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In illustration and support of the theory propounded, I avail
myself of the aptitude and critical bearing of some few of the re-
marks addressed to me in the year 1852, by Colonel, now Brig'r
General, M. M., George W. Hughes, whose views are entitled to
great weight, because I cannot do justice to this branch of State
policy so well as presenting them to your attentive consideration.

"The necessity of finding some substitute for large standing
armies, by which an available military force could be placed at the
disposal of the Federal Government, and, at the same time, of
cultivating the highest order of military science, early attracted
the attention of General Washington, on whose recommendation
the National Military Academy at West Point was established;
and I trust it may be permitted to one of the humblest of its
graduates to say, that its results have not disappointed his reason-
able expectations. History can probably point to no ,war, that
has been conducted with more skill and science than the conquest
of Mexico, by the United States—a fact highly creditable to the
military academy—which, beside furnishing from its eleves nearly
the entire staff of that army, and a great proportion of the officers
of the line, contributed largely to the volunteers, from those it had
given to civil life, and who, at the first blast of the trumpet, has-
tened to offer their services to the country, in any capacity, and
were seen doing battle with their fellow-citizens, in every grade,
from that of enlisted men to the commanders of regiments and
brigades. This institution, by its cultivation and dissemination
of military science throughout the land, and furnishing a large
surplus of officers beyond the wants of the regular army, for any
emergency that may arise, enables us to dispense with any but a
small army, barely sufficient to garrison the forts on the sea-coast,
and to check the incursions of the border Indian tribes, while it
is calculated to form a nucleus for a large increase of regular force
in time of war. That important adjunct to an army, and without
which its action would be much paraylsed, an efficient staff has
been carefully attended to in our organization, and is adequate
for an army of 60,000 men. We have been able to introduce
into our staff departments a division of mental and physical labor
unknown to other services, and it is risking little in asserting that,
taking it all in all, a better organized, drilled and disciplined army
for its numbers, can nowhere be found.

Without entering into the discussion of the question whether
regular or volunteer troops, in time of war, are the most efficient
and economical, suffice it to say, that it is the settled policy of our
Government to rely mainly, in time of war, on its citizen soldiery;
and this was the view of Gen. Washington; but he contemplated
something more than a mere enrollment and a few holiday musters
in the course of a year. He looked to a well drilled, well disci-
plined and properly organized militia, ready at any moment to
take the field and embracing within its ranks every able bodied