Mr. CONKLING. Mr. Speaker, I am persuaded we ought not to petrify the Veteran Reserve corps in the rmanent military system of the country. This conviction remains unchanged by the earnest appeal made by the chairman of the ComMilAffrs; unchanged by the extraordinary efforts which have been made from the outside to convert this House to the opinion that the officers of the Veteran Reserve corps enmasse ought to be taken 11 and preferred before all the other officers an men to whom the country owes so much. Even if the proposition were free from favoritism; even if all the heroic and disabled were to be allowed to compete alike for the benefits proposed, it seems to me when I remember the object of the bill before us thatsuchc. measure would he of doubtful wisdom. We are not upon a bill providing pensions or relief, we are upon an Army bill; a bill to lay anew the foundations of the regular Army, to vitalize, to invig crate, to utilize it. The objects are efficiency and economy: and making the provision dueto sufferers in the late war is another matter, not less in importance, certainly not in duty, but separate and distinct from this. Those whose experience and observation entitle them to instruct me will not deem me in error when I say that it is at least aquestion whether an invalid corps should ever exist in a permauentmilitur establishment. Imean, of course, a purpose y created invalid cors. The laws O decay in peace, and of est ruction in war, multiply invalids fast enough, and it is the mission of in sanity and of duty to prevent the members O an army from becoming invalids, and to provide for the ever sick ening and ever suffering and ever failing. Even this task is, from its nature, too difficult to be well performed. With the utmost rigor of examination as to physical titness at the time of enlistments, and with the best sanitary regulations afterward, which the most favored service admits of, the%age of human ailments is so great, that in the Army, as in eve other walk of life, a large proportion of the whole is constantly unfit for hardship or activity. Beyond all this, the military life makes regiments and whole commands the sufferers from seasons and climates and hardships and cam puigns, from which they must have relief by change and rest. The necessities of a soldiers life require all the relief that the best system will allow, and the opportunity to atio this relief has been foun inconsistent with allotting light service, or any special service, peretually to one portion of an army and bar duty of the same kind perpetually to the other. This is no new idea. It is not started to be applied to the proposed Veteran Reserve corps. Experience declared it long ago; and it has been recently and pointedly declared for our instruction in the very matter in hand. I suppose it is no secret that the public authorities recently caused to be convened in this city a number of the 1st generals of the age. The object of the convention was to consult as to the best disposition to be made of the Military establishment of the country, now that.the war is over, and to consider and devise the best legislative provisions in reference to the regular or permanent Army. These generals were those whose large experience and whose professional eminence selected them as the est advisers, and whose official station makes them the persons to execute the law to be enacted. They came together; the Lieutenant General, GenlSherman , General Thomas, General Meade, all came. GenlSheridan, and others, did not come. This group of men, so illustrious and so skilled, studied the whole subject, and presented their views in writing. the measures they deemed wisest were cm bodied in a bill which they approved. That bill was introduced in the Senate, carefully considered in committee there. It became the subject of conference and correspondence between the conimittee of the Senate and the officers who had recommended it. It was elabo rately considered in the Senate, and passed with butlittle alteration and came to us. Here it went to the Military Committce, and there it stays. In its place we have a bill presented which centainsvarious things, which were specially and pointedly condemned by the officers to whom I have referred, by the committee of the Senate, and by the Senate also. There may be reasons for this, though we have not yet heard them. Beside the bill, however, which these officers blocked out, they made a record of their recommendations. One was upon the point now before us. I will read it. It is, us will be discovered, in answer to a communication sent them with a bill, to which had been added a provision creating a Veteran Basal vs corps. The paperis signed by Generals Sherman, Meade, and Thomas an I am not sure whether by GenlGrant is so. “Tho only essentialchangeproposedin the Army bill is to omit the vetoran Reserve corpsaltogether.” This is the reason they give: “In any army, no matter what pains be taken in selecting recruits, when we come to put them into serviceoxperionoeteachesthat nearly 30%. fail byrsuson of theordinaryimporfectionso human nature. Now itcight regimentsof the 50 e taken from the invalids, or men of impaired strength, we 15 %“ or in all 45%. of invalids, which istoo large a proportion. In tbaand it is cheaperto provide direct y. y way of pensions. for this class of  soldiers. It hoofficersof the Veteran Reserveshavean“! recor and restoredhealth. they canbeitppointedjustu otherotheen of the army. volunteer I hope the gentleman will remember the subject With which these generals were dealing when they expressed that o inion, and the subject with which we are ealing when we listen to it. I ask gentlemen to remember what seems to have been sometimes forgotten today, namely, that the bill is not one to estalr lish a military asylum or to provide for disabled men, but to invigorate and compact the armies of the Republic. Looking to the object in view, the say that an invalid corps, however organize, is a.mistake. Why? Do we notall know do we not all see obvious reasons, some of which were suggested by the Gentfrom Massachusetts, [Mr. BourwsLL?] Is not the reason of the matter so lain that even those of us who can lay no claim to military attain monts may see and affirm it? Passing over the 30%. of disability which inheres in every army, however well selected, we see the need of relief duty, of lightservice likegar risen and post duty to recruit the weary and the worn. Regiments sent to Texas, for example, and to other distant parts even in ordinary tim become worn, jaded, and impoverished, an there must be some relief for them, and for companies and battalions requiring change of climate and life. While post and garrison service are left open to be allotted from time to time among those most in need of the rest thus afforded, one hand is made to wash the other, the service is performed, and there are always enough and to spare of those whose hardships, and absence far away, and actual bodily condition, not only deserve but require repose and the relaxation which light service given. If they are not to be thusrelieved the must have seasons of entire uselessness and i leness accorded them. I am assured by gentlemen who would not be questioned here as military authorities, that a great element of the morale of the Army, of the spirit and content of the Army, is the fact that all know that each regiment and battalion and company will have its fair turn at home duty as well as distant duty, at the relaxations which re airas well as the trials which jade. This has senalways the rule in our service, and it has never been violated, I believe, in legislation. It was in no way violated by the formation for the time being of the existing Veteran Reserve corps. The Gentfrom Illinois said yesterday that the corps was given reason to suppose that it was created permanently. I say to im, if he will look into the fact he will find it precisely otherwise. The Invalid corps, as it was 1st called, was created not by statute but by an order which I have before me. It was created for a temporary purpose. What was it? It was created as an auxiliary to the Bureau of the Provost Marshal General, which bureau, by the terms of the statute creating it, died with the war. This co s was created to guard prisoners, to assist in raftin, in short, to perorm duties rather of olice than of war at draft rendezvous, and e sewhere. It was created for these purposes, and for these purposes alone. There wcs a necessity forit, and that necessity was as temporary as it was great, while the war continued, and while every able bodied man in the se rvice was needed at the iges. The necessity has passed, the duties for which the corps was formed are no longer to be done. Of course everybody foresaw that the purpose was temporary, and everybody knew, who knew anything about it, that the organization was not to be permanent. The Government has by not and word held but one language on this point, and no expectations have been created) that any set of officers were to be preferred to others in the final recrganization. [should like to make further observations upon the questionable expedienc of any permanently established special inva d corps, but time does not permit. Let us assume that such a corps if impartially constructed, so as to give all disabled officers a fair chance, would be valuable and wise. Then why should those who have already enjoyed advantages over their Companions in arms be still further favored? I ask this question because in spite of the language of section live and of the interpretation put upon it by the chairman of the Military Committee, I believe the practical effect will be virtually to prefer en nuzssea large portion of the officers of the present corps to other wounded and disabled officers and soldiers.