United States Military History Congressional Reports on Naval Seizures, Officer Dismissals, and Military Expenditures, 1858 to 1860

James Buchanan

Archive

Buchanan, James. Five congressional documents issued between 1858 and 1860 record the federal government's administration of the United States military establishment immediately before the Civil War, including disputes over American vessels in the Gulf of Mexico, dismissal of military and naval officers, the employment of general officers, and contingent military expenditures. The documents show specific mechanisms of antebellum military governance through presidential communications, committee reports, proposed legislation, and itemized federal spending, with evidence concerning naval sovereignty, officer discipline, army administration, westward expansion, commemoration of the U.S. Mexican War, and the treatment of an institutionalized soldier.

Five separately issued congressional pamphlets titled Message of the President of the United States. Washington, 1858–1860. Octavo, each approximately 9.75 x 5.75 inches. One 29-page presidential message, addressed to the Senate and string-bound as issued, responds to a resolution requesting “information concerning the recent search or seizure of American vessels by foreign armed cruisers in the Gulf of Mexico,” documenting federal attention to maritime sovereignty in a Caribbean basin then closely connected to American expansionism, slavery, and filibustering expeditions. A three-page report concerns proposed legislation “to regulate the dismissal of officers in the military and naval services,” recording congressional scrutiny of the procedures governing removal from the armed services. A report of the Committee on Military Affairs and the Militia addresses unemployed general officers and the allocation of senior military personnel within the small antebellum standing army. The 12-page Contingent Expenses of the Military Establishment (1860), issued from the Secretary of War, provides an itemized accounting of federal expenditures, including payment for “250 copies of Prairie Traveller,” the frontier manual associated with overland travel and western military operations; “twelve paintings, battles in Mexico,” commemorating the U.S. Mexican War; and compensation to a soldier for “taking care of an insane soldier en route to the Washington asylum,” documenting the military's handling of a serviceman requiring institutional psychiatric care.

Issued during the closing years of Buchanan's administration, the five documents record military administration while the federal government confronted territorial expansion, maritime disputes, internal questions of military discipline, and mounting sectional conflict. Their expense accounts and congressional inquiries preserve details generally absent from broader political narratives, including the purchase of frontier manuals, federal sponsorship of Mexican War battle imagery, personnel management, and the transfer of a mentally ill soldier to the Washington asylum. Minor edge wear and light handling; one document string-bound as issued. Very good overall. The group preserves congressional evidence of how the antebellum federal government financed, regulated, and administered the armed forces immediately before the Civil War.

Item #12715

Price: $250.00