the original design of making tho institution self-sus-taining, one important measure of legislation is necessary, which is the authority of Congress to apply the earnings of tho prison to its maintenance.

The Secretary says: “From personal inspection of many of the fortifications referred to by the Cliiof of Engineers, I am able to emphasize his recommendations and beg to state that their incompetent and defenseless condition is discreditable to the country. Judging from the history of all other nations and the experience of our own, the United States will, notwithstanding our traditional pacific policy, find itself sooner or later at war with a maritime power. When that war comes it will come suddenly. There will be no time after its declaration to construct defenses, either fixed or floating. Other nations have been for some years and are now constructing fast war Bteamers of enormous size, incased in iron armor up to two feet in thickness, and armed with rifled guns up to 100 tons, carrying shot of a toil’s weight, fired with little short of a quarter of a ton of powder. It is feared that the country does not appreciate the fact that after a declaration of war a few days or even hours might bring those great engines of destruction to our coast. It may bo to New York, or Boston, or Portland, or Baltimore, or New Orleans, or San Francisco, or any point the enemy may select. No one can estimate the damage which may follow.” The works of river and harbor improvements, and examinations, and surveys provided for by the act of March 3,1879, and previous acts, were carried on during the fiscal year with satisfactory progress. The amount available therefor July 1, 1879, was $10,772,176. The amount expended to June 30.1880, was $6,174,221, leaving a balance of $4,597,955 to be expended during the present fiscal year, to which is to be added appropriations by the River and Harbor act of June 14,1880, amounting to $8,951,500. The act of June 14, 1830, makes provision for 343 works of improvement, in sums varying from SSOO to $30,000, and for surveys and examinations with a view to the improvement of 144 localities. In relation to the Whittaker case, the Secretary says: “I have refrained from commenting upon the unfortunate agitation which flowed from an alleged assault upon a colored cadet at the West Point Academy in April last, for the reason that, in some of its legal aspects, the subjeot is still under consideration.”