The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Volume III: Oath - Zollverein
• O
• Oath
• Oath of Allegiance
• Occupation
• Oceanica
• Ochlocracy.
• O'conor, Charles
• Office-holders, Danger of an Aristocracy of
• Ohio
• Oligarchy
• Olmstead Case. (see Pennsylvania.)
• Omnibus Bill. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Opinion. (see Public Opinion.)
• Opposition
• Order of the Day. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Orders In Council. (see Embargo, In U. S. History.)
• Orders, Religious . (see Congregations.)
• Ordinance of 1787
• Oregon
• Oriental Question
• Ostend Manifesto
• Outlawry
• Outlet
• Over-production
• P
• Pacific Railroad. (see Internal Improvements, Railroads.)
• Paper Money.
• Paraguay (republic Of).
• Parasites, Social
• Pardon.
• Paris Monetary Conference
• Parley.
• Parliament, the British
• Parliamentary Law.
• Participation In Profits.
• Parties, Political
• Party Government In the United States.
• Party Names In U. S. History. (see American Party, Anti-federal Party, Anti-masonic Party)
• Patent Office
• Patents, and the Patent System.
• Patronage
• Patrons of Husbandry. (see Grangers.)
• Pauperism
• Peace.
• Peace Congress. (see Conference, Peace.)
• Pendleton, George H.
• Penitentiary Systems. (see Prisons and Prison Discipline.)
• Pennsylvania
• Penny Banks. (see Banks, History and Management of Savings.)
• Pensions. (see United States Pension Laws, and the Pension Laws of Other Countries.)
• Persia.
• Personal Liberty Laws
• Personal Union
• Peru
• Petition
• Petition, Right of
• Philosophy of Law
• Physiocrates.
• Pickering, Timothy
• Pierce, Franklin
• Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth
• Pinckney, Thomas
• Piracy
• Plenty and Dearth.
• Poland
• Police
• Police Power of a State
• Political Arithmetic. (see Arithmetic, Political.)
• Political Assessments. (see Assessments, Political.)
• Political Economy.
• Political Economy, History of
• Political Science
• Politics, Nature and Character of
• Polk, James Knox
• Poll Tax
• Popular Sovereignty
• Population.
• Portugal.
• Postoffice
• Postoffice Department
• Postoffice Savings Banks. (see Banks, History and Management of Savings.)
• Powers of Congress. (see Congress, Powers Of.)
• President. (see Executive.)
• President Pro Tem. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Press, the Newspaper and Periodical
• Previous Question. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Prices
• Primary Elections.
• Priority of Debts Due to the United States and to the States
• Prisoners of War
• Prisons and Prison Discipline
• Private Bills. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Private Calendar. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Privateering
• Privilege. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Prizes, Maritime
• Production of Wealth
• Products On Paper
• Profits
• Prohibition
• Promotion
• Property
• Property, Landed . (see Rent.)
• Property, Literary
• Proportional Representation
• Protection. Restrictions Upon Freedom of Exchange
• Protection In the United States.
• Protestantism. (see Churches, Protestant.)
• Prussia
• Public Debts. (see Debts, National, State and Local.)
• Public Lands of the United States
• Public Lands, Office of
• Public Opinion
• Public Policy
• Public Revenues. (see Revenues, Public.)
• Q
• Quarantine
• Quids
• R
• Races of Mankind
• Radicalism
• Railways, History and Political Economy of
• Railways, Legislation Concerning, and Management Of, In the United States
• Railway Clearing House. (see Clearing, and Clearing Houses.)
• Randolph, John
• Rebellion
• Rebellion, the (in U. S. History)
• Reciprocity
• Recognition
• Reconstruction
• Refuge, Right of . (see Asylum.)
• Refunding of the Public Debt of the United States
• Reichsrath
• Reichstag
• Removal of Deposits. (see Deposits, Removal Of.)
• Removals From Office
• Rent
• Representation
• Representative Democracy. (see Democracy, Representative.)
• Republic.
• Republican Party
• Repudiation.
• Resignation.
• Restrictive System. (see Embargo, In U. S. History.)
• Returning Boards
• Revenue
• Revolution.
• Revolution, the
• Rhode Island
• Ricardo, David
• Riders
• Right of Inheritance. (see Inheritance.)
• Right of Petition. (see Petition, Right Of.)
• Riu Kiu.
• River and Harbor Bills. (see Internal Improvements.)
