with the Pacific slope, to
secure its continuance as a part of the Union."

In the organization and equipment of these parties, and in the selection
of their officers, care was taken to provide for securing full and
accurate information upon every point involved in the determination of
the route. The only discrimination made was in the more prompt and
thorough equipment of the parties for the extreme northern line, and
this was only because that was supposed to be the most difficult of
execution of all the surveys.

In like manner, my advocacy while in the Senate of an extension of the
Capitol, by the construction of a new Senate-Chamber and Hall of
Representatives, may have caused the appropriation for that object to be
put under my charge as Secretary of War.

During my administration of the War Department, material changes were
made in the models of arms. Iron gun-carriages were introduced, and
experiments were made which led to the casting of heavy guns hollow,
instead of boring them after casting. Inquiries were made with regard to
gunpowder, which subsequently led to the use of a coarser grain for
artillery.

During the same period the army was increased by the addition of two
regiments of infantry and two of cavalry. The officers of these
regiments were chosen partly by selection from those already in service
in the regular army and partly by appointment from civil life. In making
the selections from the army, I was continually indebted to the
assistance of that pure-minded and accurately informed officer, Colonel
Samuel Cooper, the Adjutant-General, of whom it may be proper here to
say that, although his life had been spent in the army, and he, of
course, had the likes and dislikes inseparable from men who are brought
into close contact and occasional rivalry, I never found in his official
recommendations any indication of partiality or prejudice toward any
one.

When the first list was made out, to be submitted to the President, a
difficulty was found to exist, which had not occurred either to Colonel
Cooper or myself. This was, that the officers selected purely on their
military record did not constitute a roster conforming to that
distribution among the different States, which, for political
considerations, it was thought desirable to observe--that is to say, the
number of such officers of Southern birth was found to be
disproportionately great. Under instructions from the President, the
list was there