Mr. WOODBRIDGE. Here we have a statement from General Eaton, who. during the last war, has won laurels for himself and his Dept by the readiness and facility with which be furnished supplies, giving his reasons why there should be no diminution of the force in his bureau, and his reasons are good. He is supposed to know what the wants of his Dept are, and he says that owing to the great extent of our country, requiring so many military divisions, even now, with the present force, there are 2 highly important stations not occupied. Now, lander stand from the chairman of the ComMilAffrs that this Dept does not need many men, and that clerks urn rform a large proportion of the duties required. “I by, sir, what is the history of the commissary Dept? It was formerly on the civil list of the U.S., and in the war of 1812, when those holding civil offices were invested with the duty of supplying the Army, it was found that it was impossible to secure that order and regularityof supply which is necessary to keepan army successfully in the field. Accordingly. in l8 l8, the Dept was made a portion of the military arm of the government and from that time to the present it has always been so considered. Throughout the hIeXican war, and the various Indian wars, its organization and efficiency have been admirable, and certainly during the rebellion it has been a matter of amazement to all Euro pean officers who have been here to see how the immense armies we have kept in the field have been supplied, having everything in the way of material that an army could need. We are told by my friendfrom Ohio [Mr. $CHSXCK] that there are too many officers hunging about “ashington in this Dept. If the gentleman had read the returns made by the dept he would have seen that that is not so; because, of the 29 officers connected With the Dept, there are only 5 today performmg duty at Washin ton. The others are at Boston, Philadelphia, NewYork, NewOrleans, SanFrancise o, and in vanous other portions of the country where purchasesof supplies are absolutely demanded, so that we have not a bureau filled up with men who are seeking advancement and not.rforming duty. Of the 29 men all t 5 are distributed in various sections of the country. I know of one lieutenant colonel who. instead of being in Washington, as the gentleman says. having nothing to do but to sport his gold buttons, had 3 horses shot under him in the field, as a commissary in the Army, and in one year disbursed over 40 million dollars in the city of NewYork. and, sir, y0u find nowhere, either in the quartermasters or in the commisszirys Dept, where the offices are filled by men who have been educated where personal honor is the 1st law of their observance; you find nowhere complaints or charges against such men that their accounts are wrong or that they have disgraced themselves and injured the country by misappropriating the moneys placed in their hands for the purchase of supplies. Why. sir, there is another lieutenant colonel in this bureau, I will not call his name, who graduated at W est Point, served throughout the Mexican war, led the forlorn ho c at Cha puRepec, and greatly distinguished himself in is early professional career. At the commencement of the rebellion he desired to take the field, but his experience and usefulness in the Dept were such that he was obliged l to abandon the prospect of honor and promotion in the field for the less fase inating but no less honorable duties of the office. Now, sir, if it is true, as I believe it is for I am one of those who believe in the integrity of such men as General Eaton that the force cannot be diminished, why does the Gentfrom Ohio insist on reducing the number of officers from 29 to 19 “I Before the war there were 12 or 14 officers in this Dept, with an army of only 17,000 men. During the war, with an army proper of probably 40,000, these 29 officers have been required, and in addition to that some 4 or 500 officers have been detailed from the volunteer 1 service to fill various missary Dept. 1,000 at the minimum, with power of expending it to 80,000, or thereabouts, and with all of these volunteer officers mustered out of the service, the whole duty will fall upon these 29 men and here is an attempt to reduce the number from 29 to 19. It looks to me, sir, as “penny wise and pound foolish.” Again, sir, an objection is made to WestPoint graduates being permitted to have promotion in this Dept. That seems to me to be unust toward WestPoint. We are told in this House that WestPoint has been a school where treason has been nurtured. Well, sir, if there have been men there who have been toucht treason, it was because they were appointed by such men us until recently occupied the War Dept and who had early had instilled into them this pernicious doctrine of State rights. But take the record, and you will find that not 1/3rd of the graduates of WestPoint either resigned or joined the rebel army; while 1/2 of the civil 11 pointecs in the regular Army deserted their flag and went over to the rebels. Sir, it is not, and it. has not been, a nursery of treason. It is, and it has been, a nursery of honorable, high toned, highininded, and educated gentlemen and if there is a place under heaven where personal dignity anpersonal honor, under all circumstances, are in culcated, it is at WestPoint. Her course of education to dny is equal to that of any other institution in this country; and the courses of study in our colleges have been improved by borrowing from l est Point. [Here the hammer fell.]