lay must be attended by
such fearful hazards.

The bill of the last session providing for an increase of the pay of
the rank and file of the Army has had beneficial results, not only in
facilitating enlistments, but in obvious improvement in the class of men
who enter the service. I regret that corresponding consideration was not
bestowed on the officers, who, in view of their character and services
and the expenses to which they are necessarily subject, receive at
present what is, in my judgment, inadequate compensation.

The valuable services constantly rendered by the Army and its
inestimable importance as the nucleus around which the volunteer forces
of the nation can promptly gather in the hour of danger, sufficiently
attest the wisdom of maintaining a military peace establishment; but the
theory of our system and the wise practice under it require that any
proposed augmentation in time of peace be only commensurate with our
extended limits and frontier relations. While scrupulously adhering
to this principle, I find in existing circumstances a necessity for
increase of our military force, and it is believed that four new
regiments, two of infantry and two of mounted men, will be sufficient to
meet the present exigency. If it were necessary carefully to weigh the
cost in a case of such urgency, it would be shown that the additional
expense would be comparatively light.

With the increase of the numerical force of the Army should, I think, be
combined certain measures of reform in its organic arrangement and
administration. The present organization is the result of partial
legislation often directed to special objects and interests; and the
laws regulating rank and command, having been adopted many years ago
from the British code, are not always applicable to our service. It is
not surprising, therefore, that the system should be deficient in the
symmetry and simplicity essential to the harmonious working of its
several parts, and require a careful revision.

The present organization, by maintaining large staff corps or
departments, separates many officers from that close connection with
troops and those active duties in the field which are deemed requisite
to qualify them for the varied responsibilities of high command. Were
the duties of the Army staff mainly discharged by officers detached
from their regiments, it is believed that the special service would be
equally well performed and the discipline and inst