• Roads. (see Transportation, Means Of.)
• Roads and Canals. (see Internal Improvements.)
• Rohmer's Doctrine of Parties. (see Parties, Political.)
• Roman Catholic Church.
• Rotation In Office. (see Civil Service Reform.)
• Rules. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Rush, Richard
• Russia
• S
• Saint-simonism. (see Socialism.)
• Salary Grab
• San Domingo
• Sandwich Islands
• Sanitary System
• Savings
• Savings Banks. (see Banks, History and Management of Savings.)
• Saxony
• Schools. (see Education and the State)
• Schurz, Carl
• Science. (see Social Science.)
• Scotland
• Scott, Winfield
• Scratching
• Search, Right of
• Secession
• Sedition Laws. (see Alien and Sedition Laws.)
• Seminole War. (see Slavery, II.)
• Senate
• Sergeant-at-arms. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Sergeant, John
• Servia, Principality of
• Sessions of Congress. (see Congress, Sessions Of.)
• Seward, William H.
• Seymour, Horatio
• Shay's Rebellion. (see Confederation, Articles Of.)
• Sherman, John
• ShimonosÉki Indemnity
• Shinto
• Siam
• Silver
• Silver Bill. (see Hayes, R. B.)
• Sinking Fund
• Sintooism. (see Shinto)
• Slavery
• Smith, Adam
• Smuggling
• Socialism and Socialists
• Social Contract
• Social Science
• Society
• South Carolina
• Southern Confederacy. (see Confederate States.)
• Sovereignty
• Sovereignty (in U. S. History). (see Popular Sovereignty.)
• Spain
• Speaker. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Speakers. (see Congress, Sessions Of.)
• Speculation
• Spoils System
• Squatter Sovereignty. (see Popular Sovereignty)
• Stamp Act Congress
• Standing Armies. (see Armies.)
• Standing Orders. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Stanton, Edwin M .
• State, Department of
• State Rights. (see State Sovereignty, II.)
• State Sovereignty
• State, the
• States, Constitutional and Legal Diversities In
• Statistics
• Stephens, Alexander H.
• Stevens,thaddeus
• Stock Exchange Clearing House. (see Clearing, and Clearing Houses.)
• Stock Jobbing. (see Agiotage.)
• Story, Joseph
• Strict Construction. (see Construction.)
• Strikes and Lockouts
• Subsidies.
• Sub-treasury. (see Independent Treasury.)
• Suffrage
• Sumner, Charles
• Sumptuary Laws. (see Laws, Sumptuary.)
• Supply. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Supreme Court. (see Judiciary.)
• Sweden.
• Switzerland
• T
• Table. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Tammany Hall
• Taney, Roger Brooke
• Tariffs of the United States.
• Tartar, Tartary
• Ta-tsing (great Pure)
• Tauism (tao-ism, To;, Or Doctrine of Lao-tse).
• Taxation, Principles of
• Taxation, National and Local. (see Revenue, Public; Taxation.)
• Taylor, Zachary
• Telegraph
• Tellers. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Temperance Movement In the United States. (see Prohibition, Police.)
• Ten-hour Law
• Tennessee
• Term and Tenure of Office
• Territorial Waters
• Territories
• Texas
• Third Estate
• Tie. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Tilden, Samuel Jones
• Times-spirit, the . (see Zeitgeist.)
• Tompkins, Daniel D.
• Ton-kin. (see Tonquin.)
• Tonquin (tong-king Or Tun-kin).
• Transportation, Means of
• Treason
• Treasury Department.
• Treaties.
• Treaties, Fishery.
• Treaties of the United States
• Trent Affair
• Tungusic Races. (see Tartar.)
• Turkey.
• Tyler, John
• U
• Union, the (in U. S. History),
• Union Party. (see Republican Party.)
• United States Notes.
• United States Notes. Legal-tender Cases—decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States.
• United States of America
• United States of Colombia. (see New Grenada.)
• United States Pension Laws and the Pension Laws of Other Countries
• United States Surplus Money
• Universal Suffrage. (see Suffrage.)
• Universities
• Usury
• Utah
• Utility
• Utopia
• V
• Value
• Van Buren, Martin
• Vermont
• Veto
• Vice-president. (see Executive, V.; Electors, Senate; Administrations.)
• Virginia
• Virginia Resolutions. (see Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions.)
• W
• Wage Fund, the
• Wages
• "waltham System,"
• Wants.
