HERMITAGE, _August 7, 1836_.
C.A. HARRIS, Esq.,
_Acting Secretary of War_.
SIR: I reached home on the evening of the 4th, and was soon surrounded
with the papers and letters which had been sent here in anticipation of
my arrival. Amongst other important matters which immediately engaged my
attention was the requisition of General Gaines on Tennessee, Kentucky,
Mississippi, and Louisiana. Believing that the reasons given for this
requisition were not consistent with the neutrality which it is our
duty to observe in respect to the contest in Texas, and that it would
embarrass the apportionment which had been made of the 10,000 volunteers
authorized by the recent act of Congress, I informed Governor Cannon by
letter on the 5th instant that it could not receive my sanction. The
volunteers authorized by Congress were thought competent, with the aid
of the regular force, to terminate the Indian war in the South and
protect our western frontier, and they were apportioned in a manner
the best calculated to secure these objects. Agreeably to this
apportionment, the volunteers raised in Arkansas and Missouri, and
ordered to be held in readiness for the defense of the western frontier,
should have been called on before any other requisition was made upon
Tennessee, who has already more than her proportion in the field. Should
an emergency hereafter arise making it necessary to have a greater force
on that frontier than was anticipated when the apportionment was made,
it will be easy to order the east Tennessee brigade there. All the
volunteers under the act are engaged for one year's service, unless
sooner discharged. Taking this view of the subject, I regret that as
soon as the War Department had information of the requisition made by
General Gaines it had not at once notified the governors of the States
that the apportionment of the volunteers at first communicated to them
would not be departed from, and that of course those in the States
nearest to the scene of threatened hostility would be first called on.
I had written thus far when your letter of the 26th of July last,
accompanied by one from General Wool of the 15th of July and one from
General Towsen of the 25th of July last, was handed to me. The letter
from General Wool was unexpected. His guide was the requisition on
the State, and I can not well imagine how he could suppose that the
Department would authorize a greater number of troops to be mustered and
paid than he was specially directed to receive. He was apprised fully of
the apportionment which had been made of the 10,000 volunteers, and of
the considerations which induced us to require 1,000 from Florida, 2,000
from Georgia, 2,000 from Alabama, and 2,500 from Tennessee. This force
was designated in this manner because it was in the country nearest to
the Seminoles, Creeks, and Cherokees, and in like manner near the force
designated for the western frontier, except a fraction of about 430 men
to be hereafter selected when it should be ascertained where it would be
most needed. It is therefore unaccountable to me why General Wool would
receive and muster into the service a greater number than has been
called for and placed under his command, particularly as he knew that
Tennessee had already been called upon for more volunteers than her
proportion in the general apportionment. He knows that the President
can only execute the law, and he ought to have recollected that if the
officers charged with the military operations contemplated by the law
were to use their own discretion in fixing the number of men to be
received and mustered into the service there could be no certainty in
the amount of force which would be brought into the field. His guide
was the requisition upon Tennessee for 2,500, and he should never have
departed from it.
The brave men whose patriotism brought them into the field ought to be
paid, but I seriously doubt whether any of the money now appropriated
can be used for this purpose, as all the volunteers authorized by the
act of Congress have been apportioned, and the appropriations should
be first applicable to their payment if they should be ordered into
the field. All that we can do is to bring the subject before the next
Congress, which I trust will pass an act authorizing the payment. Those
men obeyed the summons of their country, and ought not to suffer for the
indiscretion of those who caused more of them to turn out than could be
received into the service. The excess would have been avoided had the
governor of Tennessee apportioned his requisition to each county or
regiment, so as to make the proper number. This, however, can now only
be regretted. I can not approve the mustering or reception into the
service of the excess further than it may have been done to secure them
hereafter the justice which it will be in the power of Congress to
extend to them. They ought to be paid for their travel and expense to,
at, and from the place of rendezvous, and Congress will doubtless pass
the necessary law. Their promptness in tendering their services and
equipping themselves for the field is a high evidence of patriotism,
and the thanks of their country.
I shall inclose a copy of this letter to General Wool, and write to the
governors of Kentucky, Mississippi, and Louisiana to withhold for the
present the quota called for under General Gaines's requisition, and if
they are concentrated to muster and discharge them and wait for further
orders.