• War. (see Declaration of War, Belligerents, Exchange of Prisoners.)
• War, the Civil. (see Rebellion, The, In U. S. History.)
• War Department.
• Wars (in U. S. History).
• Washington City. (see Capital, National.)
• Washington, George
• Washington Territory
• Ways and Means. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Wealth.
• Webster, Daniel
• Weights and Measures.
• West Virginia
• Wheeler, William A.
• Whig Party
• Whisky Insurrection
• Whisky Ring
• White, Hugh Lawson
• White League. (see Ku-klux Klan.)
• Wilmot Proviso
• Wilson, Henry
• Wirt, William
• Wisconsin
• Woman Suffrage. (see Suffrage.)
• Wright, Silas
• Wyoming
• Wyoming Territory
• X
• X Y Z Mission
• Y
• Yazoo Frauds
• Yeas and Nays. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Z
• Zeitgeist.
• Zollverein.
• Lists of Writers
• The Following Is a List of the Subjects Treated By American Writers:

WAR DEPARTMENT.

WAR DEPARTMENT. One of the executive departments of the United States government, established by act of Aug. 7, 1789. (1 Stat. at Large, p. 49.) The head of this department, officially designated the secretary of war, has charge of all matters respecting military affairs, under the direction of the president; has custody of all records, etc., relating to the army, the superintendence of all purchases of military supplies, the direction of army transportation, the distribution of stores, etc., the signal service and meteorological records, the disbursement of all appropriations for rivers and harbors and their survey and improvement, and the superintendence and supply of arms and munitions of war. The secretary of war is a member of the cabinet (salary, $8,000). He is required to make an annual report to congress, with statement of all appropriations and their expenditure, contracts for supplies or services, reports of surveys, and of improvements of rivers and harbors, returns of the militia in the various states, etc.

—The extensive business of the war department is distributed among ten military bureaus, each under a chief who is an officer of the regular army, and receives a salary of $5,000 while at the head of a bureau. The chief clerk of the department (salary, $2,750) has charge of the correspondence and accounts, communicates between the secretary and department officers, and has general superintendence of 90 to 100 clerks and other employés attached to the secretary's office. The adjutant general of the United States army is at the head of a bureau of 575 clerks, etc. He issues the orders of the president and the general commanding the army, conducts the army correspondence, the recruiting and enlistment service, issues commissions, receives reports and resignations, is custodian of the voluminous army records of the United States, keeps the muster rolls, and makes an annual report of the strength and discipline of the army. The inspector general, with assistance, inspects and reports the condition of the army at all military posts, as well as the accounts of its disbursing officers. The quartermaster general (132 clerks, etc.) has charge of army transportation, clothing, quarters, equipage, forage, wagons, horses and mules, fuel and lights, stationery, hospitals, medicines, etc. He employs and pays guides, spies, etc., defrays funeral expenses, and has charge of the national cemeteries. The commissary general (38 clerks, etc.) is charged with the subsistence department, army rations, and purchase and distribution of the same. The surgeon general (463 clerks, etc.) has control of the medical department, the selection, purchase and distribution of medicines, records of all wounded, disabled and deceased soldiers, the supervision of army surgeons and of the army medical museum at Washington. The latter contains an extensive exhibit of specimens, representing the effects upon the human body of wounds, morbid conditions, etc., with the complete hospital records of the army, and a very extensive library of nearly 60,000 volumes. The paymaster general (60 clerks, etc.) keeps the accounts and disburses the pay of the army, through a large body of paymasters. The chief of engineers (17 clerks, etc.) is commander of the corps of engineers, charged with fortifications, torpedo service, military bridges, river and harbor improvements, military and geographical surveys, etc. The chief of ordnance (36 clerks, etc.) is charged with artillery and all munitions of war, prescribing models and modifications of weapons, and their construction, preservation and distribution to the regular army and to the militia of the states. The chief signal officer superintends the signal service, and the weather bureau, with a corps of instruction in signal duties, prepares and issues maps and charts, and publishes daily meteorological reports from the numerous stations of observation, which are afterward consolidated in permanent form. The judge advocate general receives and reviews proceedings of courts-martial and other military tribunals of the army, and furnishes opinions and reports on questions of law, etc., to the secretary of war.

—The war department is conducted at an annual expense for salaries of $1,936,855 (in 1884), and contingent expenses (including printing) of $340,000. The following is a complete list of the secretaries of war, with their terms of office: